Tired Hands bottle releases?

Guess you and your mules got shut out at this release. So sad.

 

Hardly, I went to Rapp Brewing for a choc stout than on to 7venth Sun today. Winning.

 

Rare bottle releases like this are the problem with the lamer end of craft beer.

 

I also got shut out. Dude in the leather jacket said we would get some but ran out with about 15 people ahead of me. He looked the other way on line cutting all morning. Useless douche.

The most annoying thing was that then the brewpub was at capacity and they wouldn't let anybody in for growler fills. When I finally got in, mago tago kicked when I was third from the front of the growler line. At least if I had known I wouldn't get bottles I could've just gotten my growlers. Instead, I wasted hours in line and got nothing of what I wanted to get. Ended up with First Level which is good.

Altogether, a very poorly run event. Such a small place shouldn't have such a difficult time making this work. Jean and the crew should be embarrassed. They need an accurate bottle count, accurate line count, and orderly ticketing so this crap doesn't happen to people...especially like me who drove a long way.

That said, their beer is great and I will likely swallow my discontent and give them another chance. Perhaps I'm too nice or perhaps it is my growler of First Level talking. Pretty good to settle for this after getting screwed out of mago.

 

Mago is hype. You didn't miss much. I am confident that fresh DrtWolf bottles would easily outshine every IPA on Tired Hands draft list atm.

 

Your presence made the wait a lot shorter my friend. Definitely disappointed for you since you were in front of me and for @IMXELITE0 as well.

I don't think it was all line cutting. Something got screwed up with the bottle count or they decided to pull a few cases. I don't think the security guy could do much anyway since there were a lot of people to keep track of. They should really do tickets and be absolute certain on the bottle count. It was my 2nd and last time I will have humored their handling of bottle releases. I really hope Jean reads this thread...although he did say at one point that if you don't like shit shows, don't show up.

 

If you don't like shit shows, don't show up?

I hope that's not his true feeling. That's basically saying, "yeah, we know there's problems here, and yeah we know the solutions, but no we don't care enough about our loyal customers to fix it."

 

People have posted on their Facebook stating the problems, etc. They don't give a shit plain and simple. They have forward thinking beers though.

 

This was on Facebook over the announcement of the Back into the Emptiness. Someone asked "how much of a shit show is it going to be?" or something along that line. TH responded "You can avoid shit shows by not showing up" or something close to that. I'll try to search for it on their FB page when I'm on a desktop. The point is that they know it's a shit show each time, they don't care, and won't change it because people will keep coming back and they have more customers than they could handle. At least that's how it looks.

 

I heard they have a few new ones coming out soon. I'll definitely be lining up at 6am for this release:


Cutting Is The Key

Sad State Of Affairs In Ardmore

The Carb That Spills Out Of The Hole In Your Growler

We Are All Expendable Beer Nerds Lining Up At The Same Frequency


Seriously though, Tired Hands makes some fantastic beers but these releases keep getting worse and worse. All of this nonsense for two bottles of one beer? I can't wait for the next Alchemist truck sale... You certainly don't see Jean greeting customers in line with delicious beer at TH. Last time, John Kimmich along with several of his employees patrolled the line with a keg, pouring for everyone. I know it's a bit of a different situation up there, but I think Tired Hands can do SOMETHING about what their releases have become. They just don't care.

 

I saw a few people picking up bottles on Saturday. I wonder how you get in that hip club.

 

Correction, it was the last HandFarm release...I'll let you be the judge:

 

No reason not to do a ticketed release at this point. Not sure why they wouldn't care about people getting shafted by line cutters, when those people know they could easily fix the situation. In the long run, what's worse, bad publicity and maybe losing some (albeit not a lot) of customers, or buying some numbered pieces of paper? Really...

 

Are we basing all this 'line cutting' based on an informal count from the Gestapo in the leather jacket? Because people were 160 in line and got shut out? Or did people actually see people cutting In line? If it's that people saw line cutting, why didn't people call the line cutters out? I know in previous releases at TH there has been plenty of calling out for the line cutting. Just a thought.

 

I feel the exact same way. It sounds like they may have ironed out some of the issues, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why it took an hour and a half to run 80 people through a cash-only line. That experience, plus the fact that I stood there for an hour and a half to get no beer while other people got 6 has put me off bottle releases for a while.

I'm hoping that when the weather gets nicer, they will handle the bottle sales outside (laws permitting), to avoid the inevitable crush the bottle releases put on the space. I'm also guessing these releases will be moved to the new space once it is up and running.

 

Because it's ridiculously easy to have your paid security guy hand a number to people as they arrive, where your number is your spot in line. Whether or not cutters were real, people stood out there AFTER BEING TOLD THEY WOULD GET AN ALLOTMENT and didn't get any. People stood out there for over an hour for this reason, and then got shut out.

I love most things about Tired Hands, but the fact that these events are very easily fixed to run more smoothly and yet haven't been is inexcusable. Hippy-dippy forward-thinking philosophy doesn't mean much when your customers keep getting screwed.

 

A few observations from someone that has been at every TH release.

- While there is a lot of talk about "line cutting"--and I am sure there is some--I am not sure that there is as much as people suspect. These releases tend to be fairly social events, especially for people that have been in the Philly scene for a while. You always see people that you've known for years, but don't necessarily see regularly. As a result, people (myself included) often stake out their spot in line for a few and then meander up and down the line talking to old friends. When it gets close to release time, everyone returns to their spot in line. For someone further back in line, especially those that weren't there for a few hours, the mass return to line can give the appearance of line-cutting: "Where did that person come from? They weren't here before!"

- The fluid nature of the line due to, among other things, socialization, restroom breaks, food runs to McDonalds and Chipotle, and short trips back to the car, make it incredibly difficult to get accurate line counts. It also makes it tough for the "security" people to spot the true line-cutters.

- People are showing up earlier and earlier, further magnifying all of the above.

- The first people that gut shut out, by my calculation, probably got in line around 10:45 or 11:00am, a time that would have been plenty early for past releases, even with higher per person bottle limits. TH sold out around 12:50 or so--meaning that these people would have stood in line for 2 hours before realizing that they weren't going to get any bottles.

- A ticketing system in which TH gives out a numbered ticket at a certain time (say 10:00 am) and writes down your name would help in many ways. No cutting (at least after tickets start to be distributed), no multiple trips through the line, and you'd know whether you'd get bottles without spending too much time in line.

 

I was there for a little on saturday and saw several bottles walk out during that short time. I didn't ask but assume they are believer's club members.

 

Quoted for support. This is a ridiculously easy way to ensure that there are no cutters, and to keep count of the line so that once there are as many people in line as there are allocations, you can turn people away. It sounds like they had a guy for line security this time. I don't see why he couldn't be in charge of this. All it would cost is a couple pieces of paper and a roll of those red tear-off raffle tickets. Hell, I'd do it for free in exchange for the ability to buy an allocation next time around.

 

I was like 65th in line and got my bottles at 12:20. Not sure if this is a typo or what. Felt like the cash only went much quicker. I haven't been to a release since they were still doing CCs also.