Bruery 2017 RS/HS Allocations

Now that I think of it, Instagram had someone from Terruex visiting monkish for a collab, maybe they brought back monkish lines to the tap room?

 

I agree. I got there at 8:45pm and finally got my. Ever at 9:40pm. That line DID NOT move. I'm assuming it was because they were understaffed.

I think a fix would be to open Terreux at noon but also closing off the original tasting for for members only as well.

Problem solved, members happy.

 

I think the biggest issue is the fact that 100% of the line was getting flights, which take a lot more time to serve (not to mention growler fills). Honestly I think if they did a prepaid token for taster, and kegs setup on the patio to pour the new allocations from it'd make it much better. Probably not nearly enough space to do that, but hey... its a thought.

Opening at noon should definitely be what happens next month though... I can't think of a good excuse not to.

 

100% they need to open at noon. If that doesn't solve the problem, sadly they need to roll back the friend feature. The outside bar also didn't take cash which was slowing things down a bit. The guy walking around with archive bottle pours was barely seen. I think I saw him once, from across the room during the course of 2 hours.

That being said, the staff was great and very friendly. I know they were doing the best they could with what they had to deal with. It was nice to see the brewers jumping in and picking up glass and helping out.

 

Totally agree with this, and it can't be stated enough. The Staff were AWESOME, and doing the best they could. Newer format on these SMM's this year, so hopefully for the next one they can get it working even better.

 

Got there just before 6, took about 45 minutes to get a flight. They had a little table set up to get your stamp that I wish I would have known about from the start. Could have just gotten my stamp and left.

They really need to open up at noon, or do as Jafix mentioned and have stations set up throughout the building to speed everything up.

 

Like a mini event style setup where there are stations. I can see that working really well. Spreads everyone out. I'm sure that's much easier said than done, but interesting idea.

 

Did you pay for a flight with your credit card? Since the Bruery's customer service is always on-point, I bet you could bring them your receipt with your name on it and as long as it matched your membership, I bet they'd stamp it for you. It's worth a shot if you're trying to get all of your stamps.

 

Bruery events are usually so seamless now, that I was pretty surprised how unprepared The Bruery was to handle SMM last night. I'm sure they'll make adjustments, but I waited in line for 30 min and it only moved about ten feet. The food truck was even out already and it was only like 6:45. I ended up just leaving and going to Bottle Logic. Judging from the amount of people who attended, I think their best option is to hold SMM at both Bruery and Terreaux to break up the amount of people at both spots. It wasn't a big deal for me since I live 10 minutes away, but would really suck for people who made a long trek.

 

Guys, really weird question, but how did this month's allocations at SMM taste?

 

I just don't see them splitting locations. I think it's safe to say they moved it to Terreux because they want people to start going to that location since its always slow. If you split the location 90% of them are still going to go to the OG spot because then they can just pick up bottles while they are there.

I can't stress this enough, the first one of the year is always screwed. What I don't know is how this is going to play out long term now that you can bring a friend and they have the stamps. They might be generating quite a bit more business than they anticipated, which is a great problem to have, but without extending hours, which I think is an obvious option, I'm not sure what else they can do.

My guess is they will extend hours to start at noon for the next one, and if that one is just as bad, they may need to adjust the bring a friend option (which I'm sure will upset some people too)

 

+1

I may have missed only one SMM over the years and January is always insanely packed. Wasn't it last year they spread the first SMM over Sunday and Monday?

I'd love for them to open the room earlier than 4:00 but think this problem largely solves itself in a couple of months.

 

2017 White Chocolate was very good, much better than years before.

 

I had a great time at this event. Boysenberry was great. Pommereux was a really good cider. I will always love WC, but somehow they really brought out the caramel notes in it this year. MW had a great roastyness to the coffee, I'm very satisfied. M3 is still keeping my wallet empty.

I didn't mind the 4PM opening (I'm not sure who complained about the noon opening first ), I got my flight and was out of there. Friendly people and great service as always.

 

Where does frucht boysenberry rank amongst the fruchts in terms of fruit flavor?

 

Frucht it... just buy some!

 

When I had it on tap in October I thought it was second only to Berazzled

 

I don't know much about cider - how does it compare to other Bruery sours like, say, Confession (maybe a similar profile since that's a sour w/ riesling grapes?)? Trying to figure out if I'd enjoy Pommereux or not.

 

I think it would be in the range of a "Sour Cider" in that same vein as Confession would be a "Sour Riesling". I found it closer to a cider than a sour to my palate. I enjoy some craft ciders every now and then and I found it to be very light yellow in color, medium carb with a complex, but not dry apple cider flavor. To me, it was as deceiving as White Oak on the nose, it smelled like a sour blonde, but tasted quite different. I'll try to go back on Friday and put a review in. It was good.

 

Pretty sure someone somewhere would still not be pleased.