Casey Brewing and Blending

My reading of Casey's post is that this will actually widen the number of bottles available for on-site and sales.

I guess this also depends what the tour is. If it's similar to what he does at the end of each release where he invites folks over to try an upcoming beer and talks about how the beer came about, that's something I'd do every single time. If it's a redundant, perfunctory spiel, that would definitely be cause to skip.

One of my first thoughts upon reading the update; I'm glad I no longer have to pay for the privilege to buy his beer, whether it goes to a charity or not.

 

Agreed. I get the impression that it will be more personal which would be exciting. If it's a time to talk with Troy about his current and upcoming beers, then I'm all in.

 

My first thought is, what am I driving up for if I have no idea what and how many beers are for purchase?

His rebuttal of "people have purchased a ticket in the past without knowing" only worked because he had consistently produced enough one-offs for a single big release a month.

As this spreads out, I could go up and find out all I could purchase was 1-2 bottles of Fruit Stand and no limit on base beers I could have gotten in Denver. Four tastes great. Tour with Troy great. I still am primarily going for bottles to bring home.

I understand the root of the change, but I dislike not having some method of telling people which bottles are available for purchase at all, and spreading it out *could (may not, but could) cause it to be actually less productive of a trip for non-EF members.

 

Troy said that he will be announcing/posting the available beers and limits at the beginning of each week. So if you want to purchase a ticket well in advance, it'll be a gamble. We have no idea though how far in advance tickets will be sold or what the demand will be like (once the dust settles initially, because I'm sure the first wave will be grabbed quickly).

 

I like it. The Saturday releases, once word got out, became shitshows because people don't have any idea how to behave themselves. The current model works but it really limits the number of participants. This new idea, while it will not be ideal for the normal crowd, gets a lot more locals in (or those who work on weekends) and gets his beer to more people and not just to the same crowd every release.

Obviously nothing will ever please everybody, but I think this will be a good move. Time will tell, of course.

 

The Mountain forum and this thread seems to assume that everyone lives in Denver. Just pointing that out. Troy's business model doesn't have to consider your drive time- his beer will sell out without you. Shaun Hill taught everyone that. And believe it or not, quite a few members are much further away than the front range. They figure it out.

I havent purchased Casey beer in months because the Saturday releases had become a turn off. Too crazy. Not unique or fun like they used to be. This is a welcomed change.

 

Not sure what to even think of this statement. You show up when you want. No waiting in line before opening, after opening or at the bar. Not sure what there wasn't to like about this. Only thing was buying tickets but they weren't hard to get and lasted a while. Some people didn't like paying for the ticket but that is a very small price to pay to not wait in lines and show up when I want and know I'll get bottles

 

Different strokes I guess. The last few releases have been a zoo. Flavor of the week beer nerds snatching seats from families, talk of beer value, trading, parking nightmares, etc. that's not what attracted me to CBB 2 years ago. Glad to see him getting back to smaller and more intimate release. His beer is better presented that way, in my opinion.

 

You must be the guy who got parked in and was looking for the owner of the Ford Focus for 30 minutes at the last release

 

Ha no, but that's exactly what I'm talking about. Ya know? I don't want to be anywhere near that scene.

getting parked in means go back to get another pour and chill. Not freak about the cannonball run back to Denver and bug other guests about your shitty ford.

 

I guess you see this every where though. At the last release I knew I wasn't going to be there long (kids and all back home) so I blocked someone in. I made sure I knew who's car it was and let them know it was my truck that had them blocked in if they needed to leave. That way they didn't have to go asking 50 people.

Of course I left and someone else took my spot so they were probably hunting someone down anyways

 

That is definitely a good practice. I suggested way back when the parking started to get bad that folks leave a note on their car with their name to make it easier, but that didn't really catch on. I did it a few times, but I never ended up blocking anyone in so it was a moot point.

 

If nothing else, if this ends up being a total mess I have faith they'll make changes. He's clearly shooting for a system that's at least somewhat similar to how Cantillon and 3F handle things. In order to make that happen, there are most definitely going to be some logistical struggles along the way. Wouldn't shock me if this is a little messy until they figure it out.

 

Cantillon has regular hours to purchase bottles for on-site consumption and to-go, plus a self-guided tour. 3F only has bottles for sale to-go, but you can also go to his family's restaurant next door and taste the goods. Either way, they are both operating a full time, extended hour store front where people can come and go as they please and always purchase any of the available bottles.

Don't think Troy is going for that model since it would require someone full time to run the shop. Maybe down the road he's aiming for something like that, but I don't see any indication (clearly?) from the recent changes made that he plans to operate with any sort of open-door policy. The entire premise of the change is smaller, more intimate releases that are ticketed and have a specific allotted time.

 

I asked if he was going for a Cantillon-type setup in the future and he said "Yes." I think it's a gradual push in that direction, but with obviously a smaller scale taken into account. Showing people the process, letting them taste the product as part of the tour, and (if possible) letting them go home with some. It certainly can't totally mirror a large city or their much larger production, but I don't think it's too far off.
With 3F, they always have the restaurant open (it's a separate business) but the shop and tours are usually only on specific weekends. At least that's how it was when I was last there. Last I recall it was the 2nd Saturday of the month or something like that. You could probably get the folks at the restaurant to grab you something from the shop, but they weren't normally open and selling bottles. No tours either. At least unless you scheduled something with Armand or showed up and got lucky.
Again, not an exact 1-to-1 parallel, but it feels like a push in that direction that could go further and further.

 

Then again...all of that is totally up to personal interpretation, too.
I could just be seeing what I want, which isn't unusual.

 

...more like HF, but you know that ;-)

 

I'm going to wait to see how it goes, it will make things a bit more difficult for myself, being an out of towner to time my trips, but that's fine, it shouldn't be set up for me, it should be set-up for the local clientele to enjoy his beer more frequently. Troy harps on community and being able to enjoy the aspects around Casey so setting something up that is more friendly to that environment is awesome. If it doesn't work, he'll change it. He seems to be very in touch with how things are working or are not working. One of the things I really like about CBB.

 

I still can't believe there are that many people willing to pay a $20 cover charge to a brewery.

 

isnt a cover charge just a charge to get in the door? where as this gets you pours + tour + a chance to buy bottles... doesnt seem to outlandish for me when people were already paying $30 tickets just for a chance to buy beers.