Saturday, November 24, 2018

Beer Friday

Had you used the term "Black Friday" back in 1869, you would have been referring to the day that the conspiracy to corner the gold market by financiers Jay Gould and Jim Fisk collapsed, sending the stock market into a free fall. Had you been reading the journal "Factory Management and Maintenance" in 1951, that same term would have referred to workers calling in sick on the day after Thanksgiving to create a four-day holiday for themselves. Had you been a cop in Philadelphia in that same decade, the term would have been a reference to the the gridlock that resulted from all the sports fans flooding into town for the annual Army-Navy football game. In fact, it wasn't until the mid-eighties that some revisionist historian thought up the idea that the day after turkey day marked the start of retail's most profitable season, the time when cash ledgers turned from red to black. And now you can't utter the phrase without thinking not of a stock market collapse, vacation days or football, but rather of a flat screen TV for $99. 

These days Black Friday as an orgy of shopping has become so inculcated into the national psyche that it has taken on all the trappings of a semi-official holiday. People gather with family and friends to line up at Walmart and Best Buy. They post pictures of themselves and their loot on Facebook and Instagram as if it were their kids' second grade art project. And they recall past shopping expeditions as nostalgically as they do their honeymoon: "Remember that time we got a Suzy Slurpup Doll for $19.95 from Target? Those were the days!" 

But in some corners of the country the term has morphed yet again. In those locales it doesn't involve lining up at a big box store or the local mall. Rather, for a small but devoted subset of shoppers in cities including Chicago, Milwaukee and Seattle, Black Friday now means Beer Friday. 

It all began back in 2010. Windy City craft brewer Goose Island had been offering up its bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout for nearly two decades. They pioneered this variant, where first-use bourbon barrels are used to make suds, with each barrel used just once. The result is a stout infused with the flavors of the whiskey that was in there first. As each new batch was ready, they released it in waves in different regions. 

Then 8 years ago, as a way to call attention to their Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout, which was aged for two years in 23-year old Pappy Van Winkle barrels, they timed the release to the day after Thanksgiving. (For those not in the know, Pappy is widely regarded as one of the finest and hardest to get bourbons in the world.) Word got out and people lined up. And the beer world has never been the same since. 

Goose Island has continued the tradition, releasing that years' special variations on Black Friday. This year will see eight different stouts, including Proprietor's Bourbon County Brand Stout, made with dark chocolate; Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout, made with Madagascar vanilla beans; Bourbon County Brand Bramble Rye Stout, aged in rye whiskey barrels with raspberry and blackberry juice and puree added; and Bourbon County Brand Coffee Barleywine, made with Guatemalan coffee beans. There are also two newcomers: Bourbon County Brand Midnight Orange Stout, with tastes of orange peel and chocolate, and Bourbon County Brand Wheatwine, both aged in aged four-plus-year-old Heaven Hill Bourbon barrels. 

Last year about 1300 people lined up at Binney's Beverage Depot in Chicago's Lincoln Park to be the first to get some of the latest models. And the idea has spread. In Milwaukee, an estimated 1600 people lined up in 2017 to grab some of Lakefront Brewery's barrel-aged Imperial Stout Black Friday beer. This year, 11 brewers and brew pubs in that city are getting in on the act, announcing special blends like Urban Harvest Brewing's Imperial Chocolate Whiskey Stout, and Broken Bat Brewing's While We Wait Spiced Winter Ale. 

True, these purchases might not have the staying power of an Xbox game for $47.00. But for some, if it's a choice between Black Ops 4 featuring machine guns and machetes, or Black Friday Vintage Reserve with hints of vanilla and toasted almonds, they know which line to stand in to get the bigger kick.

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Marc Wollin of Bedford prefers wine to beer. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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