The Angry Chair Thread

I was there as well...I was flabbergasted they were allowing people to buy all 5 or 6 Beers at a time...I know people that waited in line for 2 hours and the only thing left was The Jitsu Juice one(sp?)..it was a terribly planned event

 

It's not near the "action" areas of St Pete...IMO that Location is terrible and it really has nothing currently to differentiate itself from numerous places that sell Craft in The Bay Area...if it was a stock I would rate it a SELL

 

Well, I finally got down to AC during Huna weekend...and I must say, I'm pretty damned jealous of you guys who are close to that place. I'm a beer treatment junkie, and my glass of Fionn was pretty much heaven in a glass to me. All I need now, is to find someone who hates it, with bottles! That beer was amazing, that and Two Nut Chump as well.

 

I don't think they "shit their pants" based on their cavalier attitude and lack of concern about doing ANYTHING to speed up the line.

I was in line from 9:15 to 11:15. Never once during those two hours did an HBS employee come out and check on the status of the line (which was largely not visible from inside the bottle shop).

By time I made it inside (90 minutes into my 2 hour wait), the two "bartenders" pouring were more interested in dancing to Biggie and snapchatting that actually pouring. And it was the pouring of beer that was the slowdown for the line.

Obviously there were a number of other things that could have been done, in hindsight, to make it run better. Things like not having just on register and just on tiny tap location that you can only pour one beer at a time from. Or...not letting every person get 5 pours at once. Or, determining size of pours based on the line at opening so that no one in line before opening gets shut out of the berliners. All 3 kicked in less than an hour...which means that close to half the people in line before open didn't even get to try them. Or maybe not letting Wakefield let his buddies constantly just walk up and cut the line...especially after he went and promised people in line at 9:45am that they "had enough of everything so no one needed worry" (said to us right before DFPF kicked). Most of those are things you can't do anything about once the even has started. But I was more upset about their utter lack of concern about how much of a shit show it was.

They were basically high-fiving each other and counting their money rather than doing anything to speed up the line (or apologizing for the wait). They had an awesome opportunity to gain a ton of exposure and make a great first impression on a large group of locals and visitors and they utterly shit the bed. Most people's take away was that they were unimpressed with the handling, their selection, etc. What's worst is that the staff probably think the event was a success and most of the feedback I've heard and seen on social media is the opposite.

It's just a stark contrast to the other TBBW events I went to this year which were done by CCB and Cycle. Everyone jumps on CCB and Cycle for their handling of every little thing...and they seem to express serious concern at the time and afterwards whenever something doesn't go perfectly and they work to make it better (and seldom get credit for it).

 

Had my first Angry Chair beer here in Miami at Boxelder a few weeks ago, Popinski. Delicious stout. Great to see another hometown brewery cranking out awesome stuff.

On the Hawthorne thing - I honestly wasn't sure what to think of an early-morning "Berliner for breakfast" event myself and only drove up Friday night for Huna day. Even if I was going to go, I would have figured I could casually stroll in and not have to get in early just to get a pour. I really don't think they expected to have a 2+hour line for a draft-only/non-bottle release event and maybe by the time they realized how big the crowd was it was too late.

 

I didn't expect to "stroll" in either. And it was my plan to get their before 9am however I have 2 small kids...so plans often go sideways in the mornings. However, I did expect it to be manageable since the majority of beer nerds would still be in line for their bottles at Cycle. And that turned out to be the case. Most people arrived after me (having driven or ubered from Cycle).

And the line wasn't that long in terms of number of people. When I saw it, I totally expected to be inside and drinking beer in 15-20 minutes. 30 at most. I've been in a number of slow beer lines (like AC's glacial pace...or the old BA day like at Peg's) and all moved significantly faster than HBS. It wasn't the crowd that was the issue. It was the decisions they made.

 

Yeah its definitely time for a new hobby, waiting hours in a line only for a pour or 2 of beer that probably wasnt even worth the money let alone the money and the wait. Yikes!

 

Really happy for the guys at AC, they've done a fantastic job of building their brewery, output and fan base. As a local, I'm happy at how much tourism comes via TBBW and it's good to see out of state people get to enjoy some of the local beer. I'm glad the crowds aren't like this during the rest of the year. But I suspect that the bottle releases at AC are only going to grown as the hype and trade requests build. Hopefully the neighborhood can take it.

 

Amen. In addition to a well-deserved rest for the staff, Ryan may have figured the neighborhood also could use an extended break after last week!

At some point, I hope the city realizes it needs to build a public parking deck somewhere in Seminole Heights. It's such a cool area with so much going on (beer and beyond) -- and so much potential for more -- but the absolute dearth of available parking is a real issue.

 

Really happy for Angry Chair. Can't wait to taste the fruits of their labor from their expanding barrel program. And yeah, Seminole Heights desperately needs some better parking.

 

Oh yeah, I can't imagine how the bottle releases are going to go, going forward. Limited space + (deserved) hype = a potential mess. They just need a bottle reserve club, clearly...and I'll gladly test it out for them!

 

Angry chair could go to method of announcing bottle releases the day of so locals get first dibs and they can set limits accordingly. This would also scatter the parking so it wouldn't be 50-100 cars at 1 time with people waiting in line on a street that is 2 feet from cars going 45mph! Ya rush hour will be hectic but people will get their bottles have a small pour and get back to their daily lives!

 

Most AC releases are not like they were this past week. I think the crowds all had to do with beer week. Cinna Fionn did sell out the week before but there was a small amount of it. I walked in at 5:30 grabbed all my bottles and got a pour with no lines.

 

I'm up for silent releases

 

Pretty safe to say AC will never do what they did during TBBW again...neighbors and police certainly are a part of that...plus it's just asking for trouble as cars are whizzing by on US 41(Florida Avenue) less than a few feet from the line and it's just a matter of time till someone would accidentally get hit by a car by stumbling or getting pushed..etc into the street..as someone who has been going to TBBW since the start this was the first year I felt the Event has hit Critical Mass and too many people in town made it less enjoyable..way to many events and venues were overwhelmed and were utter chaos due to too many people in too small a space..frankly it's a trend I see getting worse

 

I hope they do any BA releases during TBBW earlier in the week. That will solve a lot of the problem

 

The releases have been growing in crowd size and now the hype of the trade boards and also the people who have now gotten to drink some of their stuff will consistently be ISO. So I expect the crowds at the tasting room to return to normal, although I was there last night and it was jammed, but I expect the bottle releases to be packed. I know they are considering alternatives for the future. May have to go the cycle route and start by handing out numbers to come back later etc.