#THEBIFFENING

‪#‎THEBIFFENING‬

In the spirit of BIF, and to kick off the holiday season, I’m going to be holding #THEBIFFENING where I’ll be BIFfing off (sounds dirty) 8 bottles of beer from my own personal cellar the night before Thanksgiving (11/26/2014), the biggest bar night of the year. The only thing you’ll have to do is find me. I will be participating in the Rockford 3rd Annual PUB CRAWL, where Rockford Brewing will be releasing 8 new beers across 8 venues in downtown Rockford, MI. As I move from place to place, I’ll update my whereabouts so you can stalk me, find me, score a free bottle of beer, and enjoy a new RBC brew with yours truly. The actual time I’ll be starting this is tentative, but I’m shooting for 6-7 PM. The beers themselves will be in my car in a central location downtown that’ll be easy to walk to and pick up (downtown Rockford encompass all of 5-6 blocks), as establishments might frown upon me bringing bottles inside (and I’m lazy and don’t want to haul it around all night.)

As for the beer that you can snag? Well, I’ve got the first four pictured here:



Relevant stats are as follows:

Bourbon County is 2012 vintage.
Barrel Aged Dystopia is 2014 vintage.
120 Minute IPA is 2013 vintage, bottled 7/3/2013.
World Wide Stout is 2014 vintage, bottled 1/25/2014.

The other 4 bottles I’ll announce each Sunday leading up to the event. I can give you a few hints, however. Of the remaining four, they range in size from 22oz to 750ml. All of them have seen a barrel of some sort. One is an imperial porter, one is a sour, one is a scotch ale, and one is an imperial stout. None of them have ever seen a Michigan shelf, whether in a store or brewery. The average rating of all four is 95/100 on BeerAdvocate, 99/100 on RateBeer, and 4.25/5 on Untappd.

Rules:

1 bottle per person per venue for the night. Don’t be a douche and follow me around to try and get all the bottles for yourself or use a mule. Honor system, folks. Let’s use it.

First come first served. Those who find me will have their pick of what bottle they want.

To claim your bottle, find the bald guy with the beard wearing a black Rockford Brewing beanie hat, long black coat, black Rockford Brewing Blackfin IPA t-shirt (the RBC Pub Crawl shirt from last year) or hoodie, (depending on weather), jeans, and black boots. That’ll be me. Come introduce yourself, say hi, we’ll have a beer, and we can walk to my car to get your bottle.

If someone beats you to the punch at one venue, your best bet would be to go to another venue I haven’t been yet, throw a couple back, and keep your eyes peeled.

Lastly, obviously, this is all in-person only.

I look forward to meeting everyone who shows up. Happy hunting!

 

I know, right? It's such a distinctive look around these parts.

 

So, the gentlemen at Rockford Brewing previously informed that there would be 8 venues, but there are actually 9. So I'm throwing this guy into the mix. THANKS A LOT GUYS NOW MORE PEOPLE GET MORE FREE BOOZE

B. Nektar Zombies Take Manhattan - 2013 vintage, imperial Zombie Killer cherry cyser (mead) aged in Rye Whiskey barrels.

 

Not as insane as Grand Rapids, that's for sure. Last year, the places were pretty busy, but not so much that you couldn't move or still get good service at the venues.

 

And now, the first of your four regularly scheduled Sunday updates on the large format bottles I'll be giving away as part of ‪#‎THEBIFFENING‬ during Rockford Brewing's Rockford 3rd Annual PUB CRAWL:



Also, as a point of clarification in the rules (since the question was posed) the bottle limits is one per person OR group per venue for the night. This falls under the no-muling rule, but wanted to be specific. The purpose, of course, is being able to get great beer in as many hands as possible, and if you find me and score a bottle, I'd hope you'd share it with those same friends you're pub crawling with (because it's the cool thing to do and you'll get really really drunk if you try to tackle some of these bottles solo. )

I hope to see a lot of thirsty beer hunters on the 26th, and stay tuned for the other three bottles during the next three Sundays. Cheers all!

 

Your regularly scheduled ‪#‎THEBIFFENING‬ Sunday update comes from across the pond in Belgium:



750ml 3 Fonteinen (3 Fountains, as Google translations inform me) Oude Geuze, bottled on 1/28/2013. This particular bottle (from what I can infer from a very rough translation of the label) is a blend of 1, 2, and 3 year old Lambic which is then aged in oak barrels for another year. I killed one of these myself a week ago and it’s drinking fantastically. A perfect balance of sour and funk with a crisp, dry, bubbly finish. This beer, along with the others previously announced, can be yours if you simply find me during Rockford Brewing'sRockford 3rd Annual PUB CRAWL. Hope to see a lot of you there!

 

Although this bottle was born in Florida, I couldn’t convince it to bring the Floridian weather with it. Cigar City’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Big Sound is the same style as Founders’ Backwoods Bastard (bourbon barrel scotch ale), and dare I say without being burned at the stake for heresy, just ever so slightly better. This is the 2013 vintage, and along with the previously mentioned brews, can be yours as part of ‪#‎THEBIFFENING‬ during Rockford Brewing's Rockford 3rd Annual PUB CRAWL on November 26th for the astronomical sum of having a beer with me. Come get some.

 

And finally, the last of the beers for ‪#‎THEBIFFENING‬, the one I've been most excited to announce but have somehow had the patience to keep hidden for last:



2013 Black Tuesday.

Again, either this fine brew or one of the previously announced 8 other beers can be yours if you find me at Rockford Brewing'sRockford 3rd Annual PUB CRAWL, this Wednesday, (3 days!!) November 26th. Come on down and have some awesome beer from a great local brewery and try to snag yourself some whales.

 

No shit?? Sweet! I didn't know about that, the guy I traded with said 2013. Thanks!

 

BRING IT SON

 

I certainly can't stop you from doing so, but if it gets too crazy where I've got a horde behind me and everyone's fighting to get in the door first or anything ridiculous, I'll refuse bottles to those who can't behave. I don't expect that from you, personally, but just in general.

 

SOON

Tomorrow, ‪#‎THEBIFFENING‬ strikes. To recap, the lineup, pictured here, is as follows:



Bourbon County is 2012 vintage.
Barrel Aged Dystopia is 2014 vintage.
120 Minute IPA is 2013 vintage, bottled 7/3/2013.
World Wide Stout is 2014 vintage, bottled 1/25/2014.
Zombies Take Manhattan is 2013 vintage.
Black Butte is 26th Anniversary (2014 vintage).
Oude Geuze is 2013 vintage, bottled 1/28/2013.
BA Big Sound is 2012 vintage (I was previously corrected from reporting it as 2013 initially).
Black Tuesday is 2013 vintage.

Reposted/Revised Rules:

1 bottle per person/group per venue for the night. No muling. I’ll have an enforcer with me. He’s Canadian and will cut you. Don’t mess with him.

First come first served. Those who find me will have their pick of what bottle they want.

To claim your bottle, come find me. Bald guy with a beard, though I may be wearing a black Rockford Brewing beanie, but I usually take it off inside. Long black coat, dark blue/black ski pants with yellow accents and black boots (I’m gearing up for any sort of winter wizardry) with Rockford’s 3rd Annual Pub Crawl shirt on (black t-shirt with orange fishing fly logo on the front). Also, as you can tell, I wear all black and haven’t progressed from my goth stage yet, haha.

Originally, I had intended this to only be for people I haven’t met in real life, but if I’ve only met you once or twice, chances are that aside from my rampant Facebook stalking, I don’t know you all too well, so you can come grab a bottle as well. If you’re related to me or part of my normal tasting groups, you’re doubly screwed because not only do you not get any bottles, but you’re associated with me.

If someone beats you to the punch at one venue, your best bet would be to go to another venue I haven’t been yet, throw a couple back, and keep your eyes peeled.

Lastly, obviously, this is all in-person only.

I plan on kicking things off at 6 PM. A map of all the venues can be found at Rockford Brewing’s event page Rockford 3rd Annual PUB CRAWL, or their actual Facebook page Rockford Brewing as well. I’ll be parking in the most central location I can so that we won’t have to walk too far to my car to get your bottle. Downtown Rockford is all of one square mile, if that, so we won’t have far to go no matter where I park.

And lest I steal the entire spotlight, Rockford is putting on a brewing clinic by producing nine beers for the event, seven of which are brand new:

Beanilla Brown (Vanilla Brown Porter, 5.5% ABV 27 IBU)
Cuppa Pale (Coffee Pale Ale, 6% ABV 62 IBU)
Donk Dunkel (Munich Dunkel, 5.2% ABV 28 IBU)
Frozen Helles (Munich Helles, 5% ABV 18 IBU)
Neckbeard (Vienna Lager, 5.2% ABV 25 IBU)
Big Jack Horner (Plum Barleywine, 11.2% ABV 60 IBU)
Striker IPA (IPA with Simcoe and Amarillo, 6.5% ABV 70 IBU)

The other two returning beers are the Butternut Spiced Ale and the Blackfin Black IPA. At the very least, if you miss out on my beers, you can console yourself in delicious local brews.

Cheers everyone!