Disappointing Bottle Releases

YouTube some Freddie gibbs. He will tell you all about it.

 

Considering the brewery in question is telling it's customers to "shut up and get a life" on Facebook, I'd say you have a right to be dissapointed on the whole thing and they don't seem to care one bit.

 

People lining up at 4am, I mean BA Imperial Stouts aren't that hard to get. I don't mind a 1 hour line for something cool, but that's insanity.

 

listened to 'fuckin up the count'. Made it to 0:43 and it became repetitive and hypocritical. Stopped listening

 

A lot of people got there before you and the supply was exhausted. I don't see your beef. First come, first serve is a good idea for a reason. If it's the worst thing that happens to you in the next twelve months, you'll have a great year.

 

Especially when that beer is pretty shit. Honestly, I never got the hype for it or AtG in general. I get that they're one of the better breweries in KY (no offense), but really undewhelming stuff, even the variants.

As to 18th Street, well...I can't believe the OP is surprised. It's 18th Street. They've been blowing up for some time now. Hunter is a very highly regarded beer, and BA Hunter even moreso. It's next to one of the most populous areas in the country. They probably could've lowered the limit based on demand (ala Side Project), but they don't owe you anything for standing in line for nothing. That's the nature of beer today, unfortunately. Lesson learned: get there earlier next time.

 

From my perspective, no small brewery runs their planned releases better than Cycle. Most are unannounced which is another story. But when why do announce a release, you show up for a ticket in the morning, which takes all of 10 minutes or less, then you go eat or hang out for a while. At a little before noon, you line up by number amd they set the bottle limits based on the number of tickets so no one misses out. It probably keeps some of the more extreme hoarders away who don't want to bother unless they can be guaranteed a large allotment, but it's still rare for them not to allow at least 2 pp and often more. Everyone gets a bottle and the line moves quick. Win win.

 

All beer releases are very well crafted marketing genius, just like this one. Create massive hype, make people come out and spend money, run out of product, sell other products to those who didn't get intended product. Make loads of cash.

We've all fallen for this at one time or another; it just works. I don't do them anymore.

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a release at a brewery in Windsor Ontario. Literally didn't know it was going on, but happened to be there. They sampled the beer for free which was nice, it was a barrel aged milk stout (similar to this post). It was okay, just okay (like 2.75 out of 5), but the marketing of it being "limited" almost sucked me into buying a bottle. Glad I did not.

 

They know how many bottles they have, why not walk down the line and hand out tickets so people don't waste their time standing in line? Or at least do a head count. I understand you want the buzz by having 200+ people in line, but at what point do you risk pissing off a lot of the very customers who are willing to wait in line for you beer? I don't get it.

 

My biggest beef is with BPT releases, Velvet was a shit show and i did not appreciate that out of towners got it instead of those people who actually support Alesmith throughout the year and actually go to the pub it was brewed for

 

Lone Star?? I'll gladly send you a case for 6 pack of Jai Alai...that is if you're referring to the "National Beer of Texas" and not Lone Star Beverages..??

 

I'll tell you another disappointing bottle release story, this one to do with price gouging (in my opinion):

Mikkeller teamed up with Boon to blend a Gueuze; sounded great, very exciting. They released it on draught and bottle simultaneously at all their bars and the bottle shop in Copenhagen. Went there and got 2 bottles for myself, and 2 for a friend at 26$ apiece (I'll translate prices as I know most people here are in the States). Expensive, but you get used to that here.

Two days later, they're selling it on the web shop for 18.50$. I email them asking about the price discrepancy, wondering if I might have been overcharged at the release, since their bottle shop and web shop prices are usually harmonized. They answer no, but there's a 7$ shipping fee from the web shop, meaning the price would have been the same. I didn't bother pointing out that the shipping fee is per order rather than bottle, and I still would have saved 23$ had I ordered from the web shop (almost another bottle), because they obviously are aware of it already.

Then a few days later, I see it in another local bottle shop for 15.50$...

The moral of the story is, like many people have already pointed out, that releases are marketing ploys, and that you should be expecting this sort of thing if your roll the dice on it. You only have yourself to blame at the end of the day. Unless it ended up being worth it for you, in which case you can be happy. I'll be avoiding Mikkeller releases in the future.

 

Exactly. We all know it's BA Dark Lord.

 

http://www.indianaontap.com/news/18...pub-new-32000-square-foot-production-facility

 

1. Every one knows who your talking about
2. Get their earlier next time
3. Tough Cookies.

 

18th street is sloppy and only cares about profit margin, they made that very clear by not even notifying the hundreds outside waiting in the cold. On top of that, you had to wait almost another 2 hours additionally to get into the brewery to try the coveted BA Hunter which in my opinion wasn't that great. Id take coconut or coffee over it. Barrel tasted tart and off. I won't go to another release at 18th, butthurt no it's just too uncertain and sketchy for my blood. Cheers

 

They advertised 3 per person. How about the people that came out early? They expected 3 per person, showed up in time to make sure they got it. They would be mad if you dropped it to 2 or 1 per person just because the demand outweighs the supply.

You can't please everyone, so I think in most situations, it's just best to stick with what you said at the beginning. Your word means everything in life. Is that right or wrong? Who knows?

 

This is why breweries ought to sell tickets for limited releases. I went to one of these first-come, first-served events at Alesmith about a decade ago and got zip. I decided it was the last time I was going to do that.

To Alesmith's credit, they started selling tickets online with in-store pickup (no proxies) to avoid 200+ people in a line.

 

Can we please stop saying things like "it's just beer" and "there's so much good beer" please?! Sure, some people might not care what they're drinking as long as they like it, but many people on here take this hobby very seriously. And to say "relax man, it's just beer; just find something else awesome to drink" is completely minimizing their feelings. OP is obviously upset, and I cannot fathom that hearing someone say "it's just beer" would make him feel better. It's not for you or me to tell someone else that their feelings aren't legitimate.

 

These kinds of stories make me believe that, at some point for some people, it's not really about beer. It's about being able to say you were able to get a particular beer. As much as I love good beer, I can't ever picture myself waiting in line for any of it.