2016 Horizon Society

Maybe just flag the posts and email the trader. It's entirely possible they aren't aware. Partly why I posted it in here.

 

I'm opening a chocolate hazelnut tonight. I think the bottle number is in the 500s. After I open it I'll come back here and update everyone.

 

For SCIENCE!!

 

I think there have been 4-5 Choco/Hazel issues ( listed in a facebook poll, very scientific I know) Most seem to be lower numbers <200. We shall see. I have one bottle at #3....

 

Unless contamination happened on the bottling line during the bottling process of Chocolate Hazelnut, or the contamination came from the bottles themselves, then the contents of the bottles should all be the same, regardless of number. This isn't BCBS where they have hundreds of barrels, multiple bottling lines, and discrete batches. All of this beer was mixed together before going through the bottling line in one batch.

 

This is from their site:

"You are welcome to drop by to pickup but may encounter a significant wait depending on how busy we are,"

Has anyone had any issues just stopping by to pickup bottles without an appointment, I don't mind waiting?

 

I've never had any problems but they will take care of everyone else first (which is the way it should be). If no one is in front of you and the tap room isn't busy you might have your order in 10mins. But if there is other people picking up or busy in tap room you might be waiting a while. So if you can make an appointment.

 

Like ElGordito said above, you'll be fine as long as there isn't an event going on! I live locally and have never scheduled a pickup. You may have to grab a beer and wait 15 or 20 minutes, but the taproom does not have a lot of traffic unless there is an event (usually a Saturday). They often have 2 workers tending the bar, and generally one of them can fill your order while the other continues to pour for customers.

 

email regarding Choco/ Hazelnut and Horizon society just came out

 

Seems like the issues with this variant is in the majority of bottles. Those who had no problem consider yourself lucky. Double Barrel (those who have opened theirs) and Coffee do not appear to be impacted so no rush to crack those open. Also be wary of people trying to offload their CH bottles in trade groups without proper disclosure there is an issue with bottles. I have seen a few..

 

I love all the ft: that popped up as soon as the reports hit

 

Got to give some kudos to those across the boards actually letting folks know rather than just dumping a sub-par product on the trade market.

 

So, are they offering returns/exchanges?

 

I'm 100% confident that Brothers will figure out the wrong way to respond to this, whatever it is.

 

Yikes. What say you @BrosCraftBrew?

 

Yes.

Your confidence was misplaced in this case.

They already have said it.

I know it's become all the rage to shit on Brothers Craft but they did, in fact, send a professional email to Horizon Society members on Thursday, I think. They described what they're doing to investigate the issues and outlined a refund program. Say what you will about past blunders but I think they handled this one quite well.

 

While they may have said it in private emails to Horizon members, I haven't seen anything made public. Some of us traded for these beers, so it would be nice to know what will be done for us, if anything at all.

 

Horizon Society sux brahs!!!1!1!

So glad I didn't get involved with this, surprising moment of clarity given my horrible track record in societies and releases.

One good brew with occasional nice varients, does not a great brewery make.

 

A private email to a private group is not sufficient when at least half the Chocolate Hazelnut bottles were sold to the public at a brewery release. They need to announce this issue on their website and offer the same refund option to those that experience bad bottles. That's just basic customer service, especially when you run the risk of exploding bottles or someone opening this not over a sink. Can you imagine if some sad sack sits down on the couch with friends/family and cracks this rare brew to share and the damn thing gushes all over his coffee table and carpet? Because Brothers couldn't be bothered to PUBLICIZE THE ISSUE? At best they're ignorant, at worst they are trying to quietly handle this and avoid embarrassment. I noted their email mentioned nothing of the off flavors, just the carb issue. I found that a curious choice. I also noted the absence of a simple expression: "we're sorry". For all their challenges, you almost never hear the head of the brewery (or whoever writes their missives to the Society) say those words.

And that's really at the core of this thing, isn't it? I've watched for two years as Adam and maybe one or two others in the hierarchy poison their relationship with a significant portion of the Society who are bothered by the tone of their communications, the defensiveness and refusal to accept accountability, the tendency to deal with Society members as a pain in the ass to be managed rather than customers who deserve the benefit of the doubt and who fund your dreams with an upfront payment, and their seeming resistance to introspection and to accountability. And it's a damn shame because 90% of the people in the Brothers operation are world class customer service providers. That's the only reason I'm still in the group - I've met those people at Resolute Day and I want to support them. It's just too bad the aggressive and defensive communication style of one or two people at the top are damaging their reputation so badly.

To conclude, the shitting on Brothers is certainly uncomfortable and it's not overwhelmingly constructive. But it is the manifestation of 2 years of poor communication and mismanagement of customer engagement for their Horizon Society members coupled with some notable deficiencies in the liquid itself. And I feel Brothers is receiving the same kind of pissiness and disgruntled frustration that Adam has been dishing out to Society Members that say anything other than positive things and who fail to operate how he wants them to. "Customer is always right" seems anathema to one or two people at the top of Brothers and it is hurting them badly.

They need to get their QC straight. They need to put someone else in charge of communications to Horizon Society who actually enjoys engaging with customers and can handle challenges without getting defensive and accusatory. And they need to make a decision, as a brewery, what they want to be and how they want to be perceived. They may decide to step away from Horizon altogether because it's more than they can chew. But if they keep it, they need to do a serious self-evaluation to understand just how we got to a point where so many of their most loyal customers are increasingly turned off by their style and are openly expressing that frustration.

A wise man once told me "if you continually have problems with other people, maybe the problem isn't them?"

 

So, it's J Wakefield, Virginia Edition.