Half Acre Brewing Co. (2023)

Agree 100%. Though on this forum whenever I make that statement it always turns into “Why don’t you want 4? The price per ounce is better so it’s a better deal.”

 

You’re confusing the 2022 with the 2021 release. In 2021 nearly everyone on here reported getting it, but one or two people got shut your. People waited in the waiting room for nearly 20 minutes. In 2022, the box lasted like 45 minutes of an hour+, and then it was taken down with a notification saying it was sold out. BUT, in 2022 there was mysteriously large quantities of everything, even the most sought after variants, available at the brewpub for long periods.

I’d hazard a guess that HA took it down to save face, and no one had trouble getting it, and that it never actually sold out. If it did, it didn’t even matter anyway.

 

This is exactly why I love and favor bottle shops that let you break up 4 packs.

EDIT: On a related note, I would love to see more of a return to distributed draft offerings, as I’d love to find better choices at restaurants and bars that also aren’t breweries. Much like Rev has with their arrangement at Hopleaf. I find that in other cities but not so much Chicago anymore, where the craft offerings are more often than not going to be the same flagships you always see.

 

I think they keep stuff in reserve. All sorts of releases seem to pop up for take out after the online closes.

 

I mean, your entire post was sheer fabrication so why start admitting you are making things up? It wasn’t “taken down” as the Universe site itself told people it had been sold out in real time. In an hour. Contrast that to things like DLD which instead said “unavailable” on the purchase site after days of sales being up. And to twist their taking care of locals that come in person that don’t have their finger on the online releases by holding some back… I mean there are things to be critical about with Half Acre (like the stale online menus, moving to Oznr, etc.) but let’s at least start from a position of honesty and objective reality. Your tin foil hat treatment seems silly and HA would have little to nothing to gain from the convoluted machinations you are describing.

 

I normally appreciate your posts, but this feels rather aggressive. A misunderstanding or an incorrect understanding might be more in line.

There's no tin foil hat, it's simply putting a collection of events together to try to understand what happened. Past years haven't had cans be as plentiful as last year. Could be just increased supply, or could be they didn't actually sell out. Is there any reason why Universe couldn't be stopped before it actually sold out? Seems like a pretty easy algorithm to say, "Sell until inventory gone or until X time has elapsed".

As you mentioned, DLD did something similar. Side Project has done something similar (at least, that's what several people have postulated). It isn't exactly tin foil category.

Also, I'm not hating on HA. I love HA. I'm a HA fanboy. I've bought every release I have been able to buy for the last 3-4 years. I've traded to acquire more. I've asked people to buy additional cans that couldn't be purchased online, and let me reimburse them. You're pretty far off base.

 

I concede and apologize for an excessive tone here and will walk it back to say I don’t think you were trying to hate on them or it was sour grapes or something, but I do think you are making some very big assumptions. You can have your own idea as to what happened, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt because they have been transparent and helpful at every turn in customer service, so to say they now lie to patrons to marginally increase the hype value of one beer line doesn’t add up to me. If they were doing it for hype, why not even tell people they have a “very limited” number of variant cans in store to drive more people to show up? Or do what Maplewood did and do a whole release in person only (yuck).

If the goal was to make it so people this year have more FOMO about the Benthic brand, why put them out in distribution last year so they can sit at some Binnys where I think we all agree $60 4 packs are a hard impulse buy?

I’m sticking with the version where they sold as many boxes as they had put together, had a higher variant yield than would fit in their predetermined boxes, and then released the leftovers directly in the taproom to locals to salve any people’s complaints that they aren’t on social media and didn’t know about the boxes at all.

Either way, here’s to hoping it’s just as easy to get this year!

 

Agreed. I'll never complain that beer I like is easier to get. Never about the hype, always about what tastes delicious. Looking forward tot he DB Catch Hell release. Still salty I screwed up the timing on Midnight Choir.

 

Glue, for sure...but also star anise.

 

Interesting. I didn’t know star’s had anises.

 

My guy pulled up from half-court...nothing but net.

 

Get yourselves some Mosaic Daisy, as a lil treat.

 

Agreed. Love a good BA Stout like anyone else, but I don't drink them all year round. I like when breweries package up 2 packs for $15-$20 rather than 4 packs for $30-$40 (ie Rev/Half Acre). Yes it's "cheaper" to buy 4 packs, but I won't be drinking all 4 of them.

 

Price is being felt. Still available 7 min in. However HA is not the best at promoting their own stuff. That is a benefit to its biggest fans, but why not pimp your expensive, previously highly sought after cans?

 

DB Catch Hell gone in 10 min. Easiest grab ever still thanks to Oznr - can’t say I miss the queue and wonky website purchase requirement quirks from Universe.

 

“Previously highly sought after” - Lol, really? 10 min is the fastest sellout for an online release I’ve seen in months from any brewery, including SP stuff. Certainly the fastest HA online sellout of any BA stout they’ve made.

 

$1.46 per ounce is not terrible in my opinion for a BA stout when compared to the options I have available to me. Some examples with higher rates available to me are Equilibrium, Bottle Logic via Tavour, The Veil