Release Day Memories

There was either an Ananke or Raspberry Ananke release at Freetails in San Antonia about 15 years or so ago. Freetails opened their patio early in the morning for a bottle share. A big crowd of Beer Advocates , and much highly rated beer was consumed!!

 

Below is something I posted I a past thread:

I was traveling home from work and on my commute, I pass through Conshohocken, PA. I decided this evening (a Wednesday?) to stop off for a couple of beers at The Boathouse. Now, this was a long time ago before I was into the social media aspects of beer. That evening I had both a glass of Pliny the Younger and Pliny the Elder not really knowing what I was drinking at that time. There was no long line there. While I was there drinking my beers a fellow struck up a conversation with me. He was in town on business and was absolutely giddy that he was lucky enough to be there when these beers were on tap. He mentioned to me that he found out about this release from BeerAdvocate (this was the first time I heard about BA). He educated me on the brewery of Russian River and the two Pliny beers. I recall that I enjoyed drinking both of those beers but I also remember thinking to myself that this guy is so weird in that he follows beer on the internet and was so exuberant and happy to be simply drinking some beers.

Well, sometime after my 2005 visit to the Boathouse I visited the BA website and not too long after I joined up.

Cheers to Pliny beers and cheers to BA!

 

Beer releases were so much fun back in the day. My favorite was always BA Sexual Chocolate at Foothills in NC. I'd show up about 8PM the night before for a community bottle share at the brewery. At midnight when the brewery closed, everyone grabbed their camp chair and coolers and moved outside to get in line and continue the bottle share. Winston Salem police were always on site and were great to let us drink as long as our glass wasn't visible. The only downside was that by the time they opened at 8AM the next morning, everyone had been drinking for 12 hours and had no desire to drink freshly tapped BA Sexual Chocolate! Luckily we got to take the bottles to go. I also remember being so dehydrated that the sausage biscuits that they sold at the bar that morning always tasted so dry that you had to use the BA Sexual Chocolate to wash it down. The glory days of craft beer.....

 

I went this year, my third visit with a childhood buddy to DLD …..



This was our third trip to DLD (we also went in 2018 and 2019). It’s changed just a smidge since those early DLD’s.

 

No good stories from me as I got into craft beer too late. Best one I got is when Tree House dropped Juice Machine for the first time at the new Charlton location. It had been a couple years since it was last seen and people were clammering for it ever since King Julius dropped a couple weeks prior. Well it happened and it was in their "silent release" days where you had to be in the super secret facebook group to know what was actually going on at the bewery. I was at work when I saw it was released and let my wife know we would be taking a drive as soon as I got home (she put up with a lot haha) and the rest of the day I was not thinking about anything but how I could get my 2 (4 cans with her) allotment.
We finally got up there and the line was snaked all the way around the parking lot and down the hill leading to the lower lot. It was a 2 hour wait. The thing I remember the most, though, was this poor guy in front of me with his baby stroller. He looked over at me and was like "wow I just stopped in here to see if I could get a few beers quick, I didn't know they're this crowded". I let him know that he picked the absolute worst day and he didn't really understand what I was talking about. He was definitely stressing because I think he had to be back home with the baby at a certain time and it was going to be close. We got all the way to the doors of the building and he had to get out of line and go home empty handed. I wonder if he decided to just quit beer forever after that experience

 

After I retired I took a job at the Sam's unloading trucks. We were shorted a mixed pallet the previous Wednesday. It was delivered Friday. After checking it in my shift ended I downstacked to get to the cases of 2015 BCBS. Grabbed a cart and a case. I believe that case was $66, cashier thought I was .
And if my feeble mind recalls, back in the day, Founders KBS had a release date, I'm thinking April Fools Day?

 

I would say the Kate the Great releases at Portsmouth Brewing were pretty memorable. The last couple of old-school, lineups were kind of a poop show, where they'd insist they'd be giving tickets at a certiain time, then it turns out they would be giving them out the previous night.
A friend of mine would go up for truck releases of Heady Topper. Said those were usually well organized.
He also went to Maine brewing for a Dinner release and was there for 6+hours. That was terribly organized, but the previous Lunch releases were well done.

 

that's awesome! yeah, i have a habit of ditching annual events when they "get too big," although this one i'd return to if the right group of people got together for it!!

 

Thanks for sharing the stories! Enjoyable thread to read.

Personally I always avoided lines and didn’t pay too much attention to release calendars. When I lived in SoCal I regularly went to Monkish. If I pulled up and there was a line, I just kept driving around the corner to Smog City or King Harbor.

 

Dave, I remember those heady days. While I was never one to stand in line and stay up all night, I know those times were fun and are memorable. Foothills Sexual Chocolate was cherished with zeal, like crusaders plowing to the holy land of a finite beer supply....It was kinda crazy....

 

At one time it was mid-March.

Made a couple KBS release visits where we'd drive up Friday afternoon, do as much as we could on the way and in Grand Rapids on Friday, line up early Saturday, head to Chicago shortly after getting our KBS (stop at 3 Floyds, maybe another brewery, and casino on the way), gain an hour going from east to central time (yay), stay out late in Chicago, then somehow wake up Sunday and drive home feeling like death (and losing an hour on the way home, boo). This was 10-15 years ago (mid/late 20's). Crazy how time flies and no chance of doing a trip like that nowadays.

DLD (2009, 2010). Waiting in line hours in the parking lot / sun. Luckily had a cooler to roll around, sit on, and bottle share. Early in my craft beer career. Super exciting and hadn't experienced anything like it before.

Dark Horse - 4 Elf (2015?). Waiting in line Friday afternoon to evening just to get a ticket to buy beer on Saturday. Solid in-line bottle share. Maybe too solid because there were some shenanigans this year.

Jackie O's. Used to have 1-2 yearly releases in Athens. In addition to various barrel aged beers, had a huge tap list, great atmosphere, really looked forward to it.

 

i'll add that i definitely wouldn't have traveled for as many release events/fests/etc if i lived in socal or portland at the time (i was in ct and didn't move west for another couple of years). once i got out west, every day was a release day somewhere and the need for that craft beer camraderie was less since i encountered it every day!