Hill Farmstead Bait and Switch?

Following Hill Farmstead's announcement on Friday, August 3rd, 2018, regarding the onsite availability of Westly at the brewery this week, I decided to make a special trip up to Greensboro to get a taste of Sante's famed beer.

I was, however, thoroughly disappointed this afternoon when I arrived at Hill Farmstead, only to be told by a staff member that Westly had apparently "sold out" on Thursday afternoon.

Given the wording in the original post on their website, I interpreted the announcement to read that the Tim Clifford Residency Beers, along with Bernice, Cellarman, and Westly, would all be available throughout week, and that only 6th Anniversary and Matrices would run the risk of running out, based on their limited allotment.

At no point during the week did I see any updates from Hill Farmstead indicating that Westly had sold out or had been removed (for whatever reason) from the onsite menu. I was quite disheartened to hear the news, after having taken the day off to make a special trip to the brewery.

As a consolation prize, draft pours of Capitola Sunset were being offered as part of the onsite draft menu. While Capitola Sunset is also a great beer, it was a distant second to the Westly that I had centered my trip to the brewery around.

From the perspective of a loyal Hill Farmstead fan, I found the whole situation deflating and highly questionable. I found myself wondering how honest the, "We sold out on Thursday," line was in response to the disappearance of Westly from the onsite offerings menu. For a brewery that plans every release and every social media post down to the minutia, it seemed like a giant oversight to suddenly run out of a popular guest beer in two days. At some point, I would have thought that someone at the brewery would have had the presence of mind to realize that Westly bottles were selling at a rapid pace on, say, Wednesday or Thursday, and, upon observing such facts, would have made an adjustment to their onsite cellar allocations to make sure that bottles of Westly would last throughout the week, as advertised.

It also made me ponder whether current allocations of bottles of Westly were pulled from the Hill Farmstead onsite menu because they were detracting from the popularity of the Tim Clifford Residency Beers, which seemed to be the focus of the original post. Perhaps, given the hype surrounding Westly and the high demand it created at the brewery, the staff at Hill Farmstead decided to remove the beer from Friday's list to shine greater focus on their own beers, including those created during Tim Clifford's residency period?

Now, I understand that many people will be upset with me for creating this post, and respond in anger with lines like, "You should be happy to have the opportunity to try any of these world class beers!" and, "You are so entitled!" but I felt that it was a topic that was worth discussing. Breweries should be held to a certain standard of honesty in communication and overall transparency in the way they conduct their business with the public. It is reasonable, as a consumer, to expect an advertised product or service to be made available, when requested, throughout the duration of the promotional period, without issue.

The fact of the matter is that Hill Farmstead advertised the availability of Westly for "onsite enjoyment" this week without restrictions. There was no mention of limited availability of Westly in the original post. At no time during the week did the brewery post any updates regarding the stock of Westly being depleted. Up until the moment on Friday when one viewed the onsite menu for the first time or inquired about its availability with a staff member at Hill Farmstead, the general assumption was that bottles of Westly were available at the brewery. What transpired at Hill Farmstead on Friday seems to me like a craft beer bait and switch.

For me, Friday's trip to Hill Farmstead was all about getting to try Westly. It has been a beer that I have been chasing for nearly four years. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to get to try a personal whale of mine at a fair menu price, at my very favorite brewery, no less. In reading the description given by Hill Farmstead in their original post, I thought that it would be reasonable to assume that Westly would be available on Friday, when I finally got a break in my schedule. I felt that this trip was warranted; others have traveled greater distances for lesser beers. At the end of the day, though, Hill Farmstead let me down.

It would have taken a minimal amount of effort for Hill Farmstead to update their website or social media accounts to reflect a change in the availability of Westly as part of this week's onsite menu. Such an update would have redirected my plans for Friday and prevented an otherwise beautiful day from being loused up by an apparent lack of attention to detail.

http://hillfarmstead.com/main/2018/8/3/residency-sante-adairius-and-more.html