Bourbon

[jfkbengals]

(03-25-2021, 06:01 PM)Donnyho Wrote: The Buffalo Trace hype is getting out of hand. It used to be everywhere around here, then it started selling out, then it became a “limit one per customer” bottle.  It’s good whiskey, but people are going overboard grabbing everything the distillery puts out.

(03-25-2021, 06:33 PM)MileHighGrowler Wrote: I would agree it's some pretty intense hype.  I think it's just fueled because it's a well-known, well-loved distillery, and their product is so limited.  In the past couple of years it seems that there's been an explosion in interest in bourbon in particular (at least from what I've noticed), and so the bottles have flown off shelves.  I'm not really sure what the allocations actually break down to, but I never see any of their portfolio available on the shelves around here, even the items that aren't as exciting.  

At the end of the day, if I see a bottle of Buffalo Trace for $25, I'll grab it (which I did two nights ago).  I was back at the store today and there were only 3 bottles left.  Whatever the reason, the hype is real and keeps most of it from ever seeing the shelves.  I've got friends who work at different liquor stores and asked a while back to let me know if they ever get good bourbon (or other whiskey for that matter) and was basically told it's a shot in the dark because the allocations are limited and since they can't hold it, by the time they tell me it's in it'll be gone.  There's no state lottery, but the lotteries are done by store.  This past fall I didn't really them pop up (not sure if it was due to COVID and wanting to avoid crowds standing around with their tickets or what). 

At least the price for BT itself is still reasonable IMO for the product inside.  

That is the reason why I have only found 1 375ml bottle of Blanton's in the last 3 years.  It has been a limit of 1 per customer PER DAY that whole time.  The delivery trucks to VA ABC stores come Thursday nights, and the stuff is the available on Friday to be sold out within an hour or two of opening.  If you have to work Friday morning, you have no chance.  A few weeks ago the ice storm delayed the trucks and they arrived Friday night.  I was able to see 12 bottles of Blanton's would be available Saturday morning.  I showed up to the store 30 minutes before opening and found a line of 30 people or so.  By the time the store opened, there were at least 25 people lined up behind me.  Needless to say I missed out on the Blanton's, but I got the 2nd from last Buffalo Trace and the 5th from last Eagle Rare.  I didn't want either, but I wasn't going to leave empty handed when they are so rare at this point.  Even Ancient Age is rare and limited to 1 per person per day.  Ancient Freaking Age!  It was rail bourbon that leaves a nasty hangover for decades, but somehow now it is apparently some kind of masterpiece because it is a BT product.

[WeezyBengal]

(03-25-2021, 09:44 PM)jfkbengals Wrote: That is the reason why I have only found 1 375ml bottle of Blanton's in the last 3 years.  It has been a limit of 1 per customer PER DAY that whole time.  The delivery trucks to VA ABC stores come Thursday nights, and the stuff is the available on Friday to be sold out within an hour or two of opening.  If you have to work Friday morning, you have no chance.  A few weeks ago the ice storm delayed the trucks and they arrived Friday night.  I was able to see 12 bottles of Blanton's would be available Saturday morning.  I showed up to the store 30 minutes before opening and found a line of 30 people or so.  By the time the store opened, there were at least 25 people lined up behind me.  Needless to say I missed out on the Blanton's, but I got the 2nd from last Buffalo Trace and the 5th from last Eagle Rare.  I didn't want either, but I wasn't going to leave empty handed when they are so rare at this point.  Even Ancient Age is rare and limited to 1 per person per day.  Ancient Freaking Age!  It was rail bourbon that leaves a nasty hangover for decades, but somehow now it is apparently some kind of masterpiece because it is a BT product.

I had no idea AA was a BT product. 

I recommend finding someone out of state to trade with. Trade them easy to stuff find in your area for hard to stuff find in their area. For example I have some people I trade Weller with (easily found in Ohio most of the time) for Eagle Rare, Blantons, and EH Taylor. You have to ship it which kind of sucks and its not as fun as finding the bottles at the store, but it gets the job done and you meet some cool people along the way. 

[Donnyho]

(03-26-2021, 10:20 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: I had no idea AA was a BT product. 

I recommend finding someone out of state to trade with. Trade them easy to stuff find in your area for hard to stuff find in their area. For example I have some people I trade Weller with (easily found in Ohio most of the time) for Eagle Rare, Blantons, and EH Taylor. You have to ship it which kind of sucks and its not as fun as finding the bottles at the store, but it gets the job done and you meet some cool people along the way. 

Yeah, AA is "Blantons" like Weller is "Pappy". So people have started buying up AA when they can't find Blantons.

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(03-26-2021, 11:08 AM)Donnyho Wrote: Yeah, AA is "Blantons" like Weller is "Pappy". So people have started buying up AA when they can't find Blantons.

That's insane. I can find Buffalo Trace, Weller Reserve, and Eagle Rare quite frequently around here. The other BT offerings, not so much. I can remember drinking Elmer T Lee at 25 bucks a pop in unlimited quantities, those were the days. I like wheated bourbon, and it just happens that BT offers the most of that variety. Lucky me.

Congratulations on that epic haul, btw.

[Sled21]

(03-26-2021, 11:26 AM)Wyche Wrote: That's insane. I can find Buffalo Trace, Weller Reserve, and Eagle Rare quite frequently around here. The other BT offerings, not so much. I can remember drinking Elmer T Lee at 25 bucks a pop in unlimited quantities, those were the days. I like wheated bourbon, and it just happens that BT offers the most of that variety. Lucky me.

Congratulations on that epic haul, btw.

Yeah, Elmer T Lee used to be considered the "Poor Man's Blantons." Now it's  harder to find that Blantons. The people at BT are masters when it comes to advertising. I used to walk into my liquor store any time I wanted, and buy Blanton's off the shelf for 50 dollars, buy 20 Year Old Pappy from the case for 110 dollars, and Weller was basically a 2nd from the bottom shelf bourbon. Eagle Rare was readily available, as was ETL. And then BT started placing their products in tv shows like "Justified" and in various movies. People see Neil McDonough go into Boyd Crowder's bar and demand "Pappy," and Blanton's and people who never knew anything about it go "Huh" that must be special. They even made people search out and pay premiums for their Col E H Taylor bourbon that was in the warehouse that got knocked down in a storm by labeling it "Tornado Survivor" and advertising a different taste which was incredible due to exposure to the sun and elements. Now, they know when the barrels were filled, and they know when the warehouse got knocked down, so if it was that good it seems to be pretty easy to replicate. People will drive hours on end to get to the distillery to stand in line to get a chance to buy 1 bottle before they run out of their allocation for the day. Standing in line for Weller...... SMH

[Donnyho]

(03-26-2021, 04:27 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Yeah, Elmer T Lee used to be considered the "Poor Man's Blantons." Now it's  harder to find that Blantons. The people at BT are masters when it comes to advertising. I used to walk into my liquor store any time I wanted, and buy Blanton's off the shelf for 50 dollars, buy 20 Year Old Pappy from the case for 110 dollars, and Weller was basically a 2nd from the bottom shelf bourbon. Eagle Rare was readily available, as was ETL. And then BT started placing their products in tv shows like "Justified" and in various movies. People see Neil McDonough go into Boyd Crowder's bar and demand "Pappy," and Blanton's and people who never knew anything about it go "Huh" that must be special. They even made people search out and pay premiums for their Col E H Taylor bourbon that was in the warehouse that got knocked down in a storm by labeling it "Tornado Survivor" and advertising a different taste which was incredible due to exposure to the sun and elements. Now, they know when the barrels were filled, and they know when the warehouse got knocked down, so if it was that good it seems to be pretty easy to replicate. People will drive hours on end to get to the distillery to stand in line to get a chance to buy 1 bottle before they run out of their allocation for the day. Standing in line for Weller...... SMH

There’s literally a Facebook group “What’s at Buffalo Trace today?” where someone posts what went up at the distillery gift shop that morning.

[MileHighGrowler]

(03-26-2021, 04:54 PM)Donnyho Wrote: There’s literally a Facebook group “What’s at Buffalo Trace today?” where someone posts what went up at the distillery gift shop that morning.

I don't have that kind of patience.  There are beer releases like that every year, too.  There's a brewery in Northern California (Russian River) that releases a special triple IPA every year.  It's basically a week or two that it's available.  People come from around the world to wait in line for 8 hours to get a 6oz pour.  They secretly release small kegs as well to some places, and I was able to snag a glass a few years ago here in Colorado with only a 2 hour wait.  It wasn't worth the two hours in my opinion.  Drinking, to me, is about enjoying someone's craftmanship and having a good time sharing with friends.  I just can't get into the hours of waiting or driving, hunting something down and then paying a fortune on top of my efforts. 

[WeezyBengal]

Just got my haul in the mail. I'm probably most excited about the EC barrel proof and the EHT single barrel. EHT is my favorite bourbon under $50 and I've never had the single barrel offering.

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(03-26-2021, 04:27 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Yeah, Elmer T Lee used to be considered the "Poor Man's Blantons." Now it's  harder to find that Blantons. The people at BT are masters when it comes to advertising. I used to walk into my liquor store any time I wanted, and buy Blanton's off the shelf for 50 dollars, buy 20 Year Old Pappy from the case for 110 dollars, and Weller was basically a 2nd from the bottom shelf bourbon. Eagle Rare was readily available, as was ETL. And then BT started placing their products in tv shows like "Justified" and in various movies. People see Neil McDonough go into Boyd Crowder's bar and demand "Pappy," and Blanton's and people who never knew anything about it go "Huh" that must be special. They even made people search out and pay premiums for their Col E H Taylor bourbon that was in the warehouse that got knocked down in a storm by labeling it "Tornado Survivor" and advertising a different taste which was incredible due to exposure to the sun and elements. Now, they know when the barrels were filled, and they know when the warehouse got knocked down, so if it was that good it seems to be pretty easy to replicate. People will drive hours on end to get to the distillery to stand in line to get a chance to buy 1 bottle before they run out of their allocation for the day. Standing in line for Weller...... SMH

Absolutely! I worked in a liquor store during my college days. Weller was on the bottom, Blanton's got dust on the bottle, and Pappy was around a hundred bucks...also collecting dust. Elmer is probably my favorite bourbon, but good luck. If you do find it, expect to need your stimmy to buy it. It's crazy.

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

On a good note, I scored a half gallon of Weller yesterday at MSRP.

[Sled21]

(03-26-2021, 04:54 PM)Donnyho Wrote: There’s literally a Facebook group “What’s at Buffalo Trace today?” where someone posts what went up at the distillery gift shop that morning.

Yeah, I'm on that one too. Not that I'm standing in line to buy Weller or BT, but my office is up the street. (working from home right now though due to covid) When I'm in the office and someone says it's an ER, Blantons or EHT day in the middle of the week, I may stop by around noon or 1 and walk in with no line to buy a bottle. But if it's a day with lines, I'm out.

[WeezyBengal]

(03-30-2021, 09:13 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Yeah, I'm on that one too. Not that I'm standing in line to buy Weller or BT, but my office is up the street. (working from home right now though due to covid) When I'm in the office and someone says it's an ER, Blantons or EHT day in the middle of the week, I may stop by around noon or 1 and walk in with no line to buy a bottle. But if it's a day with lines, I'm out.

It'd be really cool to have that kind of access every day. 

[Sled21]

(03-30-2021, 03:54 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: It'd be really cool to have that kind of access every day. 

It's pretty nice. Of course, they only let you get Blanton's or Weller once every 3 months, but the Eagle Rare, EH Taylor and regular BT are once a day. I'm not a fan of Wellers, so I don't much care about any of that. Kentucky just changed the law though requiring distillery to go through 3 tier system, so hopefully Blanton's will become once a day as well.

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(03-30-2021, 04:50 PM)Sled21 Wrote: It's pretty nice. Of course, they only let you get Blanton's or Weller once every 3 months, but the Eagle Rare, EH Taylor and regular BT are once a day. I'm not a fan of Wellers, so I don't much care about any of that. Kentucky just changed the law though requiring distillery to go through 3 tier system, so hopefully Blanton's will become once a day as well.

Hey sled, I'm in Richmond, hook a brother up! 

[Sled21]

(03-31-2021, 02:39 PM)Wyche Wrote: Hey sled, I'm in Richmond, hook a brother up! 

Richmond, KY?

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(03-31-2021, 02:43 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Richmond, KY?

Yup.

[Sled21]

(04-01-2021, 11:38 AM)Wyche Wrote: Yup.

Whatcha doing there?

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(04-01-2021, 03:30 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Whatcha doing there?

L-I-V-I-N.... graduated from EKU, got hired here out of college, never left.

[Sled21]

(04-02-2021, 03:13 PM)Wyche Wrote: L-I-V-I-N.... graduated from EKU, got hired here out of college, never left.

Well heck, I thought you were in Cincy for some reason. When I get back to going to the office on a regular basis, I'll definitely hook you up.

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(04-03-2021, 12:14 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Well heck, I thought you were in Cincy for some reason. When I get back to going to the office on a regular basis, I'll definitely hook you up.

Thanks my man!