Alpine Kiwi Herman

Alpine's #1 fanboy visits once a month - he wouldn't even be there for this release if it was done without warning. The entire first paragraph was written to somehow "justify" what follows. Just a whining of entitlement being made by this thread.

Not referring to you.

 

I'm saying Alpine did a good thing here...we saying the same thing? Hopefully?

 

I'm not going call it a debacle because this is better for me personally than what Alpine has done in the past (though if I was local and had success up until this point I'd probably think otherwise). It's just not my preferred type of release. I'd rather have an equal chance and it sell out in 30 seconds than have no chance and it sell out in 8 minutes.

I think you'd be surprised how many friend of a friend of a friend type people would know about this sort of thing. A release like this doesn't prevent mules, it caters to the people with inside knowledge.

 

So much butt hurt in this thread. I actually had 2 bottles in my cart , twice, and ended up not buying both times. I feel bad for **** blocking those that were trying but at the end of it I released the bottles because sours aren't my style and didn't want to take them away from those that would really enjoy them.

 

So a friend who knows a friend who knows a friend... one person can't really corner the supply as they actually have to travel to the brewery in a limited amount of time. Big deal. I didn't know anyone and got two bottles. Randomly lucky. Just the way it was supposed to work. If I had missed out? Wouldn't have cared.

 

I bought mine at 1:30...how did inside knowledge help me? Btw, I had no inside knowledge.

 

Nobody is criticizing you guys for getting bottles. I managed to get lucky and get bottles as things free'd up. I'm just saying that I don't personally like this type of release and I don't believe that it is as fair as people think because there are a significant amount of people (not all people) that are tipped off in advance.

 

I highly doubt that a significant amount of people were tipped off in advance. Many people have Alpine set up on FB to notify them when they post. Those very same people likely have the phone numbers of friends that would be interested and could text them immediately.

Many people were aware that the release was forthcoming, but I haven't ran into anyone (including a friend that works at Alpine) that was aware the sale was going live today. Considering I doubt you know anyone that was tipped off in advance, you're making a pretty poor assumption.

 

I'd really like to see something more than circumstantial evidence that a significant amount of people were tipped off in advance.

 

Alpine beers are a gamble. The HFS IPA which sounded awesome from the newsletter , Fing sucked for an alpine ipa and in one of their biggest fans. Who knows if could be like batch 2 chez monieux and be a dud; or it can be like chez Monus and be a gem! We shall see!

 

How large of a pool of people know about this thing in advance is an assumption on my part. That said, I'm leaving it alone because I have no desire to get into a 'who has better insider knowledge' pissing contest.

 

I get what you are saying, but then again, if someone is foolish enough to give you a top end bottle in trade when no one's even had it, how do you say no? I don't know if any of these KBBS trades have happened, but if someone offered you a KBBS for a Kiwi Herman, how do you say no?

 

Cutting down on mules my ass. I see cases of West Ashley posted by people... CASES!

 

Anthony, you seem like a good dude from your posts, so don't take this the wrong way. You say "fairest" because you got in. How is it "fair" for Alpine to please someone like you, who lives in LA and only makes random trips to Alpine, when someone who lives in San Diego, who makes weekly trips to Alpine and are the reason why Alpine is flourishing, gets shut out? I hate when people throw around the "fair" word, because to me, that's not fair at all.

*notice that I did get in so this isn't a butt hurt post by me*

 

Cases are news to me...I need more friends at a moments notice apparently.

This is an honest question though: Do really you think this doesn't cut down on mules at all? There are honest BA's that live near the brewery that got shut out. I'd have to think many mules never got the phone call, let alone their ring leaders.

We all know there is no way to stop mules. I simply stated this is the best way. Yes? No?

 

It's one of those questions where there's no simple solution or right answer. You have your pluses and minuses both ways. I'm just saying, since you used the SARA example, I saw people with cases of West Ashley.

BPT probably is the best way to cut down mules (it's still going to happen and I know people who got a bunch of Kiwi Herman), but, like my comment to Anthony, now you're turning your back to the locals who make you flourish while giving out of towners who only support you when it's beneficial to them, a definite gain.

There is no simple solution.

 

Actually, your rebuttal brings up a good point. With SARA releasing with small notice and no BPT (or the like), they actually leave themselves open to the "muling attack" cause there's no outside competition. They could sell 2 bottles each to a guy and his two mules today, and then the same 3 people show up the next day cause it didn't sell out in 30 seconds (bottles almost always last at least 2 days at SARA). This would have been no different with Alpine locals. I use the word locals loosely cause I consider myself a local and I'm 1.5 hrs away with an extremely flexible schedule (work, life).

Alpine got it right IMO. Whatcha think?

 

I don't think there is a right or wrong, so I can't say they got it right or they got it wrong. It's a flawed system no matter how you do it. I'd prefer to see a system where locals are rewarded more than someone willing to drive for three hours once this year to Alpine because this might be the next Chez that they can trade or sell on the secondary market. At least if it's locals getting benefit out of it, they've probably more than paid their dues.

 

I do know that the Alpine barbacks hate BPT, but I'm guessing that places that use BPT love it because it's free and takes out most of the leg work for them. All they have to do is print out the winner sheets and have some system to check them in. BPT even provides a barcode on the print out and an app to read the barcodes, even though most of the time, I see people use a paper record. Because of this, you're going to see BPT, and the likes, become much more prevalent over lines.

 

Fair enough. I guess it's the BA in me that would side with spreading it (beer) to the masses. I'd feel the same way if they allowed trustees. Cheers.