2016 Horizon Society

Bros posted some information for anyone picking up HS orders tomorrow. Also the updated Bros/Guest Tap List from the event listings as of this morning.
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Hi Everyone,

We have processed all of the Friday pick ups and will be building them this evening. In all, we have 60+ scheduled people picking up for Friday alone. Please check your email as I have had to reach out to some regarding who you are picking up for or updating your trustee. Without this information, we will not be able to fully complete your order!

Our doors will open at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon. If you choose to arrive earlier than that, please remember that outside alcohol can NOT be consumed on our property. You are welcome to hang out, cook out, etc, but please leave the awesome beer you are bringing with you in your hotels and for bottle shares off premise.

Since 60+ people have scheduled for pick ups (some of which are also picking up for multiple people) we are doing things a little differently to make things easier/smoother for you and all of our patrons. We will be releasing your orders from our production area in the same way that we released Resolute last year. You will need to:

1. Enter the taproom, greet the bartender, and let them know you are there for a pick up as you normally would. Please do not try to pick up outside of your scheduled time!

2. You will receive the print out of your order(s), but not the order itself. We are doing this to keep the taproom from being taken over by boxes!

3. Get your wristband, drink a beer, and relax!! It is Resolute weekend and you now have your place in line. Celebrate!!

4. Take advantage of any bottles/merch you would like to purchase (why wait until Saturday?), pay your tab, and stop by the production area on your way out with your print out.

5. Greet that employee and hand them your print out. They will retrieve your order(s), review that everything is perfect, and send you on your way.

Cheers!

Casks/Infusions
1. Resolute on Kona Coffee, Hazelnut, and Toasted Coconut by An Mekong
2. Chocolate Cherry Resolute Pin

Expected Brothers Beer to be tapped:
1. Great Outdoors
2. Hoptimization
3. Lil' Hellion
4. Fest Bier
5. Verdure
6. Apricot Verdure
7. Pineapple Verdure
8. Passion Fruit Verdure
9. Local Roast
10. Foreign Waters
11. Twilight Years
12. Oaked Elementary
13. Whitlock White IPA
14. Martel's Hammer Belgain Strong Ale
15. Mezcal Milkshake
16. Bourbon Barrel Mint Chocolate Great Debate
17. Apple Brandy Great Debate
18. Drunken Mornings
19. Apple Brandy Resolute
20. Raspberry Resolute (Nitro)
21. 2016 Resolute Variant #1
22. 2016 Resolute Variant #2
23. 2016 Resolute
24. 2015 Resolute
25. 2014 Resolute
26. TBA Sours and Berliners
27. TBA
28. TBA

Tentative Guest Tap List (* is confirmed beers).

• Hardywood – Trickery*
• Crooked Run – Altruism sour elderberry quad w/brett*
• The Answer – Enta Da Stage (collab with Jackie O’s)*
• The Answer – Mouth Hug (3x Dry Hopped version)*
• J. Wakefield – Haterade
• Bullfrog – Jong Bruin Kreik*
• Champion – TBD
• The Veil – TBD
• Ocelot – TBD
• Founders – KBS*
• Pen Druid – Wild sour RIS*
• Starr Hill – Bourbon Barrel Double Chocolate*
• Devils Backbone – Revenge of the Mariner*
• Aslin -The Passion of Johann (Passionfruit & Vanilla DIPA)*

 

New email went our earlier this morning. Be sure to read carefully. Lots of information / new procedures based on happenings of the past 10 days or so
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In Response to this Weekend and Moving Forward

Social Media and Communication
Over the weekend, we have monitored the Horizon Society closed group, and taken note of your constructive criticism, grievances, and frustrations. As individuals, we all took the time to reflect. As a brewery, we met to discuss things today. In doing so, we would first like to thank each of you for your support, feedback, patronage, and understanding. In moving forward, we have decided on the following:

• As posted on the Facebook page and further discussed today, our goal is to communicate with you professionally. Since Facebook is a personal platform, we will no longer be using it for communications and respect how you would like to use it moving forward.
• All of our communications to members will come via e-mail. We will continue our email campaigns to communicate bottle releases, merchandise sales, and general announcements. We will now also use this platform to announce the squealer fill for each weekend.
• Anytime you need to communicate with us, you will need to use [email protected]. This will be used for any questions, comments, or concerns. We accept and desire feedback, especially constructive criticism.
• As a result of a limited path of communications to you and you to us, please make sure that your email address is set up to receive our emails.

Frequently Noted Frustrations

• Foamy bottles - We are still looking for an answer here. As many of you have noticed, the issue is incredibly sporadic and we haven't been able to identify the cause. We've started to work with other breweries to get their assistance through their additional resources, and we are still without a clear answer. As we sent out in an email earlier, problem bottles will be dealt with via a refund or a replacement bottle. Please be sure to let us know if there are problems; it helps us identify the scope of the issue.
• Exclusivity- This seemed to be an issue where we needed to clarify our intent and capacity for this. The intent is to have bottles be exclusive to Horizon members. As such, when we release these bottles, they go on sale to Horizon members only. If we are left with a large number, they go on sale to the public. It is a fine line to walk to ensure enough bottles are available to meet demands for members, but not too many to have extras. We will continue to try to predict purchases and quantities, but we ask that you understand that if the bottles are not all sold, we can not simply throw away a product we have paid to produce. The bottles do need to be sold. With regard to draft options, our taproom needs to have specialty releases as well. With the number of options that are available to Horizon members throughout the year in bottles, we simply can not make another set of specialty beers exclusively for the taproom. In order to maintain a benefit for Horizon members, we only allow these lines as a squealer fill for Horizon members. The public can only enjoy these beers on draft in house. This very often results in a loss of sales for us, but we are doing it to provide a benefit to our members. Please understand that the brewery has to operate other aspects of the business in addition to Horizon.
• Resolute Day - Some folks are upset about being shut out on Saturday, and then bottles being available on Sunday. The reason that we had "extra" bottles on Sunday is from people not picking up their Resolute on their way out or not showing up when they bought a pre-sale ticket, which guaranteed them an allotment. We are looking at the pre-sale tickets process and details for 2017 to try to alleviate this issue, and to make sure that bottles are available as much as possible on Saturday.
• Mid year/end of year bottle release deadline - We have our mid year and end of year pick up deadlines for a multitude of reasons. First, we only have enough space in our facility to accommodate current production timelines. Secondly, some of the beers should be consumed as fresh as possible so making a 6 month pickup (max) helps. Most importantly, we must have a check and balance system to make sure that everyone is receiving fair opportunities at the beer. Without people being responsible for the bottles they have purchased, anyone could simply pre-order all of their allotments of every offering without having to commit to actually buying them. This would be unfair to everyone.
• Feedback- One of the most important reasons that we will no longer be a part of the Facebook group is that much of the feedback received there is not put in a way that is helpful to us and our responses often were not helpful either. We do, however, welcome your feedback and ideas. Please send them to [email protected] so that they can be addressed in a professional manner. Any issues received that need to be communicated with the group will then be emailed out.

Expectations of the Horizon Society

Due to our size and brewing abilities/limitations, we would like to clarify what we can and cannot do based on frequently asked questions/comments.

• We brew on a 15 BBL system into 30 and 60 BBL fermenters. We have a small pilot system, but it is not large enough for any production. With that said, any batch has to be at least 30 BBL. This is why you often see multiple variations of a beer. In order to keep the beer as exclusive as possible, we have to do multiple variations of the same base. The largest order we've ever received for any of the Horizon beers is around 4.8 BBLs of liquid. Based on the quantity of beer purchased by Horizon, we simply can not make every beer completely unique and exclusive. As membership increases and thereby the bottle counts go up, the exclusivity to the society as a whole will be able to increase. That is, the more we can allocate towards just the society as a function of the batch size, the more exclusive it can become.

The Final Months of the 2016 Horizon Society
Below is what to expect from the society from now until the final pick up day on January 15.

• Beer releases and anticipated dates: Crimson Lake (sour red on raspberries) and Fire Thief (smoked Imperial stout). Both are member included bottles and are expected to be available on December 16.

2017 Horizon Society
We know that many of you have already purchased your 2017 membership while others are on the fence. We also know that there are some that have purchased, but are now unsure if they want to be a part of the society. So, we have decided that if at this time you have purchased a membership but would no longer like to be a part of the society, you can request a full refund at [email protected] from now until December 15, 2016.

 

I thought beers released after Resolute Day were held until the first pickup deadline of the 2017 membership (June or whenever it is). So we have a 1 month window to pick up 2 or our included bottles?

 

No. It's always been 2nd half bottles were being held only until 1/15/2017. See the FAQ under "Will you hold by beers, and for how long"

 

Wow, that's crap. I guess last year Resolute was the last beer released? Considering these last 2 beers are going to be released right before Christmas, most people will probably have 3 weekends to choose from to get them. I've thought a lot of this society has been kind of lame, but this actually makes me a little mad. I'll probably end up forfeiting those beers that I already paid for. Good riddance to the Horizon Society.

 

Im pretty sure last year a bottle or 2 was carried over into the start of this year so Resolute was not the last bottles of the society.

 

What were they then? I know I didn't go to Harrisonburg between Resolute Day and February and I'm almost certain I didn't forfeit any bottles last year, so maybe it was an optional bottle(s)?

 

Gilt is a carry over from 2015

 

^^This. Gilt was the last HS bottle of 2015 and also the first "exclusive" member beer for 2016 members. I believe Bros even stretched out the deadline to pickup bottles for '15 members several months past their January deadline since it took so long for that final beer to be ready and that was a beer that was promised to them under memberships terms in 2015.

 

With the limited time period to pick up the last 2 included bottles I do wish Resolute was the last beer available. I'm sure a lot of people make a special trip to pick up their bottles and for those who live long distances away or rely on others to pick up bottles for them making a 2nd trip within a month or two's time just isn't possible. That would certainly be a suggestion for this coming year. Have Resolute Day in November end the membership as far as the last beers available to purchase or be included while allowing into December/January for members to grab their bottles. The fact that they didn't mention the 3rd bottles supposedly available to purchase for 2016 leads you to believe it has been scrapped for this years members or it will be a situation similar to Gilt which is somewhat a pain.

 

Ha! Gotta love an industrious vulture! you made me chuckle.

 

Someone posted that the 3rd bottle definitely has been pulled from 2016 but will be one of the beers offered for 2017 HS. As much as it stinks not to be able to purchase 1 more "exclusive" bottle for this year I'm on board with this so they can just be done with this year after those last two bottles open up around Dec 16th. Now those who decide not to renew for 2017 will likely be upset since the plan was to have this bottle available but was decided to pull back for this year. But if they are so upset with Brothers at this point they would be contradicting themselves little by going ahead and purchasing the bottle anyway. At least we will have received all of the included bottles by the Jan deadline and they did hit the mark on the promised 6-8 "exclusive" bottles.

 

I might, I'd rather do that than let them sell my bottles.

 

How generous! Though you could offer to help out a fellow member and hold it onto him so he won't lose it. That's a bit greedy of you.

I'm sure you can find someone to pick up and hold onto them for a bit. If you can't find some one on BA, check Reddit or Facebook. Toss them a beer as thanks and everyone is happy. No reason to lose out on beer you owe.

 

That was pretty generous of me wasn't it!!

 

Horizon Society is definitely the gift that keeps on giving. By mid-2017, I expect the brewery higher ups will have cut off all communication with their uppity customers, an edict will be sent out to pick up your beers within the next 5 working days or else they'll be sold on auction sites, and the Hoarders Exclusive Resolute Variant will be announced as ResoLut Note - a 50/10/10/10/10/10 blend of Resolute and each of the fruited Fut Notes. And then I expect Horizon Society to be abruptly canceled.

 

Email was sent out just a few minutes ago. Main points

- Fire Thieft (Smoked Imperial Stout) and Crimson Lake (Sour Red w/ Raspberries) still estimated to be available around Dec 16th. These are both INCLUDED bottles so nothing needs to be done by members other than picking these up when ready.(of course scheduling your pickup is preferred)

- 2nd half deadline to pickup beers has been pushed 1/31/2017. below are the 2nd half beers / items are;
* Spiegaleu glasses
* Gilt
* Dalliance
* Verdure with Passion Fruit
* Verdure with Pineapple
* 2016 Members included Resolute (x2)
* Double Barrel Resolute
* Coffee Resolute
* Chocolate Hazelnut Resolute
* Fire Thief
* Crimson Lake

 

Since I know not everyone is in the Facebook group, there have been a few reports of gushing/off flavors with the Chocolate Hazelnut Resolute bottles. Also reports of undercarbed regular Resolute bottles. Heads up.

 

Cracked 2 (of 12) reg Resolute's about 2 weeks ago and had no issues whatsoever. Don't know the bottle numbers. Will be opening 2 (of 3) choc/haz for Christmas and New Year's, with all 3 bottles being between #266-279

 

Yep, I've seen a few go up for trade here in the last few days as well. I'm thinking about making a thread in the trade forum to warn people, I think its pretty shitty that people would attempt to trade a risky bottle.