Hardywood releases

I have offered Tired Hands bottles before for Christmas Morning and gotten crickets. Depends on the bottle though obviously. Some of the TH stuff recently has not attracted much attention. You might get interest for a bottle and growler of say Milshake which might appeal. The last batches of Para have attracted no interest for a range of other brewery only bottles as well.

 

This is the first year for KY Christmas Morning and AB GBS but if limits are anything like last year I believe they were 2 per person. If I'm wrong someone correct me.

 

The limit for Trickery was 4 pp. That was a pretty robust line as well, as I arrived around 1:30 and made my purchase at 4:30. To be honest, with all the GBS variants plus Christmas Morning and variants, unless folks blow their entire Christmas budget on beer, there's got to be some sort of restraint that allows for at least 2 pp for each type. I'd hope.

 

Interesting they decided to have both the new variants KY Christmas morning and AB GBS on the same day.
I'd bet it is going to be a shit show, haha.
At any rate OP, they will at some point have the limits/details on their facebook.

 

OP. You can find Hardywood around Philadelphia right? I think I have seen a few friends of mine who live up there say it started to become available within the past year or so. I would expect at least the BGBS and regular Christmas Morning hit distro. maybe not PA but likelyl NOVA Wouldn't be surprised if a few shops locally to RVA received distro of the other. I would also expect at least a 2pp limit on AB and Kentucky but would not put it past HW to up it to at least 4.

 

People start lining up at like 8 or 9. Without bottle counts, its hard to say how early you would need to get there though. One thing is for sure though, people in Richmond love standing in line at Hardywood.

 

This gets my vote for understatement of the year.

On GBS day (December 5th) they are opening at 11:00. I talked to a guy at Trickery release who was 15 people back from the front, said he got there around 8:00. I don't think that the beer dedicated in RVA are keen to rising too much earlier than that (unless the nuts camp out) so I would hazard a guess that 8:00 would still be within an hour or so of the earliest of most showings. Either way, you'll be waiting a few hours either before they open or once the line starts moving. Just depends on which hours of waiting suit you best I suppose.

 

If random forum posts around BA are to be believed, so will quite a few people from outside of VA for this release. haha.

 

BGBS you mean on Dec 5th. here's my assessment of just about all HW releases. There will be a lot of people who love sitting around for hours on end waiting to be one of the first to pickup bottles. Camaraderie many call it and shooting the shit for a few hours on a cold morning. At least HW is releasing at 11am and not waiting until 2pm. I am still utterly confused as to why they wait until 2pm to open on a Saturday other than they know they can and people will wait for hours for a release.
The made BGBS last year so you can bet they will have more than enough to go around to most likely everyone who shows up on Sat and probably most of Sunday. Do yourself a favor and don't sit in a long line for hours on end. Show up around 2 or 3, walk right up to grab bottles and be on your merry way unless you want to hang around for a couple pints. it will probably be in good distro supply as well. Now I did make the utter mistake of taking my own advice for the Trickery release but the line was still crazy long at 3pm. if I had been able to wait until 5pm to show up then I could have walked right up with very little wait but for BGBS I don't expect it to be a shitshow. Now Christmas Morning (likely) and Kentucky Christmas/AB GBS are completely different stories. I hope you have wrapped up all your non-beer related Christmas shopping by then because you are in for a long wait that day.

 

'

Ya, my bad. Too many brevity codes this time of year! (GBS, BBGBS, BCBS, etc.,)

In your opinion, do Richmonders have the stomach to stampede HWP on the 5th (BBGBS), 12th (Christmas Morning) and the 19th (KCM, ABGBS)? During already busy holiday season nonetheless? In quite possibly cold weather?? I think I will roll the dice with later on Saturday or even post release Sunday visits, or maybe even see what happens with regard to distro for regular CM. BBGBS is always too important to me to risk it.

 

yes, they do. Probably with decreasing numbers each time, but those releases will get more limited each time too.

 

I really do not know. Every weekend can be exhausting for people who actually have stuff to do other than standing in a line for hours upon hours every weekend. HW did it last year the entire month of Dec so people must have done fairly well and I did see some people post their having all of the variants released. BGBS was my 2nd favorite last year behind Christmas Morning. I expect both to be very good again this year and the 19th to be the big day people save up for if they do only choose one day to show up. It's not going to happen but it would be awesome if someone showing up on the 19th could end up leaving with all 4 variants that same day. When was the last time one of their releases sold out on the day it was released? Trickery lasted until shortly after they opened on Sunday. Quadrahop was available for a while after. Probably Ruse and Foolery?? since they were only 500 bottles but still supply lasted a several hours after opening since it was limited to 1 bottle pp. So it's not like you really have to show up very early for normal releases. Just show up sometimes over those weekends. Christmas Morning on Dec 12th may not been as busy as the other releases Since Blue Mountain is releasing Concealed Darkness (plus 2 variants) on the same day and that beer developed a large following after it came out. The "hunters" to the west of RVA may go there instead of the drive HW. Some may try to catch both on the same day but that is one long day for those folks.

 

For Trickery they started selling bottles at 2pm. I got there at 12:30 and was at the halfway point of the line. Made it through the line around 3:45. The only problem was they had two lines to make purchases. I have seen them have more at another release I went to.

 

They have 11:00 listed as the time to open for the BBGBS event on the 5th according to the specific event page on FB, but there's no event page as of yet to shed light on opening for the 12th and 19th. The only info I have seen on 12th and 19th comes from their actual website where they list their beers and release dates.

 

I was at the brewery last weekend, man what a great spot. I had the Gingerbread Stout and their coffee black IPA. Both were amazing. I wonder if I can get it in NC, doubtful though.