Hill Farmstead Bottle releases

that would lead to issues with Brown Paper Tickets (which we've seen) and also be deemed unfair to people who would normally go up to the brewery and buy bottles, not just the people who will go up if they are promised a bottle of a special release. Hell, it happened with the Reserve Membership and people were crying about it.

there's no ideal way of doing... especially not when the demand is so high, limited releases will always lead to people striking out. It seems people will never be okay with striking out. Everyone has a sense of entitlement

 

You must have been ahead of the 2 hours of people behind you? That week was absurdly chaotic and brewing became burdensome because of the 2 hour waits all day...

 

I've thought about that - selling the beer to the distributor at our retail price and letting it go out to Hunger Mountain and Beverage Warehouse... and letting them sort it all out. Which could work... or it could actually lead to more problems (what if they don't enforce limits?). Was going to attempt that once during the summer to see how it worked out. 25$ of Damon or Tragedy? But no line... the price... of convenience. Thoughts?

 

Nope - I was in there. I waited for about 2 hours and 15 min in total - but to be honest I don't have an issue with that. Only thing that maybe could have been done is having one line for people who wanted growlers/bottles & another line that just wanted bottles. If people want to wait in a 2 hour line for some growlers, that's their prerogative. Nothing you can do about that.

The weather surely didn't help either since it was packed to the brim inside to get people out of the snow (which is probably the reason why brewing was extremely difficult) - again another thing out of your control.

 

Personally i would keep it the way it is. Its not like driving to greensboro was an ugly ride. I always loved the ride to HF, then go to parker pie for a quick pizza and a pint before heading back home.

If you send some of the special releases to burlington or hunger, you should keep some for the brewery for people like me.

 

As someone 90 minutes away from you, I'd hate to see that. I really enjoy taking the time to travel to Hill Farmstead, getting growler fills along with a special bottle release, etc. It's one of the unique things you have going for yourself: if you as a customer want Norma or Damon or a growler of Abner, you get in the car and head north.

If it makes your lives easier, then perhaps it's worth a try to send a release to Hunger Mtn. of the Bevie.

The Norma release was insane though. I was luckily to be near the front of the line on that Wednesday, but it was like a busy Saturday. Plus, it was snowing...a lot. Releases along those lines in the summer, with good weather, would likely be another step up from there in the insanity department.

Perhaps barrel-aged releases are sold just on Saturdays? In the name of avoiding the masses crowding the brewing area, this might work?

Not sure there is an easy way to handle these releases, I don't envy having to make these decisions.

 

I could see this working in the winter to cut down on lines in the cold weather...but in the summer Id rather wait outside even if I am in line for an hour...I try to avoid this and get there as early as possible even when coming from Boston.

 

as a non local.. I appreciate my trips up to the brewery... so selfishly I like the way it is. As you know, I was up last weekend for no "special" release and loved my trip.

 

Just saw that What is Enlightenment is on tap at the Blackback. I want to live under a What is Enlightenment waterfall.

 

Wednesday releases for the locals!

 

To disagree with everyone else...I dislike coming to Greensboro on my free day (saturday) because the lines are always outrageous. They become even worse when anything is 'released'. Not anyone's fault, just the nature of the beast. I've taken plenty of afternoon's off work to make the trip from BTV because of this.

That said, I haven't been to Greensboro since December and I'm 'local'. Why burn a day when I can try most everything else on tap (at a slightly higher cost) and don't feel 6hrs of my Saturday for 1-2 'special' bottles is worth it. I'm sure others will strongly disagree, but I guess they are just more dedicated than I.

It's not like special releases haven't hit distro before...I was willing to pay a little extra then too.

 

Coming in from Michigan for the party and was pretty excited to see a bottle release planed the following day. It will be a great weekend of drinking, camping, and everyone gets to go home with a couple new bottles they've never had before. Sounds pretty good to me.

 

Your case is slightly different than that of someone outside of VT. Id rather go to the brewery wait there and have a better chance of obtaining a bottle than going to a store where they may or may not have the beer and or could be holding it for locals frequent customers etc...that makes my 12 hours of a round trip every couple of months worth it.

I would be very very upset if I went up to VT came away empty handed, but then again thats why I would go to the brewery where at the very least I will be able to refill my growlers.

 

As someone that lives only 20 mins away from the brewery, I of course would rather the bottles stay at the brewery. I'd love to see a bottle only line, since I seem to always have to wait an hour just to get bottles. This might help a lot on those 'silent' release weeks. I might be the odd ball though, since I rarely get growlers. It might also help to have instructions for people getting tasters, I always seem to notice people waiting in line to get another taster and that just adds to the congestion around the door.

Getting Heady or Lawsons at the bevy or hunger mt can be impossible if you can't get to either place before 5pm. I seriously doubt HF would last that long either. Of course if I worked in Winooski or Montpelier, I'd have a different opinion.

 

As far back as the juicy release I know they were distributing the bottles to the people in line for growlers...I dont think it would be very fair to bipass the people in line for growlers...so in this regard I think they are doing the right thing. May take longer but it is most fair IMO.

 

2 lines would be the bees knees.

 

Natural Provisions in Williston has been getting Heady, seems to last a little longer there.

 

What is Enlightenment changed the way I thought about beer, and quite honestly changed the way I thought about a lot of things. It was the first Hill Farmstead beer I ever had, it was a revelation for me.

 

can you give me a link to the Blackback taplist?