Bruery 2017 RS/HS Allocations

On that note... how does the Bruery "quality control" their beer distributed to stores? I know of one Santa Ana location with the infected batch of 2016 SHIT on their shelves and 2013+ society beers that are just sitting on shelves collective dust.

 

I've seen that too -- Sad to see infected bottles (M14 comes to mind) just sitting under a pile of dust.

Also, has anyone else noticed that the '17 BT doesn't seem to have a the vintage printed on the label (no mention of 2017)? Aside from the bottle etching is there a way to discern a 2017 bottle (aside from the fact it's missing)?

 

Yes. Each year has a differently shaped label. On top of that (pun definitely intended), earlier years to 2014 are waxed, 2015 has a black/white foil, 2016 and on have a black foil. Just google something like "Black Tuesday vertical" and you will see images of bottles lined up with different shaped labels.

 

They're good.

 

Semi-serious "Beer-osophical" question here, but why is it their problem? Do consumers really blame the brewer and not store? I know that when I consider the warm Total Wine/Bevmo bottles that are months old; I would never blame the brewer for those conditions.

 

Old beer is one thing, but infected batches? Yeah, pretty sure that's the brewery's fault.

Edit: if the brewery made an attempt to do a full recall and a negligent retailer ignored it, that's obviously on the retailer.

 

A big thanks to Ryan Dick on these awesome beers!

 

Who and the what now?

 

I'm debating if I want to buy another bottle of Turo. Still haven't drank one yet, but want to keep it out of the hands of the RS plebes. Also kinda bummed they made a BT pack with madeira which was HS only and an included bottle without first offering it solo to HS.

 

Not specifically Reserve/Hoarder related, but my local bottle shop received 5 cases of Saule and is/was selling them for $6.99 a bottle. I saw Costco had a pallet of them for $11.99 a bottle as well.

I could barely believe seeing them sold so inexpensively, especially outside of the local market - blew my RS discount out of the water! I'm curious if they may have increased production on the anniversary ale pretty significantly this year.

 

Lots of Poterie at Costco last year, but not nearly that cheap! The bottle shop could be a pricing error? Otherwise the local distributor maybe bought too much and offloaded it cheap to retailers who are passing the savings on to you? I'm pretty sure Patrick said last year that when you see discounted bottles it's not because the Bruery cut them a deal.

 

Was not a pricing error - they specifically noted the retail value in their post.

Could certainly be the distributor offloading, though; I still see Cuivre and Poterie sitting on shelves, so it's certainly possible stores just ordered less in general this year.

 

ISO: Saule at $6.99 per bottle!
Edit: $11.99 as well

 

If you're willing to make the drive to AZ, the $6.99 deal was posted yesterday. Costco was about a month ago.

 

Having it now. The pineapple shines through and is drowning the coconut. Still a good beer but could use more coconut.

 

Ryan Dick = Bruery TX's Interim Tasting Room Manager, and one awesome guy! He collaborated on the Bruesicle beers.

 

I work on the retail side and this is how it goes in our area. Usually there is a rep from the brewery that will come in once in a while and check codes or bottling dates on all of their product. They will then remove anything that is out of date, either by purchasing it directly or issuing a credit for a replacement. For the breweries that do not have a local sales rep it is up to the beer distributor to take these actions. This happens a lot less as they are in charge of looking at a lot more product in market. New Belgium has five reps operating the Southeast for example, but New Holland only has one, so the distributors in each State that sell New Holland are taxed with checking their beer. That rarely happens in that case. The Bruery has no one in the market for a lot of areas, and in Atlanta the distributor they have, although a huge company that moves a lot of product, doesn't have a lot of people in market checking everything because they sell several hundred brands. Even if there was a recall put out it would have to trickle all the way down and it would rarely make it to a retailer's attention. And there are a lot of retailers who will receive credit or replacement on a product but still keep the old product in store if it's not picked up. That's a really sorry thing to do but there are a lot of retailers who want to make that extra dollar, if they can sell a case of beer and receive a second free case of beer as a replacement it's a win. I know of several places locally that still have 2015 Mash on the shelf. It irritates me but there's nothing I can do about it. On the flip side I can still find 2014 Oude Tart and Rueuze on the shelf too. That's a plus.

Add to that you have retailers and even customers who don't even know the product or are aware of any issues with the product and don't make any reports of bad batches or off flavors. So if the rep from the brewery or the distributor never makes it in there's no way for anyone to ever know that there is something wrong with the product. Our store is in the unique position of being filled with people who drink beer and love beer and are aware of these things. I doubt people working at Costco are as well-versed in barrel aged old ales or infected IPAs as drinkers of the products are.

 

This actually came up last year as well, meaning reports of the Anniversary Ale showing up at Costco at a significant discount, At $6.99, that sounds like its being sold below cost.

Regardless, Saule is a great beer, at that price, I would be buying more.