Other Half Brewing December 2016

Will giving the beer a little stir or letting it sit for a while after opening (even in the fridge) "fix" this overcarb problem, or will it create new ones?

 

I agree with this assessment. For a BA beer, it was more carbed than expected, but nothing I'd scoff at. I think my main gripe the beer is that the roastiness (for lack of a better description) is strong to the point that it mostly drowns out the other flavors.

 

I heard that from a lot of people about regular IAL, and would agree. Would have loved a little more vanilla and bourbon.

 

Decided to let the remaining half of my Rye/Bourbon IAL sit in the fridge overnight. Took it out an hour ago to warm up a bit and started drinking it. It's better than last night, but still a real lack of bourbon presence.

 

Haha consider yourselves lucky to have any of the BA stouts. Missed this release and I'm not counting on any kegs of these guys popping up ever if past is prologue. Sad faces.

 

We were told there were 14 more to come so I wouldn't be too sad.

 

I still have a bottle of first stout OH made in 2014, many reports of it being overcarbed, might be time to open it and see if it calmed down.

 

Drank a bourbon/vanilla IAL before. Carbonation issues are overstated. Poured my bottle mindfully and had no issues. Agree with the sentiment that the vanilla and bourbon are a bit too subdued. It's a nice beer, but one bottle was enough for me. Really happy I was conservative in terms of my bottle purchases on Saturday. I enjoyed it, but I won't be craving another bottle.

 

Uh, it ain't overcarbed. It's vinegar. I had hoped the reports were wrong also, and sat on them for a while (had 3 bottles still unopened at the time, maybe 6 months ago). Opened one, tasted worse than any infected beer I've had, drain poured. A month later opened another, guess what?, drain pour. I didn't bother tasting the third because the taste lingered so badly on the others, and just poured it out.

Good luck with yours though

 

You should be extremely ecstatic that you didn't pay $15/bottle for average beers.

I just paid $15 for Sumi Ink which is 100% better than any OH stout I've had.

 

Shit. I still have one of these too. Been holding it for the hell of it.

 

If we're still shitting on Saturday ...

Got there at 9 on the dot, put me at the corner of Centre x Hamilton. I usually hit every OH release; it's nice to see some good friends & the OH crew. This was, by far, the slowest line I've been in nearly 2 years. Didn't leave until around 1, got everything I wanted except the Orbit (sold out when I had gotten to Smith x Center). Buddy of mine was lucky enough to grab one, so I'm not heartbroken.

The crew was working their asses off and was trying hard to keep people informed. There was definitely room for improvement on this release. Tons of empties and trash around the block. It was embarrassing. People had spoke about ticketing bigger demand events like this, but I'd argue there was no need to stack the deck this high for this release. Monkish was definitely going to draw a substantial crowd. There was no need to bring out even more neckbeards for the limited barrel aged stouts.

I'd be more than happy so see midweek releases, some form of ticketing, or even alternating releases to be 1 week hops, 1 week stouts (since there's 10+ coming down the pipe). Some notable ones staff told me were Orbit in apple brandy (definitely) and at least two others that I don't recall.

Regarding BUTS, I honestly thought it was a "good, not great" beer. Definitely glad I got to try it, but it was middle of the pack in terms of most OH releases IMO. Heat wasn't nearly as present as I thought, but drank incredibly juicy. In another week, it should be marvelous.

 

Not faulting them for it since it's a business after all, but I would guess this was an intentional move to move their stouts faster, knowing the big crowds would come out for the collab, at the expense of having everyone wait a crazy long time. Have to guess all of their stouts would have not sold out if it was a normal release.

 

I'm also going to beat a dead horse, but fuck it.

Move it to BPT/EventBrite. Designate half of the allocations for pick-up on Saturday and the other half reserved for Sunday. If they bottle/can mid-week it's not going to kill them to hold onto a half batch for another 24 hours.

You eliminate the long lines and, by association:
1. people loitering in front of residences for long periods
2. littering/defacating in front of said residences
3. unnecessary police involvement

Because the sales are processed online, you no longer need to have an entire crew there on Saturday to hold down multiple registers.

Also, I would think they'd generate much higher taproom sales with this release method. I'm sure ~50% (at minimum) of release attendees don't stick around for on-site drinks because the lines congest the entire garage.

/rant

 

Well thought out post. I trust OH to continue to run a great business and adapt as they think is necessary.

One potential positive impact of this plan is there is certainly a segment of OH customers who don't go to releases because they don't want to be part of scene that includes illegal drinking, littering, line-cutting, etc. Those people have been pushed out of the customer base who buys cans. I also wonder if there was no drinking in line, how many of the people who use the release as a block party would show up? Would they get in line so early? Some wouldn't making it easier and quicker for everyone else who obeys the laws to get cans.

 

All good points. Playing devils advocate here. But one negative would be this would open up sales to a much much larger group of people that normally wouldn't venture out to the release due to uncertainty of getting cans, and might cause them to actually be harder to get. As an extreme example: for the A Night To End All Dawns release there were a few people from Virginian that got tickets for a set and they had literally never had a Kane beer in their life. If it was just released at the brewery they probably would not have ventured up for it.

 

Could be. At the end of the day when demand exceeds supply, someone is going to get shut out. Good news though OH continues to crank out more people lessening this problem.

And one more thing, no proxies for on-line sales.

 

don't forget pissing

 

But with this method, if that were to happen, they can just lower limits without needing to worry about staffing later into the day / into the next day (if that's truly the reason they currently let people buy whole cases of a beer that they must know is going to be over-subscribed)