Plan Bee - The Hive 2016

I wonder if the membership going forward will also have NYC dropoffs. That makes a big difference for those without cars.

 

Two Hives:
We are breaking up the membership into two separate Hives, the NYC Hive and the Poughkeepsie (PoK) Hive. If you want to continue to pick up your beer in the city, you should join the NYC Hive. If you want to pick up all your beer at the farm, then you would join the Poughkeepsie Hive.

We have to separate out the groups because we are limited on how much beer we can transport to the city. NYC Hive members can still choose to drive to the farm to pick up by appointment and are not limited on access to the farm but are not required to come to the farm to collect their bottles.

Poughkeepsie Hive members must pick up all bottles at the farm by appointment, just like the current methods.

If you decide to join the NYC Hive, there will be a membership fee of $25 that will help us cover the cost of transportation over the 5 months.

If you decide to join the Poughkeepsie Hive, there will be no renewal fee.

 

makes sense for them to charge a fee for NYC pick ups .. basically they are a delivery service and I am sure that involves a ton of time and cost

 

I obviously didn't read carefully enough when I joined up for the Swarm in April because I thought it would be for an entire year. Doesn't seem to be the case though. Can't begrudge supporting these guys though.

 

Three different beers per month. Two membership tiers:

1) Two of each beer for six total beers
2) Four of each beer for twelve total beers

You also get the password for their online store so you can buy extra bottles if they become available

 

As a swarm member, I just received this email from them inviting us to join the Hive for free. Very nice gesture but I actually enjoyed the flexibility of being a Swarm member. Sometimes I would buy a single bottle or other times multiples. I have been fortunate enough to not be locked out of any releases but living in NYC means I have space constraints. Sad to say that I'm accumulating Plan Bee bottles faster than I can drink their deliciousness. I wish there was a 3 bottle plan but I don't think I can store 6 extra bottles a month at my current rate. Also, it's $400+, which upfront seems like a lot but probably cumulatively less than what I've spent with them the last month. I'll continue purchasing every bottle they release until my membership is up but I may have to call it quits after July. Emily and Evan have been great.

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Hello Swarm!

Wow! We only have a month and a half left before the Swarm membership ends! Time has flown by! Thank you so much for all your support, we have been able to operate solely by the support of the Swarm and the Hive! Without you, there would be no us!

We have some great new beers about to hit the store. We have Karnl (our Montmorency cherry sour with pilsner malt), Pitz (with local peach juice), Tree Beer (oak aged on local maple syrup), and our Precious (sour on local apricots). We will start releasing these by the end of this week!

Just as a reminder, all purchased bottles must be picked up by no later than August 30th and the bottles shop will close to the Swarm on July 30th with the last drop off in the city on July 31st!

Evan and I had to make the hard decision to suspend indefinitely the continuation of the Swarm after July. We are going to open our farmstand in a few weeks (hopefully) and we aren't sure what the demand of the stand will be. Since our goal is to open and allow the public to visit the farm, we don't want to short change the Swarm by not having enough beer to put into the bottle shop. It would be wrong to have you sign up again and then not be able to satisfy your membership. We think the suspension will be indefinitely, if we discover we can satisfy both the Swarm and the farmstand, we might bring it back but its hard to say when and if.

We would like to extend an invitation to join the Hive in August at the same promotional rate we are giving the current Hive members. It is FREE to join the Poughkeepsie Hive and if you still want to pick up in the city, we have started a NYC Hive ($25 to join).

Thanks,
Emily

 

I think this month's offerings are the most exciting yet, imo at least:

• KarnL-Wild Ale aged in second use Bourbon Barrels on Montmorency Cherries. Pours a pink/reddish hue with massive cherry-pie flavor with medium acidity.
• Tree Beer- oak aged, dark and tart Wild Ale brewed with local Maple Syrup
• Precious- Tart and Tangy Sour ale brewed with more apricots per gallon than any beer in history...to our knowledge. Incredibly floral and fruity with sharp acidity.

As an aside, has anyone heard more about the mags the Hive is supposed to get?

 

Precious sounds like the Bee's knees to me -- sorry I had to

 

We are happy to announce that we will be opening our farm to the public next Saturday, June 25th from noon to 5pm for bottle sales! Check out the calendar on our website to see future dates that the farm stand will be open: www.planbeefarmbrewery.com/events

We will post the list of bottles available at the farmstand weekly on our Facebook page. Stay tuned for next weekends listing!!




Farmstand OPEN
Saturday, June 25, 2016
12:00pm 5:00pm
Plan Bee Farm Brewery
115 Underhill Road Poughkeepsie, NY, 12603,
United States

We will be open for bottle sales and self-guided tours of the farm. A few things to know about the farm before you schedule your visit:

• Children are allowed to come and enjoy the farm with adult supervision.
• Dogs are allowed but must remain on a leash at all times. Please be prepared to pick up after your dog.
• The brewery/barn has not completed its certificate of occupancy so no one may enter the brewery.
• We will have a port-a-potty available on the farm since the brewery building is not open to the public yet.
• It is a working farm, if you plan on walking the property please wear appropriate shoes. It can get very muddy.
• The farmstand is outside without cover for patrons from rain or sun. Please bring sunscreen or umbrellas and dress accordingly for being outside.
• We have 6 bee hives on the property, if you are allergic to bees please be careful when walking around the hives.
• The farm is situated on a hill, areas on the farm can get very steep. If you decide to walk around the farm, be prepared for a little hiking.
• For all sales we accept cash or credit (VISA, Mastercard, Discover, Amex)

 

Just checked their events calendar and I see they'll be at the Union Square Farmers' market on Friday July 15:

This summer, the Greenmarket is celebrating their 40th Anniversary with 3 special events called Union Square Summer Fridays: free evening events at the end of the market day, complete with live music, restaurants selling prepared foods, a beer/wine/cider garden and, of course, our farmers.

These Summer Friday events will take place on June 17th, July 15th, and August 19th. Greenmarket will showcase 4 breweries, 2 cideries and 1 distillery at each event, and they will be selling from 12pm-9pm. Plan Bee will be attending the July 15th Summer Friday where you can sample our products, engage in a conversation about production, and purchase bottles directly at the New York City market.

Hope to see you there!

I'm curious what else is going on at the event but not easily finding it on Greenmarket website. Looks interesting either way.

 

When I visited the farm in March Emily said that they were still figuring out how to fairly sell the magnums to the Hive members. They have a bunch filled (I was there this weekend) so I imagine they haven't figured out what to do yet. She did mention possibly doing something at the Hive only party but I'm not sure if thats still the case

 

Just curious, what is the appeal of magnums? Just to show who has the biggest bottle?

 

They are great for parties and celebrations (e.g New Year's). People find them interesting and unique and there's lots of beer to share.

 

When I went up last, they said magnums word be sold at party.

 

I think the issue is the Magnums are Hive only, and right now there is no Hive-only shop.

 

Any hints as to what is actually in the mag?

 

They've been filling a a handful of mags from every batch so far

 

Is anyone planning on going to the Farmstead opening this Saturday? I have never been up there myself and according to the event post the brewery/barn will not yet be open. I'm guessing it will be more of a "swing through and pick up a few bottles" sort of thing rather than a place to hang out for a while? I'll be in Woodstock on Saturday and was kicking around the idea of going but wanted to get some thoughts first.

 

It will definitely be more of a pick up bottles sort of thing. They will allow people to take a self guided tour of the property which I suppose could take some time but they do not yet have a license for people to drink on site and the barn is not up to code yet for the public. I would recommend heading over to Mill House Brewing in Poughkeepsie (about 10 mins from the farm) to try some of their brews and the food there is fantastic. Have fun!