Hudson Valley Brewery (2018)

This is such a sensible approach...but these beer geeks are irrational. They'll form a line 12 hours before to get lower wristband number.

 

The whole thing just seems foreign to me, like the chairs at Tired Hands. This kinda stuff just encourages a competition of who can line up the earliest. Are people really expected to reform a line based on their number? So someone who show up at 10 and sees a small line will be cut by someone sitting in their car for the night?

 

I mean, give people numbers as they arrive and then page them/call them when they're up to buy. That's one means of doing this. Or people could just stop acting like the only beer in the world is at this one place, for this one morning. But all this gets discussed ad nauseam on various threads.

 

I imagine it is like boarding Southwest. Everyone goes to roughly where they should be and then sorts it out with the people around them. If a terrible person is going to take advantage of other good people doing their best to line up correctly, then it is what it is.

 

True. Just saw theyre doing an event at Proletariat next weekend so I'll just go to that.

I feel like Southwest is not the business you want to model yourself after.

 

Major major props to Hudson Valley for doing this. Echoing sentiments above, I really hope this prompts other breweries to follow suit. I'd encourage anyone who likes this to be just as vocal as the folks who are speaking out against it to ensure breweries hear the positive reception.

To me, there is absolutely no reason why customers should be obligated to stand in a queue for literally hours just to maintain a purchase order. I understand that some people enjoy the lines, hang with friends, share beers, etc., and all that's a-okay with me. But for those who don't and simply want to buy the beer, these releases are an unbelievable waste of time and, in many cases, simply unjustifiable. There are often hundreds of people in these lines who are sacrificing their Saturday mornings to buy beer... Potentially thousands of person-hours can be freed by this policy, not to mention the benefit of reducing/eliminating line cutting. One of the components of this "can release beer culture" I've really come to detest is the self-righteous value that seems to be placed on time spent waiting in a queue... Stuff along the lines of, "If you want the beer, you gotta put in the time." That type of thinking is dangerous... If extended to resources beyond just time/comfort--like money--I think we'd all be pretty upset. Consider if all can releases just became a bidding war where the cans went to the highest bidders... "If you want the beer, you gotta pay up."

Anyway, good on HVB, and I really hope this works out well and can serve as a model for other breweries *cough*Other Half*cough* to follow.

 

Equilibrium already does this. It's great. You come find the guy giving out tickets and then go do whatever you please until 11:30. Mind you, their taproom is open which is awesome. Line up and organize yourselves in numerical order as the sale starts. Stagger limits once you have a total ticket count. I don't know why this is so hard

 

A way to combat this is after all numbers are handed out, brewery picks a random number where line will start. So getting there early to get a good number doesn't mean anything and will discourage people from getting there early.

 

Because getting people to organize themselves in numerical order is difficult when you're dealing with a bunch of people who have been drinking in your parking lot since 5am.

 

Agree with you 1000% on this. While I can see why people make this argument, I have never agreed with it. In the beer world, it brings out the most extreme people who will go to any lengths to get the beer. Not all people of course, but some of these extreme people who wait in line drink beer illegally in public places, drive drunk, litter, disturb the peace, relieve themselves in public not to mention those who line up to resell beer illegally and break/skirt the breweries rules on limits. These are the people breweries want to reward with them being in line and shutting out more common sense customers??!!!

 

I would agree with this J and in fact I detest lines and those folks you speak of.

But I have come to really enjoy hanging with the folks at Equilibrium on can sale days. Great folks and totally wonderful experience. I love it so much I won't even go into what it is I love about it, as I hope not to entice those folks you speak of to join us. Cheers!

Edit: although I wish you would come up to join us sometime

 

Hey, could someone help this guy out? I'm interested in this info as well!

 

Too late Cans went on sale yesterday and all cans sold out.

 

....His post is about when to show up in general. I'm looking for that info as well to plan my first trip accordingly. I know cans sell out the day they drop.

 

My buddy showed up at 9 yesterday and was #133

 

How many allotements were there in total though? # in line doesnt really matter without know how much beer there is.

 

270 max allotments

 

How crazy does the taproom get on non-release Saturdays? Will be in Beacon this weekend and hoping to stop by and try a few beers out. How many beers do they usually have on tap?

Thanks!

 

Wow Multichorus is amazing. Should have traded for more!

 

It gets busy, but beers get served pretty quickly there....usually 6 or 7 things on tap.