Hill Farmstead Bottle releases

pretty sure it's per trip in line. If you reach your limit you can just get back in line and wait again.

 

Correct, you can go back in line once you reach the 8 liter limit.

 

As of yesterday they'd changed the limit to "5 containers", I'm assuming that's regardless of size. My wife and I showed up at 12:03 and it took us 75 minutes to get out of there with ~20-25 people in front of us. It seems like it has been even busier over the last 2-3 months and I would guess that their natural overall growth combined with the spread out shelf bottle releases has really increased the average number of customers they see.

I try to avoid Saturdays if possible because because it's been crazy up there every time as of late, but they do have a bottle table sometimes. There's never any lines on Wednesday (well besides yesterday) or Thursday , and except for holiday weekends Friday's usually aren't too bad either. It's just because so much business gets compressed into Saturday when most folks are able to actually make the drive. It seems as though it will always be a bit nutty on weekends for the foreseeable future.

 

Thursday remains the best day for a "quiet" visit. Not sure of the best approach to 'thinning out the crowd' on Saturday to make it more enjoyable. Have contemplated Sunday hours (11-3, with same growler limits intact) - but unsure of the effect. Shelf releases of limited release bottles (although, it seems like nearly all of our bottles are "limited release...") certainly seems to benefit the ability of more people to have access to them (over the course of two weeks)... rather than seeing them all disappear in a single day to the crowd that was able to line up early in the morning. However, it is creating a less tranquil environment for brewery visitors (and workers). No easy solutions. However, we will continue to refine...

 

Thanks for the limits on growlers. It's definitely a work in progress since so many more people are coming out compared to last year (at least from what I've seen). Maybe open an hour or two early on some days?

 

Eventually. For now, we often need every one of those remaining minutes before opening the doors...

 

You guys really are just victims of your own (well deserved) success, and there's probably not anything major you can do, just some tweaks.

One suggestion is to pre-fill a ton of 750's when it is slow on Wed-Fri, and then just sell them as fast as bottles when you are slammed on Saturday. (But still count them towards growler limit) You could do the large growlers too, but it seems like more people bring their own glass for that. That would make the line move more quickly for sure.

I also imagine Sunday hours would help. Lots of people stay overnight in the area on Saturday and would happily hit up HF on Sunday before heading home if it meant shorter lines.

Another suggestion is to raise prices by $1/growler on 'peak' hours (Saturday), and maybe even earmark that extra money towards hiring another 1-2 people to help out.

 

What would help is if you had one line dedicated to growler fills and another line for bottle only sales and the tasters. I was up there last Saturday and just wanted bottles but still had to wait over an hour. Eventually this older lady was going though the line asking if anybody wanted to buy bottles and I got my bottles and left. There were probably 15 people in front of me when I got my bottles so I estimated I saved 30 minutes or so.

 

Raising prices will just shift peak hours, most likely.

 

That's the general idea. Some people will find a better day to go than Saturday, but others won't care as much. Net-net it would shrink Saturday traffic and add a bit more to less popular days/times. It's basically a reverse happy hour...

 

1. Buy land in Greensboro
2. Learn to brew
3. Open brewery
4. Set up shuttle to/from HF
5. Profit??

 

I love me some HF, but I only get 2 days off a week, can't waste one of those waiting in a line. I will drink HF products on draft and wait for the snow to keep people away. See you on the slopes.

 

Okay so Susan and juicy were amazing. Drank both today.

 

We can't prefill. We don't have cold storage capacity. Plus, prefilling is not much better than just bottling it all together...

 

That older lady is my mom - Mrs. Hill. Unfortunately, there isn't enough space to set up a dedicated bottle table. We used to do this - and it worked well - but the lines cross one another and it becomes confusing (to us, even... let alone the folks that show up!) In the future, check out Willey's Store in Greensboro. They have a selection of some of our bottled beer on the shelf. And they are open on Sunday. Thanks for the suggestion - we'll keep doing our best. Sorry you had to wait so long...

 

I think everyone at HF has been doing a great job at keeping up with the demand considering your size. Every time I go up there, it seems like you have improved upon something. One new thing that I really liked last time (Saturday) was that you were doing the tastings for people waiting in line. Being able to drink beer (and try the new ones) while you are waiting in line definitely makes waiting a lot better and deciding what you want to get beforehand easier. I'm not sure what the state regulations are, but being able to enjoy a full pour while waiting in line (like some of the previous bottle releases) would be awesome.

Personally I've never had a problem waiting in line. After a 3.5 hour drive from Boston, it's nice to be able to stand on your feet for awhile. Having to wait always makes me appreciate the beer more too... The thing I like best about HF is that they put quality over anything else- while trying to do their best to keep up with demand, their quality has not suffered at all.

 

Thanks for answering questions, VT folks, and posting helpful information in this thread (and other HF threads). It was a beautiful day up there, and it was quite a treat to taste the goods straight from the source. Thanks, too, to Shaun & co for making great beer and working like crazy to take care of everybody who comes to visit. Sorry to anybody who had too long of a wait behind us.

HF --> Positive Pie --> Hunger Mtn Co-op (they didn't get their Lawson's delivery today, but they had HT and plenty of cheese --> Ben & Jerry's --> back to Burlington to crack some growlers made for one helluva birthday celebration.

 

Everything I had today for samplers were incredible. Foster and George in particular blew me away. Can't wait to crack into Juicy. Thanks as always to everyone at HF for all the hard work and world-class beer.

 

That George was a sleeper. It had this slightly burnt popcorn thing going on in the nose... I thought that was fantastic.

 

shaun,

had a great time. juicy may be one of my favorite beers ever made. it's unreal how good this is.

may the carbonation gods be with you.