Casey Brewing and Blending

Eh, what I heard was people were putting a chair in line and going to sleep in their cars and using a chair to hold their spot for 5-6 people.... also, the whole having to be in line by 7 AM thing to get your full allocation is pretty brutal.... but hey, that's beer in 2015 for ya.

I still got some great beers from this and other releases thanks to some of the very helpful people posting just above me here ^^^^

 

It's definitely gotten a little weird. I used to show up at 7:30AM and I'd be anywhere from 30th - 40th in line. A few weeks ago, I got there at 6AM and there had to be 100+ people ahead of me. It's going to happen again in October, since it will be all fruit beers again. I think a pre-sale might be the way to go, at least until Troy can produce more beer than people who show up.

 

Casey hasn't given any line guidelines? If you aren't physically present in line you should go to the back. Its bad enough when one person holds a spot for others, but a personless chair accomplishing the same goal seems ridiculous.

 

The release itself (after 11am) did run perfectly fine. The steps Troy had taken to move the lines quicker at open have worked well. I think the issues revolved around the empty chair line, which was ridiculous, but in retrospect, completely predictable. @Domingo summed it up well in the above post.

For many who have attended releases since the beginning (and are now EF members), it's obvious that releases are changing, and the days of arriving at 9 and getting bottles are long gone. Bottle chasers now have Casey on the radar. It sucks, but it's a great problem to have for Casey Brewing. While Troy is too nice of a guy to go as far as Hill Farmstead with the "Neckbeard ID" system (HF should trademark that), I think he will take the events of September into account for future releases. Ticketing has positives and negatives, and we just saw the negatives.

As for me, I'll fondly remember the first year of Casey releases, the casual, fun atmosphere in line, first meeting great people like @McNazz @purplewindex @Kramerbarthomer @StrongRepublican @DenverBeerDrinker @Domingo @ChugLife @budsandsuds8 (the list goes on and on) and spending the hours before the doors opened drinking coffee, talking about Casey beers and CO beer in general. It really opened my eyes to the great local beer scene.

Alas, I'll fondly remember those times when placing my EF online order from here on out.

 

I have to be honest if it were me..... keep 100% allotments low (1-2 btls/person, so no person walks out with 6 bottles shutting others out, also limiting bottle chasers) with 50% allotment to a membership group, and 50% to an online lottery for tickets (one ticket per person, in-person, must have physical matching ID) is the way to go (in advance of release - so people know whether they should drive up.)... and of course a small amount to local stores..... this system would also allow 100% purchase online and reduce (eliminate) any transaction time during pickup, aside from the bar.

IMO, this greatly reduces the line drama (chairs, getting up early, cutting/saving for others, etc) -- and it would help retain our local beer culture by cutting out bottle chasers, allowing locals to support the breweries, etc.

No system is perfect, but it most certainly can be improved upon.

 

I wasn't there this last release but agree that the line antics have gotten ridiculous and it's discouraging sane people from wanting to go to an amazing place. Whoever said a chair represents a person or multiple people (can't BELIEVE this) needs to have their chairs thrown in the river!

 

In the defense of the chair concept - in the past it has been relaxed enough to justify it. After all, if someone needs to run to the restroom (or even to grab some food), that's okay. It's just been a placeholder. I've personally told plenty of people in front of me that they can bail and come back with no issues. No chair even needed.
I think this time it just got out of hand. Rainy weather didn't help either. It was the perfect storm of bad weather, limited bottles, and people looking to take advantage of some informal rules.

 

I'm thinking it won't be as busy in October seeing as how it isn't a holiday weekend. But seeing as how a lot of this next release will be fruited again I might be wrong.

 

The best way to guestimate is probably to check the FT circuit the week before. I think some of the line desperation stemmed from people trading stuff they didn't have yet...

 

There will probably be less out of towners than were at the September release. Hopefully it's not as bad as last month because I'm not trying to leave Denver at 3am.

 

Technically almost all of us are out of towners in Glenwood Springs
We just didn't drive quite as far as some others did. The dude who drove straight through from Oklahoma was a trooper.

 

I'm gonna try to make the trip one last time before Independence pass closes

 

I was just looking through the FT forum. I'm surprised what some people are asking in return for Casey beers. It's nuts (if you ask me), and I love Casey's beers...

 

Really???? Look through the forums at any beer that has any hype behind it and tell me how Casey is out of whack. You have Morning Delight, See the Stars, Velvet Speedway, Sherry Atrial, Morning Wood, Good Morning, Any Side Project, etc......

FWIW, I have Casey and trade it but most of my trades are $4$ with IPAs so maybe I'm doing it wrong.

 

I'm not really a trader anymore, but I get the Casey obsession from a drinker's standpoint.
Without getting crucified, I'm not personally sold on a lot of American wild and sour beers. Saisons, too for that matter. I've never been one to eschew imports that I feel are better than domestic examples. Casey's are some of the few exceptions. Even the ones that are only Belgian "inspired" have something to them that few others do.

The fact that they're only on sale a single day out of the month in a remote location with a line of fanatics doesn't hurt their trade value either

I dunno, though. I can count the number of trades I've made since 2009 on 2 fingers.

 

Way to be obtuse . The only person I've run into that's local at a release is the guy that works at Coopers. There were people that drove from Texas and California. At the July release we met some guys that flew in from Montreal which is nuts.

I think this might be my last run for a while. Doing that drive during ski season is going to be rough.

 

I'm actually in the same boat (and perhaps that's why I'm surprised). The trades I make are for primarily IPA (Heady, Sip of Sunshine) and other beers we just don't get (Allagash, Tired Hands, Trillium, etc). All the Casey I've had and have now are for drinking on premises...

 

I don't see why Casey shouldn't carry some weight trade-value-wise. And to be clear, yes I'm in Colorado, but I've traded FOR Casey beers 20+ times and have only sent anything Casey away to three RTPs.

Troy is open 12 days out of the year in a remote location (as far as nearly everyone is concerned). His most sought-after beers are between $20-36 per bottle, and often have a limit of 1-2 per person. And he makes excellent beer nonetheless!

I guess I just don't understand the surprise.

 

Came from Central Illinois, 16 straight hours, missed the full allocation by 10 minutes. I knew I was screwed when I saw everyone walking back to their cars.

 

That line smelt like a lot of people drove straight through and slept in their cars, damn!