Sixpoint Beer Purchasing App

100% Agree, that's why Lagunitas Born Again Yesterday 18$ 12 packs at Trader Joes were a thing of beauty and shouldn't be a one-off thing.

 

No, non-craft beer geeks definitely are not going to pay that. And perhaps more important, the beer geeks who are paying $20 for a 4-pack of beer will migrate in droves to a $10 six-pack of beer or $18 12-pack of beer if they can get one with equal (or greater) quality and freshness. Of course, that option is not available right now though, so price is not a factor.

Exactly. Keep in mind "local" beer in 1910 meant beer that was brewed on the same block as you, i.e. in your neighborhood. Nowadays "local" sometimes means up to 100 miles away, which would have been a few days journey back when everything was done on horseback and carriage.

Perhaps in the future "local" beer will be brewed on planet earth, and "imports" will be from another planet or solar system

 

Well at least Budweiser Classic will be available in 2256 – according to Star Trek!

Cheers!

 

One thing to consider is that if they were not a one-off thing, the inventory may accumulate at retail stores and the product would no longer be consumed fresh. If not consumed fresh, the perception of the beer tanks, and that further decreases the velocity of sale. This becomes a positive feedback loop that eventually ruins the brand.

This is the great paradox right now in beer. Everyone would like the freshness, quality, and dynamic flavor of some of these newfound styles, but when you plug it into the traditional wholesale network for regular and consistent distribution, the whole model kinda falls apart.

So if scale is not the issue and distribution truly is the X-factor, perhaps there is a limit on how you can actually distribute the beer without the entire thing imploding?

Is there a way to tackle this problem?

@JackHorzempa @RobNewton @HeyLady @SixpointJMH @EnthusedAboutBeer

 

I think the Enjoy By series has done pretty well with this? While not the NE style the whole point is to distribute and consume as quickly as possible. I know initially each batch was limited to various markets so maybe they figured out the quantity to move it and not have it sit on the shelf.

 

yes, on a large scale, I cannot think of a better campaign that was executed....

but there is the critical difference that the West Coast IPA seems to hold up better than the NEIPA because of the difference on emphasis of bitterness vs. flavor/aroma....

in other words I think the NEIPA style is particularly sensitive to the stresses of traditional distribution, and absolutely necessitates either fresh consumption or consistent cold storage conditions and rather quick consumption vs. other styles of beer

 

When will Smoothie be on the ole app

 

On the subject of distributing the beer rather than focusing on elements of production...

I don't know how broad their distro is, but The Juice by Peak Organic (while only a pale ale) is a pretty good soft, fruity hoppy beer that we get here in NYC.

Also they're not brewing a huge volume, but there's definitely a distro component to the grimm stuff that we get. I'm curious to see what those beers are like when they can be had so much sooner after packaging, but for being hauled around over 2ish weeks, they're still excellent hoppy, northeasty ipas.

 

Shane, do you think the Brewers Association could play a useful roles here?

As a member of the Brewers Association (I am presuming you are a member) is this something you can request as an initiative?

From my perspective as a beer consumer this falls within the category of too much old beer sitting on beer retailer shelves.

Cheers!

 

I for one would participate in an experiment of letting a Green or Heady sit on the shelf and while I definitely agree with the West coast vs east coast there is still a significant hop presence in a lot of these beers. Time to invent a dedicated small kiosk fridge with branding to send out to retailers. Let me know if you want renderings.

 

I'd be curious to know if people would say similar things about west coast IPA if it was released today rather than at a time where there was a different kind of pressure on craft brewers.


I guess to the point of scalability, CCB Jai Alai, while still a fine beer, is one that didn't scale well, though I guess that could be for a number of reasons.

 

A couple of years ago I bought a case of Jai Alai that was very fresh (a couple of weeks old). That batch of beer tasted significantly different than prior batches. It tasted like it was many months old - more malt flavors as compared to hop flavors. I sent an e-mail message to the Cigar City person in charge of brewing operations and he replied that the batch I purchased "meets spec".

That was my last purchase of Jai Alai; if that beers is intended to taste that way ("meets spec") it is no longer a beer for me.

Was this batch a result of scaling up? I do not really know. The Cigar City guy told me that this batch was not brewed at the place they contract brewed at that time (Brew Hub) but frankly I took everything he stated with a grain of salt.

Cheers!

 

Let's talk about the most important thing. @Sixpoint when's the release of Smoothie and maybe something with a bean in it??

 

Wasn't the issue with contract brewing? Toppling Goliath has the same issues. It seems like they couldn't monitor QC as strictly as they could out of their main facility.

 

I will share with you my discussion with the Cigar City person in charge of brewing operations:

Me: "Was this batch of Jai Alai brewed at your contract brewer Brew Hub?"

Cigar City Dude: "No".

Take that FWIW.

Cheers!

 

@SeanEDPBK @Urk1127 @emannths

Funny you asked about that. Just had a review with our tech team and the app is being taken out of beta mode and sent for review and approval to the iTunes/App store with Apple, and followed up with the Google Play store (Google has a much less rigorous and time-consuming approval process). I'm going to be fine-tuning it with the team over the next week or so for it to be live for our 2nd release...which to answer your question...

....the Smoothie (+ 1 other special beer) is only 2 weeks away now (release on Saturday, October 21st), and this will be the first wave of beers sold directly through the official Sixpoint 4.0 app. We're amped! I think we'll start a new thread for the October releases once we have the full details, which should be in a week or so. cheers

Jack,

The Brewer's Association can definitely play a role in promoting and enforcing freshness as a priority, if they wanted to. Perhaps if as much effort went into this as promoting "independent" beer we would see fresher beer on the shelves.

Would love to see a mockup of this!

 

@DEdesings57 @Daveshek28 @FatBoyGotSwagger @rozzom @HeyLady

Great news....just transitioned out of beta and submitted Sixpoint 4.0 for approval to Apple and its already in review, hoping to get full approval in a matter of days now. The full 4.0 app will be available to everyone for free via the App Store and on Google Play once we have approval, and it will not only have the Small Batch purchasing option with the new beers, but it also will have a new and enhanced BeerFinder and an Explore page for general information about our beers, events, updates, etc. - this page will continue to evolve over time.

Its been a hell of wild ride getting Sixpoint 4.0 up and running, but we really think you're going to love the look, feel, and functionality of the new app....along with all of the cool stuff we're going to bring in 4.1 and 4.2 (stay tuned for those updates)....

big releases next week!

 

Count me in!

 

Excellent news!

 

@Sixpoint updated without issue, now we wait!