Hudson Valley Brewery (2018)

the point of the wristbands is they are color coded for allotments. people with first color (first 100ish) automatically get full allot. if they ALL max out, the second color gets a dropped allotment. it THEY all max out too, next color gets less and so on...
it would definitely be better if they actually handed out accurate numbers because there were for sure a-holes cutting the line in their color group, but it keeps people from jumping allotments entireley for the most part.

 

The point is the numbers are useless.

 

PSA to any//all vegans and lactose intolerant folks who have been eagerly awaiting this day: per brewer's Instagram story, these Silhouette variants do not contain milk sugar.

 

I’m likely missing something, but let’s say there’s two hours (just for the purpose of discussion) of lining up happening whichever way you cut it for a 5pm release:

Normal way - you line up at 3pm and wait to get served. You run the risk of line cutters. You’re free to do whatever around town until 3pm

Hudson way - you line up at 1pm for your 3pm wristband and run the risk of line cutters. You go away for a bit and then re-form the line, with a second round of you potential line cutting

Just seems you have not one but two opportunities to be cut, and are forced to spend a couple extra hours away from home or whatever else you were doing. Just don’t see where the value is. Wristbands that reflect decreasing limits based on color make sense, just don’t see why they couldn’t be handed out 30 mins before opening or something

 

Except no one would line up at 3pm without wristbands (as we see in breweries like OH; people line up either way for hot releases, whether there are wristbands or not).
People seem to come down on one side or the other of the wristband argument; I think the real point is "Does having a wristband mean people are likely to get there even earlier as they can then do things that are more fun so they don't mind the extra time?" Which is the case for some people for sure.
Seems to me the line cutting thing is pretty small everywhere and while annoying, not a huge difference maker.

What wristbands seem to me to also do is heavily benefit locals, as you can get a wristband and go home to return....

 

what time or how early do wristbands start?

meaning if it is a 3pm release...can a local stop by at 845am on his way to work for a wrist band? or stop by at noon on his lunch break??

 

As bizarre as the rules are now, I would guess you can receive wristbands for future releases while standing in line for current releases (and any time or day in between, obviously).

 

i was not making light i was being serious... if that is the case as i wrote out it is pretty cool towards really making sure locals get first choice..

 

Yeah the locals-first element is cool. I hadn’t thought of that. Although given the lengths some extremist beer nerds go to to get beer, I wonder if it will necessarily be locals benefitting. But at the very least the sentiment is good

 

No line, plenty of beer.

 

3pm for 5pm release.

 

I'm hoping they switch all their fruity sour IPAs to 12oz. Drinking a Bloom for the first time and 16oz is way too much.

 

Personally not a fan of the wrist bands. I'd prefer to wait 2-3 hours straight for a release rather than 4-5 hours or more with a break in between where you can't really leave the immediate area.

And yes, the line cutting has been horrific amongst the same band color, especially after the line reforms after wristbands have been handed out. I've seen people push past 30-40 people within their same band. Hudson Valley hasn't helped to stop this and has openly stated it doesn't matter where you line up within your color since it's the same allotment. Meanwhile, you end up waiting an extra 15-20 mins at least if you're not aggressive with establishing your spot.

 

I went on Friday and the wristband situation was kind of odd. Or at least it was considering that you could've rolled up after the line and received the full allotment as far as I know.

I got there just before 3 waited til about 3:30 until I actually received the wristband walked around the town for an hour or so returned to the brewery at 4:30. But at 4:30 there wasn't exactly a line formed and there was no real way to tell where I previously was in line besides a similar colored wristband. I easily could have cut like 30 or 40 people without being able to tell since I was like 150th in line which would've saved me a lot of waiting time. As the person above said it didn't matter for allotments but it probably saved me at least 20 minutes of waiting which was nice considering i set aside probably 3 hours of my day for this. I ended up getting beer at about 5:45.

So basically I allotted 2ish extra hours of time for no real reason? But like I said this is probably a bit better when they are actually cutting limits and things are a bit crazier.

 

Did Friday’s batch ever sell out??

 

Not sure when, but there were no cans yesterday afternoon.

 

About an hour after open on Saturday. There was a line of about 40 people at open.

 

this shirt looks sick. wish I could get up there this weekend for one.

 

Any chance this release will last through the line like last week's?

 

Most definetly. They update Instagram on release days and just said plenty left.