2017 New Glarus Thread

I got some I.

Asked the guy at the beer Depot last week if that was the plan and he said yes. Facebook comments contradict saying they are keeping the 750s. Time will tell.

 

Nailed it!

But....there will be much FOMO and butt hurt in September. Folks undies will be bunching like crazy for that release.

 

From Facebook:

"Our second R&D release is coming up quickly! This time the R&D is Vintage 2016. Souring beers since 1994 – this American Sour has already cellared one year in the bottle. Vintage 2016 features Sour Blonde citrus funk balanced by aged hops and notes of oak picked up during the barrel aged fermentation.
The R&D release will be Friday and Saturday, August 11&12. The release will begin at 10 a.m.! Bottles are $15 each, with a limit of two bottles per person per day.! Remember your valid Drivers License, it is required and is non negotiable. Finally, there will be food, LaFortuna wood fired pizza will be serving up their delicious pizzas in the courtyard!
Our final R&D beer release will be September 22 & 23. The same weekend as Oktoberfest in the Village of New Glarus."

 

10 a.m.? Damn. 9 a.m. was much better suited to my work schedule.

 

Dumb question but can you bring your New Glarus glasses for refills at the brewery rather then having to buy the glass? They're cool, but I don't need 10 of them and get 2 each time I visit.

 

Kind of bummed it's back to two bottles for this one. I might actually be there, but only for Saturday and won't have anyone with me. Not complaining about having two, but four would've been nice. Only the second release I'll have made it to, as I live over a thousand miles away and it just worked out by coincidence that I'll be out there.

 

Even including shipping and customs, per bottle it actually can be comparable to order something like 3F direct from Belgium if you order in bulk, and most would agree that 3F is better than NG Vintage (including me, and I love Vintage).

I think that's what he was saying, plus the fact that it's shipped right to your door instead of going to a release and getting only two bottles for your trouble.

 

Yes, I've brought glasses back to avoid buying more. It's not a problem.

,

 

Strict 1 cs limit per account until there's more supply.

 

I do it every time.

 

I think that's an irrelevant comparison though. Surely I could fly to Belgium and bring back all sorts of good stuff and have a cost per bottle price lower than $15, but you can't exactly factor out all the overhead. You could make that same case for flying to any bottle release that you think is "better value" than NG Vintage. But again, that's a silly statement to make due to all the other costs and time involved. That "sub-$15" whatever bottle, in reality, is 3, 4, 5+ times the $15 bottle cost. Or you're sitting on large quantities just to try to justify dividing up that overhead. The true argument is if it's worth the higher net cost of a bottle you've probably had 30 times before vs a $15 NG one-off vintage.

 

I'm a little confused by this comment. Didn't he say that he's including shipping and customs in his estimate? What other overhead would there be?

 

I don't see how it is an irrelevant comparison at all. In fact, if you want to factor in "overhead" (including time), NG R&D's are way more expensive than an order from Belgium.

I can go online to one of the Belgian sites that ships today, order a full box of beer, and pay about $19 for a 750ml of 3F OG. That includes shipping, so all overhead is included. Sure I have to buy a certain number of bottles depending on the site to maximize shipping, but I've never had a problem passing on bottles to friends at cost and just keeping what I want. So the initial cost is higher, but I recoup that value. Hypothetically, let's say I keep six bottles. 6 x $19 = $114. Filling out an order takes me 10 minutes, if that. If I value my time at about $25 per hour, that's an additional $4.16 for a total of $118.16 for six 750ml bottles of world class gueuze or about $19.70 per bottle.

NG is $15 without taking into account all the overhead you're talking about. I have to drive to New Glarus, that's 1/2 to 3/4 of a tank of gas. Let's say half, to be conservative. Half a tank of gas is about 6 gallons, 6 x $2.20 = $13.20. If I'm in and out at the brewery, it's about 3 hours round trip. 3 hours x $25 = $75. Let's say I buy two bottles: $30 + $75 + $13.20 = $118.20. That's $59.10 per bottle of gueuze that is a novelty to drink, but not as good as it's Belgian counter parts.

So, in actuality the one-off Vintage (which has been released three times now, so not sure if it really qualified as a one-off, if anything the Vintage '14 would be a one-off as it had a three year base blend compared to two for both '15 and '16) has the higher net cost. Even stripping time and gas from the "overhead" - NG is more expensive on a per ounce basis. So the real argument is whether it is worth it to tick a new beer at a higher cost or drink one a classic style of that beer, made by arguably one of the best brewer/blenders of that style in the world, that beer for considerably less money.

BTW - My point in sharing this is not to say that nobody should go to New Glarus, rather just to encourage people to think about the real cost. I'm still going to go to the release - my wife and I have been going since the R&D Sour Ale release and at this point it's more about the experience of going into town and grabbing lunch, some bakery, and so on than the actual R&D beer. But it has certainly taken a bit of the fun out of the event knowing the R&Ds have almost doubled in price since we started going, and I'm effectively paying 50% more this year than I did for the same beer last year.

 

Can we start a new thread for math problems?

 

So anyway yeah.

Me and a few buddies will be up Friday morning sometime before open crackin bottles. Probably nothin too wet and wild but should have a couple/few fun ones.

We'll be there most of the morning waiting on friends so if you see us (I'll provide a more reasonable way to do that closer to the event) stop by.

 

Wow you really added a dollar value to your weekend time.... smh...
I'll keep it simpler for you. $30 < $300-400

/ridiculous math problems...

 

Last year I went to New Glarus for just about every R&D release; and usually spent several hours, anywhere from 2-4hrs each time, sharing beers and meeting new people. Never once did I consider my time spent as "indirect labor" accounted into the cost of my bottles.

 

Wait hold on - you mean people actually do this stuff for fun?

 

The point is the price per bottle. It's like saying that an $8 bomber of IPA is cheaper than a four-pack of the same IPA for $18. It is, I guess, but it's a far worse value. @thebigredone is talking about value, not straight price, and when most would agree that the true blue Belgian stuff is of comparable or higher quality, that value is even more of a difference.

Again, I feel the need to state that I love Vintage and would certainly buy some if I was able to attend this year (the first R&D I'll be missing since VSB). I'll definitely be looking to trade for some because I really enjoy NG's take on the style.

 

Well nobody is arguing quality. I don't have a preference over the other, so I feel it's a moot point. NG Vintage is fine and 3F and Belgian lambics are fine. It's all a matter of taste, which is a separate discussion. The point is that trying to justify a bottle "cost" by sheer quantity is silly. Hence why I cited $30 vs $300. Would you have the same stance if it was a $10,000 investment to equal out the bottle cost/value/whatever? That is the same concept after all.

We've digressed too far from the point of the thread, which is beer and only beer, so I say we just let it go.