Odd Side Black Friday Bottle Release

What I learned from the release:

29 cases can fit in a kia soul.

 

Had to stop by and see all the complaining. I really don't understand how it bothers people that someone bought almost 30 cases of beer (mixed between a few of the types). People are complaining because they couldn't make the drive, didn't have the time, were busy, etc. do you not realize that is EXACTLY why he was doing this? He had a list of people who prepaid him who weren't able to go, or didn't have to make the 2-3 hour trip each way to make it. He's from the east side and as spreading it around over there. At the end of the day, it pays to know people and have friends willing to pick stuff up for you when there is no limit. Would it be better if you had all of the people in line that had someone else getting bottles for them? It was already packed enough, there was no need for more people. With Hipster running out at 4:30pm-ish, anyone who really was taking the time to get some, got some. Ultimately, I'm hoping this is a lesson to everyone who was lining up at 6am for a beer that was available without forming an unnecessary line at too damn early of an hour. It just wastes everyone's time.

 

That was a nice touch; I slid a few bills to the guy who lugged my stuff out. Hope I wasn't the only one.

 

Hipster isn't a brewery only release...but it probably is this year since Oddside didn't set limits. The other breweries you mentioned set limits so everyone gets at least a shot at trying the beer through distro. Pretty sure you can't go to the Bell's store and buy 20 cases of Hopslam, that would be 'ridiculous'

 

The 29 cases I bought is getting split up with tons of people.

I noticed that someone thinks they know who it is, and that it's going out of state. It's being distributed as Kole had mentioned to east siders.

I'll take the Mclovin compliment, I've been trying to get that thin!

 

Lol, you are just filling the void that Kolby used to fill. Most of them aren't your true friends, they are technically taking advantage of you. I have no problem with muling on any no limit release, but to think you aren't being taking advantage of is crazy. I hope they added some juice and solid thank you beers from the people you muled for.

And if you didn't get some fantastic credit card cash/points/miles for this, then you are a fool.

 

No assumption at all, I really don't care what you do. You are the one that said that "Oddside took a hit" in your book due to yesterday's release so I pointed out the other MI breweries who don't distribute their big beer either

 

Dark Horse sends BB Plead the 5th out for distro? Bell's sends out their 750 ml offerings? Shorts sends out their Private Stache releases?

Below is what I was first replying to and I gave you examples of other Breweries that do exactly that and don't have trouble finding shelf space. Why is Oddside different?

 

I'm glad they're not my friends.

 

I'm well aware of brewery only releases. Hipster is not brewery only. If I were in distro or retail and wanted my same allotment of hipster as last year and the brewery said "sorry, we just sold it all ourselves, how bout some bean flikr or black citra instead" I'd tell them to piss off. Shelf space

 

Hipster IS brewery only as long as they can sell it all; last year they couldn't, this year they did

 

so it's a brewery only distributed beer. got it

 

Pretty much. If they could sell all of the CPA & Bean Flicker at the brewery then there would be no reason to use a distributor but they can't...With Hipster & Hazel's they were able to

 

No worries. I'm actually not that disappointed. Yeah, it would have been nice to get the beer, but not at the cost of 3 hrs away from family. This is the state of beer today, either you show up ridiculously early, wait a long time in line, or roll the dice on showing up later and possibly getting shut out. In all honesty, I'm fine with sitting out these limited releases in the future. Is the beer good? Most definitely; I can't imagine that anyone will be disappointed with Hipster or Hazel. They're easily better than the majority of what I can grab from my local bottle shop, but still not enough for me to invest the time/effort needed to obtain them. That said, I'm not going to look down on anyone willing to put in the necessary time/effort.

Nor am I going to bash Odd Side. Things looked to be running smoothly and orderly, folks inside were enjoying themselves, and they had guys huffing cases out to the parking lot. The only issue I can see is that they underestimated the demand. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like they've been upfront about saying that whatever's left after the release is what goes into distro. I can't blame them for taking that approach, considering the difference in margin between on-site sales vs. distro. As for how their ditsro/retail partners will react? Well, that's between them. Shoot, most of the places near me got a very limited amount, and I'm only 25 min. down the road. I doubt that any shop is going to be up in arms saying "I didn't get my one case of Hipster, so I'm gonna drop the rest of your lineup out of spite!"

 

I understand they can sell it how they want, I just find pretty douchey they would load 30 cases into some beer mules van instead of spreading the beer around the state and growing the brand

 

I thought Hipster is still hitting distro, just not in the quantities they anticipated, given how much they sold yesterday.

 

Sad but true. I chose waiting in line for Hipster over truck chasing BCBS

I agree, I think shop owners & distributors are getting too much credit in this thread, the breweries tell the distributors what they are getting then they offer the stores the chance to get it to sell if they want to. Most shops have NO clue what beer is coming out or when & if you took a poll of the beer buyers from your local stores I would dare say almost NONE of them would have any clue what brewery even makes Hipster

Based on the number of people at Oddside & the amount of product sold I would say their brand is just fine.

 

yeah, 30 cases per person is phenomenal

 

Maybe take your sour grapes over to wine advocate

 

You hit all points spot on here. The only exception being that I gambled and chose to stop at my local store for BCBS first (could have gotten 6 regular, 2-4 rye, and 2-4 barleywine in one stop, but took 3 reg, 1 bw, and 1 rye...see: most shops not having a clue what they actually have).

It's funny to read comments about how if it had hit distro it'd see a wider audience. I will have to respectfully disagree with this statement, as again, I met numerous out of state buyers. How else would they be seeing this beer (say in Pennsylvania, or Ohio), if not for their buddies showing up to said release?

Also, FWIW, the fact that I was still able to find BBA Mayan Mocha (and in quantities) the day of the release tells me that Odd Side has ZERO issues getting their beer out to people. I could understand all of this bitching if we were talking about you getting shut out at the opportunity to buy a case (or less), but come on people... I don't agree with the guy buying 30 cases (nor do I really disagree/frown upon it as he was helping others out...Would you think differently if he was your buddy doing your the favor???). Even with many people buying 6-8 cases, it STILL lasted most of the day.

I agree that there should be limits put on beer releases (see: No Rules, Hipster Brunch, etc...) because I personally believe if it's that important (and within reason distance-wise) you should be able to make the trip yourself to get it. On the flip side, I understand life, and also find it acceptable to have others be able to do you a favor. Hopefully this last paragraph didn't add to the confusion (simply put, I don't agree with muling but understand it given circumstances of life).