Holy Mountain Midnight Still

Just the way I like my HM time.

 

Sorry to take this thread back off track again, but I felt obliged to respond to @Kurmaraja's points, and attempt to offer something constructive to the conversation. Anyway, here goes...

Regarding the "elitism" of one-time-only event-style releases, like this one, if you have sufficient disposable time and income to wait 2-3+ hours in a line on a specific day and time, in order to just have a chance at spending $16+tax per bottle on 500 ml of beer, your life is probably pretty good. You might not own a solid gold hand truck, but, generally speaking, the odds are that you're doing okay. Perhaps "elite" is too strong a word, but something approaching a kind of "leisure class" certainly comes to mind (I include myself in it, BTW). It seems a fair observation to me, at any rate, that a non-trivial number of good honest folks are "priced out" in some meaningful sense--temporally, financially, by ethos, because they are infirm, etc...--by releases of this kind, which is what I was getting at. As long as they continue, those people who are able and choose to go will have to arrive ever-more early, stand in line even longer, feel more pressure to maximize their allotment by whatever means necessary; and more of them will go home unhappy because they invested all that time and energy and still got shut out. Over the short arc as well as the long, they bend towards exclusion and exclusivity. I shudder to think how many cookies poor Mama HM is going to have to bake the next time; but she better bake them, because they may be all that a lot of people end up going home with...

As for the myriad ways this release, and others like it (eg., Reuben's), could be better done in the future, why is every suggestion, including all of yours, fixated on a singular approach? Why not just make it a little more varied and hybrid? A softer, staggered, or rolling release would have given other people, unwilling or unable to go on Saturday, the chance to pick up a bottle of this beer. It would not have guaranteed anyone a bottle, let alone 2 to 4, but at least it would have given them another option than waiting in line for a few hours on a day when maybe they couldn't have, which was the necessary and all-too-predictable consequence of this style of release. Have a big event, if you wish, but hold some back, let people know you are doing so, and make a habit of it, so that rabid FOMO-ism on the main release day is curtailed (if only infinitesimally). Then announce, or don't announce, when you'll be releasing the rest (whether all at once, or, probably better, in smaller increments). Mix up the schedule, or don't. Whatever approach suits the brewery's fancy and seems fairest to them. Also, if possible, try and send out at least a tiny fraction for distribution to local retailers. Even if this can only amount to a handful of cases for a bottle count the size of Midnight Still, it rewards the other businesses (bottle shops, specialty markets, beer bars) which tend to be the brewery's symbiotic partners in the industry. It also rewards the loyal patrons of these businesses, and ultimately provides yet another way that a person can have a shot, however small, at getting a rare beer without absolutely having to wait in line for several hours on a particular day and time at a particular place. If you wish to mix it up even further, and maybe even do some social good along the way, have a main release but also make some available for purchase as part of a charity raffle (or at least a lottery of some kind). Chucks did this for BC Rare last year, and I thought that was pretty cool (it also made it possible to feel good about potentially buying an AB InBev product, and that's rare).

There are many other options, too, with their own pros and cons for both the brewery and the consumer, but maybe by now you're getting my point. Which is: no one approach (and least of all last Saturday's, to my mind) is ever going to be perfect and satisfy everybody. A more diverse approach, tailored to the brewery's capabilities and predilections, as well as the type of beer and the amount made, probably won't either, if I'm honest. People tend, after all, to be unsatisfied, and especially in situations where demand for something greatly exceeds supply. But a more diverse approach tries, at the very least, to throw everyone a bone, or throw more than just one bone, anyway. It lengthens the time period in which a product is available, and increases the number of opportunities for those interested to track it down or, if the fates are smiling upon them, stumble upon it. These are inarguable goods, don't you think? In the starkest possible contrast, a release like Saturday's did just the opposite. It hastened an already scarce product's inevitable journey towards total exhaustion.

In the end, people--sensible people, anyway--will at least respect the fact that some effort was made to give them more than one (highly undesirable) option of obtaining a product that was only ever going to be very hard to come by. If you cannot, or choose not, to make more of something people want, that's perfectly fine and understandable; but perhaps you can at least be called upon to give them a little more choice in how they can get it.

Okay, can I please go back to my beer now? :-)

 

Will you post the specifics, so the rest of us have a point of reference?

 

Thoughtful response. I appreciate the concrete examples of how it could be improved.

Side Project holds bottles back for onsite consumption as does De Garde. Maybe this is something Holy Mountain will do (or already is planning to do). Though I acknowledge this is a financial choice in some ways; deferred revenue on a product that's already costly to make. Mark up for on site consumption later also makes sense.

 

I'm enjoying my first taste of Dark Heron right now, and these are my sentiments exactly. Beers with Mosaic don't always work for me, because I sometimes get this harsh/dirty aftertaste, but this one comes together quite well. Very flavorful and smooth. Plus, I love the label, and the fact that this is the official brew of a "Nerd Conference." Extra kudos for that.

Has the trade for Midnight Still already gone through? I would gladly make my own proposal if only I knew the terms...

 

How bout that sly release of Witchfinder on Saturday, you guys.

Very good saison. Looks like there is lots to go around, too.

 

I like the white wine barrel version better, but the base beer is still really good. Didn't have time to stop by this weekend, gonna stop by today and grab a bottle if they're still around. It's a white label bottle that doesn't have fruit and it's not a BA stout, so I'm guessing it's still there.

Demonteller is absolutely amazing, though. Wish that got bottled.

 

I had Demonteller at e9 the other night, agree, amazing stuff.

 

Had Demonteller on Saturday, too. Really, really good.

 

It's a solid base and I have enough to see how it progresses over the years. Curious if there will be variants released. Not many of us hated standing in that line... good times actually.

 

There are variants. Two that I know of.

 

86 bottles of Misere available at the moment. About 9-10 cases of Witchfinder as well.

 

You probably can't charge quite as much as Same Ole Line Dudes, LLC because Seattle ain't NYC, but that should at least give you an idea of what rich and/or stupid people are willing to spend to have other people wait in line for them. I seriously wonder if there's a market for this service around here. Would people actually spend $45 (the Line Dudes minimum) to have someone else stand in line for them at de Garde, Holy Mountain, Fremont, etc?

 

No question in my mind there is a market for this...

I'd fill the market need, but alas, F*ck standing in line for anything

 

My other target, Treehouse, looks questionable in the future as they are expanding. Shorter lines or no lines maybe. Plus they'll be too big to be great brewery any more.

 

This is a real thing? Oh, have I just found my niche! Bellingham is filled with homeless dudes, Alaska-bound weirdos who turned back at the border, and stoners who just can't be bothered to exert themselves. Next HM release, me and my "team of professional line-sitters" are gonna be the first 50 in line. Early birds get the best pricing.

 

Because I'm already in Seattle, and because we're fighting for the same cause, I'll gladly wander over there a bit early to "save" a spot for you and your horde of vagabond mercenaries. You won't even have to set your alarms. Just show up a little before the doors open and we'll tell everyone else, "Oh, we're all together," if we even say anything at all. Seems to work, in my experience...

 

Can't say that I've seen any line jumping or "place holding" whatsoever at any Holy Mountain release I've been to, which is all but Grapefruit Table. The only time I've witnessed it in the past few years was at Reuben's BBIS release this year. I was ~15th in line at the start and finished somewhere around 20th. It does seem that, for now at least, that type of behavior is still a faux pas.

 

FYI - There are no lines at Fremont releases. I'm chalking this up to my long-standing threat to set people on fire if this ever occurred.