Other Half Brewing

I expect to see the words "shit show" appear in this thread by Saturday evening.

 

Saturday evening? I bet they appear before 10 AM.

 

NY Times headline "Mysterious Friday night camping ritual begun along the gowanus canal, seems to appear every two weeks".

 

"Centre Street: Brooklyn's Skid Row?"

 

Careful what you wish for, all you folks who dreamed of a great local brewery like OH, now you will find out what once we Mid Hudson valley guys went through with Captain Lawrence, and go through now with Plan Bee special releases. Won't be long when more out of towners will be buying and drinking OH cans than you local guys.

 

This is almost certainly me being very naive, but I hope the location has something going for it when it comes to capping out the number of people willing to travel into town for their cans. There's a finite amount of nearby parking spaces, it's not in the most scenic part of town, there's no permanent food option served there (discounting McDonalds - although I forget that a lot of beer nerd's palates are only extremely discerning/delicate/sensitive up to a certain point) or large seating area, and it's on the F/G line.

Wishful thinking though I'm sure.

 

Great points, but you underestimate the will of the average beer geek. If OH setup a barge in the Gowanus Canal and people had to swim to get to the barge and grab their cans, even that wouldn't deter people from seeking out these cans !

It is a double-edge sword, they make great beer, good for everyone, but downside of that is increased competition for the beer. I would always love to get cans easily, but at least the beers that go out in cans are readily available on tap.

 

Well, let's look at another great brewery, Hill Farmstead. Maybe if they put that brewery in the middle of nowhere Northeast Kingdom Vermont on a dirt road some miles from nearest paved road, no one would come. Or...

 

I'm up in the air about heading over from NJ. I love OH, have been to 2 releases, but really only want some Equinox. Not sure if its worth it for me. Keeping an eye on Singlecut as well. Doesn't seem too close to OH, but could make the trip worth it, especially if they release Bon Bon.

What are people's thoughts on the limit? It's good to see OH acknowledge it but I felt like their argument of lack of space as weak. I know their space is small and tight, but I think lower limits with maybe a release starting on Friday (or Thursday) would help more people get their beer. It could be an issue about keeping the beer cold.

I'm thinking getting there at 10:45 is a sweet spot to get in and out without waiting long for cans. But then again, OH has been getting more hype and the beer world could caravan in and horde cases by the car/truck load.

How long until OH thinks or acts about moving to a larger space? Just a thought.

 

As for the food situation, a couple blocks away, there are tons of options. Mexican, pizza, sandwiches, Italian, crepes, Korean Mex, American, etc. It's actually a fine area if you just go a touch north.

 

I wish they had stuck to the lower limits of the last release and would do one case total, seemed to last much longer that way.

 

I do as well. I don't know their space constraints but I feel even at 4 and 4 limit they would sell through most, if not all by the end of Saturday. If not they would have very little left and def get through it on Sunday.

 

Of course- I live nearby - I just meant actually at the brewery itself.

I guess my point to cavedave was that a lot of breweries have more space, a dedicated food menu, a parking lot etc - things that make the experience more attractive to someone travelling there (especially if they're trying to persuade family/friends to go with them). I suppose I'm envisaging me trying to sell my wife on something (if we lived out of town):

A.N. Other Brewery: "so I hear they do a great burger, and it's located in a beautiful part of the Hudson valley etc"

Other Half: "it's under the BQE on a small street behind a McDonalds and there are ~8 seats. But it's only 12 stops on the F train if we get off at Penn Station. So that's good"

Edit - and yes understood that technically the F doesn't go to Penn Station and that you'd need to walk a block east

 

In the world outside of craft beer fanatics, everything you state is 100% logical and makes sense. But.....

Great beer, limited supply,"special release", FOMO, hype, cans, can limits, etc. will TRUMP logic every time.

 

No offense to CL, but is anyone really banging down their door for their beer? It's good, it's distributed well . . . but I've never heard of anything remotely close to what's going on at OH no less HF.

 

Haha - I re-learn this lesson every day on here. And you're right.

 

- bold added

And no offense to you who is obviously new to the scene around here, either, haha.

The last release at Captain Lawrence old (Pleasantville) location required getting there the day before, grabbing tix, staying over in frigid temps, and at least half of the huge crowd not getting any beer.

They now do silent releases, and other releases to coincide with Sour'd In September (at their now Elmsford location). Plan Bee releases are the new shit show for us lucky locals here.

I wish all breweries did silent releases but it is so much easier to build up hysteria and sell out of beer in one day, even at the expense of your customers' comfort and enjoyment.

 

The shi*shows that used to happen at CL the last 2 or three years of Rosso e Marrone and Cuvee de Castleton releases, prior to changing their release system, were orders of magnitude beyond what's happening at OH now.

This was at their old brewery. They changed their release system (almost all silent releases now) when they moved, and while it's a little disappointing (some epic bottle shares at the old releases), it makes a lot of sense. It's a small miracle that no one ever got hurt/no serious damage was done... though there were many near misses on both fronts.

 

Yes, I was next to the guy at the last CdC release whose pants caught fire, trying to stay warm too near the kerosene space heater.

I think if OH isn't careful the same kind of hysteria can be expected in such a tightly packed neighborhood. If they do any releases of beers that cannot be gotten on tap, such as barrel aged one offs, likely things could be even worse (or better bottle shares?) at OH in future than they were at CL.

 

Their first bottled stout was met with mixed reviews. If they produce another one there may be no lines for it, but if it turns out great, the next one after that could be an epic shit show if it is a limited release.