Side Project / Shared (2023)

Going to be low-key hilarious when 1:01pm rolls around and some people in the line are confused why it's not open yet.

 

Then, I won’t buy a bottle today

If anyone want to share a DB and the BBT, let me know
Have a great day

 

The line thing - cutters and “claiming your spot” - is real easy to solve by the brewery, and has been done before by both (significantly) larger and smaller breweries. It isn’t hard to enforce the “stay in your assigned spot” policy and assign numbers. The brewery not doing this is a disservice to the customers in my opinion.

I actually thought we were past all this with online releases, but I guess we reverted back. If in-person releases are going to be here to stay (seems they will be), hopefully they solve this problem for the future for those that missed out. There’s really no excuse for such a simple problem.

 

Savages

 

What's wild is when Cory and Brad worked together for Jackie O's releases he saw first hand how they handed out page-a-day calendar slips for your spot in line, sometimes not even for the same year the release was happening, so totally unlikely to be able to be guessed or replicated, where otherwise it was Cory who was telling Brad how to generate max neckbeard hype and attendance.

That method is about as makeshift as I've seen anywhere, and that still worked. Whereas Hill Farmstead on the opposite end of the spectrum requires you purchase online morning of. This leaves plenty of creative options in between.

 

Yeah there has to be a better way to handle the releases than what we got this weekend. No perfect solution, but just leaving it to the line to police and deal with everything hasn't ever worked well.

I was thankfully lucky enough to score a bottle each day (left yesterday.. might try and trade for the Derivation today) but it was a shit show. Got there at Noon on Friday (earliest I could due to work) and that wasn't so bad. Got there at 9 on Saturday and was in front of the funeral home. Got there at 8 yesterday and was in front of Kalinga.

After 30-45 minutes or so, I was guilty of "chair dropping", I guess, as I ended up having a bunch of friends and some folks I shared with days prior in line closer to the lighting company, so I left my chair and cooler at my spot in line and went and hung out with them for most of the wait .. Made regular appearances back at the chair though so everyone knew who I was and that I wasn't budging though.

 

I think this shows why so many breweries never shifted back to the in person lineup after COVID. Who wants to go spend 6+ hours waiting in line to possibly get a bottle? It's a huge waste of time and maybe I'll lineup again one of these days but that's pretty much over for me. I think it makes sense to do the garage release as a one off as people enjoy the comradery and bottle sharing, but I think a daily IP release 4 days in a row is too much. Especially when they are highly sought after bottles and we know that line cutting and shenanigans are prevalent. This is why the online sale or lottery is a preferred method for me. You know going in what bottles you've got and there isn't disappointment when you get shut out after waiting in line all weekend. If you are doing it to drive foot traffic, make the pick-up during your anniversary party and I'm certain people will come especially with the high demand stuff on draft/on-site. You could still do a daily "release" for on-site consumption. I'm just kind of over lining up...

 

Anyone have a line update? We already past the funeral home?

 

I’m just curious what the city is going to do after 4 days of people lining up Manchester. I’m sure they like the tax revenue, and don’t mind it every once in a while, but over half of a week has got to be pushing it.

 

I'm sure the surrounding businesses are sick of it, too. The lady at CVS was already bitching about it Saturday morning when I stopped in to buy some stuff I forgot to bring with me from home (namely deodorant, you're all welcome)

Funeral home made multiple calls to the brewery to complain about people being on their property I know.

 

Curious on what the vintage pop-up releases were the past two days? Saw Friday’s but not the ones for the weekend.

 

I know there was some BBT yesterday but beyond that no clue. I'd be curious as well

 

Any standout pours to folks who attended the anniversary?

 

I thought D6 was incredible tbh. One of my fav pours of the weekend. So I'll throw a vote in for that.

But also, this was my first pours of OWK and MJK and somehow they still managed to exceed my expectations. Not that I expected any fall off there like I did with D6. But damn, just stellar experiences.

 

Same same.

 

Anyone onsite....what's the line to get in look like? Assuming the garage release and the brewery lines are not the same.

 

By the Saint Louis Lighting Group

 

So much for that plan. Appreciate the info!

 

Where do the chairs stand relative to this line? Are all those people not there yet?