The OC/LA release thread.

Everyone gets butthurt when they don't get their walez, but if I'm a brewery I'd much rather have "bummer, it sold out" than a series of people detailing the shitshow that happened when a refugee camp of bearded parking lot drinkers descended on my industrial park

 

Whats the deal with the password?!

 

That's for the pre-pre sale, I'm guessing the password requirement gets lifted tomorrow at noon

 

HA! I like you even more now, even though yourpicssuck made me promise to hate you.

 

Any word on how much is left? I will be there Saturday the 23rd and wondering if it will still be there.

 

Honestly no clue. It's a one-bottle max and I really am not aware of how much remains.

 

Always nice to see someone admit a mistake.

LOL REKT

 

I already weighed in on Parabajava-gate the first time around, but I have to admit, it sucks to STILL see bottles being sold (like, again recently on sour jim's insta) even after the first post-debacle sale.

every time a post-release Parabajava bottle is sold, it feels like being tea-bagged by Adam Firestone at a Donald Trump rally

 

^^^I was a victim of this, and complainer in this space, but I actually ended up with a bottle of Parabajava after the fact. My buddy strolled in with 4 friends and left with 5 bottles, one of which he gave me. Dumb, dumb, dumb system but I'm happy to have the bottle.

 

So if there are no bottles left onsite, doesn't by definition mean they are sold out? I have a feeling people (you) would be even more upset if they told you to drive to Paso Robles to try over there, right?

 

Shit, all I know is the one bottle of Parabajava a friend got for me I am cracking in a couple weekends at a share. Let those that didn't get to go or got shut out have some. Should be fun.

 

I think by admitting the release was a cl*sterf*uck she was admitting blame. They screwed up originally. What do you want them to do with the unsold cases? Keep them? While it sucks that people got shut out at the original release I can't blame them for putting the found bottles out for sale.
On a separate topic, when is Sucaba coming out?

 

I think you guys are treating beer as a special industry for a some reason. If you liken it to literally any other industry that releases popular products, say iPhones for example or the PS2 shortage that lasted 6 months after the system dropped in 2000, I don't think this outrage would be occurring.

If you show up at a store expecting to buy a phone but everyone else who lined up before you got the phones and they were sold out, you'd be shit out of luck with "no rainchecks" like most stores do or like any Black Friday sale, etc. Sold out means there's no more product at that location. That AT&T (or whatever) store doesn't have any more in the building but you bet your ass they have them in a warehouse waiting for the next wave of shipments.

This is exactly what happened with both Barrelworks and Paso when Parabajava was released. An initial wave of product was released to both locations and both sold out day of release. They weren't going to run to the inventory warehouse (cold warehouse) to pull more product and immediately deliver it to all retail outlet locations.

Beer is a business just like any other business. Not everybody gets everything right away. Just because you drove and got there later than the other people who were able to buy the stock available doesn't mean they wronged you. Yes it sucks, but it's no different than what happens all the time in other industries.

 

As was posted a month ago:

"We had 600 cases total of Parabajava: 100+ went to Barrelworks on release day, 100+ went to our Visitors Center, 50+ went to our Taproom Restaurant, then the remainder went to our Brewery Store, which is and always has been the main hub to purchase our brewery beers. The Brewery Store literally stocked every case that they could fit, however there were a few cases leftover. The plan was to roll into the week with the initial cases, and then once our Warehouse crew was back at work (the following Monday), they could re-stock the shelves with the remaining leftover bottles. Obviously the release didn’t go as planned and things were chaotic, to say the least, and we sold out instantly. Seeing an individual post a photo of 54 bottles truly upset us and left us wondering what to do. We literally did not have access to those remaining cases once we were sold out, then once we got access we were left with “what to do?” Do we announce that more bottles were on sale and have another rush from the public, who would once again be disappointed because it would likely sell out so fast? Do we not sell the bottles and keep them in our library? Or do we quietly put them on the shelves and hope that our fans understand our reasoning?

We went with Option 3, and it wasn’t easy and we would never want our fans thinking we were lying to them, but the situation was unprecedented to us and we had to handle it somehow. Going further, we will be restructuring all future releases to ensure this never happens again."

As a side note, I am incredibly sensitive to all fans' interactions with FW and my biggest fear is when things don't go as planned, such as Parabajava and I stress that HEAVILY to all management. We are the first to admit we're not perfect. It's sad that almost two months later we are still being punished for it, despite doing our best regarding a past situation. Not sure what much more there is to say about it other than if people keep needing us to be a punching bag then I'm here to take the hits.

Sucaba releases at the brewery this Saturday, Jan. 16th with limited distribution after that.

 

Are these release parties worth it for the brewery? I know they generate a lot of business for the restaurant/bar side, but when they royally screw things up, it can't be good for the brand. I know that if FW had just done a BPT release for the beer without any added cost for a party, I'd have easily gone up within the pick-up period and spent some money at the brewpub because I'm not driving from LA just to pick up bottles. I'd imagine most people would have done this and they'd get business spread out over time and minimize the amount of hurt feelings from avoiding a clusterfuck release. I don't get it, but whatever, it's just beer right?

 

You're hired.

 

Beer is a special industry, and I hope it remains that way.

 

Haha, don't tease me. Hopefully I can work remotely

 

Is that really the best analogy? The supply of the products you listed isn't limited to one single wave--they're manufactured and shipped for distribution for months, if not years. Not really the same with beer, even if it's mass-produced on the level of BCBS.

 

I missed out on a PS2 at release. =(