Bruery RS/HS Allocations (2019)

I mean, a seal is a seal right? It's there or it isn't? If things can get out that means it will be flat at a minimum.

Just to double check, it's coming from inside and not just a case of them not washing off the outside?

 

A crowler is sealed at the top so if it's oozing out the side it's either punctured (worst case it's flat) or it's just dirty from being filled.

 

This has happened to me too with Bruery crowlers. I opened it and it was fine but it was sticky and had some beer run down the side of the can that got my fridge sticky. Not sure why this happened.

 

Sorry I haven't been following this thread ever since I left the society, but I have been complaining about the thresholds for awhile now. What a joke

 

Not to mention we lose the discount perk by having to go to whole foods...

and pretty much every other perk of being a member.

I dont understand how you dont take care of members first...then send rest to account/distro...

 

I received a reply from Societies regarding the included bottles from the archives advertised as part of the 2018 Hoarders package... For those who forgot, they advertised the following 3 times in September 2017 for 2018 Hoarders memberships: "As you hit certain thresholds throughout the year, you'll be rewarded with more included with more included archive beers." I inquired about whether I had just missed the thresholds, which would have seemed surprising based on how much money I spent (too much). Here's the reply:

"I can look into this a bit further for you, but my understanding is that there are numerous legal restrictions surrounding both alcohol and membership clubs that prevent this type of incentive program from being a legal offering."

So, basically, business practice here is to advertise something that is apparently illegal to get people to buy a membership, not give out that thing, then throw your hands up in the air and say "Sorry, we can't; it's not legal!" I pushed them on it a bit more, but if they don't resolve this, I'm done, and will request as to whether I can just cancel for 2019. Haven't picked anything for this year up yet anyway.

Oh, and Spontanaheim... they're now saying that they had no idea it was ever advertised as a Jester King collaboration. Hah. Chalk that one up to very poor communication I guess. They're also saying that even though they pitch yeast with Rhone Blanc and other grape beers, they're all "spontaneous" because there's natural yeast and bacteria on the grapes. It seems that they might need to learn what spontaneous fermentation means.

 

Oh, and Spontanaheim 2019 will also not be a Jester King collaboration for this year either.

 

I can see them trying to manage the situation better with Apfelsap (their solution may not be to your liking but it was better than had they just not done/said anything) but then you have Hold the Spoon situation in the same week.

I'm more forgiving and understanding of the Apfelsap situation. I still think they could have fulfilled HS allocation with 1 bottle and allowed 1 bottle for purchase but at least they put in effort to inform members ahead of time, although it wasn't a ton of time.

On the other hand, we have Hold the Spoon. The emails never mentioned limited quantities being available while setting the purchase limit to 6 (at least for HS), which kind of indicates large quantities being available rather than being in fact limited.

I realize they're a for profit company looking to maximize their ROI and all that but I think they could also level set better on situations like this for their members.

 

This still amazes me that it sold out in less than a day, for a beer that's listed as public release. The nearest whole foods near me is 45 minutes each way.

 

Not to mention that even though HS emails said we could buy 6, the allocation page only allowed 4.

 

I've had the leaking problem with multiple crowlers. A couple I thought might have ended up that way because I had them for a couple weeks, but at the exact same time noticing those I had just come from the tap room and bought one and it was the same where the leaking got over everything and if you pushed the sides a little bit you could see the bubbling up around the seal.

 

I had a similar problem with Mango Charms. Sticky on the outside, dripped a tiny bit in the fridge but enough to smell it. I was very worried, so I opened up 1 crowler and it was super fantastic, same as on draft. I will report if the other 2 are affected.

BTW, I'm shocked Mango Charms is still on draft. Maybe it's too sweet for some people.

I know some friends wanted crowlers of it, but with the marshmallows I didn't want to take a chance.

 

Out of curiosity, are the leaky crowlers from the original TR or Terreux? Maybe one of them just needs a little calibration, or maybe one bartender has a small flaw in their technique?

 

Is Hold the Spoon a Whole Foods exclusive as far as distribution?

 

It sounds like the Bruery does not care about their members. These debacles seem worse than any prior year. Sounds like leadership is lacking and no one knows what is going on.

 

Bakery wasn't quite smooth sailing if I recall either but at least with that one they still had inventory to be able to put it back up for sale. On the other hand this shows that they didn't seem to learn anything from that instance. I believe they also sold out on Churriosity so they seem to regularly be underestimating the popularity of their canned one offs. It also seems to be getting worse since this one sold out much faster so instead of showing improvement things seem to be getting worse which is even more disappointing.

 

Churriosity was limited from the start and was a society exclusive. Bakery sold out to members but then they added stock that was supposed to go into disto. So all of those were handled better.

 

The few times it's happened to me were beers from Terreux