Stumbling Upon Hidden Treasures

Foremost Liquors and 20 West Wine & Spirits are pretty good, and fairly close to each other in Villa Park. I don't remember what the name of the place I went to was. There are Binny's all over Chicago that have a bunch to choose from. However, not all of them keep their beer cool so ya gotta watch out, especially with IPAs and such.

 

How much did you pay for those? I'm about to try Triple Bock for the first time. Should be interesting, at any rate.

 

I recently found bottles of 2014 Heavy Seas 'Siren Noire' (Imperial Stout brewed with chocolate and BB Aged and bottled back in Dec. 2013) nestled on a shelf at my local Total Wine...just as good as KBS/BCBS if you are rating it on a price-per-ounce basis. I've also found Weyerbacher Blasphemy (BB Aged Quad) at multiple stores when the brewery was selling them at a 2-bottle limit. Additionally, I was able to locate Victory White Monkey (Chardonnay Barrel Aged Golden Monkey) months after its release. Furthermore, I found 2013 Great Divide Espresso, Oak Aged Yeti and Oskar Blues Ten Fidy. These gems are out there all over the place...you just have to know the personality of the store's clientele and take note of what moves and what doesn't.

 

Local store has a seemingly never ending supply of 2013 BCBS. I bought 3 or 4 four packs from them and they still had more. A month later everything was gone. Went back yesterday for the first time in a couple weeks and there they were again!

Also found a couple bottles of Sucaba about two weeks ago in an unsuspecting shop. Also some Mikkeller/Grassroots collab. Lot of stores around here carry the good stuff but don't know how to market it - or their clientele isn't the craft beer type. Who knows either way I'm happy.

 

One of my favorite beers in all the land is Odell Isolation Ale. It's seasonal, so I only get to have it for about three months of the year. During the winter, I abandon my "Almost Never Buy The Same Beer Twice" rule, and pretty much just buy Isolation.

I miss it when it goes, because it's not really exclusively a winter-style anyhow.

Last year, I was up in northern Minnesota (Two Harbors, north of Duluth) in May, long after Isolation had officially disappeared for the year, when up there, on the top shelf, was a six pack of the best that Odell can do (which is saying something) that had somehow been overlooked.

I nabbed it, took it to the rented cabin, and considered rationing - agonizing over each one, only having them when the occasion demanded, but then I remembered reading something by a guy in some World War II prison camp who miraculously received a package of pipe tobacco from his family. He thought about trying to make it last, but then decided he was just going to have a pipe whenever he wanted and when it ran out, hey - no more pipes. Seemed like it made sense to me.

So I knocked that sixer of Isolation down right there. It was wonderful.

 

A couple of weekends ago, I was in line for some bombers. For once, instead of the "No Zombie Dust" sign going up; it came down.

 

Went to Park Street Festival in Columbus about a month after KBS came out and stumbled upon a 4 pack in a cooler. $10 a bottle but 0 hours hunting and the 2014 completed a 6 year vertical with my buddy.

 

I think they were $15.00 each.

 

That's a great deal. I'm hesitant to pull the trigger on the normal price (which I think is around $13-14?). Still haven't tried it!

 

Not very much lately. It seems to be becoming more of a "who you know" type deal, where people actively look to get hooked up by someone in the biz. Also, people are just more shelf-savvy these days, at least in my area, so things don't sit for very long.

 

While I was testing out Maine Beer Company. I got to try Lunch. I thought that Lunch wasn't anything special. Then I stumbled upon Another One.

 

No idea if it is a treasure , but my wife just came home from Hyvee with a bottle of Southern Tier Oat, Imperial Oatmeal Stout with a DOB of 10/2011! Never know what you might find!

 

Mistake me if I'm wrong, but the typical mom and pop shops are usually owned by Indians and they usually over price.. A lot..

 

Where?

Like he said, stores usually pull stuff out of their cellar, not much really gets lost in the shuffle. I suppose there's some Ovila one-offs that I should pick up sooner than later.

 

I've got a bottle of last years Black Ops still that I found chilled on the shelf. When I asked my old beer guy about it he told me it had been a reserve that never was picked up, then was lost in the cooler for months.

 

Wish I knew where the store you shop at is sounds like a great place that treats customers well. It doesn't sound like a place in Chicago at all . Btw I'm not just saying that to be a dick I'm from Chicago along with one half my family (going as far back as the 1930's) I guess I just never found a shop like that to visit when I'm in the area.

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

Westlake in Chicago. It was the last bottle, but the employee told me it hadn't been selling that well because of the price.

 

I walked into my local beer store, which usually has a decent selection and stumbled upon Evil Twin Imperial Bourbon Barrel Aged Biscotti Break and Allagash Nancy! Couldn't help myself, but to buy some!

 

Walked into a random beer store in the center of NYC to find both 2013 BCS and 2013 BCBW! Owner said they had BCCS as well the prior week. No limit either, so I made a decent dent in their stock.