Monkish Brewing

Give me 3 hours of waiting in line with mouth breathing drunk neckbeards over a nagging wife.

 

She don't "really" nag. But I'd rather listen to my music than her talking about nothing....most of the time. Plus she is my DD. And my best friend.

 

Is it really a 3+ hour wait for these can releases? Like, I have to get there by 7 to ensure I get some? I'll be in town from AZ on Saturday and want to make sure I understand this correctly, lol.

 

You understand correctly.

 

yes. it is really a 3+ hour wait. the last release had people show up at 3 in the morning, i believe, and set their chairs up.

 

id say it depends on exactly what they release but rational thought has gone out the window long ago in regards to waiting for beer releases. No joke some ppl will start waiting in line before 4am

 

I wouldn't expect the shit show spectacle to die down any time soon. Especially if it's a double IPA.



JUST AN IDEA,

for those of you who complain about the line cutting, and this was tossed out by Henry himself, that prior to the wrist bands, if you want to do it like the who Jujitsu gear line maintenance practice, then he'll flow with it.

Which is, one guy brings a marker and simply starts off the count by writing 1 on the hand of the first person, passes the marker back and continues the count via numbering system on your hand. It'll really curb any sort of line ballooning that happens with friends letting friends in to the space before the wristbands go out, as it would be a clear indication on when someone actually got there or if they had a line anchor to just jump in with.

If we police ourselves, then Henry has said he will honor that numbering system. Think of it this way, it's taking the hassle of adding another job on their plate of already running the sale and avoiding any confrontation that all you fools are afraid of in calling someone out.

At worse you'll have to take a trip to the bathroom after you get your cans to wash off the marker, but at best, it'll prevent anyone from bitching that anyone cut because it's a pretty clear indication on when someone showed up to get in line.

No more chat and cutting. Shit, you can go talk to friends with the carefree spirit that you know your number in line and know that someone isn't just going to jump in front of you with the group of folks they know.

Or we can just keep complaining so passive aggressively about ballooning of lines and chat and cuts.

 

it will definitely be a shit show. since most of the people waiting for these are 'hop headz'-esque, juicy ipa enthusiasts, people will be going even more crazy for a double ipa

 

I know people are getting there very early... but I guess the question with recent releases is how late are people getting there and still getting SOMETHING (not necessarily a full allocation). I remember a few releases back it seemed like Single IPA large-batch was still available for 2-3 hrs after they started selling.

 

another idea would be to sleep in, enjoy your morning with loved ones or do some sort of outdoor activity, then casually go to the store and buy an equally good ipa that's on the shelf

 

I think the wristband thingy works fine as long as the Monk girls/guys are out there waiting for the peeps to show up. Slap that thang on their wrist and wait for the next peeps to show up. But who's going to wait outside for 3-6 hours handing out wristbands in the early am? I hope they are getting paid to hand them out?

 

This will work in a perfect world.
But people that are there holding spots till their friends show up won't participate UNLESS it's enforced my Monkish themselves.

 

Did exactly that 2 releases back. Last release we took the MetroLink from Irvine to Oceanside in the am and hung out at Bagby/TapHouse/Stone and Colima's. Better than waiting in line at Monks lot for how many hours?

 

You do realize that it's putting an unneeded strain on Monkish to have someone wait out there at the buttcrack of dawn when folks start coming out. The last release had the first people show up around 2-3am for reasons I have no answer to.

This method suggested has been Henry Approved. Shit, he's the one who suggested it since it works for other long line products.

While I think sleeping in, having a social life and being happy is a lot better of an option, It's like saying that if you want to avoid a car accident, just don't drive. Good advice? Yeah, but not really very practical for those who actually want to try for them.

 

I'm not a fan of 3 hr waits for IPAs.. but I like fresh IPAs and would be curious what you think is on the shelf that's just as good?

Instead my recent plan has been filling a couple of 32oz growlers from HPB at my weekend leisure.

 

yeah I lucked out on Spock It, got there after 2pm and there was no line at all.

 

No offense, but how do you know that people are cutting the lines with abandon? All you ever talk about is how you would never go to Monkish for cans.

The reality is that, based on my impression, the line cutting has subsided quite a bit. I don't think you'll ever be able to completely curb it but I haven't heard of any complaints the last few releases.

Also, people who get wrist bands are guaranteed a full allocation and then after everyone with wrist bands goes through the line Henry takes a quick look at how many people are still in line and how many cans are left and makes adjustments to try to get cans into the hands of those waiting in line. (e.g. lowering limits from 2pp to 1pp, etc) This last release everyone except for 5-10 people at the very end of the line got at least a 4 pack of cans.

 

^^ I would say if you haven't been to these releases then go. Do it one time. If you like it and don't mind it then great. I did it 3 times and I'm over it. I told myself I would never stand in line after the Younger show back when the last time they filled growlers with Younger. And I said it again after the last time Kern released Citra bottles before the lottery. It was okay until it just worse every release. The line cutting was the worse part of it all. So if your thinking about going for the first time then go. The Monks IPA's are really good. I would let it sit for a week or 2 as the taste settles in and taste even better.

 

Some Trader Joe's locations had cases of Accumulated Knowledge on display. I thought they were comparable to the single IPAs I've had from Monkish.

 

Sorry but can you just say Monkish instead of "Monks". Don't know why but it bugs the shit out of me.