Bill Ellis Barbecue Closes

[Tripping William]

Ahh, thanks for the clarification. Makes total sense now.

I happen to have picked up a bomber of Dark Hollow our local Food Lion last week. And, although I have been to Blue Mountain (excellent pizza, too, FWIW), I have not had the Reserve.

[devildeac]

I happen to have picked up a bomber of Dark Hollow our local Food Lion last week. And, although I have been to Blue Mountain (excellent pizza, too, FWIW), I have not had the Reserve.

Sadly, I missed the reserve when we visited 5.5 years ago but did have the Dark Hollow on my 10 beer lunch, err, flight.

[UVa1981]

Sadly, I missed the reserve when we visited 5.5 years ago but did have the Dark Hollow on my 10 beer lunch, err, flight.

I'm not sure why the Reserve is not sold more broadly; it's extraordinary stuff. I do understand that it's a limited production and only seasonally available, commencing some time in late fall to early winter and then ending some time late winter or early spring. If I can get tix to our game (Duke @ UVa; we gave up our season tix somewhere in the middle of the Mike London regime out of a mixture of depression and disgust, the disgust coming from infamously re-seating season ticketholders who had been going to games before the hiring of George Welsh, a decision I'm starting to regret), I plan to go by Blue Mountain Brewery (calling ahead is advisable given the limited availability, if your only reason to be there is to snatch up some Reserve) after a visit to Blue Ridge Pig.

While I'm not sure why the Reserve is not sold in stores (to my knowledge), my surmise has always been to get people to come to the brewery itself. Stores stock whatever they want of what Blue Mountain is producing; Blue Mountain may want to give brew lovers a wider exposure. Hence the live music as well. And the frequent tastings. That is savvy marketing, IMO.

Heaven knows craft brewing has been in--well--ferment for the last decade. Indeed, the largest craft brewer is now none other than Anheuser-Busch InBev. Here is an 2017 article on ABI's purchaseS (sic) of craft brewers: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/31/craf...quisition.html. The ABI purchases include Wicked Weed out of Asheville (one of my favorite towns in the country).

Alarmingly, here is how the article concludes:

[lotusland]

I'm not sure why the Reserve is not sold more broadly; it's extraordinary stuff. I do understand that it's a limited production and only seasonally available, commencing some time in late fall to early winter and then ending some time late winter or early spring. If I can get tix to our game (Duke @ UVa; we gave up our season tix somewhere in the middle of the Mike London regime out of a mixture of depression and disgust, the disgust coming from infamously re-seating season ticketholders who had been going to games before the hiring of George Welsh, a decision I'm starting to regret), I plan to go by Blue Mountain Brewery (calling ahead is advisable given the limited availability, if your only reason to be there is to snatch up some Reserve) after a visit to Blue Ridge Pig.

While I'm not sure why the Reserve is not sold in stores (to my knowledge), my surmise has always been to get people to come to the brewery itself. Stores stock whatever they want of what Blue Mountain is producing; Blue Mountain may want to give brew lovers a wider exposure. Hence the live music as well. And the frequent tastings. That is savvy marketing, IMO.

Heaven knows craft brewing has been in--well--ferment for the last decade. Indeed, the largest craft brewer is now none other than Anheuser-Busch InBev. Here is an 2017 article on ABI's purchaseS (sic) of craft brewers: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/31/craf...quisition.html. The ABI purchases include Wicked Weed out of Asheville (one of my favorite towns in the country).

Alarmingly, here is how the article concludes:

Well this is not too far off my normal route so ima have to stop by and pick up a T-shirt for my wife a 6-pack for me.