Hair of the Dog releases this weekend...

Bottle-conditioning of 12+% beers is hard, particularly when you don't use a super-aggressive yeast strain?

 

Here are my thoughts on HotD mind you I'm a total homer as they are my absolute favorite brewery and Alan and Wendy are awesome.

(1) Alan's beers, even when flat taste phenomenal. Stop bitching about low carbonation. He specifically tells you that they didn't come out perfect and reduces the price roughly in half (which is awesome).
(2) They get absolutely slammed on release days so give them a break. It is hard enough dealing with all of us craft beer morons and our ridiculous expectations.
(3) I've NEVER seen Wendy in a bad mood and have always received great service.
(4) HotD rules. Alan is a class act and super fun to hang out and have a beer with.
(5) HotD rules. Did I say that already?

See you all in November.

 

A million time this.

 

I agree with most of these:

1) I haven't had the flat BFftWs, but love flat CAftW. I think as long as Alan is upfront about it (I don't think this was always the case, but has been for at least the past couple of years), I'm okay with it. You know the price, you know what's in the bottle, you can decide whether it's worth it to you or not. I respect the fact that he bottle conditions the beers and understand that carbonation is tricky with them.

2) If they get slammed at every release, they need to account for that. Having said that, these stealth releases have all been pretty chill. I've been to three anniversary releases (Matt, AftW, CAftW). Matt went smooth. AftW was, indeed, a clusterfuck. This one was a big step up from previous releases and I think they were genuinely surprised by the size of it. They made some decisions on the fly that were pretty bad, but everybody can make mistakes-I'll judge them by their ability to admit their mistakes and correct them in the future. Granted, the CAftW release was much smaller, but given the ticketing system and handling of cash vs card, etc, they demonstrated that they had put in the planning to handle things if the crowds exceeded their expectations. I'm confident they'll be able to handle future releases well.

3-5) Agree! I haven't met Alan personally, but Wendy is always super nice and HotD does, indeed, rule. We're seriously spoiled around here if we're bitching about having such great beer available to us.

 

Any idea if these are still available to go? I meant to go last weekend but life caught up with me...

 

Some bottle shops in the Los Angeles area that are not known for muling bottles had 2012 Cherry Adam and Michael last month.

 

Didn't 16 Tons just host a HotD event a couple weeks ago? I'm guessing something to do with that.

 

For anyone still looking I was at the brewery today and they still have both bourbon Fred and Fred from the wood for sale to go. Kinda surprised.

 

Indeed, but you would think a brewery of HotDs caliber would eventually get it right.

Lol I'll stop bitching about it when they fix it. If any other brewery had this much problems with carbonation they would be completely ate up and spat out on this website. Something about HotD softens the hardest of beer geek hearts. I bitch only because their limited brews are 4.75 flat as hell. Can you imagine how good they would be if they came out of the brewery as intended???

The advanced warning and drop in price only helps the ppl that are in the know, right now. In a couple months or so when this hits the market and bottle shops jack up the price without letting their customers know about the problem. Only a few will know what they are getting themselves into and there will be a lot of ppl getting screwed over, as I have been in the past.

 

It won't hit the market. Not through distribution at least

 

2011 did and i'd bet 2012 did as well. It may not be distributed from HotD, but bottle shops will get it.

 

The only way this happens is if someone from the shop goes to the HotD taproom in person. If this is the case, then they are informed of the carbonation issues and sold the bottles at a price that reflects that. If they fail to relay this information and the discount to their customers, then how exactly is this Alan/HotD's fault? It sounds to me like there is a bottle shop or two you should be boycotting, not HotD.

 

I'm sure Chuck will bring back cases to Seattle and sell them for $15/bottle like usual. He's done this with past HotD limited releases, BCBS, etc. I don't shop at Chucks because that sort of stuff just isn't right IMO. Also, I think it is technically illegal as the beers being sold arent label approved in WA.

 

I thought it's legal as long as the label is Fed approved.

 

What isn't right about it to you, if you don't mind me asking? I'm not trying to defend him, just genuinely curious.

Typically he does the Dock Sale releases.

 

It just seems odd to me. I guess I don't like it because its not really an approved sale by Alan. Seems weird.

 

Also, he sells them at outrageous prices which I don't like. I understand he wants to make profit but he generally has really inflated prices, even on regular bottles.