The Half-Acre thread (2018)

I salute your one man hype machine mission. Cheers!

 

I've got the day off and keep getting notifications. Literally nothing better to do.

 

(aside- it's so nice BA gives us a whole 12 emojis to use in 2016)

 

Oh, I thought you meant why so many people lining up.

I dunno, in terms of hype, coconut is probably my single favorite addition to a BA stout, so the fact that this is one of the better ones I've had makes it a big deal to me. I'm not saying it has the complexity of a BCS, just saying I also am hard-pressed to name non-BCS beers that melded coconut as well into an already good base (haven't had the Bells beer that's been mentioned).

But yeah, you also can't discount palates. I'd trade a bottle of BCBCS for this in a second (got shut out of Benthic) because it's more to my taste. I get why not everyone loves it as much though.

 

Also, hats off to HA--I think the release should be ticketed next time, but one of the guys did a head count multiple times and let us know the chances of getting a bottle weren't good. Then brought out samples for us to try, and finally gave those who didn't luck out a voucher for a free pint at the taproom.

Great people, great place.

 

Yeah that was cool of them to do. Certainly not required on their part. They are a great brewery & my personal favorite in the state.

 

Benthic is one of the best stouts to come out of the Great Lakes region...This is an exceptional beer.

 

Yeah, man, I need a Benthic!

 

Definitely a well done release. Plenty of samples, I probably had close to a full pour. Towards the front, they were sampling anything from the growler list too. It's pretty tasty, though I think the one on tap didn't have the adjuncts.

Props to the guy passing around the Black Gold. I hope court goes okay!

 

You weren't around when he needed a Lyft...

 

The guy guarding the doorway to get into the bottle shop said they only had about 700 bottles. They kept counting the line figuring of course the first 350 are guaranteed. Unless of course you're an idiot waiting in line for some daisy cutter only. Perfect timing!

 

Yes I was. I was too expensive for his taste, however...

 

My buddy and I were in line by 10, got bottles around 11:45, and had a pour in the tap room by noon. The tastes and the pour had lots of bourbon, not much in the way of coffee or coconut. Which is the complete opposite of the pour I had a week ago. Kind of wonder which one the bottles will taste like.

I thought it was cool of Half Acre to let people in line know they were going to miss out and offered them tokens for a free pour which included Benthic.

My only complaint with their releases is the line moves ridiculously slow with only one register. I think the turnout for this exceeded their expectations. Hopefully they have a better system in place for Big Hugs this year.

 

I agree and would like to see a ticketed release in the future instead of having to wait in line for hours at a 700 bottle release.

 

I am very glad I decided to get my butt in line early this morning. Every time I have had this beer, I loved it (Big North and FOBAB) and loved the sample I had today as well. If I didn't wait in line I was just gonna sit home and watch a movie...and I managed to do that while waiting in line. Very efficient.

 

Yup. Nothing against them since I know they're new to this, but there's no need for 50+ people to wait in line for an hour or more only to find out there aren't enough bottles of beer. Goose Island Clybourn does this (tickets), and it works well.

The alternative is a 1 bottle pp limit, but they didn't know demand was going to be this high ahead of time (I could've told them), and I agreed with the sentiment that you can't change up the bottle limit midway through.

 

Yeah, they really need to change that up. Honestly, the checkout process is slow when there are 3 people buying beer, definitely have to change it up for these big releases.

 

Didn't go today but have waited in a loooong HA release line before. Is there a downside to what's been posted above: pass out paper tickets to those standing in line, then after you have a ticket for your allotment, you can choose between a cash line and a credit card line once sales begin.

Maybe space is an issue but it would incentivize people to pay cash because the line is faster and what business doesn't love cash? They would know close to when they're out of bottles based on number of tickets. It just seems like a win-win for both sides for a process that can likely go quicker.

EDIT: I suppose if I were HA and my limited release sold out in a couple hours I wouldn't be knocking down doors trying to fix what isn't necessarily broken.

 

The slow moving line is why I didn't go. Not even my work from home status, boss in a different time zone, could justify disappearing for a couple hours.