Great South Bay Brewery Dirty Deeds RIS

April Fools? It has to be a joke. Right?

Right?!

Someone!?!

This isn't real life.

$600 for hopes and dreams and things that always sound better than they wind up being. It doesn't even say how long you are locked in for. I mean month-to-month may be a better business model for the consumer, because we all know they'll want to get out sooner rather than later. But it's just so ambiguous.

I've given GSB so many tries. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me 3 times, shame on me. Field 5 was quite good. Hopsy Dazy was alright. Massive/Hoppocratic Oath, not too shabby. Snaggletooth so-so.

But they've done absolutely nothing to make me want to join any sort of Reserve Society, especially one that costs $600 a year. Sheer lunacy. They might as well just ask their close friends for donations, because that's who's going to sign up.

 

Here are some examples of what u get with some other "reserve society/club" memberships:
Cigar City-$120 gets u 5 bottles of barrel aged beer included in the price (BA Huna+)
The Bruery Reserve Society-$295 a yr gets u 9 bottles of limited releases (Chocolate Rain x2, Rum Barrel Aged Black Tuesday+) also included in the price.

I'd have to see the details but it doesn't seem like u get any bottles with that $50 a month. Seems like some kind of marketing gimmick that will fall flat. I'm not trying to shit on GSB, I have given their stuff a chance but this is not a good deal. You would have to visit the tasting room at least twice a week and get your free pint to make it close to a deal but I would rather spend my money elsewhere.

Who knows though, maybe Dirty Deeds will be the next Dark Lord and we will all miss out by not joining.

 

honestly guys...get massive right first..so inconsistent i stopped buying it

 

Oh it be true, come on guys show your support lol

 

You're cut off man!

 

Fuck I'm screwed lol

 

That first months $50 got you 2 of each bottle included plus all the brewery discounts. If it keeps up that way and your close enough to stop in a few times a month, it's not a bad deal.

 

$15 price aside Dirty Deeds was a solid non barrel aged ris somewhat comparable to Southampton ris. They said they will be releasing several new beers throughout the year including a couple that will spend some time in barrels. Bwine release is slated for December. Looking forward to all of that.

 

Here are my thoughts on the GSB reserve society: As of right now their quality to price ratio isn't exactly right in my opinion. Dirty deeds isn't an awful beer, but I don't feel it meets the $15/bottle price (I did buy two because I like to support local). Though the reserve society did grant you access to 4 bottles this month which kind of paid for it's membership already...but in the future who knows. Now besides bottles you also get:

• A free pint of beer per visit
• $1 off every following pint
• 20% off merch
• 20% brewery run events (They host at least two keg/cask festivals a year each being $45-55 a pop, and have connections to a "beer trip" company that does things like kegs and eggs, pub crawls, and ski trips which I'm sure they'll take advantage of.)

They also plan on doing some reserve only events and special one offs through out the year that I'm sure members will get early access (if not exclusivity) to. Basically if you use your membership to the fullest, it will pay for itself pretty quickly.

I feel like a tiered society might be in their best interest for people who want to support them but either can't foot the $600/yr price tag or won't be able to take advantage of the whole thing. Maybe $10-15/month getting you a two bottle allotment, free pint per visit, 10% off merch and $1 off other pints/flights. Then increase the dollar amount and increase the perks.

These are just my thoughts, take from them what you will.

 

Who cares what you have to say? you only have 12 beer karma points. And the only beer you've ever had is Rubaeus.
Boom. You got served.

 

I will drain pour your handfarm you bastard.

 

I'm drinking my Dirty Deed's right now, and it's a solid beer. Not over the top. Might do well with some age on it- huge dark chocolate, roastiness. A bit on the dry side, like we talked about.

 

While I agree with most of your thoughts, there is one fundamental disconnect.

$50 a month got you 4 beers. The beers should not be priced at $15 per. If they were priced reasonably $8-10, the monthly cost would not cover the beers purchased.

And I don't see how GSB could do 2 bottle releases every month and not complete dilute their product. I'm just unsure about what their plan is. They have a huge brewery and paid for it on the backs of every-day beers with Long Island connotations and feel-good factors. Beer more for the masses than the dark corners of craft beerdom.

The reserve society, in simplest terms, would have saved you $10 on beers that are probably overly priced, but locked you in to buying two of them, when you can simply go to the brewery and purchase them if you wanted. There's nothing exclusive about it. It's just GSB guaranteeing and reserving purchases.

 

I just think it's a stupid program designed for beer douches who like to think that having a limited beer makes them cool. Not that I'm not a beer douche about some releases, I am.

 

I don't think that the value of the membership is all that bad; heck many of us pay too much for hyped beer. But to commit $600 a year means you are drinking A LOT of their beer. You need to be regularly visit the taproom and take advantage of all the perks, often without knowing what these releases are, let alone if you will like them. I could see someone who does a bunch of trading seeing this as an opportunity to get some of these limited beers and speculate that they can trade them to people out of distribution. I was fine buying a bottle of Deeds last week, but I would not benefit buying a membership.

 

But my concerns, based entirely on the limited amount of information are
a. Is it month-to-month, locked into it for a year etc.
b. There's nothing to suggest that a special release couldn't be "Christmas in July: We brewed a batch of Sleigh Ryed aged on Candy Canes and Sugar Plums just for the Reserve members so the can have those holiday feels in the Dog Days of Summer. 1 Growler per member. Also included is a GSB Santa Hat"

or

April: 1 6 pack Blonde Ambition

No clear promise on allocations per month and return on investment. Just a promise of something.

 

A lot of you are talking about how it's a young brewery and that they don't really have the track record to justify the $600 a year price tag. I see it as more of an investors club....you are paying for what you want to see them become.

Everyone wants big beers, sour beers and a barrel aging program but the reality of it is that all that stuff doesn't come cheap especially when your brewery has only been seeing a real profit for only a few months. It's a very risky move to take time away from your core production and brew a beer (or 2 in this case) that takes significantly more to produce when you are just getting things on track.

I think it was a big move in the right direction brewing these beers and I hope to see more of it. As far as the reserve club goes I think If you have faith in this brewery it will pay off. It's not like they are making you buy it, at this point you can still go down there and get special release bottles member or not. I think the reserve society would see much greater membership from a tier system that let's you choose the level of investment for different benefits but that's up to them. I'm just glad to see someone on this island thinking outside the box and going in a direction that is trying to please both the novice beer drinker and the advocates.

 

I read the membership information briefly at the taproom. I took from it that if you signed up it was for the calendar year. Though could someone join in March? Not sure there. As for the releases; they could be more like CCB and Bruery and be somewhat specific. If you knew you were getting a certain number of limited releases it may justify the cost a bit more. Now if said membership got you admission to their 2 events during the year, and there was a Membership only event, it may be a really good value. Heck if Dirty Deeds turned out to be a highly sought after beer there is already a benefit.

And if they released a Bourbon Barrel Aged Snaggletooth Stout in July, I'll happily hold it until the holidays.