BA Mexican Cake Release Thread

Had a blast on Saturday. Made some friends and enjoyed some legit beers. Beers may not be worth $20 / $30 / or even $120 a bottle, but the friendships and memories are.

 

I have no problem with Westbrook charging whatever they want for their beers. I do have a problem if employees were able to buy the in-house only bottles to then go and sell them for a marked up price.

Westbrook threads are always the best. People get so heated about everything.

 

They did solve the problem. The release was simple and relaxed this year. The ticket system online was a breeze. The issue is that the simple release was not enough. People saw Pappy bottles online, and were not happy they only got to buy 2 variants. I had already mentioned earlier that Pappy was likely going to be on site consumption only. Technically, the bottles on that list don't even count as an actual release. You can't take them home.

Edit: Actually, most of the people b1tching didn't come to the release, and had no intentions on buying these beers.

 

Actually, it was a perfect comparison. Edmund's is in the same area as Westbrook. Technically, if someone followed our laws perfectly, Westbrook would have to sell the 2014 BAMC bottles at $100+ in order to prevent undercutting the other retailers. I am not sure what you are talking about as far as luxury brands go. I don't think that branding matters. You are buying a premium product from the brewery, aged in barrels that are damn difficult to get. Don't like the price? Don't buy it. I wouldn't buy any beer over $50, but then again, I am not the kind of person that cares if I get to try every rare beer.

 

Employees were allowed to buy 1 bottle per person. What they do with the bottle is on them. The brewery doesn't generally encourage employees to sell the bottles for profit. I was happy to see the employees get to buy a bottle. They don't often get many perks, beyond discounted beer. It's the little things that keep people happy.

 

If it doesn't sell they'll adjust the price?? Yeah right. Just like they did with the variants from previous years? If it doesn't sell it will be marked up to $500 within a year. Proper aging y'all!!!

I know they can do whatever they can since it is their product but the whole silent stuff, then on-site only, then bottles for friends and employees, then some coconut stayed in bottles, and the homers defending everything that WB does with adjusted logic in this forum brings me the daily laughs. WB and its groupies are fueling the hype machine in every possible way! Please keep it going.

Justified or not, there are a lot of potential customers who are not happy the way this whole thing got handled. Sure, they're not entitled as some of them would think and it is ultimately WB's decision to do what they want. But they can't deny that they seem to be losing more loyal customers that they're gaining.

 

So people are a-holes if they think WB charging the most they can "because of capitalism" is a douchey move? Comparing a brewery to a bar's prices is odd.
I'm not familiar with any other breweries doing this. On the contrary, I see breweries like Cigar City dip into their cellars to encourage donations for charities.
Again, I don't have a problem with WB testing the profitability ceiling with these things, but it certainly does paint a picture of their intentions with people...for whatever that is worth. The whole taking care of locals or not needing the money thing seems lost. They are definitely squeezing every penny out of that barrel's name. I hope Doug at Cycle doesn't see this!

 

I was actually really impressed, I haven't seen a single bottle for sale. Where are you getting the information?

 

People were not happy last year, and there were no $100 bottles. No matter what a brewery does, there are going to be pissed off beer geeks. I am not a homer, but I do work the releases. For the most part, I see nothing but happy people walking away on release day. So anyway, guy from Ohio that would have had to spend $500+ on a trip to get this beer if it were released, they must be doing one or two things right.

Can't wait for next year!

 

How was the pappy?

 

It was a very good beer, but I've not had Pappy itself to get the full effect. Meeting strangers and making friends was what made it awesome.

 

Actual Pappy wins, but if you guys think fancy beer is expensive...

 

Just moved from their distro footprint 2 months ago. Used to buy a lot of Gose and One Claw and actually landed regular MC and passed on the second run because somewhere in the tier they spiked the price (in GA bought for $12, saw it for $19 a few weeks later). Sorry I didn't know only people from SC were allowed to drop opinions.

 

Wait, you're not a homer?

 

It left the brewery...one way or another

 

Kill this thread with fire.

 

Not agreeing with the pricing of the onsite consumption bottles, but I will just say its ironic that people bitch about WB charging high prices, even though if the bottles were released at $50 a bottle for take home consumption they would be on the secondary market almost immediately at something like $400-500 a bottle.

Its a similar argument with concert/sporting event tickets, or other things with a much greater demand than supply. Should the profit go to the producer of the product or some random 3rd party looking to profiteer off the desirability of someone else's work?

Granted I would have loved to see this at $50 a bottle for brewery only consumption, but we don't live in a perfect world. I don't agree with the concept of a brewery upcharging a bottle that much, but I dislike the idea of outrageous secondary market sales even more.

 

I don't believe I said you weren't. However, if this beer were released to take home, and you wanted it, the cost of your trip to get it would already be excessive. No one is forcing you to buy this one beer.

 

If a beer has never been released to the public for sale, then how is the brewery "upcharging" for it? This is specifically referring to the 2015 Chocolate Bourbon and Pappy, not the vintages.

I hope no one in this thread complaining about the pricing of these bottles ever checks out the vintage menu at Hair of the Dog in Portland...

 

Nope, and I defend GI charging $60 for Prop (despite my hatred for AB).