MA Bourbon County Release (2018)

I asked Gordons in Waltham, and they can confirm they'll have BCBS and Barleywine, but havent gotten any info from their distributor on if they'll get variants.

 

Asked a couple of places and got the same weary sagging shoulder response of "don't know what we are getting, don't know when"

Seems a bit unorganized this year

 

Damn

 

CT and NY are getting coffee and northwoods.

 

Just throwing it out there...chances are the majority of these places do know when they're getting BCBS and which variants, they just don't want to evoke a shit show by letting it out days prior.

 

Possibly, but that's a hard secret to keep. I would think that if savvy stores knew their variant allocations, they would try to do something to drive retail customers their way. Similarly, I would think ABI and its distributors would be on top of this as well rather than leaving everyone in the lurch. In the past they've had stores doing ridiculous thing like creating "Save Goose Island" campaigns, buy a case of IPA to win the right to buy a single BCBS, etc., e.g., things that were wildly unpopular with the folks like us who are the main purchasers of BCBS - a really lousy corporate run marketing campaign gone awry in the world of craft beer. So wondering if ABI and its distributors are intentionally taking the opposite path this year of not telling anyone anything for fear of screwing up, again.

 

I heard that AB-InBev was going to cross reference names on credit cards with BA/Social Media profiles and deny people who talked shit about their other products.

 

Exactly this.

 

I had been checking Facebook pages for events and seems like everyone was publishing their "official" event pages today, so maybe there's some sort of controlled gag order on specifics.

Kappy's said that the first TWO will be able to get 1 of every variant they have, on top of a case of BCBS, while everyone else will get to pick 1. So that's interesting, depending on the variants.

But also no way am I losing sweet, sweet tryptophan-fueled sleep for the chance to be one of the first two in line.

 

Saw that. Curious about the variants.

 

Hmm, not sure about that. Redstone for example has always listed what they're selling (I think), and they allocate releases of all their Black Friday goodies throughout the entire day.

For example, they've already announced a "Lambic Jar" which has Cantillon in it. That can create just as big of a shit show as BCBS variants in my opinion.

 

They definitely won't be getting any Barleywine, considering it won't be released this year:
http://www.gooseisland.com/blog/2017-bourbon-county-variants

 

This is AI/Machine Leaning put to good use!

 

I've had a few places confirm receipt of the 2017 regular BCBS but none seem to have any clue about the variants (i.e., they don't have them yet, don't know if they'll get any before Friday). Is that everyone else's experience too?

 

The regular barleywine is being released, the reserve barleywine is not

 

I checked the Stoddard's event, and while it looks awesome, they're not receiving much in the way of 2017 versions either. Just the regular and the Northwoods. Everything else is aged.

 

I've got a case or two of the regular '14s, so I'm prepared to do a horizontal rather than a vertical. I'm still a big fan of the 12 oz portion. I guess I have a bad batch of '15s (haven't tried them, but have gotten the refund from GI), so I could bust those out as well. There's just not that many days where I can bust out a 14% beer, so they have been cellared...

 

Barleywine is literally the only one of these I’d “seek” out. In other words, it’s likely I’ll see the stout and there’s a very small chance I buy it; But if by chance I see the BW, it’s likely I’ll buy it.

 

From what I've heard from a couple store owners/beer managers I've talked to, Massachusetts is only going to see original BCBS and the Barleywine variant at retail, which is unfortunate. No bottles of Coffee or Northwoods coming to MA as far as they've heard, though CT/NY should see it.

Then again, different distributors for MA may have different experiences. I guess we'll know more on Friday, but it seems like a loss less information flowing from AB-InBev than we used to get when it was solely GI running the show.

FYI, Turnpike Market in Billerica posted their allocation on their social media channels the other day. Looks like one case of Barleywine and five cases of regular in the photo. Not sure if they have more or that's it, but just FYI for my north of Boston friends...

 

From my calls it seems like there is less BCBS available this year in MA. That or some accounts are getting more and others are getting shut out?