Other Half Brewing July 2017

Bottles of Mosaic,Twig and Nuts were available today at open. Have to say, I had high hopes for Coir Boyz but everything about it reminded me of high school drinking OJ and Malibu.

 

How about if OH let you buy a pallet with a 10 case minimum? That'd be a VERY interesting line.

 

Would love to see them make an orange-juicy looking DDH imperial brown ale

Jesus you've come on leaps and bounds

 

Thank you

 

@dhaakon keep on posting, big fan of your mathematics, theories and observations In general I think OH runs a great business and is a great brewery to be a customer of, but the crappy part of the beer culture that is unfortunately part of this whole scene needs to be continued to be called out.

 

Fully agree with @dhaakon, it's become nearly impossible to get OH cans at all nowadays unless you are willing to stand in line for hours most Saturdays, and I want them to take measures to make it easier for us regular neckbeards with plans to sleep past 6am on a goddamn Saturday to take some of those sexy cans home every once in a while.

But unfortunately OH is just a hype machine now. They want the lines, they want to post the ***11:30am UPDATE- special collab sold out*** on social media, they want the writeups in NYT. That's why they keep doing these silly collaborations with breweries who make THE SAME BEERS OH does on a regular basis. There's no difference, nothing Monkish or The Answer or Trillium or any brewery specializing in hazy IPA do any different from OH to enhance these beers they brew together. Same is true for a vast majority of IPA or pale ale collabs between breweries that specialize in hazy IPAs. But they all know it drives the hype, and they will continue to conduct business this way as long as it guarantees a big line and an early sellout.

Can't blame them, honestly, if I owned OH I would be pushing to do the same- it's such easy money. And in an industry where raising prices to meet demand is frowned upon (unlike wine and liquor), this is the best way to maximize profits. Just sucks on my end since I can only very rarely get their beer now.

 

I think there's a bit of forest/trees going on in here recently.

Yes I hate the shit that goes along with having lines. The littering, the pissing, the effect on neighbours, the potential drunk driving etc etc. Yes the sad tossers buying case loads to resell (which I think is probably overstated on here), or to post pictures of on Instagram (don't follow them) - also a weak side of the beer scene.

However I disagree with it being "nearly impossible" to buy cans. In the last month I've bought cans of DDH Ain't Nothing and DDH ACE. Hand on heart if I had to list all the beers OH have released in the last month, in order of how much I wanted to get hold of them, these two would have been at spots 1 and 2. I waited in a three person line for the former, and a one person line for the latter.

If us "locals" (whatever that means - maybe "normal OH fans" - because I've seen people unloading cases from their car in my-very-local-to-OH neighborhood) miss out on a few crazy collabs then who cares. I tried fully loaded at my local spot last weekend. Tasted nice. Would take many of their regular line up over it though.

Between normal releases, growler fills, and most beers popping up at bars/growler stores all over the city - we're pretty well catered to.

As for the "hype" and social media stuff. Hype to me has always meant when the product doesn't live up to the heavy marketing. Yeah there have been some misses but for the most part their beers are great. So i don't agree with that word popping up the entire time. As for social media - it's 2017. How many brands in any consumer-targeted type of space don't have a presence these days? The ones that don't are either run by eccentrics, work in a specialist niche that doesn't require it, or have the luxury of having such a guaranteed sell through that they can do without. Or a combo of the above. How can OH be criticized for that, for promoting their business? Every other brewery in NYC does it as well and it's not an issue. As for posting line/quantity updates if they didn't do that then immediately someone would be complaining about driving there only to find out they'd run out and why the fuck won't they post more info.

Dropping limits would be great. Not convinced it would do away with the lines though - and personally for me that's the main issue - the line being disruptive for the local area. Not dropping the limits so I can get my hands on every single beer. Which is what the sour grapesy theme seems to be these days. If you're above the liner uppers then show it by not giving too much of a shit. Otherwise it just seems bitter.

And lastly please can we stop pointing to [other super hawt brewery that apparently has a better way but is located in rural MA]. Someone point to a brewery that's just as popular as OH, that operates in a semi-residential, semi-industrial part of NYC that does things a lot better and still maintains the same level of sought after. Then let's talk. As far as I know none of us run a commercial brewery in NYC so clearly don't actually have much of a clue about what's really best for business.

 

I like beer

 

Do you really like beer, or are you just saying it because you saw it?

 

This.

I said that to myself watching people line up at 9pm for the Monkish/Trill collabs. What can 3 (admittedly great) breweries add to a one time only beer to make it that much better? It's not like those 3 brewers coming together imparts some magic in the hops. Forgetting the fact that most collabs underwhelm to begin with.

The more I think about it I really didn't like Fully Loaded

 

As Is needs to move this to the following week since I'm on vacation.

 

Something else I noticed yesterday leaving the brewery, I had no idea OH had a warehouse on the corner of smith and center. Poked my head in and saw floor to ceiling cans, palettes of tekus and some foeders. Some day that whole block is gonna be one mega brewing facility!

 

Yeah I saw this too, then i realized I used to see pallets and Pallets of cans in the brewery, but 90% of them disappeared about a year ago.

On the other arguments, I have always thought doing a combination of online purchase and tradition can releases has been the way to go. Drop a link for 1 4pk of every beer being released this weekend for people to pre purchase online and if you miss out or want 3 cases, go stand in line. If you are like me and just want a 4pk of each beer, Ill buy online and then pick up later. Limit it to 1 per person and implement strict guidelines on ID to pick it up.

If you make the pick up time later on Sat and Sunday it will discourage double dipping. This would theoretically decrease lines on Saturday. They can still claim they sold out. Then if people dont pick it up, dump the rest of the beer on Tues the next week and reel people into the taproom.

Just thought I would throw my dissertation in.

Edit - Referencing other breweries that do it this way - Finback for some of their releases, Fonta Flora when the "locals" argument came up last year did this, and Wicked Weed in the old days did this for their Angel Series because they faced a lot of the same complaints.

 

LOL.

 

I'm pretty sure Finback does it the opposite way though. AFAIK they only offer cases (mixed or full) for presale. So its basically them saying you can preorder but you need to commit to at least a full case. That provides an incentive for Finback to offer the preorders as some people (I have done this before) will be forced into buying more than they had planned in exchange for the added convenience of no line and a larger pick up window.

I like your idea. I just am not sure what incentive there would be for Other Half at this point. In fact, people would probably then complain about how slow the tap room and pick up process is at those times (as I have personally experienced at Finback).

 

People will complain, also the work commitment, time commitment, processing online payment and refunds all cost money and eat into profits. It will cut down on the Sat line and it would push more of the purchasing process on the consumer, force them to make decisions rather than just flat out complaining.

Currently my opinion still stands, if you want the beer get growlers on Tuesday. It stinks for those people coming for the weekend.

OH makes amazing beer, they are going to make money, its just where their priorities lie and if they are willing to cut into profit margin to make it easier for more people to consume their beer without going to a secondary market. I'm not saying its right or wrong they can operate their business however they want. I think they are an amazing brewery and make the best beers in NYC on par with any other NE Brewery.

 

So.... Is there going to be a double batch this weekend?

 

You do realize they are in the business to make money, correct?

 

prove it

what time do you get in line?

how many like ur haul get?

/s