Bruery 2016 RS/HS Allocations

tbh if youre ordering enough, id say yes. it was all just a brainstorm and an idea because a lot of people have been telling me they are cancelling their membership due to either fuck ups at society or they are just tired of paying shipping twice over on each box, or even just having someone pickup for them and ship across country. I wanted to offer them an opportunity to not only take some stress off society, but also give people on the east coast easier access to their beers without having to spend an arm and a leg on shipping.

 

it would def need to be discussed heavily and all logisitics worked out far in advance, including procedure if shit hits the fan and things get screwed up. again, this was all just a brainstorming idea.

 

If I was paying $100 a case to ship my bruery hauls across country (which seams high based on my fedex bills but it was a # thrown out there by someone ITT) I would probably just save the money, fly out 1or 2 times a year and do a one way truck rental. Put the word out to other Bruery members in your state and offer to pick up their cases for $20ea (yes, illegal....) and you can probably cover your gas money right there. See some country. Stop at some other breweries. Know your beers are safe @55 degrees until you grab them.

 

now thats thinking outside of the box right there lol

 

Shit, if I enjoyed driving I would almost do it. Pickup here, drive to the east coast and fly back. Would be fun visiting....just not so much getting there. =P

 

You'd probably just head to Mexico to start fresh with nothing but a stolen box truck and enough sugar mud to give an elephant a deadly case of type II diabetes....

 

And at least 60lbs of adobada with 4 tacos in hand. Priorities.

 

That sounds like the plot for Smokey and the Bandit 4.

I'm saying Matthew McConaghy as the Bandit, John Goodman as Sheriff, Tammin Sursok in the Sally Field role and T.J. Miller in the Jerry Reed role.

 

I could imagine folks on the other side of the country would quit RS because of the shipping, but as long as RS sells out every year with a list of people joining PS "hoping" they get into RS next year, then the Bruery has no reason to open an east coast distribution center.

For the guy paying $100 a box get a local guy to pickup, it's a bit cheaper shipping one time instead of twice

 

Precisely. They've got a system where the members do all of the work for them on getting beer out of state, why would they even consider changing that unless they absolutely need to?

Considering the rate at which similar breweries are opening in other parts of the country, filling the void that caused out-of-staters to justify the shipping expense, the Bruery has to understand they're going to face decaying membership numbers from out of state and re-focus on maintaining a local/regional base with a small percentage of hardcore long distance fans. The fact that they're doing more and more events throughout the year is a sign that they're already on top of that and with two tasting rooms to work with, I'd expect to see that trend accelerate.

Attempting their own pseudo-distribution method to the other coast - without the benefit of the scale that normal distribution provides - would not only be foolish on the surface, it would be downright hilarious in the face of increasing competition. I've obviously questioned many of their choices in execution over the past few years, but their business model and choices in market positioning have been excellent up to this point. I wouldn't expect them to screw that aspect of their business up now. If changes in legislation ever allowed them to ship to other states, I'm sure they'd jump all over that, but until then, they'll continue to let members do the work for them, even if it means the geographic average of their member base contracts.

 

I split a membership 3 ways. It was originally 2 but a 3rd and actually sometimes a 4th friend chooses to order beers from our membership (when things are 4 limit or we don't max) I think in the end it adds about $3.50 to each beer when we get a 12 shipper sent, sometimes less if it doesn't get reweighed. So I could see people who do the memberships themselves having the shipping get expensive, but for us it works because of how we split it.

We also don't max out on every single offering and even sometimes split stuff to try, so I imagine we are buying less than most members but still getting a decent amount

 

Wait...what? Is this serious? That is, we get two bottles each of 13 and 15 with our HS membership, so how does that effect things? Do we get two bottles and 14 and 15 then? So I shouldn't have bought as much 14 as I thought given this then?

Edit: Just saw the post about no 13/15 included but HS cuvee instead. Might want to send that info. out as a seperate email as I had no clue and didn't buy any 15 because of it on this last order.

 

I probably should look into this, but I've always thought of shipping it to my buddy as the easiest way. From what I understand, it's customary to send compensation back to the locals, which ends up costing as much (or more) and requires me going out to go buy more local stuff (which I already mentioned is annoying to procure).

What I don't understand is why the 3-tier system applies to breweries in Cali, but not the wineries. I have no issues whatsoever getting wineries to send juice to my house when the mailing lists come out, but beer is such a pain.

Anyone know any lobbyists lol? It's unfortunate (for me) that there is really no incentive for anyone living in California to dedicate time and focus to getting the laws adjusted to include direct sales and shipment of beer.

 

Also one time I sent an (almost) empty 12-bottle shipper to someone who picked up some bottles at the brewery for me and it ended up costing me over $40. "Dimensional weight" is killer.

 

Yes I've been fantasizing about an East Coast Bruery location for a few years now. I split my RS membership with someone just for the shipping costs. However I'm not actually expecting them to come to the East Coast. I'm lucky that my connection in California is a member and goes to pick up his own allotments. I just send him empty shippers direct from Uhaul and the customary thank you boxes.

 

Actually, I think you're right about needing a lobbyist

My understanding is that since small craft beer is still relatively new to the market, meaning a couple decades, the macro beer, wine, and hard alcohol people had a long time to push policy securing their position and making it tough for new entrants.

 

There is the legality reason why the Bruery cannot ship directly out of state, but would it be possible for them to ship directly to a retailer if they have distribution in that state? That way a member could pay to have their allotment sent to one of their local retailers.

 

Pretty sure @RDMII already tried this with his store.

 

Why should the Bruery cater to out of state society members? It makes minimal business sense on their part. How many out of state society members are there that would actually show up to pick stuff up? My guess is less than 50 and that seems like a ton of work to make some people happy.

 

Because we are entitled and want things done for us as cheap and easy as possible.

Screw shipping out of state or an East Coaat location. I won't be happy until they hand deliver it to my door free of charge with flowers and a thank you card.

Edit: obviously joking , have no problem how it's set up.