Alesmith - Bottle Releases

No.

 

As much as I'd like think the best of people, a quick look at the trade forums will show that the norm is to maximize trade values. While I'm sure some folks have no intention of profitting from proxied bottles, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that some bottles will fall into the hands of some d-bags. That's craft beer in 2015.

 

Just realized that Brown Paper Tickets slogan is "The fair trade ticketing company"
Thoughts?

 

That's in response to TicketMasters rapey ticketing practices.

 

I guess it depends on how you approach the problem. That problem being the BPT system failures, resulting in people's carts being lost.

1. You could reduce the load on the system. One way to do that is by not allowing proxy's. That will work, at least until local demand starts to exceeds the systems ability. However I suspect Alesmith likes the extended reach and the quick sales that proxy's are giving them.

2. You can fix the system. There are enough software engineers on here to know that this is a fixable problem. But that requires investment from BPT, which is probably unlikely.

3. You could avoid the load probably entirely. By going to a lottery system. We'll just have to agree to disagree on the merits of this approach. I find it to be much better experience than the BPT low bottle count sales. But we are both entitled to our opinion.

 

On Speedway variants, the quick sales don't need to be quickened. It's shown that no matter what, SS will sell out fast. It's those other beers that they need the proxies like BA wee heavy, to sell them out fast than the standard weeks that it takes.

Again with this lotto system? It's not feasible and makes work much harder and more hands on for alesmith. You may find it a better experience, but it puts a higher work load on Alesmith to execute properly.

 

My guess is there's not a business case for them to invest in enough infrastructure improvements to handle the amount of traffic they get from something like this past Speedway sale. Considering there are only two beer sales that have crashed BPT - KBS and yesterday's BASS/HSS - and none of their other events have such crazy demand with traffic spikes, they'd be addressing an issue that affects such a hilariously small portion of their clients that it's not even worth talking about.

If they disallowed proxies and BPT still crashed on the next Speedway variant sale, then I would agree that looking into alternatives - lottery, new ticketing provider, or something else - would make sense. However, the sales worked damn near flawlessly for a couple years, and have only had issues with the introduction of proxies. I realize local demand has increased quite a bit since they began using BPT but eliminating the newest variable - proxies - seems like a blindingly obvious first step.

Edit: Before anyone comments on the BPT crashing part, I realize other sales have had slowness and some glitchy behavior at times, but as far as outright crashing BPT to where the server responds with error codes, I'm only aware of the two. Even if there are more, you're still looking at a tiny sliver of BPT's client base.

 

Yeah, I can't ever see the demand of alesmith on the local/driving distance to pick up to the level that is caused when you open it up to proxies and then suddenly you have all 50 states creating a DDOS attack situation that causes it to crash.

No need to fix what's not broken. Limiting proxies to bottles that move slower is fine, but allowing them on sales that move fast enough on their own. Seems pointless and is the cause of the issues.

 

I just don't understand all of this blah for this release. Bottles were available periodically for an HOUR or more. I could have bought 40. The initial glug on the system, fine, that wasn't great. But if you gave up at that point...

 

Same complaints yet people still clamor over buying the bottles. There is no perfect way to release any beer other than any brewery making enough for everyone who ever wants a bottle. We know this is unfeasible so I'll take the current BPT method being a non-SD resident. How do you think us KRBC locals feel about having to enter a Citra lottery every time?

 

Sure, you could have bought 40. And then would have lost them to a future library sale. LOL

I don't think Alesmith gives a rat's ass about rewarding "locals", because a good percentage of the "locals" buying bottles at these releases rarely if ever come in. In essence, it's not much different than a proxy customer.

They do care about rewarding "regulars".

 

Maybe you should get them to give the VIPs better odds in the lottery.

 

Trick is, even if we don't win... The brewery is right up the road to drink it on tap in plentiful amounts!

 

You know what I mean...

 

Will the tasting room be open only for BPT ticket holders this Saturday?

 

No.