Other Half Brewing May 2017

No I dont think its directly proportional but I have no idea. I think potentially the only people who would be upset with a 1 or 2 4 pack increase in limits later on and by later I mean a day or two (and I really just put that in there so they could clear our the remaining stock) would be people who came from far away or the traders/sellers. I dont know how much of a hassle it is to hold on to remaining stock for longer than 4 hrs or a day. I dont own or operate a brewery but it doesnt seem like it would be that much of a pain.

Basically just seems weird to sell out 2-3 hrs after opening, that doesnt seem like it should be happening. And as breweries become more focused on serving locals (which OH seems to be focused on) lowering limits to allow for more people (esp those who cant make it by 9am on a saturday) seems like the best path.

 

I'm visiting Other Half this Saturday for the first time, can anybody tell me if immediately after a can release is an OK time to grab a few pints in the tap room? I've heard the tap room itself is absurdly small but I'm trying to figure out if it clears out shortly after the release or continues to be a madhouse until later in the afternoon.
If I head there on Sunday instead is traffic due to the Mets game going to be a nightmare?
Any input is appreciated.

 

From my experience the tap room does not clear out much, if at all, at any point during a Saturday.

As for Sunday, where are you traveling from? (Baltimore...?). If you are coming from the south traffic for the Mets game, which is usually only an issue in the immediate vicinirt of flushing, would have no impact. Also, the Mets are sucking dick right now..and that is coming from a die hard, watch every inning Mets fan.

 

I'd be coming from Lodi, NJ so I can take either the Lincoln Tunnel or the NJ Turnpike. I believe from what you are saying, aside from the dick sucking, it may be better to take the Lincoln Tunnel to err on the safe side.

 

Desperately need the new taproom to open.. stopped by around 7 and the line for a pour/ growler was out the door. IT IS TUESDAY NIGHT! Wow!

 

When is the new tap room supposed to open?

 

Here is my 2 cents: I've only had a few OH beers, and while they have been excellent, there is simply no way that I'm going to wake up early Saturday (or Saturday after Saturday like some do), take an hour train ride from Queens, stand in line for...what..,an additional hour, maybe two, for a few four packs of beer, and then spend another hour on the train back to Queens.

I understand that there isn't a commensurate passion for beer equally distributed per user on this site, but I can't see how the current practice is anything but ludicrous. I'm glad they are making the necessary accommodations to meet the demand, though it seems like they were a bit slow to respond to it.

If there was better can distribution, then I'd be all over it, but so far I've only seen Imaginary Greenscapes, All Green Everything, and Daydream in Green on tap in random locations. I'd really love to get into their beer, but there's no way that I'd be interested in doing so if it means traveling to their brewery early in the morning for most releases. Fortunately, this seems more like an temporary "growing pain" than a permanent distribution strategy. Hopefully.

 

The tap room will be crowded and the lines will be a tad long because of growler fills but you can also drink in the section adjacent to the tap room where they sell cans, there is a bit more room there once the line dies out.

 

Here's another data point. I got in line a few minutes after 10:30am and the line was nearly all the way down Garnett. I missed Cabbage and Double Mosaic Daydream by approx. 10 minutes. Forever Simcoe is a fine consolation prize.

 

My general rule is, if you want to absolutely 100% gurantee you get all varieties be in line at 8:30.

Of course there are plenty of times you can get in line later, but im not sure there is ever a need to be in line earlier.

 

Hopefully OH has a lot of literal fair weather fans, weather

From what I read in a recent article, they do not have any plans to drastically increase production.

They're making tons of cash doing it the way they're doing. No middlemen distributors taking a slice of the pie, no stock sitting on shelves losing quality/value.

If you don't like hanging out on the train, I'm afraid you'll just have to keep slumming it at the half dozen good breweries in queens and northern brooklyn.

One thing I think they should do is have an online pre-order/pre-payment system. You put in the quantities you want, pay for them, maybe select a 1hr pickup window, then on Saturday you just walk in with your order # or whatever and walk out with your beer. If you fail to pick it up in say, 90 minutes, your order is refunded and the beer is up for grabs. To make it a little more "fair", they could make it a lottery instead of a "crash the website at 12:01 AM" kind of thing

I understand that they don't know quantities until Friday, but they could be conservative with the online allotments or cancel later orders that exceed the can count.

 

I have heard this is how RaR does it and it has been very successful. I think more and more breweries will move this way. I know many businesses around popular breweries have filed complaints and stuff about lines. Also who wants to wait in line when you can pay online and go pick it up.

 

No kidding! I was there last night too. I hadn't been in a few months and thought I'd come by for some quick and easy pours. I thought the half dozen people standing outside of the door were just hanging out, then I realized it was the line. Can't wait for the expansion!

 

Certainly there are pros and cons between third party and first party distribution. No doubt that cutting the middle-man entails more direct profits for OH, but it also severely limits beer availability and ability to expand your fan-base. Not to mention the inconvenience to potential customers. I won't get into the economics of which strategy may be more financial viable, because that's obviously beyond my ability to calculate, but clearly brewery-only distro ultimately limits how many people you reach.

I mean, I'm a ten minute walk from LIC Beer Project, and a short train ride to SingleCut and other North Brooklyn breweries, so I certainly have a plethora of options, but I do want to help support other NYC breweries at the same time. However, if @NJNYC732 is correct in saying that the best way to guarantee all variety of OH beers released is to arrive on a Saturday at 8:30am, then that's simply not a good long-term strategy, and just becomes an inconvenience to consumers, both actual and potential.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm pissed or angry at OH, but just as a fan of beer, it seems their strategy helps them at the expense of the consumer, and that's just disappointing to me.

 

Tough to increase supply on the same 15 bbl system overall when they are brewing 2 or 3 times a day, and even tougher to get more of the beer into cans, as Iron Heart is fully booked with other breweries. Personally, I would rather wait in a shorter line for a larger lineup of options to choose from for growler fills.

 

Apparently OH bought their own canning equipment, but I dunno if they're using it yet.

That alone should help the line situation. If they can can whenever they want, they can do releases whenever they want. Instead of 4 beers on saturday they could do 2 on wednesday and 2 on saturday.

 

*at the expense of the range of casual consumer to intermediate beer geek consumer. The more extreme end are catered to pretty well.

 

Right. The canning schedule and retail sales will most certainly operate differently down the line. The canning line won't be running until other parts of the expansion are complete.

 

hahaha yes it did!

 

wow there is no way that is real...I hope....