Aslin Beer Co. Releases

Wow, 20 people -- you can get half that at the bar.

 

Fwiw, Neutrino bottle was great, so I'm not shitting on Aslin as a whole. My bottle of MoK was simply no bueno. I've had this beer several times and I know what it's supposed to taste like.

 

Todays line was frustrating. I really expected that preorders would already be prepackaged somewhere waiting to be picked up. Or atleast that they'd go through the line of preorders before letting in the other people to purchase the extra bottles.

As annoying as it was to have to wait two hours for something already purchased, Im not as down on Aslin as some are. This was their first real foray into this and they came out of the gate a bit ambitious going with 6 different bottles to start with. It DOES seem to me like they were TRYING to listen to feedback and make this work for as many as possible. When people complained about the fees on eventbrite they tried to eliminate that issue and move it elsewhere. When people complained about the online sales they tried to set some others aside for those who missed out.

Could it have been better? Sure. Hopefully its just a learning experience for them and they figure out a way to improve on it in the future.

 

I was out there at 2:30 pm to pick up my preorder bottles. I was able to grab a pour of DOS while waiting in line inside. Beer was outta control. No complaints. Grabbed bottles a glass and was back to my car around 3:45. There were def more than 20 people inside the brewery the entire time I was there. Are they really going to be limited to 20 ppl inside at a time?

 

Made it out to the brewery for the first time today. Didn't see any signs indicating why there were two lines, but the customer at the end of the walk-up line directed me to the pre-order line. At some point a third line emerged, without any explanation from the staff that was audible to the people waiting in line around me.

Spent 3-4pm in the pre-order line and gave up since only ~half the people in front of me had made it inside by then. At that point the doorman was letting waves people into the brewery every ~5-10 min that included several people from the other two lines, but only 2-3 people from the pre-order line. This uneven entry policy allowed the aforementioned customer from the walk-up line to make it inside the brewery while I was still ~15 spots back in the pre-order line (which would have probably translated to another 45-60 min of waiting).

If Aslin wants to serve draft during a release like this then they should really consider completely decoupling bar service from bottle pickup. Wicked Weed releases at the Funkatorium are a solid model for this type of service. There's a single line for pre-order and walk-up customers that feeds to a few staff (or volunteers!) who are dedicated to continuously processing bottle orders but NOT draft orders. A separate line serves people who want to enter to order draft. The limited capacity of the building still creates an unavoidable bottleneck for those who want draft, but at least bottle orders are continuously processed in a timely manner.

I heard this too. This has to be the worst customer service I've seen yet at a brewery. The appropriate response would have been "We're sorry for the wait. We appreciate your patience and we'll get you in as soon as possible." Instead, we got "you don't need to be here". I actually agree with him, and I doubt I'll be returning once I've finally managed to get my bottles.

 

The max occupancy has to do with the size of the facility, number and size of exits, as well as the type of facility. Possibly they can have more people when the garage door is open??

 

Even if the brewery was larger this wouldn't work. Having partial boxes of beer takes up a lot of space. Line would of moved faster if they sold them as a set and you couldnt pick and choose what you wanted when you bought the tickets. Maybe they could of prepackaged them if they did it that way. Sounds like releasing the extras on the first day was the problem. Should of waited until after the pick up deadline.

 

All of that. And also as the guy I was talking to in line said, why offer 6 brews? Should have used the capacity to brew twice as much say: small town, MOK, DOS. Offer a 6 bottle package, presell half of them, then sell the other half the next day, or next week. There was WAY too much going on: glass sales, T-shirt sales, guys using cash to buy extras (first brewery I've ever seen with a cash till). There should have been not cash or cards trading hands anywhere near the pickup line.

Also I swear the limit being more than one person can carry let trip to the car, slowed things down. 1 cs limits if its not trays of cans.

 

No drinking in the tap room for the time being

Aslin Beer Company
15 mins ·
We would like to thank everyone of you for your support over the past week and especially yesterday!

Unfortunately last night we ran into a hick-up/discrepancies between two regulatory authroities. We are working diligently to resolve the issue, but we will be amending our business model for the short time period. Until further notice we will be operating the tasting room as a to-go only bar. This means that we will be doing growler fills only moving forward, aside from bottle releases. For right now, we will allocate a certain amount of beer for each day. We will close for the day once all the allocated beer is sold out. Each day we will post what is avaialable for take out. With this allocation we hope to keep the doors open Thursday through Sunday for take-outs. This change is only temporary and should not be in place long term, however at this time we do not have a timeframe of how long until we revert back to our previous business model. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to continue to receive your support moving forward. Below are the details for today’s release.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23 Release:

We will be releasing 1 keg of the following beers with prices. Limits are 128oz per person and 64oz per beer. When sold out we will be closed for the day. We have limited growlers for sale ($5) so please bring your own if possible. We also have our new limited run glasses, t-shirts, & hoodies for sale. We will be serving/allowing in apporximately 20 people at a time in the brewery. WE WILL NOT FILL THIN LONG NECK GROWLERS!!

Pre-sale bottle purchases can pick up bottles anytime between 3pm and 10pm.

•Laser Raptors: 32oz - $12, 64oz - $24
•A Small Town In Ontario: 32oz - $12, 64oz - $24
•The Grapeness: 32oz - $12, 64oz - $24
•Berliner w/ Peach & Cinnamon: 32oz - $12, 64oz - $24
•Bringing Sexy Back: 32oz - $12, 64oz - $24
•Cocoa Mapalm: 32oz -$12, 64oz - $24
•Fair Weather Friend: 32oz - 12, 64oz - 24
•Stellar Parallax: 32oz - 12, 64oz - 24

 

Sounds like it'll be another shit show at 3pm, which is the only time I have available to get my bottles. If the bottle sales slowed the line down last night, growlers fills will be 10x worse.

 

Demand so high forced to go full on Tree House for the time being.

 

Holy shit at all of this.

 

I love Aslin, but suddenly that widget error isn't looking so bad.

 

Today must have been the right day for pickup. Was in and out within 2 minutes. Nice of them to start doing pickups before 3.

 

1. No additional bottles drawing 100+ people who stuck around

2. No tap room sales/pours

Glad it was much easier for you. It was a mistake of them to release additional beers after an online sale.

 

well maybe there will less growler fills than crowler and bottle sales as peeps have a slightly harder time (not impossible ) conducting trades with growlers.

 

Leaving from Delaware to head down. Hopefully they'll have some stuff left to fill when I get there tonight.

 

They fucked themselves by not allowing mug club to pick up early and release extra bottles the same day. They no longer need to build the hype. Don't have everyone show up at the same exact time.

Mug club wed.
Prevsale thurs
Extras Fri.

 

And as others said the fact they moved the walk up line through over folks that already paid chapped my ass.

Sell beer on non taproom days. All hands in deck to facilitate orders. Still frustrates me how new companies don't have the foresight to bring in people who have gone through this before. Sub contract a dude from trillium or something for a month. Everyone doesn't need to make the same mistakes.

 

I thought it went well today, minimal wait and got to get some growlers too. Only slight issue I had is when I went to get my bottles they said I already picked them up cause my name was crossed off, pretty much a non issue as they believed me when I told them I didn't pick them up. They need some kind of electronic system to scan tickets as they come in,pen and paper cross off system may cause more human errors. Common name too could be an issue....