RWBadley Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 In my area I have not seen Stagg Jr for quite awhile now. I have some on hand so its no biggie, but how's your local area supply? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clueby Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 19 minutes ago, RWBadley said: In my area I have not seen Stagg Jr for quite awhile now. I have some on hand so its no biggie, but how's your local area supply? Gone for the last 1.5 to 2 years. Shows up on secondary now around the $300 range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishnbowljoe Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 It’s pretty much the same here as what @Clueby posted above. Not sure about secondary site pricing though. Boba! Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWBadley Posted February 17, 2022 Author Share Posted February 17, 2022 I think that's about the same timeframe here as well. It used to be fairly common, then starting about 1.5 - 2 years ago nada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flahute Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 As others have said, the day when a store could get enough quantity to stock a shelf and keep it stocked went away a few years ago. Now they get small amounts a few times a year only. If they don't go full allocation tactics with them (such as lotteries, etc.) the little bit they put out goes in a matter of minutes. There is another reason that you haven't seen them - supply chain issues. Sazerac hasn't been able to get the glass for a while now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FasterHorses Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 Whats the story with this one? I heard its gone for good after batch 17? Also heard theyll just call it Stagg. Will there be any effect on GTS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Hugo Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 New guys here. Stagg jr is my hands down personal favorite but the hype and flippers killed the market Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fosmith Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 Same here in SF Bay Area. It's been a ghost for the past two years at least and it was never plentiful for at least two or three years before that. It's a lottery item here or if it's on the shelf it's priced at $300. Fortunately, I was able to stock up on a few bottles before the hoarders got them all... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flahute Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 11 hours ago, FasterHorses said: Whats the story with this one? I heard its gone for good after batch 17? Also heard theyll just call it Stagg. Will there be any effect on GTS? Haven't heard about Jr. (formerly) going away but what is happening with GTS is a mystery. If you read my State of the State post the conspiracy theorists are out in force on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berto Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 The most recent release just started showing up in my area. I'm unwilling and unable to devote the time and effort necessary to chase it down. No loss. There's plenty of good stuff on shelves and plenty more good stuff in my house. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clueby Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 Just saw this today on the book of face: Stagg Jr Batch 11, 127.9 proof ISO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottledInBond Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 The hysteria on Stagg Jr is 100% BT created. First, they slapped an iconic name on a brand new product out of thin air. Then they make it super allocated. There’s almost no reason for their limited supply besides their desire to keep it hyped up. The juice is barrel proof mashbill #1, which they make a lot of. If anyone doesn’t think they could put out more Stagg Jr if they wanted to, did you notice that they put a bunch of effort and barrels into the Benchmark product line expansion? Plenty of mashbill #1 into all those new labels. BT clearly could’ve chosen to keep more barrels to go towards Stagg Jr instead of doing all that. Now are there variations in the mashbill #1 barrels? Of course, and I’m sure they taste some barrels and just say it isn’t the right profile for Stagg Jr. I’m just saying they have lots of choices on what brands they want to increase or decreasE supply on. Whether it’s regular BT, ER, EHT, the benchmark products, etc. They want Stagg Jr to be a highly allocated product, like their other highly allocated products, so they can use small allocations of it to push stores to sell a bunch of other crap to get it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishnbowljoe Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 6 hours ago, BottledInBond said: They want Stagg Jr to be a highly allocated product, like their other highly allocated products, so they can use small allocations of it to push stores to sell a bunch of other crap to get it. What you describe above is a distributor issue, not something created by distilleries. It’s a result of our wonderful three tiered system. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottledInBond Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 16 hours ago, fishnbowljoe said: What you describe above is a distributor issue, not something created by distilleries. It’s a result of our wonderful three tiered system. Joe Absolutely correct that the distributors are the ones actually using the availability of limited amounts of a certain product to directly extort retailers with the “if you take 10 cases of Fireball I’ll get you some BTAC” shit. But, the producers sure do seem to be at least somewhat complicit since they let it happen this way don’t they? The producers benefit from the whole game the way it works currently. Yes I have plenty of issues with distribution systems, but the producers like BT still play a big role in keeping the hype/scarcity going. BT can’t get glass for bottling Stagg Jr so now it’s even more rare? Funny they have plenty of glass for all their other mainstream brands on all the shelves. Don’t have enough barrels? Oh but they expand other brands. Just saying’ they choose to give the distributors a tiny amount of something like Stagg Jr and a huge amount of other crap, and are happy with the results however they come 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulO Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 23 hours ago, BottledInBond said: The hysteria on Stagg Jr is 100% BT created. First, they slapped an iconic name on a brand new product out of thin air. Then they make it super allocated. There’s almost no reason for their limited supply besides their desire to keep it hyped up. The juice is barrel proof mashbill #1, which they make a lot of. If anyone doesn’t think they could put out more Stagg Jr if they wanted to, did you notice that they put a bunch of effort and barrels into the Benchmark product line expansion? Plenty of mashbill #1 into all those new labels. BT clearly could’ve chosen to keep more barrels to go towards Stagg Jr instead of doing all that. Now are there variations in the mashbill #1 barrels? Of course, and I’m sure they taste some barrels and just say it isn’t the right profile for Stagg Jr. I’m just saying they have lots of choices on what brands they want to increase or decreasE supply on. Whether it’s regular BT, ER, EHT, the benchmark products, etc. They want Stagg Jr to be a highly allocated product, like their other highly allocated products, so they can use small allocations of it to push stores to sell a bunch of other crap to get it. Agree 100% here. I'll also add Stagg Jr. has no age statement. It's not like they have to age the barrels some extra long length of time. My impression is it's basically just a barrel proof version of the regular BT Bourbon. In an odd way I was lucky (told this story before). I got a bottle from an infamous early batch of SJR. It was a hot mess, just tasted like cheap well liquor at high proof, big blast of ethanol, not much more. I was like - WTF? for $50? I don't need to buy this again. No need to play any of the games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottledInBond Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 33 minutes ago, PaulO said: Agree 100% here. I'll also add Stagg Jr. has no age statement. It's not like they have to age the barrels some extra long length of time. My impression is it's basically just a barrel proof version of the regular BT Bourbon. In an odd way I was lucky (told this story before). I got a bottle from an infamous early batch of SJR. It was a hot mess, just tasted like cheap well liquor at high proof, big blast of ethanol, not much more. I was like - WTF? for $50? I don't need to buy this again. No need to play any of the games. After I got a bottle of batch 1 I was so turned off that I passed on the next several batches before even trying a sample again. To be fair, it did get better after that terrible first batch, but has never been something I chased in any way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flahute Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 1 hour ago, BottledInBond said: BT can’t get glass for bottling Stagg Jr so now it’s even more rare? Funny they have plenty of glass for all their other mainstream brands on all the shelves. If you are implying that they are lying about glass to increase scarcity you are forgetting about supply chain issues and the other brands that had issues. A friend of mine who works in that exact industry has been scrambling the last two years to keep customers in their preferred bottle style while sometimes have to temporarily switch. About Jr. in particular I picked a private barrel with my local last summer that was supposed to be bottled and delivered in time for the store's very popular charity raffle. BT knew about this raffle and moved this barrel up the list to ensure it would show up on time. We are still waiting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottledInBond Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 2 hours ago, flahute said: If you are implying that they are lying about glass to increase scarcity you are forgetting about supply chain issues and the other brands that had issues. A friend of mine who works in that exact industry has been scrambling the last two years to keep customers in their preferred bottle style while sometimes have to temporarily switch. About Jr. in particular I picked a private barrel with my local last summer that was supposed to be bottled and delivered in time for the store's very popular charity raffle. BT knew about this raffle and moved this barrel up the list to ensure it would show up on time. We are still waiting. They may have real glass issues. But the problem is for BT, and other producers when it comes to their highly allocated products, there just always seems to be something going on that makes many people skeptical. Is that fair? I don’t know but it seems to be a common reaction and to at least some degree many producers have earned some skepticism in recent years. Stagg Jr bottles don’t strike me as a particularly unique item. It just seems odd that they have a problem getting that glass while not having problems with other glass they keep cranking out plenty of product with. Maybe that’s 100% the current issue with that particular product. But then they also decided to remove the Jr from the product name which hasn’t really been part of this thread. Did they have a supply of the old bottles that said Jr on them that they decided they can’t use now causing some of the glass issue? Will they up the pricing again when the newly updated name Stagg product comes out next? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clueby Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Pretty sure they use the same glass for the Handy & Schiller old fashioned and Manhattan. They sell hundreds of those in the gift shop and I see them pretty regularly in retail stores. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishnbowljoe Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Could it be a possibility that we might have our esteemed member Fred Minnick to partially blame/thank for the most recent shortage of Stagg(JR) ? Remember when Henry McKenna 10 BIB won best whiskey at the San Francisco Wine And Spirits Competition back in 2019? Fred was on the tasting panel and sang its praises. We all know what happened with Henry McKenna after that. Looks like it might be “here we go again” with Stagg JR, or Stagg if you prefer. https://ascotawards.com/best-in-class/ BIba! Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guss West Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 I fancy having a dram of Jr. every now and then; when I feel like drinking way above my pay-grade. I paid $60/bottle back in the day, but now I tell myself every pour of Jr. is worth $30. Last bottle of Jr. I saw on the shelf was pre-pandemic; wandered up close and laughed at the $200 price tag. Apparently, it's only gone up from there. Meh. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flahute Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 9 hours ago, BottledInBond said: Stagg Jr bottles don’t strike me as a particularly unique item. It just seems odd that they have a problem getting that glass while not having problems with other glass they keep cranking out plenty of product with. Maybe that’s 100% the current issue with that particular product. Without being on the inside it's impossible to know but there are many possible reasons. Maybe it's custom glass. Those are lower priority than standard. Maybe it comes from a different supplier who is struggling. Maybe Sazerac can't get everything they want so they have to pick winners and losers so they prioritize the regularly available products over an allocated three times a year product that generates a smaller fraction of their sales. I do agree that they do questionable things that make people skeptical. See my most recent State of the State. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishnbowljoe Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 FWIW, and partially regarding the glass shortage. Below is part of an email I received from BT at the beginning of the month. Biba! Joe Hi Joe, We hope 2022 is treating you well so far! We want to update you on the status of the 2021 FOTT Barrel Select Eagle Rare bottles. Due to supply chain issues we are managing through; we are still waiting for glass bottles for this whiskey. We will keep you updated as the situation is resolved, at this time it will likely be early spring before the Eagle Rare bottles are ready for pick up. As a reminder, the top three choices from the fall barrel selection (Barrel B received the most votes, Barrel D came in second, and Barrel E was third) are being married together to create an exclusive FOTT small batch selection. Once these barrels have been bottled, we will be in touch again with details about how to reserve a bottle. Sorry to not have better news at this time but wanted to keep you in the loop regarding the delay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0895 Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 What is FOTT Eagle Rare? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishnbowljoe Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 1 hour ago, 0895 said: What is FOTT Eagle Rare? FOTT stands for the group Friends Of The Trace. Since 2017 the group has done a barrel pick. Last years pick was (again) Eagle Rare. Bottles from the pick are only available to members. Members of the group get a certificate, membership card, discounts at the BT gift shop, and a brick with their name on it at the distillery. (FWIW, they spelled my last name wrong on my brick.) Harlan Wheatly picked the barrel for the first year, (pic below) and maybe the second. After that, BT invited FOTT members to the distillery to help with the picks. In 2019 @Vosgar, @Galvin0791 and I went down to BT to participate in the FOTT pick. After the tasting, we were treated to a special behind the scenes distillery tour. Fun times. Sadly, because of shoulder surgery and Covid, I haven’t been able to make it down to the distillery the last couple of years to get my bottle(s). Membership in FOTT is limited. I’ve heard the waiting list to become a member is a very long one, and that it takes quite a while to “get the call”. Biba! Joe 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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