Hill Farmstead (2023)

Something we can agree on.

 

that was rough(picture above of line). But Monson and Brimfield waits, lines and allotments were infinitely worse. But yeah, fuck standing in line for hours. Also the sleepovers at main beer years ago truly weirded me out. Sleeping at a brewery sounds like a problem. If you slept out at a liquor store you’d have change thrown at you and probably called homeless.

Overnight camping at OG Ebeneezers is the only acceptable situation in New England. I guess you could lump in the old Hill Farm events. But that’s after consuming and not being in a line

 

I’m not sure how many in this thread are super familiar with Econ (popular or otherwise), but if an economist got to pick how something limited was sold, an auction is very desirable, because at least in tangible assets (ie revenue), it creates the largest payoff even if (social) welfare may suffer. So, while it might benefit a company and the wealthiest consumers to sell everything to the highest bidder, there’s a pretty sound argument to be made that this is wrong and unfair, because the individuals that care the most may be locked out. If you’re thinking about something like a concert, it may be the most devout fans that are the most likely to miss out.

So, how is this relateable to beer? Well, thinking about all these line arguments. Doing an old fashioned FC, FS line-up doesn’t likely benefit the most devout. It likely benefits the people with a free schedule and the scalpers the most. “Normal” people, no matter how devout (especially on short notice), can’t simply line up for an indeterminate, infinite amount of time. So, arguably the fairest thing is to just do a raffle. It probably benefits shitlords the least, too.

This is coming from someone that has done a lot of lining up in various forms in his life. So, I appreciate the die hard individuals that really care, missed out, and are pissed that they felt like they got screwed, but “know” they would have benefited had they had been able to line up.

Also, I’ll take a raffle over fastest fingers any day of the week. Those events benefit the same people over and over again, which mean that the same people get screwed over and over again. On average. If you don’t believe me, go back and keep track. It’s annoying.

 

Making a “culture” out of it was so fucking weird to me and I’m glad it’s (mostly) gone. It was just an inconvenience.

 

This only holds true if you assume that beer is “best” when it’s in the hands of people who have the time and disposition to stand in lines for hours. I disagree with that assumption, and I don’t think the specific type of economics theory you’re using (hardly encompassing “economics” as a whole like you implied, respectfully) supports it entirely.

 

I’m confused here. The basics of using an auction is that you’re effectively perfectly price discriminating, thereby maximizing profit (but obviously not non-tangible values, which I sort of colloquially referred to as social welfare). The flip side, which I said was incorrect, is that those who stand in line the longest get the greatest (internal) payoff, because they want it the most. Certainly, you could argue that length of time in line is a proxy for how someone “values” it, although, again, I think that’s a terrible way to look at it, since it benefits shitlords in more ways than the die hards, likely. So…no lines (please) was my take away.

I feel like we’re on the same side, so I’m a bit confused (cornfused if you’re feeling extra midwestern dad-punny today).

 

My mistake! We don’t need to get to into the weeds here and distract from beer, but I think I just misunderstood your comment, thanks for clarifying (even if we still might disagree around the edges). Cheers.

 

'The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.'

Or, if you prefer...

'Labour was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased.'

-either way, Adam Smith, from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

If that's how this thread is going to devolve.

 

God help us. Certainly not the intention.

 

Any idea what this line was for? I know the lines there still get ridiculous, experienced it myself this October on an unseasonably warm day, but nothing like that.

 

I remember people camping out/waiting in line to get tickets when Episode One came out in 1999.

That there, was the biggest tragedy of them all. And no bottle shares in line. Just fuck you glares and BO

 

When Charlton first opened the lines would snake back around the back of the parking lot and past the shed almost going downhill. Along with car accidents(I saw one) with people driving out. You can also see the glass windows and doors on the right didn’t exist yet.

“line past shed”

 

Lines have generally always been dumb, but John Kimmich walking a keg of Celebration around a snowy Waterbury parking lot serving everyone waiting their turn at one of the Alchemist truck sales is a pretty fond beer memory for me. Grateful that both online sales and an explosion in options have put the line days behind us, but I’ve got some rose colored glasses for the way that communal excitement helped the whole thing blow up. But outside of maybe one particularly bad Tree House day, most of my line experiences were of the hourish variety, camping out has always been ridiculous.

 

I can’t imagine sitting around my entire family and cousins on Thanksgiving with a bottle of Dinner and having someone ask me, that bottle is pretty where did you get that?

“oh I slept in a parking lot with my cooler and a few strangers drinking bottles and sharing to get it the next day”

Desert becomes intervention.

All kidding aside the first lines I was ever stuck in were waiting for the early releases of Kate the Great maybe around 2006/2007/2008? It always sucked and was cold ha. Considering that beer from Portsmouth Brewery was rated #1 at the time, that may be the beginning of f’ng lines

 

June 2018 I was driving home to Keene from Boston and figured, ah, what the hell… Inasmuch as I’d been driving all day, I missed the announcement about Juice Machine being released for the first time in however-many years. They parked me in the woods back behind the chain-link utility pen… and that’s pretty much where the line started. In the rain. For two cans.

 

Although I’ve never been interested in lining up, period, I think there’s a distinction between regulars there for the scene, vs the true bottom feeders. Thinking of Other Half back when a) I lived locally, and b) whatever the specific release (something truly special vs regular), they released once a week and always sold out (ie always a line, just a question of length and when it formed). There would be some people who rolled up an hour early week in and week out to have a DL beer/share, but who would be respectful. Not my thing but whatever. But the problem would be the bigger releases. People who got there 24 hours early and/or got shitfaced and/or played loud music and/or puked everywhere and/or left trash (and/or pulled a gun in one instance) - all in front of local residents whose homes the line snaked by. Basically antisocial tw*ts.

 

Yup, like you can see in this pic that I took on the Saturday of Veterans Day weekend 2017!

 

The only people that want to go back to this are the ones that are willing to leverage their time to guarantee whatever is being sold. Bonus points to the ones that join a bottle share at the crack of dawn and then hop into a car to drive home.

Man, I remember there was a line update group on Facebook. 1st pole, at the shed, at the bend were things that I forgot had meaning to me at some point. I remember this image was on every line update post.

Other Half was another one that brings back line PTSD. At the recycling center, wrapping around centre, line past garnet...

 

I was there for that! I am more than happy to leave the lines behind but, like most everything in life, it was what you made of it. I always enjoyed meeting some new people and talking and actually made a few long term friends from it. And playing some cribbage with my buddy in the line for Dinner (never needed to sleep over, but did have to get up early) was always a fun time. Certainly, if I didn't have good friends to go with and didn't have a good time I would not have done it so no complaints overall. Still, I will take the pre-order at Treehouse any day!

 

Yup!

Cheers!