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Author Topic: Bourbon county reaches max population  (Read 1110 times)

Offline Wilbur

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Bourbon county reaches max population
« on: October 15, 2018, 09:04:35 pm »
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/10/goose-island-will-release-8-bourbon-county-variant.html

I guess it is the highest value GI brand, you might as well milk every drop of it. I'd love to hear the thought process behind it-is the thought there's so many bourbon barrel stouts out there you need to throw as many variants out as possible? Who's the market?

Offline MDixon

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Re: Bourbon county reaches max population
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2018, 07:08:46 am »
People line up in some areas for BC in any variant. I happened to be in a store in SC shortly after the release last year and just picked up a bottle with no line and no waiting. Then about a month ago I was in NJ in a Total Wine and they had cases and cases of it still sitting there in September.
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Online reverseapachemaster

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Re: Bourbon county reaches max population
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2018, 09:16:15 am »
I don't think this is much different from what other breweries do with their stouts. Lots of breweries put out multiple variants of the same pastry stout every year. They don't usually release them all at once (but some do) but that single day release has always been Goose Island's thing.

You don't usually have to line up to get bottles of the regular BCBS but the variants are usually still limited releases most places so that's probably not going away.
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Offline Wilbur

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Re: Bourbon county reaches max population
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2018, 11:31:39 pm »
I don't think this is much different from what other breweries do with their stouts. Lots of breweries put out multiple variants of the same pastry stout every year. They don't usually release them all at once (but some do) but that single day release has always been Goose Island's thing.

You don't usually have to line up to get bottles of the regular BCBS but the variants are usually still limited releases most places so that's probably not going away.
I agree with your statement, but I guess I don't know if other breweries are a yardstick to measure on. I guess I might be reading a bit too much Beervana, and talking to some graphic designers about stuff (branding). I love this kind of thing for the white labs tasting room-it fits my idea of their brand. They are not a beer product focused venture, but the focus is on their yeast. If they have a much of beers that are similar, it's not a big deal because their customer base is focused on people with a lot of brewing knowledge. I don't think GI can have that benefit. It brings a lot more confusion and choice, especially compared to most breweries, putting out their Stout and peanut butter version, or coffee version, etc.  Am I underestimating their customer base? How would you approach this if you had a brewery? (Also, I feel like I've heard something about you bring a brewer, maybe I'm off on that?)

Offline ethinson

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Re: Bourbon county reaches max population
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2018, 01:45:36 pm »
How many of these will get cancelled before release date? I can't remember if it was the base Barleywine or the Reserve Barleywine that got scrapped last year. 

I see there's not a "plain" barleywine this year, which is disappointing.  It's been better than the stout some years IMHO.  There's the BCB Wheatwine which could be similar and then the coffee barleywine.  Coffee stout can be good, coffee barleywine makes me hesitate a little bit. 

For whatever reason Oregon got shafted last year.. we got Stout and Coffee only, none of the other variants. The year before we got Stout, Barleywine, Coffee and a rare variant that I don't remember, plus the large format bottles of Reserve Stout and Reserve Barleywine.  We won't get the proprietors of course since that is Chicago only.  I'd be shocked if we got the vanilla and orange as well.  Also, I'll be flying home from the East coast on black friday so I'm going to miss it all anyway.  I have started seeing bottles of base BCB Stout show up on bottleshop shelves but none of the variants.
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