Maine Brewing Company - Dinner

Ehh, you should have seen the HF Double Barrel Damon/Satsuma Flora release—pretty sure that's what celfan was referencing earlier in this thread.

 

No, it's not. Standing in a line at 4:30 is a fun adventure? Hey, watch out for these guys!

 

It is a fun adventure and it makes sipping on a nice tall glass of Dinner that much better. I agree the tent thing is a little too extreme, but at least they made sure they got it.

 

Still ISO of even one bottle of this. Didn't have the opportunity to drive the 3 and a half hours at 2 in the morning on Saturday to get some of this.

 

"It is a fun adventure"

 

I don't know, if someone wants to go camp out or line up at 4:30am, that is their choice and I don't have a problem with it. Me, I would rather show up an hour and a half or so early and be number 200 in line. You get the same thing. If people who arrived prior to 7:30 managed to get a case then I would say the limit is just about right. By this point everyone who is gong to an event like this should know that you need to shoot for at least an hour earlier than the sale start time if you want to have a decent chance of getting beer.

Personally, I thank those of you who lined up for Dinner and the Alchemist sale. I hit Hill Farmstead at 4:15 on Saturday and literally walked right up to the counter. I will take my fill of Abner, Double Citra and Nelson and settle for the one bottle of Dinner that a friend got me.

 

This is EXACTLY what I did and I was #206, haha. Beerstrodamus. I definitely wouldn't do it again. It was too much crazy for only being 30 minutes away and for a beer that doesn't stack up to Heady or Abner.

 

We stayed at the motel next door and got up and drove over there at 5 AM (people starting cars at 4 AM woke us up). There were about 30-40 people in line at that point and it was sleeting hard and cold. We sat in the car until 5:45 AM and stayed warm until there were about 100 people in line. Within about 30 min of us lining up I would say there were another 75 or so. At around 6:45 they let us (well, about the first 150-175 or so) in to the brewery to stay warm. They actually started selling the beer around 7:30 and we were out the door by 8 AM.

Am I crazy, certainly. The brewery is just over 650 miles from my home in Baltimore. But, I had business in Boston Thursday anyway. Was able to score a mixed case of Trillium (someone had bought for me from there last delivery) + additional bottles at a bottle shop Thursday night. We were also able to try Be-Hoppy and Green Head on draft.

On Friday on the way up we stopped in Portsmouth at the Pub & Brewery, then went on to Earth & Eagle and Stoneface after a recommendation from another patron (we skipped Tributary to save time). We then hit the small breweries in Portland (Bissel, Austin, Foundation) and went on to have dinner and some additional wonderful beers at The Great Lost Bear.

Since the event was so well organized we had time to go back to the motel to change and were on the road by 9 AM. After a brief stop for live lobsters to bring home and lunch, at 1:30 PM Saturday we were at Treehouse picking up growlers of Green, Haze & Double Shot. At 4:30 PM we stopped in Waterbury CT for a prearranged trade and were able to score a surprise Growler of Fuzzy Baby Ducks (cost us 2 bottles of Dinner + a few other cans). We were home at 10:15 PM.

Was it worth it, absolutely. Dinner is AMAZING and so is the HAZE. I now have a 3 way tie with Lawsons Double Sunshine for my favorite beers ever. Can't wait to try the Fuzzy Baby Ducks tomorrow.

I would say this trip was easily equal to beer pilgrimage to Vermont.

I am not hoarding this beer, nor am I reselling it. I will enjoy it and share it with friends.

PS - The guy in the shorts works at Logan. He got out of work late, drove straight there, and didn't have time to change. He was just behind us in line.

 

He wears shorts to work at Logan? This makes less sense.

Sounds like an almost ideal Non-Vermont New England beer trip.

 

Is Dinner better the Lunch? I had Lunch a few weeks ago and I was extremely underwhelmed, especially for the price I paid.

 

There is no comparison between Dinner and Lunch. Dinner IMO rates right there with Double Sunshine and Heady. Where Lunch is just a so so IPA.

 

I tried them side by side last night. I actually thought they were fairly similar... more so than I expected.

I gave a very slight edge to Dinner, but not so much better as to make the hassle of getting it worth it. Lunch was 'close enough' in my book and is somewhat more obtainable.

 

Nope, Heady is MUCH better.

 

The ability to pick out differences in flavors escapes a good deal of people apparently.

 

Next time my wife tells me I'm crazy about this beer thing of mine I will direct her to this thread. I'm also never going to risk driving to a release of any kind again. I wonder if people actually arrived at like 11 and thought they were in luck because everyone must have been gone by then.

 

OMG, you guys have it all wrong. Limited beer releases at the breweries are like when people line up for popular movie tickets openings, instead of reserving online, for an extra service charge. If you cannot relate to that, the next iPhone 7 "ultra" release. Expect people to line up way ahead of opening. Yes, some people will camp out. If you wouldn't expect to be assured tickets or iPhones by showing up "late", why not the same for these popular and limited brewery releases? This is our new, beer reality. You can bitch all you want but secretly wish you got there earlier (if you got closed out). To the others who wait to see the movie online (or later in the week) and/or keep your old iPhone longer, ........ you weren't going anyway. Congrats to the ones who put in the extra effort and got their beer. End /rant.

 

Aka congratulations 15 hours of your time is worth 12 pints of beer.

 

Come on......what do you care how they spent their time. It was their choice. I chose to sleep, save gas, stay warm and dry.

 

The reason people question this is because it's beer, it's alcohol, it's addictive. To many, especially who don't like beer and don't drink much in general you look like a fiend. When I was younger I remember my friend who owned a liquor store telling me that he'd have people waiting outside before opening just to get a bottle or fix. I always found that be kinda bad and sad. But I recenltly drove up 3 hours to VT to be in line at 9AM to get my some Silvers. haha In the end it just might freak some folks out. I get a kick out of it all together and agree a little that we are all nuts. But we're all human and everyone is different and get their kicks out of different things.