Hey friends, Curious of the availability of barrel roll 3 and barrel roll 4 (hammerhead & cobra). Really want to get a bottle of each but know nothing in terms of bottle count, whether it was brewery release only or not, trade difficulty etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers all!
Hammerhead just hit distro in Socal and from what I understand the cases were much smaller this year. I read in the Pacific forum around 30 cases total.
PC got some limited distribution. Like a couple of bottles at this whole foods or that bottle shop. Ran for about $17-20 a bottle. May be a bit more difficult to get a hold of now that the dust has settled. Certainly not off the shelf. Hammerhead just was released. Also has limited non-brewery distribution. Toss out some feelers for that, should land you it with some OC/LA traders
The rumor I heard was that there was an issue with bottling, something about a damaged fill nozzle that had to be replaced from Germany (iirc), and they lost a bunch. Supposedly the 75 cases allocated for OC became 30. I don't know any details or if the beer was lost or just had to be kegged instead. Could also be incorrect information... It sure makes me wish I went to the bottle release instead of having to hunt down a few bottles.
Yeah I opted for a bottle share in Alhambra @ 38 Degrees instead of the release since up until a few weeks ag oI could still find last years Hammerhead at some out of the way places. I'm sure I'll still be able to find a few bottles. I picked up 1 and believe I have 2 more being held for me. That's probably enough.
Barrel Roll #4 should be pretty easy to trade for on the account that it is a quality, though not superlative BA barleywine and sat on the shelves for awhile after the first batch was released. Many people would rather spend $5 less to drink Sucaba (which is a better beer anyways). Up until a few months ago, you could still buy it in some South Orange County bottle shops. Pugachev's should be tougher just because it is an upper-eschelon beer that is difficult to trade simply because there are low odds that you'll be receiving something quite as delicious in return. Plus it sells out a lot quicker when it drops.
Actually, the most recent batch of Pugachev's was available at Total Wine in Northridge for nearly 2 months when it went into distribution. I was happy to have the chance to buy a few more bottles. It is one of my favorite beers from last year.
It sat because of fools, I tell you. FOOLS! PC is a damn good beer that is so easy to drink and I assume the only reason why it doesn't move fast in some areas is because very few people put much stock into Hanger 24, compared to say Lost Abbey, which they should be fleeing from the bottle releases like rats to a sinking ship.
Really?!? Color me jealous. I had to scramble like crazy for the eight bottles I need to get me through the year. I'm challenged to come up with a more tasty imperial stout that hits So Cal (Parabola included).
Picked up 2 bottles in Vegas yesterday at TW. Hangar 24 just released in our market so I imagine they wanted to enter with a bang.
