Other Half Brewing Thread (Feb 2016)

Carton/OH collab would be great, the people in the back of the line could get some pints in the Carton tap room while they wait on the 50 mile long line

 

At Tree House, can line is separate checkout line than growler/merch, which makes it a lot easier. Plus, waiting for your growlers, you have plenty of time to decide what merch you want, so it goes quickly.

No room at OH to have a seperate merch line.

 

Funny. I had the same thought. I showed up at OH at around 1:30 on Saturday, waited about 40 minutes and was able to snag 2+2 of each. It's fine because I live a short walk away from the brewery, but I'm not waiting on hours+ lines. When I went to Tree House on the Thursday before Presidents Day weekend, the can line wasn't that much shorter, and we moved through it in about 10 minutes. The glacial pace of OH's can line has been a real mystery to me.

As to this question, I'm not as up on NYS laws in this field as it's not the area of law I practice, but I think OH may have some host liability issues here. It's not just personal responsibility. It's a potential legal concern for the brewery (let alone a "good neighbor" concern too).

 

Two thoughts I had to speed things:

- Prepay: As they hand out wristbands, have someone with the POS start billing those in the front. Give them a ticket/piece of paper with the info of what they are getting. Over the course of an hour, you could get through quite a lot!

- Open the tasting room later and use that as a POS/checkout. But I doubt this will happen as it generates huge sales during the release of draft and growlers.

 

The can line at Other Half is a separate checkout line than the growler line too!

 

This is true. I think it comes down to the size of their space. The tap room is very small and a lot of people end up over flowing into the can room which makes it very crowded and confusing for some people, not to mention the food service they have in there as well.
Not doing draft pours or food and moving all merch sales to the tap room with growlers would help with the crowds and speed, but I dont see this happening. Other Half is doing the best they can with what they have. Its not easy handling all these people and I applaud them for their efforts.

 

I've been hoping for prepay for ages. hand out tickets or something equal to the number of 4 packs they want and just pick them up when you get to the front. This would also add an extra layer of info beyond wristbands and understand exactly how much beer they have left, not how much assuming full allotments

 

BGH is my jam. Love that spot. Probably my fave bar in the 5 boroughs. Up there with the rest of their family of bars.

 

I would be surprised if prepaying for beer outside the brewery premises was actually legal.

I'm not sure there's good solutions for speeding up the can line given the lack of space inside, but maybe if they more waist-level counter space, it would help (instead of that tall counter). A lot of people need some room to put their cans into bags, etc. Tree House is a bit easier because almost everyone buys a full allocation that is a relatively small number of cans.

 

If you've had GD plenty, I would go for SFY. This is probably the best batch of it Three's has released yet of SFY.

 

I'm sure once they expand next door it'll open up more space and make things a little easier on release days

 

Yeah, the line moves painfully slow. And I agree that they should sell the merch separately, as I saw enough people buy it, and asking questions about it and such. Maybe they could sell you little tickets that can be exchanged for beer when you get up to the front ... of course that could be illegal as well...

 

I would have phrased this as "One guy and his mule cut the line" but thats just me.

 

Unless they OH does a can release without notice during the week, its just not worth standing in line for me. Even the collabs/more limited beers are on tap throughout the city. Cans are cool, but 3-4 hours in a line is no bueno.

 

As an outsider-looking-in of sorts, I have been wondering this all damn weekend while being here. Why are people lining up to buy cans of an IPA in NYC. I'd rather just drink it on tap or from a growler (which is what I've been doing the past 4-5 days) to begin with and then when you factor in that this is NYC and the beer selection all over the city right now is insane, that even calls into questions those who stand in line to buy cans just to trade them. Honestly, the scene/selection in NYC and the vicinity is so on point right now, there's very little reason to be trading from beer if you live in NYC.

 

A lot of the folks are prob NJ/LI folks who I gather are bringing back loads for their friends back in those areas. Plus I'm sure a fair amount of people are grabbing them to trade for out of market stuff

 

This. If you really have such a huge problem for how much of a mess Saturday mornings are, there are plethora other options available to consume the same beers. If you are really upset at OH for how things have been "handled", vote with your body and be somewhere else then. Posting the same thing every week on BA doesn't do anything except give anybody going less of an excuse to be surprised. If you really require the beers that are all over the city in an aluminum can so you can hoard for other bros back home or trade it, kindly fuck off and stop asking people to feel bad for you. I live in this goddamn city and haven't gotten cans for months because of that mentality.

 

I think it does have a lot to do with trading. if you factor in the metro area and not just NYC you are talking about 20 million people and until the past few years not many breweries with good trade bait. this is long overdue in this area so it makes sense, to me at least, as to why its so crazy. I think it will get better as more breweries start to offer up the "trade worthy" ipas/barrel aged items and as breweries start to expand. Its just going to take some time to meet the massive demand.

 

I was told there would be no math