Bruery 2016 RS/HS Allocations

I was on the fence about dropping this year. I joined for the core sours, which have mostly become at least limited distributed. In the end I have a partner who likes mostly the stouts so it works for us to keep it. Plus I am local to take advantage of tasting room discounts and parties. If I wasn't local I would probably have decided the other way.

 

Nobody ever complains down in Texas when I bring a few quality Bruery beers to a share. We get no distro at all here in Houston so maybe that has something to do with it. But their beers are great. Unless you're at some sort of "white whalez only bro" bottle share, I don't understand why any of the really excellent Bruery beers would be shunned. If you showed up to one of the shares I go to with BT or any of it variants, CR, or any of their fruited sours, you'd be welcomed with open arms and extended glassware. Of course, if you showed up with L'deracola then even here in Texas you'll never be invited again.

 

Nobody in CA complains either unless they are assholes. Are they the hottest thing on the block anymore? No. But some of their stuff is still pretty fantastic and worth getting excited over.

 

Nope. Plus the ability to order online and have my beers packed up and waiting is a big win. My time is valuable. Good customer service honed over many years is a bonus.

 

Agreed, they don't have the hype train anymore, which is great. Hype train beers can be fantastic, but the effort it takes to get them is stupid. Plus, I don't care if I have 3 bottles of beer x or 12 bottles of beer y, as long as I enjoy the beer it shouldn't matter.

Where can you get a 95+ rated barrel aged stout, or a 95+ rated barrel aged stout with (insert flavor here) without needing to wait in line or spam F5 at exactly 10 am on a Wednesday. Just sayin'.

 

Living in GA I will never get some of the perks of the membership, but I can buy beer that will never make it to this coast, and in large quantity. I don't trade or do bottle shares so I'm not worried about impressing anyone either, nor am I going to buy stuff because random strangers say I should. These are for me to enjoy whenever I feel like it because I like them, and having that luxury is pretty nice and well worth the buy in for me. I can understand buying too much and having to unload it, but I'm not in that boat, I aim to drink whatever I buy, even if it takes a few years.

 

I share with the same five guys for four years now… Three of us are reserve society members. When I pick the two or three bottles I'm going to bring to share I always lean towards things I hope they haven't had and not things that they probably have sitting in their own celler.

It doesn't mean I think bruery beers are bad, or that I'm an asshole but yeah, these are not bottles I bring to shares.

I will not solo a 20%, 2500 calorie beer.

I tried opening a chocolate rain after thanksgiving last year as a dessert treat for a mostly non beer drinking crowd. People were really grossed out and left most of it in their glasses. What a waste.

 

A pleasant side effect of hype moving off of Bruery society beers is that the folks who remain have to be true fans of the beer and the brewery. Outside of the League, I can't think of another club that offers better service/perks for their devoted fans.

I hope the day when I tire of Bruery beers NEVER comes.

 

Another benefit, at least for me, is they will hold beers for a long period of time. I am pretty maxed out at home with previous years bottles, so not having to pick up immediately is a bonus for me. I can drink and replenish as needed with orders waiting for me.

 

but PS gets 10% off.. i dont mind covering that 5% and sticking to PS.

 

Our abv cap went up in Ohio -- are these all bottles coming here from The Bruery?

http://www.ohio.com/blogs/the-beer-...r-here-are-ohio-s-new-high-abv-brews-1.708580

 

Those look like beers that *could* with the new laws, but the majority of their high ABV beers don't even go into distro (Chocolate Rain is on that list for example, unless we're all missing something and The Bruery is putting it into distro). The others may show up, who knows. Also, the ABV is wrong on both of the NC Old Stocks listed, so that may be an incomplete or incorrect list.

 

Right, I assumed chocolate rain wouldn't see distro, but why even have it on the list? That's the one that confused me. We'll see, I guess.

 

New bruerystore site is up....

 

Didn't carry over the login cookie...expected since different backend
Didn't carry over my password I used on the old site....unexpected since one would think that copying the user file would have been in there, but ok I can just recover pass and reset to the exact same thing as before
No longer has the cool little Hoarder Society icon in the top corner
Seems a bit slower on loading images...on a laptop that hasn't been rebooted in about 2 weeks so this could totally be on my end and likely is.

 

I'm seeing a few things that shouldnt be there and some missing functionality that im assuming will be ironed out. Probably shouldn't have pointed out that its up. Sorry bruery!

 

my order history only shows 10 orders, and nothing thats outstanding like it used to.

 

Same, I hope that it isn't done because knowing what I still needed to pickup was a nice little feature.

 

This last time I went to the fulfillment center to pick up I caught a weird vibe, like they didn't want me there. I've never caught this vibe from them before in the past, and I even returned a box of beer they accidentally gave me and they acted like they didn't even care I was being nice.

It wasn't a bad experience per se, it was just, weird. Has anyone ever caught that vibe from them?

 

Only one time I had a negative vibe from a guy at the fulfillment center. But I've seen him since and all was fine. Perhaps he was having a bad day... don't we all ?

Otherwise I have positive experiences from many different people, picking up beer from multiple people as a proxy.

Very honest of you returning the box of beer. What was inside? !