Time for another "best find at your local store" thread

Love Child #1

 

A few years ago I went to my local store and they had Rochefort 10 on clearance. Apparently, they couldn't sell any so they wanted to get rid of them. I ended up buying 7 bottles for $2.99 a bottle.

 

My local store has Devil Dancer sitting in the singles cooler. May not be a store, but a bar back in Mansfield, OH had Nugget Nectar on draft, so I ordered like 2 straight away (since I was back on vacation and we dont get Troegs in NC). I was talking to manager (he had asked me which pub exclusive I would order, and of course I said Alberta Clipper). He then tells me he has two more kegs of Nugget Nectar in the cooler, and that he "just cant sell the damn stuff." That totally blew my mind. I almost a keg and took it home.

 

I found Founders Breakfast Stout for 8.99 a four pack at one of my local spots. They didn't raise the price until a month later when they got wise that they must have some good stuff when I came back and bought a few more cases.
I saw Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus and nearly flipped since I have never seen a bottle in downstate IL.

 

Regular Breakfast Stout not KBS? Thats about normal price, its like 8.99-9.99 around here. When Total Wine put it on sale for 3.99, that was a deal!

 

I got a text from my cousin this past weekend when he was up in northern Michigan. He grabbed me 2 4-packs of KBS from a random liquor store for 15.99 each.

 

Yeah regular FBS, I couldn't remember the price but it was actually 7.49 for awhile, then they raised it to 8.99. Still around here 8.99 is a steal as most places had it for 9.99 to 10.99

 

Here in Mexico City we have some stores called Superama that belongs to Wal-Mart. They host a beerfest every year, when the fest ends and since their stores are small sometimes they put on (ridiculous) sale the beers left, some great deals I've found:

750mls McChouffe and La Chouffe for $ 1.00
330 mls La Fin Du Monde, Trois Pistoles, Don de Dieu, Maudite and La Trappe Quad for $ 0.50

 

I went into a local store a ways back that's not known for their craft beer selection but I heard they had gotten BCS coffee and bramble. Get into the store and ask the manager who tells me they sold the last 2 an hour before I got there and even shows me the price tags for them he had just taken off the shelf and thrown away.

As I'm about to walk out degected he goes "we do have some other GI stuff over there." I assume he means the usual suspects but as I get to the shelf I see a label that sticks out...a single bottle of something called King Henry which I had never heard of at the time for whatever reason (wasn't quite as into beer then obviously). So I buy it for $12 I believe, get home, start searching and realize what I stumbled upon...wow.

So I still never found coffee or bramble but finding KH more than made up for it. What I got from it is the beer gods work in mysterious ways because since I've gotten much more into beer I haven't had any scores even close to that good!

 

Utter disbelief...that is too cool.

 

I actually work at the place I made the find. We sold Peche Mortel for a time years ago before it became much harder to carry/find (and before I started working here). A few weeks back, a coworker was just like "I just found this, isn't this supposed to be pretty good? Do you want it?" Yes, I will take a 2010 Peche Mortel aged in a temperature controlled cellar. It had survived at least 6 "count the entire store" inventories mistaken as a bottle of something else (I didn't count that part of the store).

 

I found Fou Foune sitting on a shelf in a beer store in January. Definitely my biggest score ever.

 

When ABC liquors stop carrying Rochefort, they had a few cases laying around between all the stores here in town ( I assume), at one point many were sold for a buck a piece. a friend call me and told me what store had them, I got there there were 11 left. I bought them all. then I decided to visit every store in town, some had them and some did not, but some one at corp said get rid of them, I was glad to rid them of these. No one at those stores had a clue about beer period.

Not that I would call that a hidden gem story...but it made my day, now its at TW for 5.95-6.50-6.95 (6,8,10) a bottle! ouchies me no buy it much anymore.

 

I was at Bell's for the first time one Saturday earlier this year, and I went on the tour. Afterwards I went into the bottle shop to check out the shirts, stickers, and other swag. They had this new beer in the coolers so I grabbed a couple. It was called Black Note.

I was at a bar in Lakeview Chicago not really known for being a craft beer bar. I was sitting at the bar and something in the cooler caught my eye. It was a single bottle of Rare. The guy said their policy isn't to allow bottles to be taken to go, but I was able to talk him into it. He said he thought the price on it was $80 and I reluctantly agreed. He rang it up on the computer and said "oh wait, it's actually $50!" That was pretty awesome.

 

Nothing crazy special but I found a bottle of Arcadia Big Dicks Old Ale 2006 vintage 750ml for $3. Not sure if it will be any good but for $3 I figured why not give it a shot

 

There is a small liquor store near the Sheridan red line stop in Chicago. About a month ago, they had a few bottles of 09 bcs bombers sitting behind the counter. I did a double take and immediately whipped out my wallet. Apparently they had saved a case and sold them sparsely over the years. Lucky me!

 

I visited Chicago last Feb. and found myself at Kasey's Tavern downtown, seeking anything Bell's because I'm from Boston and you can't get that there. Was drinking a Two Hearted, and the owner (I think) started chatting with me. He said, "hang on a second" and brought out a off-menu bottle from the back room. Turned out it was a Hopslam from his personal collection (not on menu) and just said "enjoy." That was very cool, my first Hopslam.

Similar story at Ball Sq Fine Wines in Somerville Mass. Was chatting up the clerk about Kentucky Breakfast Stout. This was when it was way out of season. He said, "hang on a second," went to the back and brought out a bottle of KBS he had been aging for nearly a year and sold it to me. My first KBS. Again, very cool of him to do that.

And just yesterday, walked into Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, MA. Did a 'pick six' of hoppy IPAs. Owners asked me if I had Lunch yet from Maine Brewing. Of course, I replied, but it's hard to find. Do you have any? And she said, well, it's walking in the door any second. And suddenly a case was wheeled in. Lucky me. Apparently sold out the stash 20 minutes later.

OK last one - back in the spring when The Alchemist made a limited drop of Heady Topper at a bunch of Boston area stores. I started calling around to see who had it. One near my house did. (Not gonna name to protect the innocent.) Any store that had it was doing a 1-per-customer limit. This store had a case. Just for the hell of it, I thought I'd just ask if I could have the whole case. To my surprise, the clerk said, sure why not. She even asked another guy (store manager?) if it was ok to sell me the case. Sure sure! And boom...I was out of there with my case of Heady in a flash. Felt a little guilty as that seemed pretty unusual, but come on, what would you do?

 

I made my first visit to Wine Warehouse in Charlottesville in November of last year and found one Papier sitting on the shelf over a year after its release and all of the Cuirs had been sold out in the store for weeks. Not sure why the Papier remained but I had to buy it... still have it in hopes of having a vertical tasting sometime.

 

i am on the road for work and drive by lots of liquor stores. i try to stop at all of them, even shitholes. i've found 2007 orvals for 1.00 each, st bernardus for 1.00 each,fantome 750's for 2.99. theres a local store that has a 99 cent shelf,and sometimes there are some amazing deals . the owner is in his late 70's,and doesnt seem to give a shit about profit.la fin du monde,saison dupont,pissenlit all bought for less than 3$ a 750ml.i found a confounded mr. sisyphus in a corner of a walk in cooler by massbmx's house. however, the best score were the 2 bottles of 07' lou pepe kriek @ a small store 2 ,minutes from my house.