Tired Hands Growler Policy

A couple of thoughts:

1. It is not some bleached hair surfer dude getting off the train, it is the people you sit next to on the stools there who buy a shit ton of the beer as trading currency. I am sure you know at least a couple of local suspects who buy this stuff as a means to trade. Given what the owner himself says about the beer and its shelf life in growlers, there is a shit ton of under carbed TH beer that shows up in California and the likes. This doesn't impact the cash register per se, but there is a LOT of TH beer that is not close to the presentation anticipated when sold.

2. What was even more interesting to me was the line to get in the place last night at about 8PM and the TH person saying that they were at the fire limit capacity and were enforcing a strict one in one out policy. When I got in, the downstairs had the bar filled after I sat down with my friend at the two seats that opened up at the bar when the couple left freeing up the space for us. The tables downstairs were filled but there was NOBODY else standing on the first floor. I can only imagine what this means for places like Monks that shoe-horns people into the place. I can only imagine what that would be like if they basically limited people to only sitting. I found that interesting to say the least.

3. I think the policy is probably good in that it will ensure a more steady supply for the locals who like TH. But I am interested to see what TH thinks when their beers suddenly last a LOT longer and the receipts shrink. It looks like they are brewing as fast as people can pack it up in their Fedex boxes. They will be surprised now when their beer lasts and they are not under the pressure to keep brewing something nearly every day.

I don't check the ratings that much but would be interested in seeing what say the CA ratings are since a lot of the growlers that find their way out there and are stuck in transit for 7-10 days can't be that good when cracked.

 

In my rather limited experience, their growlers seem to lose carbonation quite quickly. I can't imagine what would happen after a week or so.

 

It's an obviously reasonable policy to balance the supply against the demand. If in the future they want/need to increase sales, they can always relax the policy. And people can still buy more than one growler, just only one of each beer.

 

I can't imagine either and I agree with this. I have had some that I filled for personal consumption and lost carb rather quickly, even the same day. Recently, my father was going to send me Mago Tago, but said his other growler fell off hard..

Is this something with the growler? I have been to HF recently and had my growler of Abner last 8 days and it was just as great as the first time I opened the first one I had filled, opened the same day it was filled up..

 

Yeah, I really don't think this is that big of a deal. It's only going to affect two groups of people. 1) Those who visited from out of town and want to bring stuff back home - although not really. You can still get multiple growlers of different beers. And 2) Traders. And I really don't have sympathy for those that hoard with the intent to trade. But that's just me.

 

I'm a big fan of sharing great beers with others. I've traded local growlers for very common shelf beers. It's advocacy at its finest.

*I've never been Tired Hands just for the record.

 

I go to TH frequently and this is what I do and sincerely believe in: advocacy. I drink and love a lot of their beers. I live 30 mins away and usually grab 3-4x 1L growlers of beers I really love for friends who live an hour away from TH. I also trade some $4$ on the dot, and usually for nothing rare. I also ship to some traders for the exact cost of the beers using their shipping labels. I don't charge for time, shipping materials...anything else at all. My trading partners can attest to that.

I'm not sure why it's wrong to spread the love of TH. Everyone talks "advocacy", but what exactly is it? Keep great beers to yourself and keep them local? What exactly is wrong with having beers that people want to trade for that is relatively accessible? Would you rather every great beer made locally stay local for local enjoyment only? If you ever said at one point or another that "I wish someone local can send me that beer", or glad that you got to try a Heady Topper, a glass of Hill Farmstead because your buddy traded for it, or a bottle of Beatification or Atrial to yourself, or dare to dream that Kern River Citra will some day some how come your way...yet frown upon local traders trading TH beers, you're a hypocrite. If you have never sent a couple of growlers to someone who is just absolutely elated and sent you repeated thanks for giving them the chance to try some of the best beers they have ever had, you have no idea how good it feels to advocate in one of the best ways.

My understanding isn't that TH frowning upon traders and mules, but rather they are having problem keeping up production. This is an issue of volume and they hope that will change eventually, i.e increased production. What I don't understand is 1 growler regardless of size or the fact that they went from unlimited growlers, to 2/person/day for SOME beers, then in a span of 1 week, it's 1/person/beer. Personally, if I like a beer, that's all I get. I also don't drink a lot at one time and hate an unfinished growler so I get 2x 32oz, drink 1 and save 1 for later. TH said they want to move it along faster...how much time do you really save filling 2x 1L vs. 1x 64oz? With the new limit, there won't be a line for the most part anyway and I don't usually see any lines for growlers during the week, so this "regardless of growler size" part makes no sense to me if it's strictly a volume issue. Things don't add up for me.

I'm disappointed at the policy because I don't get to do what I believe to be a good thing: to show the world that some of the best beers are right here, locally to me. It's a point of pride. I am NOT disappointed because I won't have TH beers to trade. I have plenty other beers and limited releases that I can use. I will still go back and enjoy their beers, but now I'll have to be selfish with my growlers.

 

Can't say it better. Anyone trying to profit or turn local growlers into 'Wales' should be shunned, tarred and feathered. Share good beer. Be a good person. Enjoy good beer.

 

This policy will not be an issue for I would assume, 95% of their customers.

 

In reverse order-

1- I am right there with you my brother. I am sure you hang ten and can show them youngsters a thing or two.
2- If you check the website, you will see a note about TH "being at capacity" and the recommendation that you arrive early. When I got there on Friday night, there was a line of about 10+ people outside and they were preventing people from entering until someone left. Never went upstairs but downstairs bar stools and tables were occupied with nobody else standing behind the stools or in the open space when you first enter. So, not sure how this works but compare and contrast to say a place like Monks where it is shoulder to shoulder people standing at times.
3- I guess the more proper way is to say that the revenue will be deferred but that over time they still make the same amount of money. But it is all cash flow and any business certainly wants to turn their beer into cash as quickly as possible as opposed to having it sit in the tanks and kegs. But point taken.

 

Yeah Yeah Yeah. Advocacy Advocacy Advocacy. I call bullshit. You're not shipping TH growlers across the country because you're some beer hippie trying to spread the love. You're shipping them across the country because you get other beers sent back to you. Plain and simple.

Something else that's plain and simple: TH obviously can't keep up right now. And the main reason they can't keep up is because they're filling too many growlers. So what are they going to do? Magically increase production? Of course not. They're going to limit growler purchases. I agree they should probably limit the amount of ounces - not number of growlers - but whatever.

This circles right back to the beginning of my point. You can still enjoy their beers on tap at TH, and you can still bring some growlers back home with you after. What you can't do is bring 4 extra growlers home so that you can land some west coast beers you've been wanting to try.

 

I'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt but sadly you are on the money that "advocacy" is a thing of the past. It is the biggest reason I am thankful for not picking up on this explosion in the last couple of years. My long time trading partners and me don't give a rat's ass about rarity and are happy to pass good brews along to each other. For the majority of people getting on board now, it is all about winning trades. Sure there are noobs who are the exception but the releases, etc. paint a pretty accurate picture about the current "state of the union." Listen to the conversations in lines like Tired Hands, the overwhelming majority of talk is about trade currency.

But I will give the guy the benefit of the doubt and take him at his word. But there are a couple of notable Tired Hands fanboys (check their website and they will be pretty apparent by their constant postings and their history tells you exactly what they do) who trade this stuff like baseball cards. Not sure what the attraction is to be honest for under carbed flat beer that people are receiving on the other hand, but at least everyone's happy. It won't go on forever though.

 

Completely agree. Except for the part about winning trades. I'm not sure whether that's the truth or not, but I doubt it's as widespread of an issue as you think.

And to stay on topic, I think if we all love TH as much as we all pretend to, we should be supportive of these type of decisions. Whether you agree with it or not, their motives are clear - they're trying to sell as much as they produce, and right now they're selling faster than they produce.

I think if you're going to get pissed at TH about something, get pissed about how they seemingly refuse to use tickets for their bottle releases. Or maybe that they're closed on Mondays or something. Who knows? Anything is better than complaining that you won't have easy trade bait anymore.

 

I think this is a good thing.Anytime I've thought about trading tired hands for something Id end up cracking the growler open and realizing there isn't really anything else I'd rather drink. Then again I don't live close enough to go there all the time.

 

I do truly believe that this will be a relatively short-term thing.

 

Glad this happened. My only sour (pun intended) experience at TH was waiting behind someone getting 10+ half growlers of The Thing. It benefits the locals, which it what should happen. It'll definitely ease the tension of worrying a beer will be gone before you get to try it.

Although now I worry about people resorting to growler mules and making it more crowded than normal.

 

Friend, I'm sorry you default to distrust. I'm not sure why it's a bad thing to get beers that you want for beers that you have access to and why can't advocacy be a part of the process. I'm not going to spend my energy convincing you or anyone without personally being able to convey my thoughts any further because it will be futile. I will be at Tired Hands this Wednesday around 8PM to meet up with @dspinler and will gladly you buy you a drink and sit down to chat, about this or anything else. You can call me on my bullshit after that if you truly believe it's still warranted. You can pay for your own beer if you feel that your judgment may be influenced by the fact that I bought you a beer. Whatever works for you. I always enjoy meeting local beer advocates, even if we have differences on here being completely faceless. Even if in the end we have differences in opinion of what is advocacy, at least I hope you will find me more genuine in my beliefs meeting me in person.

If you don't have time, we can meet up some other time since I go to TH frequently; otherwise, feel free to message these people and ask the what I beers have I gotten from them for the TH growlers I shipped them, did I charge them anything more than cost of beer, or expected anything in return other than possibly keeping me in mind for beers from their area in the future, or did I come across as douche bag trader looking to land walez, at any point forceful, or attempt to force them to return the favor at all: @JayORear , @dbyron22 , @mabmab67 , @tylermains , @thegerm87 (Had to go through my mail to figure out who I helped, wasn't keeping a list of some sort).

Cheers!
Al