Selling out breweries...

The only solution to the OP's plaint is to find another hobby that hasn't yet been infiltrated by squares. I hear there's a guy way out in the sticks who's doing genius things with pickled vegetables and right now the line outside his picklery is usually only seven or eight deep before opening.

 

We have a winner.

 

Let me fix that for you. Craft beer IS A Business. Notice the lack of unique. The goal is to sell the beer. Also quit bitching about people who are just getting into beer asking questions at a bar. We all started somewhere.

 

OP, this is not an issue that is unique to MA, nor is it a new problem. Keep the faith, have a beer, and you'll come to accept it some day soon.

 

if these kids are spending their money on something better and not a case of natty. how is that bad?
Like can you imagine if someone was like this when YOU started your craft journey? I picture alot of us sucking down budlight.

 

Never been to Tree House but have gotten their stuff in the past. Julius is one of my favorite IPAs by a long shot. That said, I do plan to make the trip there eventually and join the line waiters. In their case, i've observed the cans have increased their production beyond manageable capacity and they're working hard to get back to normal. Hopefully it's temporary and over time they will be able to find methods to improve the line waits and numbers.

Breweries selling beer isn't a bad thing. I'm sure most would rather sell out their week of stock than have it end up living on shelves. I can imagine it's annoying for some when people and their mules buy maximums, but i'm used to this type of chasing around VT already. Hill Farmstead had to cut back their limits on rarer bottles because people would bring all their relatives, college room mates, and coworkers up to Greensboro and buy out things like the b/b Flora release. Personally, I never need or buy limits of releases or capacity on growler fills even when I can. There will always be more beer next time.

 

This.

I got into craft beer just a couple years ago, and if it wasn't for lots of more experienced people that I met at special releases and brewery events, I would never have become more knowledgeable about beer and gotten more into it. I'm reminded of times when I have a friend over to drink one of my "special" beers - one that I've traded for, or waited in line for, or just paid wayyyy too much money for - and my partner asks me why in the world I wouldn't want to just drink the whole thing by myself. To me at least, beer isn't just about the beer itself - it's about spending time with cool people and all of us benefiting from that. I like discussing beer with smart people, I like sharing the experience, and I like the community that goes along with all of that.

(And besides, even if I don't get more than a couple bottles of BCBS or KBS or Zombie Dust or whatever, it's not like there aren't TONS of amazing, world-class beers that are just sitting on the shelf at my local bottle shop!)

 

Well stated, the last comment is especially true.

This is what I was about to type up, its especially true in DC. People who don't care about craft and just want to seem hip, it's a fickle crowd and will become disinterested in a couple of years. This boom is a time to shore up extra revenue and new loyalists but just know it will contract. OP, I think the key here is patience.

 

I am happy to see my local craft breweries expand and I am happy to see newbies flock to the new expanded breweries. If they have questions, I am more than happy to answer them. The more people drink craft beer the more craft beer there will be and the more choice we will all have. If there is a line out into the parking lot, go somewhere else. You may find something you like just as well.

And if some poor slob who has slaved for years working 20 hour days and eating living on oatmeal to keep his or her dream brewery alive manages to sell it to AB InBev and retire to Jamaica or wherever - all the more power to them. Nothing wrong with success.

A brewer doesn't need to wear a loincloth and sleep in the dirt to make good beer.

 

hahahaha

 

Maybe it's that KBS I had this morning muddling my brain, but... what's the problem/question ?

 

I had this problem at Alesmith in San Diego a decade ago. Took off work on a Thursday and drove down there to get barrel-aged Speedway and there were over 100 people there when I arrived.

Looks like the craft beer hype train has finally come to your station!

 

We all did start somewhere. I started here. I read a lot, learned a lot from you guys on here, and did much of my own research. If somebody is just cool and easy to please and doesn't get real into craft beer and just says..."ahhh give me whatever, I just want a drink" then thats cool and those are my kinda people. Its not like you have to be an expert about it. That is not my point. But, if people really are interested in it and then come and ask a million questions to a bartender expecting a 4 hour beer education, those people drive me up the wall. Just order it and if you don't like it, then you know not to get it again, and life moves on. I probably took this a different direction than the OP intended. Sorry for that. I am one that believes that this craft beer thing has gotten way too snoby and serious, so that is not me. I am just speaking to people in general.

 

I agree, when I started getting into it I took the time (lurking on BA ) to do some reading, and get the basic knowledge/terminology down so when I read the menu I had some idea of what to purchase. If one is even slightly sincerely interested they will take the time to educate themselves a bit, that is not snobbery. A busy beer bar is not the time to have a one on one education session with the bartender.

That being said they don't drive me up the wall because people are going to be people and everyone is different, I just have more patience I suppose.

 

My tolerance for humanity (in it's most stupid splendor that is...) is declining at such a rapid rate that I fear I will match curmudgeon-ry with "Sheldon" from Big Bang Theory within a short amount of time. And please do not get me started on other people's driving!!!


As for the OP's post, I can recognize the same frustration he has as that which strikes most any enthusiast has when their hobby explodes in popularity. The feeling that they are no longer cutting edge or unique, that interlopers have begun taking up space in their haunts, and the belief that somehow the new found success or popularity will somehow tarnish the hobby overall. Perhaps even fearing that the "jump the shark" moment is on the horizon or that a damaging bubble burst is about to happen.

A lot of us have been around craft beer since well before now (I go back to the early '90's), so we have seen at least two bubbles. Granted, the current popularity is far more robust by ANY measure than before the other bubbles, but all that means is we'll clear out several mediocre to bleh breweries once the casual outliers, the fanboys and trend seekers fade away. Until then, just dial up your calm and persevere. If you can't handle that, than buy bottles or growlers and drink alone, at home. Kinda like I do most the time.

 

What I'm not understanding is why people are saying "this will pass." If anything I think some people will just get tired of waiting in line for beer. I know I did. Doesn't mean I've "moved on to the next thing" just means I drink good beer that I can buy at a store.

Lots of people drink beer. Lots of people drink good beer. The overwhelming majority don't think about it nearly as much as we do. Eventually there may be some contraction in the market as some of the fervor dies down, but people buying as much as they can and making some people go without, whether they're new and lecherous, new and curious or old lecherous is just crappy behavior, no matter what. Just because you've "been into" beer longer doesn't make you more deserving. It's purchasing beer. You're not putting in your time, or paying your dues, unless you're working in breweries and starting from the bottom up.

 

I have no brewery experience at all, but as a strategy for the local / small brewery, I've always thought that supporting your local population that wants to support you as the brewery should come before the whale chasers, tourist drinkers, and trust fund hipsters. Give people who live in an x mile radius from brewery (get a locals VIP card after checking drivers license address to confirm a person is local), first dibs on all new beer releases and discounted prices. If even locals get out of hand buying in bulk and muling for others, then put a cap out quantity buy. Brewers are fine to suck the gouged markups and time spent standing in line out of the traveling mule packs, whale chasers, tourist drinkers. If a brewer doesn't plan to expand production to accomodate everyone's demand then take care of your locals first. That's how I'd operate a small brewery anyway.

 

Yeah, I have work on that patience thing. haha.

 

This is totally where I'm at. Sure, I'll sneak out to grab a special release every now and again, or trade to try something I've been dying to try, but the vast, vast majority of my beer purchases is every day, always on the shelf stuff -- Firestone Walker, Deschutes, etc. And I'm perfectly happy that way.

Sure, maybe some of the hot ticket breweries eventually expand enough that I can get them without much hassle, and if that happens, count me in, I suppose. But there's way too much good beer that's way too easily available to worry about multi-hour lines, mules, and the rest.

 

only people who have been drinking beer.... long enough? can properly "respect beer"?

has the door been shut to new beer drinkers?

how do i correctly calibrate my contempt for people who have less knowledge about this particular niche than i do? should i be hurriedly ramping up my knowledge of ........... everything...... just in case i stumble across something that piques my interest one day?

when i want a beer, i want as much of that beer as i can possibly get my hands on because i believe that i know more about it than someone else whom i deem unworthy. currently that right is being threatened. to whom do i report this egregious offense? my alderman? congressman? take it right to the top and mail a handwritten letter to Obama?