Alpine Kiwi Herman

I wish I had insider information. All I got was the post and link from Drift. Clicked, saw it sold out, left it alone. Then I believe it was Grze that said they were coming back and to refresh and see if some expired/released bottles would show up. Yay they did.

As for me being part of the problem, yeah, 2 going to trade partners since they asked, 1 to a bottle share, and 1 to split....obviously that is a problem. I should instead be hoarding out for some other hard to get gems outside CA..right? Yeah! Obviously I am doing it wrong.

 

I have a hard time getting behind that since 99% of the time, a brewery succeeds based solely on its locals. Alpine is still very much a local establishment, so to me, it's biting the hand that feeds you. Not that Alpine is going to go belly up because some guy in Vegas got in on Kiwi Herman and is going to drive down next weekend, but why on Earth should Alpine give one flying you-know-what about that guy?

Chances are, that guy driving down from Vegas isn't doing so for the love of Alpine, he's doing so to profit off of Alpine, whether that be monetary or in beer trades.

 

People suck, so yeah, this does happen.

I love beer trading. I feel I get a shot at beers I normally wouldn't get a shot at. It reminds me of when I was trading baseball cards when I was 7 and losing every trade cause I was shelling out my Ken Griffey JR and Frank Thomas rookie cards for cards of my favorite Giant's ball players (I'm 31, so Will Clark, Matt Williams, Robbie Thompson, etc.). I was happy as a fucking clam though... it's no different to me now with beer.

I do believe that we read mostly negativity on these boards...can't stand it, HOWEVER, at the same time, plenty of legit and fair deals are happening between excellent trading partners (true BA's). I have trading partners now that when we trade we forget to make it official. I consider myself lucky...

 

I think he was describing the "helping out someone that helps me out mentality" aka "sharing". I assume you understand that? ;-)

 

This should come as no surprise at all. This is expected. Alpine has ALWAYS stood by their strict business model of "We make amazing beer and horrible business desisions".

I thought this would change with Green flash buying them, but it looks like they are taking the InBev approach like with Goose Island. The problem is the owner of Goose Island is a great businessman, but Alpine is not.

Lastly, I think it is so funny that people try to defend Alpine no matter what. Like they have some sense of family with them or something. The owner if Alpine could literally walk in these peoples homes, slap their women on the butt, and they would be like "it's all good man, he is just kidding". What a joke.

 

Yeah, you're both wrong. This is the most ideal way to sell beer. Last minute, online, small allocation, reliable ticketing agency. It doesn't get much better than this (I got no bottles, FWIW).

 

I would be curious if the people who do not like this method of releasing beer have a better alternative? Don't point out what's wrong with the BPT approach, provide your theory for a better way.

Ill take getting shut out this way over standing in line for hours for nothing.

 

For those who are opposed to the way this was handled, what would your preferred method of distribution have been? I don't think I've seen many folks address this. To me, if you're concerned with locals getting a shot, you might suggest an unannounced release at the brewery. But, again to me, that is just as ripe for muling as BPT or any other method. If you don't think the muling network is vast enough to descend upon Alpine at a moment's notice...you severely underestimate the power of the mule! There probably isn't a way to determine what method eliminates mules best, but it seems to me that BPT does as good a job as any other method in attempting to slow them down.

(edit: @HopsintheSack beat me to it!)

 

There really is no best way to release things and my favorite style is based entirely on what is best for me. I prefer a pre-announced release via BPT like most other folks are doing.

 

When I say fair, I refer to using a BPT system. Now you can correct me if I'm wrong because I don't have facebook but did Alpine make an annoucement yesterday morning about KwH going on sale later in the day or did this sale just come up on BPT with no announcement at all? If they announced it in the morning then it's fair in terms of first come first serve without having to go through brewery the day of. As for people who live in SD that make it to alpine on a weekly basis and got shut out. I don't think that because you go there on a weekly basis and contribute more money means that you have more of an entitlement to their beers. It just means that you are fortunate to live nearby and enjoy their beers. I visit SD twice a month and I'll stop by Alpine and drop lots of cash to bring beers back home to enjoy. I mean honestly like I said I was already prepared to miss out on this release because I always thought it would be a brewery release and I'm not planning to leave work and make the drive from Chino. Its like when Remy Pappy came out at El cerrito which is just 20 minutes away from me. I had work that Sunday and missed out on that release. I probably go to El cerrito more than a lot of people who drove out the way for that release and got bottles that I didn't get. It's just the nature of the business and there is no best way possible to please everyone because people will always miss out. But I do think there are ways to make it more fair and I think BPT is that way.

 

Yea for the people saying what is the best situation - i agree BPT is probably better than lining up at the brewery on a weekend, but just give everyone the heads up well in advance. If you know its going live at noon you have a fair and equal shot of getting a couple in your cart as everyone else (mules included). Its this ninja setup where by the time i saw it on fbook it was long sold out that more or less bothered me...

Anyways, that's it from me congrats to everyone who got some and hopefully we'll all be able to get some on draft up there!

 

From what i could tell it went live on BPT at noon and around 1 it was posted on Fbook..... (long gone by then) I think a thread was started on BA that was a bit earlier so ppl that saw that managed to get some.

 

It's not about entitlement, it's about taking care of the people who most support you and who are the reason why you're successful. 64vdub brought up baseball cards, so let me draw a reference to sports. Imagine if his beloved Giants make the playoffs (not hard to imagine since those bastards have won 3 of the last 5 WS!) and then the Giants turn their back on their season ticket holders, one major reason they are afloat, and just have a total free for all for playoff tickets. Can you imagine how many people would be highly pissed off? I don't see why we just write people off at entitled, or butthurt, because a local establishment that is proped up and doing well based almost solely on it's locals, all of a sudden turns its back on it's most loyal customers and gives some random guy in Vegas just as much of a chance to get it.

As I said though, there really isn't a simple solution to this. I just don't like to see the word fair used, when the system is far from fair to the people who made, and continue to make Alpine what it is.

 

They could have announced it earlier and you still could have missed out, then we'd have people claiming that the mules hacked BT or that the mules have 20 computers trying to shut everyone else out.

 

No reviews still, and the trade boards are filled with Kiwi ISOs. Good work everybody.

 

All in all, I'm happy that I am getting a chance to pop my Alpine sour cherry. It's only their second online release and everyone goes through a trial and error process to see what works best for them. Looking forward to whatever else they do in 2015 and hope future releases like Great are done in similar fashion.

 

so I get you don't think it's fair....so what is fair for you then? What about the pappy remy release for me? What do you think is the best or most fair way possible? Am I considered a loyal supporter of Alpine considering I make the trek twice a month and that I have father in law also stop by who lives in SD buy their beers for me? At the end of the day I'm still supporting them with a lot of money: There's a lot of people who love alpine even from out of state who regard their IPAs as best in the world and are not fortunate as people who live in SD. I'm a die hard patriots fan and I support them by watching most of their games and I buy a lot of memorabilia as a fan but I don't feel they need to take care of me in anyway but just win a damn super bowl. It'd be different if alpine had like a reserve society where people pay a lot of money for that membership and then they missed out in your comparison to Giants season ticket holders. We don't even know the numbers on how many people in SD COUNty got bottles but not everyone in SD or who lives by alpine will get one. I already told you what I think is most fair so why don't you tell me how you would have done it?

 

I totally agree that strong supporters should be returned the favor by who they are supporting. Alpine has always taken a strong stance in supporting locals who support them as well.

The problem with your reference is the fact the supporters of the Giants can be easily identified by their season tickets. The long time and frequent supporterss of Alpine are not as easily identified. There is no card, ticket, ect that makes one a local supporter unless maybe they card people and only give bottles to actual Alpine residents. I don't see a way around that without something like a membership program that so many breweries are doing these days, which in itself wouldn't prove one is local.

The simple fact is these BPT releases are easier for the consumer (no lines, cutting, ect) and easier on the breweries (traffic, open containers, ect) than having announced releases. If they announced the sale on BPT in advance, it would have been even harder to get bottles for locals as it would have provided time for people to line up mules IMO. No matter what, there always seems to be someone getting shut out when the demand far out weighs the supply. My biggest concern is they run out of Nelson by the weekend since so many people will be picking up KwH. That will be truly sad.....

 

Are you sure?

 

The good old "I got some for my trading partners" reasoning. Yea, ok.