Who is going to crooked stave tomorrow?

I would love to know the logic behind keeping the bottle limit at 6 when clearly there were more than 250 people in line. Shouldnt have the employees realized that the demand for the release was more than expected and adjusted the bottle limit accordingly - maybe down to 4 pp?

This is horrible marketing on two fronts:
1) It limits CS's exposure. Instead of spreading out the release to more people - who end up hosting parties with it, telling their friends, etc - the high bottle limit ensured that less people ended up with the release. And do people really need 6 bottle pp? 4 is more than enough to experience some now and cellar some later.

2) It leaves a bad taste in the mouth of CS's core market. Waiting in line for THREE hours (seriously, three?) and leaving empty-handed while others left with literally gallons of the stuff really isnt the way to conduct these bottle releases. It's just mind-blowing.

 

I was pleased that no one seemed to be cutting in line in the clusterfudge inside the taproom. One of those line dividers would have been nice to separate the bottle line from the crowd waiting at the bar. Or people could have just stopped piling into the room

No one really knew what the turnout was going to be like, I got there at 11:30 or so and was probably 15-20 people ahead of where bottles ran out. Lots of people were going to get shut out. I suppose tickets would have been nice so those people didn't wait so long, but no matter what some people were going to be mad.

 

I think you'd have an equal number of people mad if they changed it at the last minute. When demand is greater than supply, no matter what you do not everyone is going to be happy. No win situation for the brewery

 

Totally agree. When I read the email, I was thinking why 6 bottles? 4 would have been plenty and if there were some left they could have gone to the bottle stores like the other releases did. As soon as I saw the comparisons To Persica and me not being able to get there until twelve, I was concerned about my chances. As a Cellar Reserve member, it sucks they couldn't guarantee a single bottle.

 

I was surprised that the line got as long as it did, simply because there was way way more than 250 people in that line when more and more people kept showing up. If I'd gotten there and the line was already around both corners of the building I wouldn't have bothered waiting. Reminds of when you go to a restaurant and they say 2 hour wait. Who did you tell 90 minute wait and they said OK?

 

Because it was advertised as 6.

With that logic why set the limit at 4, why not 1. I doubt the way today's events played out will hurt CS's exposure.

Like others have said, either in this thread or the other, maybe they'll learn from the way Avery handles bottle releases.

 

This is one thing that I really don't get. I've seen multiple entitled posts like this one. The cellar reserve is a great program. You get beers that no one else gets. You get enough beers included that more than make up for the membership. And you get discounts all year long. It's a great program. Your loyalty is rewarded. But Cellar Reserve members are not their only supporters, and their fan base is growing (as was quite apparent today). I appreciate the C.R. program and the fact that Crooked Stave has this program to reward people who have helped support it since the beginning. The special releases and the discounts are, well...special. But the brewery has also grown up a lot since then. There are way more than 400 people who are loyal supporters. If they continue to let their limited 400 C.R. members buy every beer and not release anything to the community at large, there will never be a growing community at large. It will just be 400 people redistributing their beers. I hope they do continue to keep the cellar reserve program around and let people like us continue to renew and be a part of their small batch barrel program. But I also hope that they release more special beers beyond just the C.R program and support their ever growing fan base.

Speaking of an ever growing fan base. This and the other thread could really use a couple of reminders. First, WWBV was about the same batch size as EACH of the previous WWB beers. Yet all of those made it to distribution and sat around on shelves. The fact that it sold out today is amazing. The support for the brewery is growing every week. But that comes with growing pains. I can't blame them for being surprised today. None of the other WWB releases, including Indigo, were anything close to this insane...and to say it again...the batch sizes were about the same! WWBB and WWBI were on shelves for month(s).

Also...WWBV was a 1200 bottle release with a 6 bottle limit. The Origins release, which was just 2 months ago, was a smaller bottle count. And yet, they didn't have anything near the lines that they saw today. And again, that was only 2 months ago.

Some of you are surprised that they weren't more prepared today. But the fact is, you should be surprised that it sold out at all! The brewery should be surprised at the exponential growth that they saw in their fan base yet again today. This couldn't be predicted. Prior releases and sales of similar size did not predict this. Heck, as I asked near the start of this thread, there wasn't even a lot of talk about it in the forums. They did not limit their exposure today or offend their core market. Instead, they saw their exposure and core market grow yet again. Be happy for the success, plan accordingly for future releases, and support them until they can get into a larger facility that can hopefully handle the mob for a while before we outgrow their next location.

 

Oh, and thanks to everyone for another fun bottle share and party! Let's keep it up (but someone remind me to put on sunblock next time, please).

 

I'm a trustee for several reserve members and they all understood that they weren't able to buy any in advance. This beer wasn't part of the reserve beers and they don't live here. I bought my limit and will be able to help a couple out but not one is or was expecting it.

Everyone keeps saying 1200 bottles. What happened to the other 300 bottles that they advertised bottling?

 

I don't know how you carried that 3L Supplication around as long as you did. Thanks for the beer.

 

I agree. The one thing I will interject, and mentioned earlier, is that the release was the same day as all the colors tapping. Honestly, I would not have gone if those weren't tapped. I don't trade and need to slow down my cellaring binge So a new bottle wasn't the draw for me, although I did get 2.

--was glad to grab the Yellow, Indigo, Violet, but missed the Red, Orange, Green and Blue (also had the hopsavant 462)

 

I guess we feel entitled because 300 bucks isn't that cheap. Was one bottle really asking that much when they were willing to do six bottle limits? And we get beers no one gets? We get the early sales, but everything I've seen so far has or will be released to the general public after we get ours.

 

As a cellar reserve member on the other side of the country, I didn't feel entitled to WWBV. It was stated early on that we would not be getting it as part of the CR.

The beers in the cellar reserve were expressly stated. For $300 you get 20 sours, swag, ability to purchase additional allocations of those 10 beers..and a discount. Well worth it IMHO.

It sucks, but it's just beer.

 

I'm fairly sure none of the first 4 Cellar Reserve series beers this year are hitting distro, members bought all of them up (except Nightmare) already.

 

I don't think they hit distro but were available online and at the brewery, weren't they?

 

So what happened to the other 300 bottles?

 

Agreed, that was an excellent bottle share day in my book. And it was great to put names & faces to some more BAs. Till next time...

 

Yes, one bottle was asking too much because you were not led to believe you would get it. The WWB series began long before the Cellar Reserve and hasn't been released to the Cellar Reserve. If you wanted the beer, you should have gotten in line in time just like everyone else who got the beer.

If you wanted more for your $300 than was advertised, well, I guess I can't help you there...

This is a perfectly reasonable outlook. Please let me know when you're coming to Denver. I'd love to buy you a beer.

 

Online sales are for cellar reserve members only. None of the cellar reserve exclusive beers have been sold out of the brewery this year, either.

The only beers that have been sold out of the brewery and online were the ones that were offered online to members as a convenience but weren't part of the membership. For example, Vieille is available on store.crookedstave.com right now for members to buy, but includes this note:
*This beer is not part of the Cellar Reserve Membership beers but is being offered to all the members for purchase.

 

Lol, as it's the end of May and haven't received any of my stuff, consider me terribly confused on the matter. I feel better knowing that I didn't spend all that on what I thought had just gone out to the public at a later date.