Parageusia 3

Any time I walk by the front of the line at those releases, those chairs up against the building are empty until about 11, 11:30. During the Woodlahands release, all of them were empty the entire time I was in line until everyone started scrunching up to the front of the line. Maybe it's just weird timing on my part, but I doubt it.

 

I can't tell you how much those of us at the back of the line who were dodging the cars trying to park on top of us appreciated those chairs...

 

so umm....how's the beer? This thread is making me think everyone got shut out and came here to complain about it.

 

Got in line at 8:40am and I was the last person to get a bottle (only got one) at around 1:30pm... We were counted multiple times between 9-11am as being about 170ish back, which means there were about 50-60 people who cut ahead of us by the time they opened. Not cool. Cheers to everyone who shared tasty beverages with me though... Time actually flew by, but it was still pretty disappointing being partially shut out after waiting for 5 hours.

 

Was nice hanging out with you in the back and diverting water streams, hah.

 

Sounds like the real problem here is pricing.

If people are driving 5+ hours to pay $54 for 3 bottles of beer, why not $75? or $100? What's the right price point to get exactly 226 people in line?

Nevermind, that would be "price gouging."

 

The guys near me put their chairs in line around 8 and I didn't see them again until around 11:30 when the line condensed. That's shitty.

IMO, Lawson's Finest Liquids has the best bottle release model for their farmers markets. Sean says he will be passing out tickets at 7:00am. Get your ticket and show up at the time shown on your ticket. No ticket, no beer. If you get there late you might not get the beer you want. If you get a higher numbered ticket you might not get the beer you want.

 

Haha, no doubt! It was a good time in line... I'm just consistently being disappointed by the way these releases are run at TH and the douchiness of some of the beer geeks who attend them. I know plenty of people who showed up after me and mysteriously ended up ahead of me in line when they opened... You know who you are!!!

 

I think they need to move to a ticketed system or something. However I don't feel bad for the people who get cut in line. If someone cuts you make a scene. Also the people who leave but leave their chairs there and don't come back till11:30? In my neighborhood thats a new chair for me or whoever else wants it. Why do people in line let others get away with that stuff? Ask Larry David, if you leave the line you lose your place in line, that simple. No you cant walk to your car to take a nap, go get breakfast ect. If people in front of me left, their stuff would be moved and I would take their place.

 

You're standing with these people for hours. I don't think anyone wants to pick a fight with anyone else, especially since further up in line, everyone knows they're getting beer regardless. That's what security is supposed to be for.

 

Kate the Great was similar. They handed out pages from one of those daily tear away desk calendars. Then, you would come back later in the day and they would call people in by month of their calendar page. If you missed out on a calendar page, you got in line to get in and have it on tap.

 

KtG also had the debacle with their scratch off tickets. No method is fool proof and issues like these will always come up, they always have.

 

Please don't give them any ideas hah, they've already raised the price $2 per bottle recently

 

I'd imagine nobody drank it as it is more valuable to them to trade then drink.

 

This method was pre-scratch off. Separate incidents.

 

Way too much entitlement here. Too much to write concerning my views, so I will just cut/paste my replies to a fellow BA that griped to me in a private message how Tired Hands is screwing their customers:

I don't think Tired Hands screwed anyone over if 'new money' traders were in line with mules. That is craft beer's problem, and it is happening at an exponential rate. I bought 3 bottles, sold one at cost to a pair of guys from MD sitting next to me at the bar who didn't get a chance to get one. Secondly...someone from VA saw me do this, since the guys were SO happy they couldn't keep quiet(who could blame them?), and quietly offered me $60 for another one of my bottles. As you can see, I feel your pain. I strongly suggested to Jean to lower the limit to 2, and he said it wouldn't be fair to the people in line. The line was SO long yesterday, you could look through the alleyway in between the post office and see people at the other end. In all reality, no one is screwing beer over but the entitled traders that 'needed' their 3 bottles. My friend is in the believer's club and was first in line at 4. He didn't complain once about not being able to pick these up with the believers club membership.

Final reply to said BA:

Gotcha...I'll pass it on. There were 2 security guys(Kerry and Amish Rob), as there always is...but to be able to police almost 300 people is a hard task. First timers were tailgaiting, cracking cans and drinking them right outside the post office, and they had to shovel all the snow off the whole distance of the line. I've suggested tickets, but he still chooses security. Between you and I though, you just described your friend as a reputable beer trader instead of a beer drinker. That is also part of the problem in my opinion. A reputable trader was in line and got shut out, and now Tired Hands is to blame that people snuck in line, when their security was shoveling, and dealing with assholes who decided to pop bottles and party like its 1999. I'm just a good personal friend who has been there since way before day 1 so I don't directly speak for TH, but the mentality of people in line are fucking it up, not Jean. It wasn't Captain Lawrence's fault when they released Castleton 4 years ago via deli ticket system and someone pulled up to the brewery right after it was put outside, taking literally 50+ tickets. That was a craft beer 'enthusiast's' fault. It was 1 in the morning, brewery employees had to sleep. People need to realize that there is beer in this bottle, its not a baseball card. Assistant brewer from Forgotten Boardwalk had people in front of him selling their allotment to the back of the line for crazy prices! WTF is wrong with the beer community? Jean understands if you have a bottle left over you want to trade, but people were actually bitching at him based on rumors alone that the allotment was dropped to 2. They NEEDED 3 because one was going to Cali, or Oregon, or wherever. Its shameful.

You entitled, pre-trading, * account holding, profit making individuals(and you know who you are!), are the problem with craft beer. If you see one of these people and it pisses you off, call them out in real life, not behind a computer screen. If you NEED the beer because you just can't live without 3 500mL of beer, than take the proper precautions and know there still might not be a chance to buy an allotment. Finally, if you see a true craft beer fan get shut out but is still happy as hell to be drinking that fine ass hop liquid TH has on tap, be an advocate and give up a bottle to make someone's day. Beer Karma will come back to you. I must say I'm disgusted on where the scene is going patron-wise. Back when I joined BA in 08/09, this site was a completely different animal. People were civil, beer releases were a chance to see all your beer forum buddies, and there was barely any stink concerning releases or trading. Jean says it best..."it's just beer, man!"

 

This conversation is so tiresome, but I just wanted to comment on a few things.

Silent Releases
Someone commented earlier that people will still be pissed about missing out on bottles if there's silent releases, and I have to disagree. People get upset because of expectations they set. I don't think it's unreasonable for someone to think they could get a bottle or two showing up 3 hours early to a release. This ended up not being the case, and (I think) rightfully so, people are upset (for more reasons than just missing out on bottles). Compare this to silent releases - people don't have expectations of getting bottles if they don't know about releases. This, to me, seems to leave people that are happy they lucked into some bottles, and people that are just kinda "oh well" that they didn't. (You'll obviously have the entitled out there that missed out, but oh well.)

On the idea that people who wanted bottles should have showed up earlier...
This mentality makes me laugh. As if the people that showed up at 6 AM instead of 830 AM wanted it more or worked harder for it and therefore deserve it. Fine - that may be the case. But why are you okay with having to show up at 6 AM? Don't you think there's probably a better way of handling all of this? Are we really getting to the point where we're happy to wait in the cold for 6 hours (or just make your chairs wait for 6 hours) for a few bottles of beer? This mentality is just mind blowing.

 

"..Getting to the point of waiting in the cold for 6 hours..."

In general, we are way past that point, have been for years. Maybe not at Tired Hands, but it's been like that for a long time. I was at that CdC release mentioned above. I left my place at like 10 pm and got to CL around 1 30am only to find all of the tickets had been bogarted. We ended up trading beer with the people who bogarted just to get tickets (there were two beers released we only got one). It was way colder than yesterday at Tired Hands and we just stayed and hung out and had a kick as bottle share. As much as I thought it was crazy CL left the tickets out, I was only mad at the people who didn't obey the honor system.

I also was out at Troegs Splinter releases at 5am. At Splinter Blue there was a dude who flew in from Phoenix. Got a rental car and all, only to be behind the last person to get a bottle. He got shut out.

Pliny the Younger at Monks people are out there 6-7 am.

It's just the way it is. It's unfortunate but it just is.

 

^ Can't forget about those Southampton releases! You earned your wings if you were able to obtain a sheet with the Berliner or the Eisbock. One year had a wind chill of -10.

 

Maybe they didn't sell 680? I remember hearing they had 800 bottles. Then it dropped to 680. Who knows truly how many bottles were sold?