Barrel Aged Week 2014

Discussion in 'Great Lakes' started by McRyan, Mar 28, 2014.

Tags:
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. McRyan

    McRyan Initiate (0) Jul 25, 2012 Minnesota

    It's finally here!

    List any important information about the event. Some pro tips would he helpful for people that have never been to the event!

    From the Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery Facebook invite
    https://www.facebook.com/events/644354005613142/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

    ****

    It's time for our annual celebration of big, beautiful, barrel aged beer! Tickets for growlers will be pre-sold Sunday, April 13th at 9:30am, and Monday, April 14th will kick off a week full of Town Hall Brewery barrel aged releases, including Twisted Trace and Czar Jack! Releases will be at 5pm every day from Monday, April 14th through Saturday, April 19th.

    Pre-sale for growler tickets will work like this: On Sunday morning, April 13th, we will open our doors at 9:30am to the first 100 people in line. These 100 people will have an opportunity to purchase growler tickets in the order in which they entered. Then, at 11am, we will open the doors again and sell any remaining tickets, once again respecting the order in which customers arrived. We have an especially limited number of some of these releases this year, so each individual will be limited to a total of three growler tickets, with a limit of one ticket per release. We will do everything in our power to make everyone's experience fun and fair.

    This is always one of our most exciting weeks of the year, and we can't wait to share all the cool brews that have been hibernating in the cellar for more than a year now!
     
  2. SipIt

    SipIt Zealot (735) Jul 18, 2013 Minnesota

    Awesome, I've never made it to this before. Any clue what the growlers of the BA goodness go for?
     
    McRyan likes this.
  3. maximum12

    maximum12 Grand Pooh-Bah (4,662) Jan 21, 2008 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    From last year:

    These beers will be sold in growlers this year. They will all be available but only by tickets. Tickets go on sale this sunday when we open (11am) prices will be $45 for Double Barrel, $40 for Manhattan Barrel, and $30 for the rest. You will be permitted to by up to one growler of each style while they last. Due to supply, we will sell only 30 Tumaluous Rare, Manhatten Barrel, and Double Barrel jack Frost, 60 Buffalo Bock, and 100 each of Twisted Trace and Czar Jack.

    tl;dr: pricey.
     
    McRyan and SipIt like this.
  4. SipIt

    SipIt Zealot (735) Jul 18, 2013 Minnesota

    Cool, thanks. Definitely pricey, but in this day and age of beer it doesn't surprise me.
     
  5. Cyclone8

    Cyclone8 Initiate (0) Oct 19, 2011 Minnesota
    Trader

    I don't think I agree with the "pricey" assessment. For the amount of time/effort/quantity of beer you get, it seems very reasonable to me. Especially if you compare with, say, Barley John's.
     
    elliott1184 likes this.
  6. McRyan

    McRyan Initiate (0) Jul 25, 2012 Minnesota

    I have never been either. Will most of these beers be on tap as well? Anyone know the breakdown of GABF winners out of these beers.
     
    SipIt likes this.
  7. Bunuelian

    Bunuelian Pooh-Bah (1,700) Mar 22, 2013 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    In the past, all the beers have been on tap and they've released them one new beer on each day throughout the week. They stayed on until they were blown but most lasted a while and I think I was able to try almost all of them (Twisted Trace seems to go the fastest) on Saturday.

    Regarding pricing - they are a bit spendy but still pretty much in line with the going rate of craft beer these days. Double Barrel Jack Frost is worth every penny, in my opinion.
     
    SipIt and McRyan like this.
  8. SipIt

    SipIt Zealot (735) Jul 18, 2013 Minnesota

    I plan on getting my fill of this at the Northern Lights event this weekend. That should let me know how crazy early I need to wait in line on Sun morning for growler tix. I imagine one can't expect to get there at 9am and still be one of the first 100.
     
    BeerGoogler likes this.
  9. maximum12

    maximum12 Grand Pooh-Bah (4,662) Jan 21, 2008 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    You disagree with my opinion? Well, I never! I hope the sun murders your snowman... :stuck_out_tongue:

    Three growlers you're probably looking at $100 or close to it. That's pricey in my checkbook. Barley John's Rosie is pricey too, but totally worth it.
     
    Pug, XmnwildX12, McRyan and 2 others like this.
  10. BeerGoogler

    BeerGoogler Initiate (0) Jan 23, 2014 Minnesota

    True story. It took me exactly one glass to get over the growler price sticker shock before I had them fill it with Rosie. Hat damn that beer is good.

    I recommend it, if you like things that taste good.
     
  11. McRyan

    McRyan Initiate (0) Jul 25, 2012 Minnesota

    It's not on anymore is it?
     
  12. BeerGoogler

    BeerGoogler Initiate (0) Jan 23, 2014 Minnesota

    I don't think so. I had it a couple weeks back. I was kind of surprised they even filled growlers of it since it is (a) so expensive, and (b) somewhat limited.
     
  13. Bunuelian

    Bunuelian Pooh-Bah (1,700) Mar 22, 2013 Minnesota
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Agreed. That stuff was amazing and if I could have found two or three other people, I would have gone in on a growler myself.

    The way I look at it, a growler of DB Jack Frost will be around $45. That's about the same price and quantity as three bombers of Central Waters 16, which I think is a fair comparison. I only wish Town Hall would put these in smaller format bottles so I could savor them one at a time over a year as opposed to having to find several buddies to share or to setting aside two or three days in a row to designate to polishing off a whole growler but it's a minor quibble and I'm sure TH doesn't want to revisit the bottling infection issue again.
     
    josephwa and McRyan like this.
  14. McRyan

    McRyan Initiate (0) Jul 25, 2012 Minnesota

    They had infection issues before?
     
  15. BeerGoogler

    BeerGoogler Initiate (0) Jan 23, 2014 Minnesota

    It was, and the $100 growler price in that case was somewhat easy to part with. I've not had most of TH's BA beers--Mr. Frost being the exception--and would (read: will) happily spend $45 on a growler.

    I'd easily find a couple friends to share with, but they'll be in line with me and have their own, which means some serious first-world problems. So, I'd also appreciate bomber releases of these, or even 32oz growlers, such as the ones Pizza Boy uses out East.
     
  16. DaftPatrick

    DaftPatrick Initiate (0) Nov 29, 2011 Minnesota
    Trader

    How early are people thinking about getting in line/how early is too early?
     
  17. theCoder

    theCoder Initiate (0) Oct 24, 2011 Minnesota

    Yup it's still on, they are pretty good at keeping their tap list updated on their website: http://www.barleyjohns.com/

    At 5 Oz pours it takes awhile to go. I think I heard they were about halfway through their supply about a month ago which I'm sure most of it went in the initial buzz phase of it.

    I know my buddy and I went there one night and had 3 each...should have almost just got a damn growler at that point as we would have had some left over then.
     
    BeerGoogler and McRyan like this.
  18. bigdaddypolite

    bigdaddypolite Maven (1,279) Mar 2, 2007 Minnesota
    Trader

    They had significant infections a couple years ago when they bottled in 750s, rather than doing growler fills. A few different beers turned into drainpours, including many of the Czar Jack bottles. Very disappointing.

    That was the only year they did bottles instead of growlers, and I have NOT heard of any infection or QC issues in any of the years related to the growlers. To the contrary, most of us have found that the growlers actually hold up pretty well for several months.

    Bottom line: I would not hesitate to buy the growlers.
     
    BeerGoogler and McRyan like this.
  19. shadetree67

    shadetree67 Savant (1,060) Sep 11, 2013 Minnesota
    Trader

    So why don't they try bottles again? I'd be all over those because a growler is too much for me
     
    McRyan likes this.
  20. MNBeerGeek

    MNBeerGeek Initiate (0) Jun 25, 2013 Minnesota

    @shadetree67, I have a half growler. If you or anyone would be interested in splitting a growler, I'd be down. Could just transfer half into my small growler after purchase.

    Just a thought as it's a little rich for my blood as well and won't want to sit down and drink the whole thing. Well, that's not entirely true, I would want to, but that's an awful lot of heavy beer for one guy.
     
    BeerGoogler and McRyan like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.