New Glarus sour

You clearly don't understand New Glarus if you think they are ever going to charge an absurd price for anything they sell.

Generally, I avoid releases like this as they usually have more hype than substance, but I was quite impressed with how everything went down. People sharing bottles, having great conversation, and picking up after themselves. I only saw one partially full bomber of Mirror Mirror near the brewery entrance. Aside from that nothing. Even smokers were courteous enough to walk across the driveway to have their smoke. A really relaxing and fun atmosphere, that was organized quite well. Thanks again to the folks at New Glarus for putting on such a great show. It was great to see Deb handing out tickets and thanking us for coming by.

I am not sure when the last ticket was sold this morning, but as we were walking out Deb was seated out front still giving tickets to people as they showed up. That was roughly 10:30. Based on what I read and saw this morning I would imagine today was the slowest of the three with Friday being the busiest.

 

$8 + time and travel. My 2 bottles actually cost me $25 in gas, $3 in coffee, 4 hours in lost income (let's just say $60) and 4 hours of lost sleep (priceless). So no, I'm not selling and probably not trading either of them.

 

I agree. The release was almost seamless once they figured out the best way to hand out tickets (and put a few extra folks on the registers) on Saturday. I think Saturday was actually the busiest but was much smoother than Friday.

The cool weather helped quite a bit, too.

Cheers to New Glarus.

 

Question: Who in the hell buys these beers for these prices? CEO's that don't give a shit about a few Bills and let "us" do the work? I mean, I personally don't have a cellar to trade for these types of limited beers but if one has that much money to throw around I feel like one has the resources to accumulate the necessary beers to just (I use just pretty loosely) trade for them. Dubs tee eff.

 

Whoa, let me calm the sh*tstorm a-brewing here.

I agree with the applause for NG. Believe me, I am one of their biggest fans and desperately want to make it up there to visit sometime. And I'm not saying the price should be $300 a bottle or anything absurd like that. NG has the right to sell it at any price they want, but from a purely economics point of view, $8 (excuse my mistake) is underpriced if someone is subsequently turning around and offloading it for $200+ merely a day later.

My response wasn't meant to call out NG (I apologize if I came off that way), but when a poster says that the owners would be sick if they saw how much people were flipping the bottles for (and that they were flipping them at all), then I don't know what to say to NG other than "really??". This is expected practice now in our Community and the fault is certainly ours, but the way I see it, breweries can either: (a) accept that this is the level of immaturity a minority of their customers will engage in; (b) mark the price up to try to reduce muling/hoarding and capture some of revenue that they are giving up to the secondary market; or (c) forego bottle sales and do on-site consumption only.

Just my $.02. And, to be fair, as "eyes open" as I am on what's been going on, even I was taken aback at the resale behavior with this beer but I suppose this is the state of beer advocacy right now: beer as a commodities investment with the ISO:FT forums being our S&P index.

 

From a friend to the West -

NG really opened my eyes to a classy event. When the owners come around shake your hand, and say thank you for coming out - wow. The price point - wow. When they can hustle 700 people in and out in about an hour - wow. When they improved the ticketing system day to day based on feedback and experience - wow. When they released over 3 days to give as many people an equal opportunity - wow. They did everything except serve us breakfast and rub our feet... Certain beers I wait for to enjoy in my home - Certain beers I wait for to acquire other beers... but man - WI people you really do have something special - cherish that place (and from the comments, and the 'protective/defensive' language you can tell you do).

This is the one and only time I will ever say something nice about Wisconsin... End scene.

Cheers to those of you I met...

 

I was going to say the same thing... Without Beeradvocate, Untapp'd etc... these things would go for $8 and be at the brewery for weeks...Yet, I'm guessing anyone outside of Central Wisconsin wouldn't have a bottle...

It's funny how the one medium that unites and informs also creates the hype, the demand, and the "need" to try, trade, and rate... Kind of an interesting byproduct when ya think about it...

 

Crazy indeed. But this stuff is inevitably going to happen. New Glarus producing 3x more this year and implementing a stricter ticketing system decreases the rarity and hoarding potential, but there will still be dumb people willing to pay. Next year there will probably be even more. The hilarious part is that the current price is more than 10x what the seller paid for it, and it still hasn't met the reserve. How greedy do people have to be? The secondary market of craft beer is a ruthless bitch.

I see what you're saying, and you have valid points, but I would expect NG to continue to make more and saturate the market given they have the fruit cave up and running.

 

Not what I said at all.

 

I still disagree here. One transaction, if it even sells at $200, determines that a product is underpriced? I could list a bottle (wasn't able to get to the release unfortunately so purely hypothetical) at $1000 but it doesn't mean anything to how the product is priced.

Unfortunately this seems to be more and more the case. Trading, and I do trade myself, seems to bring out the worst in a subset of the trading population. Those folks who skirted (or attempted to skirt) the allocation rules the last 3 days? I guarantee they were not looking to accumulate extra bottles for their consumption. They want to flip them for some other whale. And folks who skirted the allocation limits are welcome to prove me wrong in this thread

You make some valid points and I certainly did not think you were calling out NG. Cheers!

 

I honestly hope trading hype doesn't blow up any more than it already has for this beer. I just want to drink my bottles in peace and never be tempted by ridiculous offers.

 

Looks like I won't be getting any Wild Peach as I thought on Monday. Last year I was able to take off work and go on Friday to get 2 bottles of VSB. I drank one on my birthday and gave one to a beer trading friend. I'll just image what WP tastes like this year, because I'm sure I will never have or want to trade what people will demand. I'm glad so many people will get to try just how awesome these New Glarus R&D beers taste.

 

You shouldn't be tempted the people who make those ridiculous offers are 1) setting a ridiculous standard (that frankly is what drives all this crazyness.)
And 2) Your giving an awesome beer you had to work to get to a complete moron.
And finally 3) You would be complicit in not only perpetuating that persons ignorance but also helping to cement the astronomical value.

 

You think the price should be higher. My point is that NG has always been extremely fair with their pricing, so for them to charge $15-20+ for a single bottle when they don't retail anything else for more than $10 would be out of line for them. I'll be the first to admit we are spoiled when it comes to beer prices.

But you'll still race across our freeways, try and catch our fish, and be a pain in the ass on a regular basis, right?

 

Meanwhile, you're clogging up 90E by going 57 in the left lane on your annual trip to the big city.

 

Was in the big city this weekend. I'm still not sure why we don't setup a tollway to for all the FIBS that head north and gridlock 90/94 on Friday's.

 

If we went the speed limit then who would you flip the bird and swear at to relieve your anger. You think Chicago's murder rate is high now imagine if you had no one to blame for your anger.

 

Friday's what?

 

I blame the Pipeworks Simcoe I am enjoying.

 

The event was awesome when compared to other events I've attended. When both owners come out and thank you, it is a small gesture that makes a BIG statement.

While I got my bottles on Sunday (#101) a guy actually asked the line if anyone wanted to sell theres. I 100% thought he was joking, then he sincerely tried to strengthen his question by adding "I just want them for trading" which lead me to burst out laughing. I cannot believe how dumb some people are, just be happy with what you got an enjoy it.

I got to try the beer at Great Taste and it was jaw dropping. Amazing nose to rival Fou, and a delicious taste. Not an acidic bomb like VSB but with time it will sour even more I suppose. It was just delicious, I wouldn't trade it @ all. Would just enjoy with friends