Hopslam Wave Two / Weird Distribution Practices

Call up Savor Growl in Columbus! They could let you know how it works!

 

Similar thing out here but at my store there was a 2 six pack limit for the 2d wave.

 

In the past it was not unusual for Bell's to do a second shipment for Hopslam. not sure if it's a marketing thing to build the hype with an initial limited release and then make it rain in the second shipment. whatever, it happens. Better start buying up cuz i don't think i've heard of third shipments being made.

 

Yep same here. What's really weird is that my friend and I bought from the same store same bottle date and my sixer is 1000 better than his. Mine is balanced sweet and happy hoppy. His is boozy and slipshod in composure

 

Sometimes the communication from the brewery to a distributor is lacking...or the production situation changes and the brewery is able to make more when they initially thought not.

 

Do you know what ever came of that?

 

I just noticed this by checking the Facebook page of a store in Rockland County, NY. - there it is again, out of nowhere! I had written it off, too; maybe I can get it before it disappears this time.

 

They made more than last year, 5500 barrels of Hopslam.
Edit - link thingy
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bells-hits-nyc-new-interview-with-larry-bell.154296/

From a production standpoint, if you brewed that all at once it would tie up the brew house and fermenters. You also don't want to tie up the the keg line and bottle line with one specialty like this, as people still want their Two Hearted.

How it is in the distribution chain is up to the brewery and the distributors. AFAIK.

 

I had four different sixers bottled on dates (1-4,1-11,1-18) and each one tasted different.

 

We randomly got 4 cases in today at the store I work at. My assumption is that some stores didn't buy their entire allocation and the left overs were offered up by distributors afterwards.

 

A lot of CCB limited or seasonal beers seem to come in 2 waves also. Usually a week or 2 after the initial hype of the first wave comes the second, which I am then usually able to purchase. Maybe I am just seeing distribution delays between two areas or they are trying to help out us poor suckers who get paid biweekly.

 

I've known that they do different shipments but never known why. Perhaps an area/region gets two shipments a year (for the larger areas) and its the distributors shafting one place on round one then giving them a larger allotment on round two. That way their "bigger" clients feel better about themselves on the first time around and during the second release its old news and the "smaller" stores don't feel shafted.

 

We haven't gotten any where I work yet. But, I work for a door manufacturer. So, that would be kind of weird, now that I think about it.

 

I do not believe this practice is out of the norm for any brewery and it is definitely not limited to Bell's and Hopslam. In my area, nearly every limited release that appears on the shelves, in any sort of decent quantity (not sold out in minutes), will first hit in a rather limited run followed by a much larger run. I have seen this with local breweries such as Bell's, Founders, Oddside and Greenbush, as well as larger out of state breweries like Stone, Oskar Blues, Great Lakes and Sierra Nevada.

It appears that breweries just want to get the beer out on the market with these first runs, worry about pumping in the volume on subsequent runs.

 

here's the story i got, we got less at the store i work at, then we have in the past few years. the distributor held cases to sell to more on-premise/restaurants accounts. we had to wait till the restaurants to refuse the cases and we had the chance to purchase anything the on-premise refused. i think maybe bell's wants to get hopslam on more beer list and bar menus. the only thing is in our market non of the restaurants even think about opening till march. maybe the obx will see a third wave of hop slam in one or two spots. probably at $15 a 7oz pour though :/

 

Meh. It's a great beer...but just one of many many great DIPA's out there, and most of the others are far easier to come by. I wouldn't lose sleep over it. But...good job, Bell's

 

I was surprised to find some on the shelves of a new Williamsburg market last week - while waiting at the checkout with my 2 6pks, the manager-type interrupted the phone call he was on to comment on my purchase - telling me that the distributor told him it was good stuff, but he was suspect about giving it the shelf space due to it's high price - I let him know how desirable Hopslam was amongst the craft beer crowd - he told me he only had the one case - he then told me he was going to grab a 6pk for himself -
the distributors near me that carry the full line of Bell's brews haven't seen any Hopslam - yet.

 

I bought a 6 pack last Friday at my local beer store. 21.99 and was told that was all they had stopped in yesterday to see if they had nugget nectar yet, and he pulled a 6 pack out from under counter for me said they received a couple more cases this week