Aslin Beer Co. Releases

Did anyone else get inconsistent bottle fill levels?

 

Mine are like the one in the middle except for the Mapalm I got, which is filled to the little lip on the top of the bottle.

I thought today went well, they could definitely fix/improve a few things and I'm sure they will as they have been pretty good about listening to customer complaints/suggestions.

 

I've been to every hyped brewery from Virginia to Vermont outside of Maine and they all just suck until they establish expectations but every single one of them are hyper local with outputs that are not in meeting with the demand of the trading scene right now. But yes you could look at others who have paved the way and adjust per your circumstances. It is what it is right now.

 

Anyone try any of the bottles yet? Had a neutrino yesterday which was super hazy though still fairly green.

 

A day late on the but figured I would pass this post along from Aslin's page since no one has yet...
___________________________________________________________________
We would like to thank everyone of you for your support over the past week and especially yesterday!

Unfortunately last night (Thursday) we ran into a hick-up/discrepancies between two regulatory authorities. 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 available 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 time frame 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. .....

Happy Holidays!
Aslin Beer Co. Team

 

I was in line when this was said. I agree it wasn't the best response but it was definitely not "You don't have to be here." To provide context it was one person complaining that he bought pre ticket sales and the guy said something along the lines of "The pre ticket sales did not guarantee lines, we gave a two day window for you to pick up. If you don't want to wait in line, you don't have to be here. Come back later tonight or tomorrow."

As far as pre sale tickets, I agree they did not say that there would be no line, the point was to give the most availability to the most people and they did.

In my mind, this week Aslin pulled out all the stops, they did pre sale because everyone said they didn't like lines. They removed fees because people were arguing about fees. They put out extra bottles because people complained about pre sales. Yes, some of this was made on the fly, but they did this for US.

As it relates to other breweries, when Trillium & Treehouse started, they didn't have in house pours and Aslin does. I agree there has to be a solution but getting perspective from other breweries may not be the answer. I have faith they will figure it out and will continue to have world-class customer service that goes along with their world-class beers.

It's the holiday season, take a break from complaining about the minutiae and look at the bigger picture. Happy Holidays!

 

Made it out to the brewery to pick up my bottles, I got there and no one was there. Only things left on tap were Cocoa Mapalm and the sour saison. I understand they can't give samples but I didn't want to pay $25 for a growler fill of a beer that I've never had before. Granted it was my first time there and I haven't had any of their beers but the prices were more reasonable for the bottles. Hope to get into one of them tonight. They said they'll be selling off whatever was left from people not picking up their bottles.

 

The fact that you used it to refer to Aslin's beer and their customer service is proof that the expression "world class"
Is essentially meaningless on this site. Its basically a synonym for "good" at this point. What, in general, makes world class customer service in your eyes?

I don't understand that, why can't they give samples? I've had both of those beers and honestly I think they both suck, so I guess I'm not surprised that they don't let people sample them.

 

Sure, there was certainly no guarantee against lines for pre-sale ticket buys. It’s the management of the line that was the problem. You’re welcome to disagree, but I (and I’m sure many others) think that it’s reasonable to expect that:

• A pre-order system should facilitate pickup throughout the designated pickup window that’s far more efficient than what was achieved on Thursday.
• Someone lining up for walk-up bottles should not be prioritized well above someone lining up at the same time for pre-order pickup.

At the same time, I completely understand that there’s a learning curve to planning releases like this. You’re right that Aslin busted their ass to respond to customer complaints, and for that reason I’m sure that the next release will be much smoother. Concerted attention to the many small logistical decisions that go into planning an event like this (aka “minutiae”) is what drives improvement in the process.

As far as bottle fill levels go, it’s in the brewery’s best interest to make sure that they are filling to accurate levels to comply with federal regulations. The last time I checked, the TTB allowed for +/- 2% error on bottles this size, which translates to ~1 tablespoon. Noncompliance can impede the brewery’s ability to sell you their beer, which is not a result that anybody wants

 

Agree with the above.

For bottle fills mine were fine, and I'm sure if you contact them they will handle accordingly.

 

They do "try" but its not a sophisticated enough operation to even be "good" service, much less WC, IME. Humongous line every time, not particularly efficient line management. I had leaky crowlers not really addressed. I've posted in this thread a couple times, but I'm trying to become less invested in Aslin going forward.

Their beer is pretty good/unique to shelf VA stuff, but not worth so much time standing around in a strip mall in Herndon. I spent 30mins on tuesday, almost 2 hrs Thursday, $140, and got 9 750s and 3 500ml beers. Thats without the Eventbrite fees, which wouldnt have even alleviated the current complaintsat all, funnily enough. I'm planning to drink not trade, at this stage this is not worth it for me.

 

My fill level in my bottles is all really different (similar to that photo posted earlier). They had a Facebook photo showing a bottle tree so I guess they are hand filling each bottle which would explain this variation. That's pretty crazy for thousands of bottles.

 

We didn't discuss the shitshow that was on display Thursday afternoon in this thread either. This is actually the most promising news for Aslin in a while: mitigating the wait time by having more than one guy with an iPad taking on the tremendous line(s).

Lame for "mug club" members though, for sure.

 

Anyone have any insight as to how often Aslin will be bottling?

 

Looks like Aslin is looking for a new space..interesting!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=804183936387697

 

Aslin Beer Company
1 min ·
Cheers to a new year!

As the new year is quickly approaching, we wanted to let you know that Aslin Beer Co. will be leaving the Town of Herndon in 2017. This was not an easy decision to make but it's necessary in order to grow our business and fulfill our mission to create amazing beer and a great place to enjoy it.

We have not yet decided on our new location but are in the process of scoping out options and hope to confirm our new spot soon.

Until our new location is up and running, we will continue to operate as To-Go only to make our beer more easily accessible to more people. Beer will be limited through the next two weeks, but as of the second week of January it will released on a weekly basis. We will updated operating hours through the next few weeks.

2017 Mug Club members - you will be receiving a separate email shortly regarding how this affects your membership.

For this week, starting December 28, we will be making announcements each day for releases and hours.

From everyone at Aslin Beer Co. - thank you for your continued support. Feel free to stop by and chat or shoot us an email if you have any questions.

 

Was the move always planned or brought on because of the issues they had last week? I guess they need more space but I thought they just did some upgrades at the current one?

 

They have been planning to expand to other locations, but I had always heard they wanted to keep the existing location. I'm guessing last week's stuff may have affected those plans and now they are gonna cut bait and gtfo.

 

I'm holding out some strange hope that they would move closer to Bmore.

 

Hoping for bigger space, more capacity and closer to DC.