Kate the Great Day!

Can't make it on the monday but I will be up a day or 2 later for my bottles. My GF and I also had the oatmeal that friday night and it was really good. Congrats on the winners.

 

I'm on vacation that week and I was wondering how Kate on draft works. I'm assuming you don't have to have a ticket to go in and sit down for some beers. I know they'll be opening at 11:00 am that day, how early should I think about getting in line? I'll be driving down from Maine and this will be my first visit to the brewery so I want to make sure I give myself plenty of time.

I also have a few questions about getting some of their other beers. Do they sell any other bottled stuff in their retail store? How much do growlers cost?

Thanks!

 

I went 0 for 30.

 

Tough to say, and probably depends on weather, but it wouldn't hurt to be there by 7 or 8 if you want to be in the first batch of people inside.

No tickets, just line up and they'll fit you as they can.

 

Any bottles, generally $5-6 ea but will likely sell out quickly. Growlers are close to $20; you will need to buy the glass and the fill at the time.

 

Cool, thanks for the info guys. Can't wait!

 

Looking forward to it as well. Also my first Kate Day. I went 2 for 30, so from what I hear I didn't fair too badly. Can't wait to enjoy the festivities with everyone!!

 

I haven't been on BA for quite a while so...hello all! I just had to pop in to correct the growler price above, there are no $20 growlers at P-brew. The normal growler fill price is $10, that's $2.50/pint; if you don't already have Portsmouth glass you will have to buy the glass as well - an additional $4. If you want to fill your growler with one of their "premium" fills it will cost you a bit more, I believe it's around $15 though it could be a little more - I very rarely get a premium fill. Just make sure you ask how much $ before you get your fill because they are not listed as premium anywhere for you to see. The premiums are usually the big beers and anything that takes more time and/or money to produce than their typical offerings, these are beers that are also more expensive by the glass and are often sold in quantities less than a pint (10-12ozs.). Examples would be Barleywine, Wheatwine, Tripel, Flanders Red, etc...
I can't wait for another Kate Day, I have had a blast every year! You will end up meeting beer geeks from near and far who are all there to enjoy the magic elixirs of the P-brew, specifically that beautiful Russian bride. Just don't limit yourself to the brewery, if you get in early you will most likely be spent by mid to late afternoon We usually take a break (aka hit up Federal Cigar for a nice smoke and a little quiet) and then head out to dinner at one of Portsmouth's other awesome eating establishments. Of course if you blow all your dough on glasses of Kate (she ain't cheap) you can always grab some burgers or dogs from Gilley's, you will eat more than enough for less than $10. See you guys on Monday!!!

 

I spent two hours driving up late Friday night when they went on sale only to be told that they stopped selling the tickets once their retail shop closed for the evening. I didn't see anything like this mentioned anywhere on their website or facebook so I was pretty pissed that I wound up driving 4 hours and spending about 25-30 bucks on gas just to get a plate of nachos and a beer. I also couldn't justify spending more time and money to go back the next morning to get tickets so I'm definitely going to skip Kate Day this year. Did anyone else run in to this kind of problem also?

 

We also didn't know they stopped selling at 10. Also didn't know that the limit was upped to 15 per person (thought it was 10). We bought 20 tickets (2 of us) and went into have a beer and scratch. We realized that you could buy up to 15 per person so I went back to pick up an additional 10 tickets for a BA friend as we had already won a few Kates. Walked into the shop at 10:05 and they had stopped, however luckly the guy selling them came back for something and sold us 10 more (as well as another guy who wanted to buy tickets but didn’t know they had stopped selling them). We didn't know they stopped at 10 but really appreciated the staff willing to sell us 10 more for our friend before they closed up, good crew they have up there.

 

I rarely get premium fills also, but I remember getting one of their saisons for $18 without the glass. I think that was the price of the Imperial IPA also.

 

I also had this happen and i was furious, i drove 3 hours. Ended up staying with my sister in bedford Nh and driving back up to the brewery the next day. Went 0-30 on the scratch tickets, got a speeding ticket leaving portsmouth the night before and had a beautiful 3 hour long trip home thinking about all the time and money i just wasted for an 11oz bottle of beer. I will never again do the scratch tickets, to me IMO its just not worth it. I will be at Kate Day, hope its worth all the trouble.

 

I was going to drive down from Maine late the night the tickets went on sale, but before leaving figured I would call the brewery (I had a feeling they would stop selling tickets when the gift shop closed), and sure enough they told me they would stop selling them at 10pm. I never would have made it in time before the gift shop closed. Saved me from a long drive just to be incredibly pissed off. ALWAYS call ahead, it can save time and money!

 

Don't take this the wrong way, but your story just kind of validated Portsmouth's entire reason for scratch tickets. They don't want people driving 3 hours to get the beer. They want to reward the people that keep them in business year round.

 

Just to put it out there my sister lives in Bedford Nh 45 mins from portsmouth my fathers family is from Kittery and my girlfriend is in love with the town of Portsmouth. I spend time in Portsmouth alot and had given this brewery my buisness 15-20 times this year. Been going to the place before i really knew about craft beer. So IMO i am 1 of those people your talking about. And just to put it out there i will still continue to support Portsmouth brewery just not the scratch tickets. The main point is they should have let people know the times they were selling when they frist made the post. Not post the times 45 mins after you stop selling tickets on Fri night.

 

Need to remember that with BA down all this happened, imagine the fiasco if it was up.

 

I was really upset the way the ticket sales were handled this year. I got my share (8 for 15) but my gf went 0 for 15. I read on facebook that there were 3 people that went 15 for 15. I'd like to see the odds on that, but I'm willing to bet it's in the hundreds of thousands. This was clearly the result of poor shuffling of the winning and losing tickets. I was also pissed afterwards to see that they had stopped selling once the store closed. As someone above said, ya, maybe they don't want people coming from several hours away, but they can do nothing to prevent that. People are going to drive from far away, and shitting on them the way they did was downright insulting.

I love Portsmouth Brewery for the most part. I always seem to have a good time when I go. The steak I had on scratch ticket day was one of the best I've had in my life. However, I consistently run into poorly-trained staff there, from their waiters to their bartenders to their hostesses. I had a bartender a few months back that took 15 minutes to get me a growler fill. I had a waitress once tell me they sell growlers til closing time, which also isn't true. On scratch ticket day I got carded by the bouncer, waiter, and bartender. Why the hell do I need to be carded twice after I get into the place?

 

Complete lack of shuffling means I will not be participating in the "lottery" next year. The odds are thrown out the window when a few people get 15-15, not to mention a ton of people getting 8 or 9-15. 4 of us went down saturday and went 5 for 60.