Beer release line control?

Had this last year for KBS and it worked really well, the shop had 75 bottles and they gave out 75 tickets in the order you were in line about 15 minutes before the store opened. Once you had it you were free to peruse the shop and buy whatever else you want, then just exchange your ticket for a bottle at the register when you're ready. Zero stress and pretty foolproof in terms of people trying to pull any BS imo.

 

That's a good way to do it. I don't see a need for pickup sessions. Just let folks know than can pick it up after a set date. They could might very well sell everything in the pre-sale if they want to.

 

Well said. If you feel compelled to stand with your friends in line, there is a simple solution: join them in the back of the line. I'm tired of the entitlement that goes with these things--be an adult and make an adult choice: would you rather stand with your friends during the wait or ensure that you get your allocated bottles? My biggest problem with the whole "friends join you in line" bit (aside from the fact that every person who has been waiting already just got pushed back in priority) is that I think more often than not, those friends coming to join you are there to get extra bottles for the person who was already waiting.

Holding one's place to stick around the premises, or even run down the street for coffee or food or something is one thing. For the releases I've been to, most people are happy to hold your spot if you tell them that's what you're doing. I'm pretty sure people wouldn't be quite as willing to save said spot if you told them you had to go back to work for 4 hours.

 

Well the point is to reserve a certain number of bottles for those who want the beer so badly that they're willing to buy a case or half case and giving them the benefit of picking up at their convenience throughout the weekend, then sell the rest of the bottles to those who are just interested in buying one or two and don't mind waiting in line. The sessions are just to make sure they have staff on duty specifically for bottle sales so that it runs smoothly. Wicked Weed gets slammed even on the weekdays so if they allowed people to pick up their allotted case/half case whenever, people might show up at times when very inconvenient for the staff due to heavy business flow.

 

The chair thing recently caused some issues at the September Casey release out here. People were using chairs to represent groups of people and were disappearing for hours while their chairs "waited" for them.
I think it's one of those situations where everyone is typically pretty cool but a few jokers take leniency way too far.
I'm a believer in one person being able to save your spot in line for something like a bathroom break or 20-minute snack run.
A chair can be used in the same way, but for no more than a reasonable (20'ish minutes) period of time and for one a single person.

 

I am pretty disappointed if I don't get tickets to a certain event, but ticketed events are my preferred method of crowd control. Here is why I think so:

The Dark Horse 4-Elf party last year was pretty sketchy in terms of the "first-in-line" method. Lots of tents and enclosures set up at the front of the line with minimal people actually in them, and people coming and going all night. Security comes out around 5 AM and says the line is about to get moving, and all tents have to come down. There must have been 150 people that just walked right past us to presumably go up to the tents towards the front. I can't comment if it was actually the case, but it seemed like an easy way for folks to spot-save for their friends who weren't waiting all night. After watching a ton of people walk past us, as everyone was clamoring to get their tents aside or back to the car, and make it back to the line, we began walking to keep up and not lose our place. Meanwhile people are coming back to find their spots, and the line has already moved. Some guys who were originally right in front of us left to take their stuff to the car, and began cutting through the line to find the people who were around them before they left. Of course, they are drawing the ire and venom of everyone they are walking past, and (of course...) point our group out to vouch for them and their original line-standing. Tempers start flaring as everyone is tired, cold, and buzzed from all night drinking in line, and now we are on the receiving-end of the anger as well. Nothing serious happened, but some tense moments, and not a great situation sifting out who was supposed to be where in line. On-Site security wasn't policing the line situation at all, and really made it worse when they announced they had to clear the area of tents and shelters, and sent people scattering out and back into the line right before the doors opened.

Ticketed events minimize these types of things, period.

 

Is that 7 1/2 hours, like 7.5 hours? Like 450 minutes? Like the equivalent to an entire work day? Holy crap. I wouldn't stand in line for the actual blood of Christ for that long.

 

Tickets for those using an "inline" system. The best method, imho, is prepaid tickets - you just go pick it up within a certain time window.

 

The problem with the Beat release was not the line. The way Russian River made the checkout process was terrible! From the time you put your order in until you picked up your beers was about a 3 minute transaction. This is why they didn't sell out. One person is processing 20 people an hour. There were two people taking money. It took me 6 hours to get through the line, and I was about 500ish back. I expected a long line and a wait time. I also had an expectaion there would be an expidited check out process, which their was not. That was the frustrating part. Then you have Billy Bad Bouncer telling people to get away from the neighnoring business' door. On the surface that's nice but when you looked through the door and see the door blocked by boxes they weren't going to use it it seemed petty.

Picture any retail outfit on Black Friday with regular staffing. That was Russian River. Yes I can fault RR for this and I do. They just did nothing to make the line run faster. It ended being 103 (car temp) when we left.

With Younger's release at least they put out portable restrooms.

It could have been done better. After two hours I contemplated leaving but II stuck it out.

I just feel they could have easily processed the line twice as fast with better planning. That's my beef. My expectations were a 3hr wait from when they started selling @ 8am.

In the end I got the beer. I hung out with some friends as well. It was a long day, but I am not sure I'll do it again?

 

I was at a restaurant bar on Sat, had to wait 5 min for my beer. Wasn't too happy and was ready to walk. I will never wait in line for a beer either. There are so many great beers out there that could likely beat any of these beers in a blind taste. Seriously, 7.5 hrs in line? Still, the breweries just need to have an online lotto, whomever wins can come down and pick them up. This would keep the hoarders and resellers at bay and give the average Joe, who can't get off of work to stand in line a chance to get one.

 

Yes, 7.5 hours….in line. Plus add our 3 hours roundtrip driving to get to/from the brewery and that makes for one long ass day full of basically buyers remorse (of sorts). We actually never thought it'd take that long. We thought we'd be out by 11:00 AM so we could hit the brewery…which we never ended up doing. I felt really responsible and sorry because I organized the whole thing and my buddies really didn't have any idea what they signed up for. The worst part of the situation is some guy showed on Facebook that he went to RR that same night at 5:25 PM and walked with his Beatification at 5:35 PM and it turns out RR still has 250 cases of Beat left. This all made the 500-600 of us in line who already felt like douche bags feel like really dumb ass, good for nothing, 2 day old, used douche bags dumped/thrown on the side of the road. This guy was clearly more experienced and smarter than the rest of us.

 

EXACTLY! It's only beer for chrissakes!

 

This is true, but the person handing out tickets could also be checking IDs and putting wristbands on those same people, which would speed things up for the bartenders because they wouldn't have to do it.

 

Wow. I also waited many hours in line, 6 to be exact. Got there at 4:30am and was handed my cases at 10:35am. Was about 100th or so in line i'm guessing. The transaction process was pretty bad. And after hearing that about the guy who went there in the evening and how there are still many cases left, i feel pretty stupid. Granted, it was my first release and i'm very happy with the beer i took home but i probably won't go to another one of these things. Definitely didn't expect to be in line still past 8:15am.

After standing in line for beat, we did jump right back in line for the pub which had good food and were able to finally sitdown to relax.

 

Hey, live and learn. I've been to Hill Farmstead on 6 or 7 occasions over the years on non-release days. Never had to wait more than 5 mins until last time about two years ago, when I waited almost an hour after arriving 20 mins before open. I haven't been back since. Fool me once...

 

Solemn Oath did a collaboration with The Bruery, they let you preorder the beer online then the day of the release you just walk up with your receipt and you walk away with you beer. What ever was left over from the release they sold to people who did not pre order. It was overall a smooth transaction