Hill Farmstead (2020)

I've seen guest bottles more than guest taps, but I don't think it's super rare. That being said, Pliny is already out of stock on their order page.

 

Pretty wild shift from "due to the fact we're a destination brewery we're closed for business" to "hey we got Pliny."

 

Is there anyone going to the brewery next week to pick up their online order and willing to pick up mine as well?

 

Per the curbside rules “The order name needs to match the ID.“ Thus someone can not pick up your order.

 

I haven't ordered yet. I imagine that if I put the name of the proxy person, pay with my credit card and email the order confirmation to the proxy person, it should be fine. Or am I missing something?

 

From the FAQs, if you find someone and then email Hill you should be good to go:

Can my friend pick up my order?

All orders must match the valid ID of the person picking up the order. If you are unable to make your pick up, after you have placed your order, please reach out to us via email ([email protected]) or phone to add a proxy to your delivery.

 

Posts like this make me realize how far I’ve got to go in this beer game. I’m not in a position yet to credibly claim my palate can pick this up in a beer:

https://www.finch-and-co.co.uk/artwork-detail/812535/18678/two-rare-antique-plumed-leather-falconry

 

I wonder how much that falcon hood went for

 

Is there a less stomach churning descriptor you could use than stinky-musty feet?

 

A friend sent me a screenshot of a Hill Farmstead Facebook post with someone complaining that with Hill not having limits on purchases that it is encouraging people to break the stay at home restrictions and resell their beer. While also not leaving any for the people that respect the restrictions and the hope that “reasonable” people can get there after the VT order is lifted on 5/15.

I don’t have Facebook to post the conversation, but those who do should be able to find it easily.

Shaun responded politely and eloquently that their current system, Toast, doesn’t allow limits. While I find that surprising, I don’t see an issue with them having no limits during this time to move as much beer as possible to keep business going and taking care of their staff.

There are certainly limits to how much people can spend normally, but even more so in the current situation.

News flash, you don’t need beer and I think you’ll survive missing a couple of bottle releases during a pandemic.

 

I wonder if someone bought a huge allotment of the Fora. I was surprised how fast it got listed as “out of stock”

 

Maybe, or they didn’t have a ton of it to start with, and same with the Pliny growlers, which was likely also not a ton of kegs, I would imagine.

 

at $240 (plus tax) a case, do you really think that many locals invested thousands? Seems more likely that this was a small batch (maybe it was originally going to be on site only) and they decided to hook up the locals.

 

It only takes one person.

Considering how past vintages of Flora have skyrocketed in both trade and secondary value the past year, and how buying out Flora with a no limit purchase creates a very high demand for new Flora by shutting out many other people out, there's a strong incentive.

Recouping expenses would be an exercise in counting the seconds, whereas making a massive profit in one form or another would only be a matter of time, and not a lot at that.

 

Based on the number of HF bottles that end up for sale on a few websites I’d say there is a healthy group of “locals” that buy a lot whenever they get the chance.

 

I still find it to be hilarious to complain about not being able to get beer during a pandemic when the last thing most beer nerds need is more beer. Plenty of people that “respect“ limits, etc., still trade and sell their extras. Setting limits doesn’t necessarily curb that practice.

I’d rather Hill treat it this way and be around after all this and better off for it than to not be when the it all settles.

 

Most of those raising the most fuss were most likely looking to do the same thing those that bought it out were, just at a smaller scale. Sure, some are legitimate locals looking to buy a single bottle or two direct from the source, but I'd like to believe those ones are less likely to put in the energy to get too upset over it.

 

Definitely silly to complain about this. Heard a lot of similar complaints regarding the last Swish release. And saw a few for last weekend’s Barreled Souls.