BA Muy Bonita Issues?

It isnt gaming the system or taking advantage of anyone. The brewery put out an infected beer. They are to blame for all of this. They did the right thing and are taking the beer back if it is unopened. They should be lauded for doing the right thing. Exchanging those possibly infected unopened bottles is the right thing and FB should expect that most of the remaining bottles in circulation are going to come back through their door.

If I didnt know better I would think that all of this is about the trade value of BA Snowed In.

 

It is exactly about the trade value of BA Snowed In. There is no issue with returning YOUR own bottles of infected beer for a refund or a replacement bottle, but it should be limited to YOUR bottles. Trading for or actively seeking out a beer that is known to be infected only to try and turn it around for personal gain (trade market, auction websites, ect.) is gaming the system and taking advantage of a brewers good faith policy.

 

It's one thing to reimburse you for bad/misrepresented product with your money back. Yes, that much is expected in any marketplace and it seems everyone here is in agreement on that.

But Funky Buddha is going above and beyond to replace that bottle with another BETTER barrel-aged limited offering. That's being generous on their behalf. Whether or not trying to return bottles that you personally didn't purchase is considered 'gaming the system' or not, it's poor form.

Sometimes, just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should.

 

Chances are it is cheaper for them to provide a different beer than it would be to refund the retail price of the bottles. Regardless of how someone acquires the infected bottles they got them and FB needs to do something about it to make it right. The brewery created this entire situation by selling people an infected beer. They are cleaning it up. FB expectation should be that every remaining bottle of BAMB is going to come back for a replacement or refund.

If people were trading for empties of BAMB, refilling them and capping them, THAT would be gaming the system. Collecting unopened bottles for exchange IS the system. It is exactly the system that was setup by FB to deal with their mistake.

It is better for FB to not have infected bottles of their beer in circulation. It is better for them to get all of the exchanges done as quickly as possible.

 

why don't we just ask @funkybuddha? seems like an obvious solution to this debate...

 

This is the crux of the disagreement and ultimately, the point of contention. It's not in the true spirit of being a BA.

Sadly, this sort of behavior will discourage this type of generosity in the future. No good deed goes unpunished, as they say.

 

well and that you think that making up for your mistakes is "doing a good deed".

 

Thank you for providing the best solution to this endless back and forth.

 

Instead of just offerring a refund, they gave people a choice which included what many of us would consider a known superior beer. Yes that's a good deed to me which aligns with good business.

 

What the hell did I just walk into?!

First off, thanks to everyone that is supporting us through here and other social media sites. There comes a lot of controversy with this type of stuff and we aren't going to make everyone happy. Ultimately, we brought this on ourselves by selling a product that in some cases was not up to our standards. I myself, when putting a bottle in our boiler room for a week saw and unfortunately smelled what all the fuss was about. We definitely try to come up with creative new recipes, but a double fart brown wasn't on our drawing board.

Since this happened and other bottles showed issues, everyone in the brewery started freaking out. Every procedure was scrutinized and gone through with fine tooth comb. As a young brewery we don't have a very robust lab that could have helped with some of these issues. We've since hired an extremely high level QA/QC consultants with 30+ years of experience to come in and help us build and create a dynamic lab program. We are crossing our collective fingers and hoping we can resolve any issues we might have had and cut off and potential future ones. We've cancelled more than 1 bottle release since the incidents just out of fear of sending out problem bottles.

So fast forward to now and the dilemma we have helped to create. Our quick reaction was just to make things better. Put faith in people that they wouldn't abuse our trust, and let them trade in open bottles as well as sealed bottles. We thought putting a date on it was necessary and would at least slow down the amount of people looking to take advantage. Whether we want to believe or not, some people are going to take advantage. Then what happened was people saying they didn't see the post and wanted an extension. 95% of the people were probably telling the truth, and even if it was only 10% we felt like the best thing to do was to extend the date. We've since moved the date several times, and truly just want to do right by our friends, customers and supporters.

Ultimately, if you are asking to me to comment on people trading for potentially infected beers only to get what they see as a better beer, I will. I don't agree with it. Can I stop it, not really. I don't want to shut out people that aren't doing this, just to not allow people that are. That being said, if people are willing to do this just to help out of towners that don't have the ability to come in, I am all for it. That is being a good person, good trader and a general advocate of what we all love.

Hope to see you all at future events....ours or otherwise!

Cheers,

Ryan

p.s.
FT: Fart Bonita ISO: Pappy 23

 

Just so you know you can't trade beer for bourbon here.

 

Ryan,

Thanks for clarifying. I'm glad to see you guys are putting the customer first on this one.

Cheers!

 

Underrated comment, here.

 

Gotta love that Ryan responded and quickly. Very nice that you took time out of your VERY busy day to respond.
Someone get Ryan some Pappy 23!

 

Another reason to support such a great brewery folks...

 

I am glad to read the response from Ryan and feel much better about my post asking if folks were taking advantage of what funky Buddha offered. I got a bunch of shit from folks named and even threatened via other social media!!! Although I found the threat slightly amusing since who it was coming from and since I am and will always be entitled to my opinion and repeated that it was my opinion numerous times. The overwhelming number of folks from here that voted in my pole that the above mentioned practice was "I don't see a problem with what these guys are doing" painted a picture as to how the majority of BAers feel about the "honor" system

 

Any word on the replacement bottles?