Waiting in Line for Beer

If you've noticed the people that typically stand in line for beer releases, they look like they run, play musical instruments and watch the sic-fi channel for fun so it's not like standing in line isn't entertaining to them.

 

I see a lot of TreeHouse mentions here. Yea, I'd love if there beer was easier to get, chiefly no lines. But until all the people from New York, Connecticut, and Jersey get their own breweries of this caliber, and the lines go down, if you want to drink their beer, be prepared to wait a bit. Not even for rare releases either, just a small opperation making some of the greatest beer.

And yea, if I could walk into a bottle shop and grab a pack of beer that was on nearly the same level, I would, but quite frankly very few breweries compete, and thus those of us that prefer their beer are relegated to waiting in lines during that once every couple of months craving for their beer. What is so fucking controversial about that, that this discussion must come up all the time?

 

My $21 Hopslam 6-pack laughs at your measly $12! I wish this particular "innovation" ended at $12.

I suppose it's been a while since you've been back to HF. Also, 3 years ago HF was a nightmare. At least during the weekends. I was like 20th in line and it took 2 hours to get growler pours and bottles. This summer? Now youplace your order, go have a drink or two in the other building and in about an hour your number is called to pick up your order. Not really a proper wait at all anymore.

 

I met my wife while waiting in line for some Kate The Great a few years ago. She's an Asian lingerie model who happened to be up in Portsmouth on a photo shoot and doesn't even like beer, but there was a two bottle per person limit so we made off with four bottles - I felt so lucky!
But yeah, beer lines are for suckers.

 

That's so crazy. I met my wife while waiting in line at DLD '10. She's a victorias secret model who was doing some modeling work for a really shady guy in Munster and ended up in line. I'm pretty sure she was on drugs. Either way here we are 6 years and 9 kids later!

 

I've camped out twice, mainly for the beer sharing and just hanging out. I didn't do it this year, and I probably won't next year. I'll wait in line if I feel like doing it, I won't if I don't. Everyone's different, their own preferences, I wouldn't travel to camp out , say to Huna Day under any circumstances.

 

Ah, you're an optimist. I hope you are right.

 

Pretty much it.

 

back in the day there were few if any beers worth lining up for.

 

Will I stand in line 6 hours before my local store releases BCBS next Black Friday? No. Never have, never will. Or any other limited release situation.
But will I go to a local brewery (that doesn't sell in stores) and stand in line for 20-30 minutes to get a case or two? Yes.
I view them as different situations.

 

Standing in line for beer ins't so bad, it's the fact that so many beers generate lines now, and that people are willing to stand in all of them. It used to be the select few, but now every barrel aged stout, fruited sour, or hot new hazy IPA release has people lining up. Breweries need to come up with systems for every release now instead of just their once a year "big" release.

First time I waited in line for beer was 2007 Dark Lord Day. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but had heard about the beer the year before, on a whim the day of I drove down and got in line. I didn't bring anything to share because I wasn't even aware that bottle sharing was a thing. Still I had a great time, but I thought to myself at the time "this has to be the exception, certainty no other beers get this much hype".

The second time I waited in line for beer was Bourbon County several years later, but now it seems there are countless beers you can line up for. It's the whole "tickers gotta tick" and "gotta catch em all" attitude in beer now. I understand that when you first get into craft beer and have the first few experiences of "wow" beers, you want to just keep recapturing that feeling. Over and over. But once you have had some world class barrel aged beers, aged sours, and some of the top rated IPAs in the world... well it's going to be very difficult to recapture those eye opening moments.

The grass is always greener as they say, so people start hounding the trade boards trying to get the latest tree house cans or whatever, this motivates locals to line up and get as much as they can just for trading.

I think trading is a good thing to share beers with those who can't get them locally, but buying up as much as you can just to trade for "maximum return" is not what beer is all about IMO. Trade with a few close friends sure, but when you tell me you have to get all this beer to satisfy your obligations to all your trade partners across the country, I think you have missed the point.

If less people were concerned with ticking them all and getting maximum trade value. Then only the people who really want to drink the beer fresh will line up, and things will improve.

 

Well if its like that, then maybe I'd look into it again. Just seemed that the reports over the last 2 years were nuts.

 

I don't have any problem waiting in a line for beer. If I want something bad enough, I'm willing to put up with it.

 

You can almost always score 'trendy' beer fairly quickly if you know when to go or aren't worried about missing out. Hill Farmstead during the week can be a breeze for example. I've waited in line early in past years for Kate the Great when I had never had it and it was a social thing. But you could also have waited until after lunch and literally walking in and still gotten a pour or two before it kicked... but it wasn't a guarantee. I waited 1.5-2 hours in line to PtY recently because it was my first opportunity to finally try the legend, I was right there, and who the hell knows when(if) I get the chance to try it again. I didn't even care that the beer didn't even crack my top 20 IPAs, the experience was totally worth it.

I see a lot of people complain about the ME release weekends when everything is released on the same day and everyone wants it all. Well, you have to plan and that might involve waiting in lines. I decided my last trip wasn't going to be like that, instead we went to Goods from The Woods and then still managed to the Allagash releases, Epiphany, and Mott the Lesser on draft.

If you want fresh beer at the lowest cost, going to the source is the way to go. A lot of the "anti-line" crowd comes off as being annoyed by constantly hearing about these amazing breweries, wanting to try them (maybe not admitting it), but not wanting to put in the effort, so then they blame us for inconveniencing them and making it 'scarce'.

 

My response to waiting in line for anything is one word . . . Ha!

 

Not worth waiting in line for beer. No beer is that good or important.

I remember waiting in line for special release Nike Dunks on numerous occasions at Stussy, Supreme and Dave's Quality Meat years ago, and even that was stupid looking back on it.

For all the time wasted standing in lines for beers, you could be at home brewing your own, or at least teaching yourself how to.

 

I'm not a wait in line guy typically. Most releases here don't have enough pub to generate lines. BCBS does because it's the same day. They put it on sale at 6am..we went at 5:45 and got our '15 and verticals. I think we were out the door by 6:30.

I'm going to DLD for the first time this year. I suspect it'll be a one time deal unless the experience is enough to outweigh the waiting.

I think Untappd and, hate to say it, BA have added to the lines. The first generates tons of people in a race to get as many top beers as they can into their list of unique check ins. The second helps establish the heavy hitters that everyone seems to want to get their hands on. Without Untappd and beer ranking sites, who'd be chasing a DIPA or BA stout from Decorah Iowa?

The traders/hoarders who all rush to stockpile as much as they can exacerbate the problem, but supply falls short of demand regardless and if you want to guarantee getting some, you better get in line.

I've been drinking craft beer since the 80's, but only in the last two years have I gotten somewhat fanatical about it. I'm trying to back off the chase and just enjoy what I can get. It's not easy once you get on the train....