The Bruery Announcements/Allocations

I'm not sure an RS member is in a position to imply that HS members somehow cross a line into expensive alcoholism that RS members don't already cross.

There was no mention either way - I specifically asked the Bruery if the RS would receive reduced allocations of beers like BT and Melange #3, and they avoided answering the question. I decided not to upgrade to the HS and stuck with the RS, knowing that allocations could end up reduced on some beers. Whether or not I regret that remains to be seen, but the opportunity to buy 12 bottles of SitR when we could buy 3 last year is a good sign.

The beef with Griffon Bruxellois is valid - they specifically marketed it as an RS 2013 beer and now may or may not be able to offer it to all RS members. I hope to get a bottle, but I'm not going to sweat it. If you joined the RS largely because of a beer that was taking its sweet time carbing up and had an unknown release, you were taking a risk anyway since they could've cancelled it like they did with Iniquitous a couple years ago.

 

it was advertised several times on their facebook page, by name

 

https://www.facebook.com/TheBrueryReserveSociety/posts/479586175412750

Personally, I'm not pissed about it, but by 12/31 they had to have known how many Hoarders they had, how many RS members they had, and how many bottles of GB they had (unless they've dumped part of the batch?). At best, it seems unwise to advertise a questionable release as a selling point.

 

itd be a passiing issue if they cancelled it altogether. shit happens. but to say they oversold memberships, so they dont have enough bottles to give out is ridiculous

 

As someone who would have spent the money If invited, I'm not exactly thrilled with the way this is going so far. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now in that things are changing and you'll figure it out. One thing that I always found to be a bright spot about the Bruery was that they were always honest and seemed to have a plan. Lately it's been pretty much a cluster, with statements constantly changing and lots of flip flopping after money is spent. Not the best route to go down if you want repeat customers. Sure the beer demand is high now, but it's repeat customers that will keep you in business for the long haul.

 

The 'foolish' bit was a joke. We all crossed the treshold on spending absurd amounts of money on beer a long time ago.

With regard to allocations, the Bruery's silence on the way HS doubled allocations would affect RS allocations does not make giving RS members less so HS members can have more any less slimy as a business practice. Either way, I think your attitude of indifference is the right one. It is a bit hilarious to basically be like, 'Wait a minute - I have to spend less absurd portions of my income on your beer so Captain Fancypants can spend more absurd portions of his? This is an injustice!" if anything, RS members should have happier wives. I just wish the bruery would have been more forward about these things (i.e. told RS members that their allocations and availability of limited releases at events could be negatively affected by creation of the HS).

 

Unless your wife is particularly a fan of Bruery beers and will now be yelling at you because she heard that the HS is getting Peach SitR and demands you acquire some. I've avoided this entire set of problems by remaining single (obviously so that I can better focus on craft beer and metal...gotta have priorities), but Bruery sours in particular are remarkably popular with a lot of my female friends that have tried them, where other sours that I (and many BAs it seems) prefer - Cantillon, Drie Font, and Russian River in particular - elicited less excited reactions. I don't think this is necessarily a gender issue, but it has happened enough times that I find it interesting.

Agreed, but it's not as if we knew allocation numbers in advance in any prior years. For all we know, several barrels of BT could get destroyed in a freak forklift accident and change their plans. All things being equal, I would've liked assurances that RS allocations wouldn't drop, but I understand why they couldn't make that promise.

 

theres gonna be one big shit storm come next week, that webstore is gonna blow!

 

I agree that they blew it with GB for RS members, but based on my experiences the last few years, the year will be good to all. They have a great customer service history so give it some time.

 

Damn I knew I should have signed up for membership!

 

Do you have actual reason to believe that these beers won't be additional beers that just wouldn't have been at the initiation party if HS didn't exist?

 

I like how everyone in this thread is assuming that Griffon won't be an RS beer. You do realize that they can make more, right?

 

Chicken or egg, sir?

 

With all of this HS/RS talk and allocations talk, I wonder what will be left for us meager PS members? This sounds like a caste system in the making.

 

As a second-year RS member, here are my thoughts on this:

1. The potential inclusion of GR had no impact on my renewal as a RS member and it is a style of beer that I generally don't prefer anyway, so I am less inclined to be all that upset at this news. That said, if they all of the sudden pulled Choclate Rain from RS members, it would be a different story.

2. The Bruery clearly advertised GR (along with BT and CR) as being included in a last minute push to get new members. If there was any question as to their ability to include it, they should not have done that. I can understand why those who were really looking forward to this beer feel slighted.

3. I wouldn't put it past the Bruery to somehow make up for this. Perhaps they will offer something else that they were not planning to offer to RS members as a make-up for this, sort of like what they did with Grey Monday last year when the second piece of merchandise never came to be.

 

Did you miss the post where mattolesh said:

So yes, it's conceivable that they could make more, but that's not assuming GB isn't an RS beer, that's a Bruery employee clearly stating they don't have enough to go around. If they intended to make more to do a full release, wouldn't it be logical to assume that 1) they wouldn't have started selling what they've got and 2) Matt wouldn't have apologized that some RS members won't get a crack at it?

 

They said there would be five to ten HS exclusives at the party. Given that we know of only one beer brewed thus far exclusively for HS, you have to interpret that beers that were previously allocated to RS parties are being bogarted for the HS members and their three guests. Stuff like Choc Rain, BA 2TD and Grey Monday would be good guesses.

 

He clearly meant right now. They made what they made last year, intending to sell it last year, but that didn't work. Because of the issues with yield and an expanding membership they decided to release last year's to Hoarders this year rather than do a free-for-all with the RS. Nothing in there precludes them from making it again this year and releasing it generally. In fact, given that they now have experience with the recipe, it seems pretty likely to me that that's what they'll do.

So no, I don't think what you said is logical at all, I think it's not what anyone should expect in this situation.

Besides, they clearly tell you that the listed beers are just their plans and that it's all subject to change, I don't see why anyone is complaining about this.

Why don't you save your complaining for when something actually happens?

 

If you want to be the space time continuum's bitch, go ahead.

 

First, as stupac said, you seem like you are stressing yourself out over an issue that hasn't happened yet (and I guess I agree with you that you'd have a legitimate beef if CR is a HS beer, but I think that's really unlikely).
Second, the Bruery doesn't have unlimited bottles of all of their older beers, and they aren't obligated to serve exactly the same beers at every event. The HS beers will probably be SitR w/peaches and then other things (either older bottles or weird treatments) that they didn't have a ton available of and couldn't really serve to a big party--basically, I think it's more reasonable to assume that the beers available to HS are legitimate additional beers for HS, rather than beers that would have been served at the RS initiation party if only the HS didn't exist. I can see a potential argument that this limits later access at clusterforks or other small parties, but it doesn't actually take anything away from your ticket to this event.

I get that they have had some logistical issues with adding two club levels and redoing their website all at the same time, but they are fixing those things and also seem to genuinely want to provide good value to their members at every level--if you are prepared to almost instantly abandon your belief that this is the case, before something negative even actually happens, why did you decide to become a member at all?