Goose Island Bourbon County Stout Tap Takeover - Paddy Long's

It is crowded. No bar seats or tables. SRI. Will get worse.

As of 6:05 Paddys is at capacity. There's a line and no entry unless people leave.

The place is at capacity. About 50 people in line.

You may have seen me roll up on my bike, scope the line and keep riding. I don't see why anyone inside would willingly choose to come out. So good luck to those in line.

For those hopefulls in line, a little info. All pours are 12oz pours for $14. The price means not many will get more than 1 of each, but they are nice size pours, so it's a gamble. Also all 22oz bottles are $42, the 2010 bcbs is $20

A line of 50-60 people are outside, luckily I showed up 4:30, I doubt many, if any, will make it in

it looks like i made the right decision! i wouldn't have even been able to get out of work until 5:30

I stand corrected in my guess of the attendance. Actually I didn't realize it was happening on a Friday evening, that can't be helping matters. I guess I don't quite get scheduling something like this on a date and time when I'm guessing the bar would be busy regardless. That can't be easy on employees or patrons.

What's left?

Lol, pleebs

Paddy Longs keeps to form by charging more than $1/oz. No surprise here.

Oh the horror ;-)

Not that they'll have any problem selling it. Per untappd checkins, I'm guessing they tapped out of cherry & vanilla over an hour ago. Lot of regular BCS and night stalker checkins now

I went. I had a 12 oz Cherry, a 12 oz Vanilla (which has died NIG time
IMO) and a 2009 bomber (tasted like Rare). It was expensive but a great time. They luckily kept it perfect capacity tonight.

The place was at capacity a fucking hour before the event was set to begin. With a line of 50 people waiting to get outside, they could have, and probably should have, charged more.

Also if $1/oz is last year's on premise price, and bottles went up like 50%, shouldn't we expect $1.50/oz to become the new normal?

Ouch. That'll be a major hit on my pocketbook

I was referencing all the other BCBS reported on tap, not the rare variants which would sell out (eventually) at $3+/oz.

great event. packed but not as bad as people made it seem.

It appears cherry, vanilla, and coffee were all on tap at slightly over $1/oz which, sad to say isn't unreasonable anymore. A 22 oz bomber for $42 is slightly under $2/oz which again, is pretty standard on premise pricing for hard to find bourbon county variants.

I don't think they're hating Dekalb.....But judging by my message inbox, people are getting jealous and angry that I'm not sending out the goodies we have stocked away here in D-Town. I've just been too busy to hook people up.

Sheffield's has Bramble bottles on the menu for $26 right now (or they did at 6pm last night, anyway).

Damn, nice price!

not a bad price, and it's drinking nicely right now. gonna crack my bottle in a couple weeks.

Me too.

Absolutely nothing on tap I haven't had, and with the exception of Cherry Rye, many times. I'm pretty much done with these type of shit shows. I'll be happy to enjoy the BCBS/variants that I have in my cellar (and other exceptional beers) without being made to feel like a canned sardine that has to wait in line for hours just to get into an event.

wait... wait... 42 dollars.... a bottle? And people are okay with this? Bought two bottles of cherry rye and a bottle of coffee.... at a bar... for 20 apiece. Am I missing something? Are these super aged bombers, or what?

Part of it is downtown Chicago prices. At least one restaurant had coffee & cherry rye for $50/bottle, and certainly sold through their cases. Compared to that $42 isn't bad. I seem to recall last year's BCS variants went for $14 retail and $30 at bars. Since retail is $20 now, it's not surprising that bars & restaurants are charging $40 and up. Crazy expensive? Perhaps. But people are willing to pay top dollar for a super-limited locally-produced world-class product (and a trendy one, at that.) Maybe it's conspicuous consumption, but it's closer to true market pricing based on supply & demand. Plus in a city where you can pay $300 for one meal, a $20+ markup isn't much.

Lived and worked in chicago for years... you people are effing nuts.

PS: Go to schwa, please. do whatever it takes.

Dunno where you live, but in Chicago, there was no liquor store that sold this years Coffee or Cherry Rye for under $20. The burbs did for some reason, so maybe your bar was there, but it is very unlikely you are going to find a bar that sells the bottles at the same prices at a liquor store. I would expect $30-40 for these bottles, but they could charge more and easily sell them still.
The only "super aged" bottle in that list at that price was the 2009 BCBS bomber, priced at the same $42 as the other bombers. Our group didn't think it was worth it but I am sure they got drank up fast. We did buy a 2010 bottle for $20, still way overpriced, just to share between us.

I know a lot of people get angry that events like this turn into a shitshow, but come on it was the second bar in the area to have Cherry Rye on tap. Its a super hyped beer, you cannot expect anything less these days. Even Baudoinia being tapped at Monks lasted the entire night and it never got very busy. You basically had to be at Paddys an hour ahead of time, which I am fine with because as though we got to eat and have a drink or two while waiting. One thing Paddys could have done differently is to cap pours at 8-10oz. 12oz pours of these beers is pretty crazy. I definitely enjoyed myself, but more people would have likely been let in and got some pours if the size was smaller.

Heres some pics for...the hell of it


http://i.imgur.com/qzuEPh.jpg <-- direct image link if you want to be able to actually read the menu

It's "only" $22, but that's more than a 100% markup over the retail price (not cost). It's nuts, even for downtown Chicago, especially for a new release. It isn't even a vintage bottle. I'm not going to tell anyone else what to do with their money, however, I'm not paying Paddy Long's or anyone else a 100%+ markup for a bottle of Cherry Rye or Coffee (which was an easy find this year) especially considering the fact that kegs will be popping up for the next couple of years. Remember BCBS Vanilla was a "super-limited locally-produced world-class product" and over the course of the past couple of years, I've had BCBS Vanilla on tap a bunch of times.

I wouldn't pay it either, but we don't have to. It'll sell. Ever notice that all the bars & restaurants do is say "we have bourbon county coffee & cherry rye bottles!" without ever announcing price? That's because to a large extent, price doesn't matter for something this scarce (even coffee sold out quickly with bottle limits.) As an economist would say, pricing on these is highly inelastic.

As for the likelihood of having cherry rye coming out of our ears for the next few years, I find that pretty unlikely. I have yet to try Bramble on tap even once, and it seems like they made a lot more of that, or at least sent more to Chicagoland retail. But I'll be pleased if there are many kegs of Cherry Rye, because I have yet to try it on tap. And I'd probably still buy one pour, even at $2/oz. As the kids say, YOLO.

Yeahhh there was significantly more BCBVS made than Cherry. I don't recall where I saw the details but I believe a large batch of Cherry Rye was bad and dumped which is why it is so limited. I have no doubt that it will appear on tap from time to time, but I wouldn't expect to see it often, or much at all outside Chicago.

This was a really fun event. Pat over at Paddy's is a great guy. Even though the bombers of cherry and coffee were $42 I still saw three guys with them while both were still pouring on draft.

In all seriousness, it seems Cherry is the most limited Bourbon County ever bottled and distributed.

I would bet cash that we've seen less bottles of Cherry compared to Rare.

I personally know of a couple stores that got more Rare than Cherry.

Not trying to hype cherry any more; I was one of the ones that didn't think it was amazing; I can think of non-barrel aged stouts with more flavor and the cherry flavor was far to faint to age(reminiscent of Coffee's aging ability).

The faint cherry flavor is what makes me think we won't see this on tap very much in the future; in a year the cherry flavor will be completely gone.

Hurry, kids. While the Cherry flavor is still there. FT:cherry ISO: rare.

I had a good time, I thought the '09 was one of the best that I tasted next to Vanilla, thanks to Paul and his friends for sharing a pour from that '09. Also, thanks to John and his buddy for letting me and my two buddies sit at their table after their friends got shut out in the line, was better then standing all night.

paddy longs is downtown? 100% mark-up over retail!!!!! And to think I've been drinking all these bottles at cost over the years at bars. 100% mark-up over retail is pretty common. A decent beer costs about 6 to 7 bucks at a bar, do most of those 6-packs of that beer cost 36 bucks or 18?

I thought the 2009 bomber was worth every bit of $42 because I know I'm not likely to get my hands on that particular beer again unless I am extremely lucky through a trade or such.

No, it's not downtown; I should have just put in the city of Chicago. This is where the dollar amount comes in. I wouldn't pay $22 more for a bottle that retails for $20. If you want to, fine by me. I'm not telling you how to spend your money.

For me, it's not worth it.

Yep those are ridiculous prices. For me it's not about the markup over retail, or even the price-per-ounce. It's just, $42 for one beer. That's never going to be worth it compared to all of the other beers I could have for that amount of money. I am not saying that other positions are not logical, or that mine is. Sue me. I spent the money for Rare off the shelf, and I didn't really get enough difference/better-ness from Rare than regular BCBS to justify that percentage price increase. I'm learning where my palate maxes out currently with whiskey, as far as price point, too. And obviously your palate grows over time. Getting philosophical. Stoned. Sue me.

that $5 bottle or pour of (insert random craft beer here) costs about $10 retail for a six pack -- pretty comparable mark up

I don't think that this is anything new or especially ridiculous, it's just standing out to you because of the higher dollar amount of the bottle