Bruery 2016 RS/HS Allocations

Thanks for the response, Patrick.... makes perfect sense.

 

I've been out of the loop for a few days, but here is my 2 cents if anyone care.

The new site, man I don't see any positive changes, other than the ability to add a quantity from the main page.

1. The society exclusives I have to navigate to another page to get?? Why?
2. Removing of the notes section? That was nice as I often buy bottles for friends and it was nice to add their name to the notes section so I know who it was for. I keep a spreadsheet, but its nice as a double check, because I've made mistakes before.
3. Seeing MSRP and my discounted price was helpful.
4. Having to add different billing if I split with others kinda blows too.
5. Not locking a beer you have in your cart is just silly. Go to any forum talking about ticketed events ALWAYS the number 1 complaint is that someone had an item in their cart and by the time they got to check out they didn't get it.

Membership changes:
1. The one week window blows. As an out of stater, I cannot taste the beers before I order. Its nice to get a least a few reviews to decide if I want it or not. I get 3 weeks was a bit long, 2 seems about right.
2. Less exclusives. Hey its kinda nice getting something in HS that doesn't trickle down.

 

New Hoarder here as well. I can agree with what fegel posted up. I'd love to get a 2017 growler (buying it will be no problem) and holy hell.....PBJ BT would be like....amazing if it were to show up in bottles. That beer blew me away when I had the chance to try it. Huge peanut butter bomb with a raspberry (if I recall right) and stout/bourbon finish. It was insane. The aroma would just draw you in.

 

Hey All,

Since there’s some discussion around the features of the new eCommerce site, I wanted to explain a little bit on why we changed eCommerce platforms--

In 2013 we transitioned to a custom built eCommerce site that incorporated many of the features we needed for our needs, and over the years we've invested considerable resources in improving it. This was a very expensive undertaking, and we assumed we’d be able to use this platform for quite some time. Early this year we discovered that the platform the site was built on only supports TLS 1.0, which is to be phased out without a clear timeline (June 2018 is the cutoff for PCI DSS compliance, but credit card processors are able to create their own timeline. Some have already discontinued support of TLS 1.0). Without knowing when our processor was going to phase out TLS 1.0, it was important to get this figured out ASAP.

We looked into upgrading to the new version of the platform we were on since that supports TLS 1.1. We found that all of the custom features (a sizable amount) would need to be built from scratch on the new platform, essentially requiring a similar investment to what we’ve already spent. Plus, our old site had issues with high volume traffic, and it is unknown whether that would be resolved with the new version.

Since 2013, many new niche eCommerce companies have formed, giving options beyond a completely customized solution. Perhaps we didn’t need to reinvent the wheel? We went with VineSpring, which focuses on direct to consumer sales for the wine industry, very close to what we do with our Societies. It incorporates the key features we need, 80% of the features we want (but aren’t essential), and then many features that weren’t previously available to us. Importantly, we've been assured this is a very robust eCommerce solution that can scale server demand very quickly. They have full time developers that keep improving this platform based on requests from their clients, so you'll see continual improvements. Also, we don't have to worry about our eCommerce platform becoming extinct as we just encountered.

We listen to your feedback and appreciate it. It will result in us working on incorporating features to the site over time.

As far as exclusives, it's been a tricky part of our Societies since the beginning. We need to make enough of each beer so that our members are able to get their maximum allocation, even though we know the average of all members won't claim 100% of their allocation. We don't know for certain how a beer will do, but we make our best guess based on prior performance and other projections. There are surprises at times with what exceeds our expectations, and what doesn't. This new eCommerce platform will help us offer allocation limits that allow members to buy limited releases first, while at the same time allowing members to request an additional amount, essentially replacing 2nd chance sales. This gives us a path to produce a bit less of some beers, offer an allocation size for Reserve and Hoarders Society members to get their fill, and then potentially clear the remainder through requests for additional bottles. If the beer isn't sold out, we go to the next tier of sales until it does sell out. With this approach, I'm hopeful that we'll have more exclusives by virtue of not having anymore beer, rather than creating an exclusive by us holding back a lot of inventory (that we'll inevitably need to sell, drink ourselves, or, God forbid, dispose of at some point).

We greatly appreciate our members and want to provide a fantastic experience. We understand part of that experience is providing beer that only members can get - and when we produce high caliber releases worthy of your admiration (and maximum allocations), we’ll achieve that.

I hope that helps to explain our side of things. As always, thanks for your feedback - we’re listening, for sure!

Cheers,
Patrick
The Bruery

 

Thank you Patrick, it's nice to hear what's actually happening on your end, not just a bunch of conjecture from members.

 

I just want that feature that listed what bottles I still had to pick up. I dropped my spreadsheet I was using the past few years because of it. I got lazy.

Also the trustee field under the main account info.

I would say the stuff in the cart being held away from inventory but I have practice with nexternal FFA-style that it doesn't really bother me that much.

 

Gotcha guys! We'll circle back when there's an update.

 

Has there been any more additional information about the possible SHIT infection? Batches or anything?

 

I only remember forum speculation on this, was there any comment?

 

Opened a bottle last night. Still tasting great.

 

Same here, haven't had a problem with any of mine that I've opened.

 

Just an FYI in case you missed it in the email:

"Additional Society-branded glassware and a new 32-oz. vacuum-insulated growler will be available for purchase in January, with other merchandise available for purchase throughout the year."

 

I totally missed that somehow John, thanks for pointing that one out!

 

Anyone having trouble logging in? My password hasn't changed in 2 yrs it's telling me it doesn't match

 

You need to request a new password. Think it was in the email they sent out

 

With the new site, it'll need to be reset. Just click the link to reset it. If you have trouble after that, drop us an email.

 

After the email is sent, how long should the wait be for a reply?

 

I got mine right away...check your spam.

 

Some have mentioned getting their recover link an hour after the request but that was during the first night of the new site. Dont know if that is still going on