Toronado SF Mystery Box

Looking forward to seeing what everyone got! I pick up my box on Saturday.

 

What is this Toronado Mystery Box you speak of? They selling boxes of misc beers and you don't know what you get until you open the box?! That sounds fun. I guess they have to sell they're aging beer. Though surprised this didn't happen much sooner.

 

Box of 12 beers.
1 is Toronado 30
1 is Cable Car (annual vintage varies)
Other 10 are mystery.

Price: $160 cash.
Availability: 100. (all sold out pretty quickly)

 

Toro SD has something similar during their last week of business ($75 for 13 bottles - completely random and then $120 later in the week with a CC or equivalent guaranteed). Was a lot of fun to see what was buried in their cellar(s).

 

One might hope that the 10 mystery beers are a meticulously aged 10-year vertical of Red Barns...

 

Was curious what others got only to find no posts here, so had to start a new account to post. Boxes were good but my big surprise was the amount of repeats in the two boxes I was lucky enough to score. Going in we knew each box would have a Toronado 30th Anniversary 750ml from Russian River; and 1 Cable Car 750ml from Lost Abbey (but anywhere from 2016-2019), plus 10 other beers which were either made specially for Toronado's various anniversaries, on their current bottle list, or from deep in Dave Keene's cellar.

Between 2 boxes I got 7 doubles:
2017 T30 was a given;
2017 Cable Car was a given two but both of mine were 2017 which surprised as that's the most expensive one on their bottle list ($80 instead of $60 for 2018 and 2019);
2017 Rare Barrel's Garage Service made special for Toronado, 750ml;
2012 Affligem's Noel (from 2012 per handwritten tape label) 750ml;
2017 Fifty-Fifty Eclipse Willet Bourbon Barrel 22 oz.;
2017 Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws barley wine 12 oz. (great beer, low carbonation); and
De Leite Cuvee Mam'Zelle 330ml (delicious).

All of the above were in both boxes, so 14 of 24 were repeated, all are solid beers just somewhat surprised to get the same year of each one, or the same barrel (and year) on the Eclipse.

Of the one offs I got these 10:
Brewed 2015, Bottled 2017 Upright Ives 375 still beer Batch One
2009 Lost Abbey Angel's Share 375 (pretty sure 2009 was heart of the 'flat abbey' era as I was in "sinner's club" that year, fortunately I can enjoy this style without)
Lost Abbey Deliverance 375
2015 Bruery Terreux Rueuze 750
2014 Bruery 7 Swans a Swimming 750 quad with no spice
Sante Adairius Lady in Grey grisette 750
2017 Mraz Black & Red fruited sour 500 made for Toronado
2009 Panil Barriquee 750
2016 Sudwerk Brewer's Cut Raspberry Diddly batch 2 flemish sour 500
2017 Fonta Flora Ticky Ticky Buzz kvass with bread and honey 3.2% 750

All in all I'm very happy, even though I did not score some of the choice bottles pictured in their Instagram story (like Sante's double doors), it's a nice range of non-hoppy styles which do well with age. I just would have preferred 20 different one offs rather than 10. I'm not a ticker but I'm also not a trader, so for most of these I'm happy to try them once (as I did yesterday with 3 of the smaller ones, De Leite, Doggy Claws, and the Sudwerk, all of which were full of life and tasty, and I will certainly enjoy having the first 2 again).

 

Appreciate you making an account and informing us of what you got.

I personally have too much beer already (and am very hesitant about dropping $160) doing random loot boxes. That sucks that there were that many doubles in your boxes. That being said, there's some interesting stuff that came up too. Hope you enjoy them!

 

Hey ElNopalero, used to chat with you here under my old account name, gilmango. No doubles in the same box. So if I wasn't greedy / extra supportive of the Toronado in going for two boxes I would not have had any repeats.

Loved opening the first box, completely different stuff. Actually, the funny thing was I paid for both boxes, but left one on the stool while I walked the other to my car. As I walked back a guy picked up the one I'd been given (not stolen, just the next guy in line getting his one box), so that was replaced when I came back for my second box. I'll never know what was in that box, and if, just maybe, it would have had less repeats. I mean all the boxes were sealed but it is at least possible that say the first 50 boxes all had the Affligem, Doggie Claws, Eclipse Willets, etc. in them, so if you bought two Chad actually grabbed one from the first 50 and one from the second 50. Love to here if anyone else who got 2 boxes had as many repeats.

Given how quick it sold out I think that they could have priced it higher.

 

Here's what came in my box:


Left to right:

Scaldis Noel 2006
Lost Abbey Angel's Share 2009
Rare Barrel Shadows of their Eyes 2018
Pike Old Bawdy 2007
Bruery Terreux Tart of Darkness 2016
St. Feuillen Cuvee de Noel 2004
Fiftyfifty Eclipse Evan Williams 2016
Sante Adairius Dutch Door
Jackie O's Gose Mraz Wild Meadow batch 2
Russian River T-30
Lost Abbey Cable Car 2017

Really happy with what I got and really curious to try those old xmas beers. I was crossing my fingers for some old fantome, but no complaints

 

Nice hauls so far. Really happy with my box. Heres what I got:

Lost Abbey Cable Car 2017
Russian River T-30
Lost Abbey Angels Share 2018
Horus Coconut Crown
The Rare Barrel Shadows of Their Eyes 2018
Bruery Terreux Gypsy Tart 2015
New Belgium Vrienden
Fiftyfifty Eclipse Grand Cru 2017
Jackie O's Berliner Weisse
Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws 2017
Thomas Hardy's 2005
Scaldis Noel (no date)

 

For $320 cash?

 

Yup, $160 cash per box of 12, and I bought two boxes. Given all the duplication, in hindsight I'd probably only buy 1, but looking at the two boxes others got and posted (each has just 1 or 0 in common with my own box, besides all of us getting T30 and Cable Car '17), I probably should have just asked to get two boxes which were not in sequential order.

Like I'm guessing that they had a full case (or even cases) of some of the items which were put in the boxes. By getting box "32" and "34" I happened to get a bunch of overlap.

And maybe I was even given two which were not in sequential order for that reason, and if I'd taken both boxes given to me in one trip to the car I'd even have less overlap (as maybe Chad tried to give me box "70" with my "32" but then "70" got taken by next guy in line after me, leaving me with "32" and ""33" instead of "32" and "70".

 

Funny no one mentioned the extra rare bottles you could have bought while picking up.

 

Weird that wasn't shared with those of us who managed to buy boxes. I knew that I could buy Toronado merchandise, or anything from the bottle list, but never saw this list. Then again, only one thing on that list that I would 100% have bought had I known. It was cool to get the Mraz in my box, and I know others got a Horus CC or an Angel's Share 2008 (not sure if it was BBA).

Where did you find this list?

 

A friend shared a picture with me of another box, cannot tell all the year/size stuff perfectly but here's what I see:
T30 750
LA CCar 750
Jackie O Gose 375
Dupont Avec les Bons V (xmas) 750
Avery Hog Heaven b'wine 22
Rare Barrel Garage Service 750
Bruery Terreux Rueuze 2015 - 750
Barrelhouse Brewing Rosiline 375
De Garde Ivy 375
2008 Lost Abbey Angel's Share 375 (not sure if BBA)
5050 Eclipse 10th Anniversary black wax (2016 Evan Williams) 22 oz
1999 Phantom Canyon Brewing Old Millenium B'wine 12 oz

 

It was posted outside their door!

 

Pickup of my box was super smooth. I got there early and no one was in line so they let me pick up a bit early. I was expecting these boxes to sell for $200+ so I am pretty happy with the deal. Here's what I got:

Cable Car 17
T30
Lost Abbey Ad Idem
Lost Abbey Angels Share 2009 Bourbon Barrel (375ml)
Hair of the Dog Golden Rose
Anchor Old Foghorn 2005 (Assuming it's 05 instead of 15 based on the rusted cap)
Modern Times Quadrajet
Scaldis Noel
Bruery Terreux Tart of Darkness 2016
Eclipse Rye Cuvee 2017
Rare Barrel Garage Service
SARA Saison Bernice. No idea on the batch number but it looks to be an older label