Bruery 2016 RS/HS Allocations

I am quite certain there are a lot more than 50 out of state members.
The out of state members are probably preferred as they do not take advantage of the "local benefits" like parties etc. They simply buy beer.

 

Edit: Nevermind... I didn't realize you were talking about the east coast receiving center. I agree that would be a colossal waste of time and effort, despite my obvious benefit from such a development.

 

I haven't, but damn it'd save money. Depends on the State, but for example Georgia uses the three tier system so a brewery cannot sell direct to a retailer, period. Beer has to go through a distributor first, regardless of where it comes from. So for example, and it's fucking stupid, Creature Comforts out of Athens, GA ships their entire stock to Savannah Distributing in Atlanta, who then ships 70% of it right back to retailers in Athens. Even local breweries looking to buy their own product have to go through a retailer, so if a Creature Comforts employee wanted a keg of their beer, it would go to distro, then to retail, then to the employee. Same for a brewery doing a dinner or planned event, they cannot take stock from the brewery to supply the event, it has to go to distro first. Retailers (like me) and consumers (also me) have been fighting to change the three tier system forever, but distributors have a TON of money in GA, and they pay the lobbyists a shit ton more than we ever will be able to. Basically a distributor is just a brokerage with a warehouse, they cover shipping costs across State lines, but they make a good 20-30% to just hold the beer until it goes to a retailer. So there will never be a day, at least in GA, where a brewery could direct ship to a retailer. They could ship to a consumer if the laws were right, but there's still shipping costs involved. But the brewery would have to include insurance, signature, etc, so shipping would easily reach $50-55 for a full case if they were to do it. Most breweries don't have the time or logistics to do shipping, nor do they want to worry about the laws of who can and can't receive alcohol.

For me it's about $45 for a full case of Bruery beers shipped to my work, and $30 to ship an empty shipper back to CA, which is gotdamn ridiculous. I've actually started just drop shipping new shippers from UHaul though, as they do free shipping on orders over $50 so I can ship as many shippers as I can afford and it costs me just the price of the box ($11.95), vs sending an empty box back across the country at $30 each.

The Bruery would also have to deal with ABV cap laws, GA is 14%, so anything shipping to distro has to be under that. Every State is different, but that'd be a huge hiccup for a lot of their beers.

 

I cannot seem to find any 12 bottle shippers anymore on uhaul, do you use 6?

 

They always go in and out of stock on the 12's. They'll be back soon.

 

They come and go. There have been times when 3 and 6 were out of stock online but I could buy a slew of 12s.

 

Thanks, they have just always been in stock when I checked before.

 

My condolences to out of staters. I'm within CA and when I get my 12-bottle ships from The Bruery I stick the empty shipper in the recycle bin. It feels so wasteful, but I have no idea what else to do with them.

I have no idea if it would help save anyone any money, but I'd be happy to tape it shut empty and slap a shipping label on it to send to anyone that sends a prepaid shipping label for USPS, UPS, or Fedex (those are the ones I know come to my office regularly).

 

I've been buying the 12 bottle shippers that they started selling recently from the bruery's tasting room. Actually those boxes with the packaging is awesome. Better than the Styrofoam ones IMO.

 

Well said (even though it's a sad tale). Reminds me of this:

http://edibleeastbay.com/online-magazine/summer-2015/the-three-tier-roadblock/

 

I have a buddy who is a heavy RS orderer who I ship to, and he sells the shippeRS locally for $10 a pop. If you live in a sense area that might be a good solution.

 

I do 12, I just order online and they drop ship from whatever warehouse has them I think. Last set came from St. Louis.

I thought about doing that too with my old ones.

 

That's exactly GA for all forms of alcohol. People new to the State are literally dumbstruck when they try to walk into a brewery for lunch or to buy a 6pk of beer and realize the brewery is closed or can't sell to them. Even people who live here but don't know the laws are surprised. A new brewery opened recently just North of Atlanta in Roswell, near one of our stores, and I had to inform everyone asking about them that they could only go one night a week or Saturday afternoon for a tour, and they couldn't bring home anything. They really were clueless to it, I guess it's just assumed breweries are open every day and sell every day because in most States that's the norm.

 

That is like....just....oh man. Now I feel even more spoiled that I can go grab a burrito and walk into Alesmith at 11am and get a few speedways at the bar.

 

Checkout Uline.com they always have several types

 

FML
I'm so bummed its August and they decide not to release SITR w/pineapple and coconut. It wouldn't surprise me if they held this one over for next year.
All this talk about waiting to see what's up are sleeves is getting old.

 

the label has surfaced, so im sure its not far off, if not september.

 

I hope it's September. I don't want to be drinking some tropical yumminess in the cold days of November and by cold I mean 65 degrees.

 

Was going to say... most of us live in a state where winter doesn't exist, save in the mountains.

 

Sorry I'm a bit later to the party on this, but I don't think they would ever get rid of memberships. If they can sell it to the customer, they don't have to sell it at a discount to the distributor, who then has to sell it at a discount to the retailer. Its all cash in their pockets.

 

I would think there is an associated cost with the overhead of employees dedicated to managing the program, longer term storage of beers for members, and the added stress of trying to make a bunch of neck beards happy.

Many breweries keep programs in place, but at least a couple breweries have given up on it. De Garde and Crooked Stave for example.

 

Lost Abbey also gave up on theirs.

 

Obviously the benefit of interest free loans outweighs the cost of running the program or they wouldn't do it. Money don't get any cheaper than "free"

 

Plus, with the societies, they are pretty much guaranteeing that we will buy beer from mostly them instead of spending our beer money elsewhere.

 

With interest rates where they are and not really knowing what the overhead costs are I don't see it as obvious.

Being HS I can directly say that this isn't the case for at least some folks. I have been buying significantly less Bruery beers this year. It also seems that there are others posting here with the same sentiment. I would think this could be a potential problem when beers they hope to sell out of, last through second chance and then some. Those beers also being society beers, can't be released without members getting upset. So they are sort of stuck with them.

Either way has it's pros and cons, I am just playing devil's advocate and hope they do well growing the brands either way.

 

I guess I could rephrase it like this: Being part of HS/RS guarantees that the members will buy beer in general from The Bruery they would otherwise spend somewhere else.

I'm HS and I usually skip sours, unless people rave about how great it is. But, most of my cellar is Bruery beer since it's easy to get for me. I don't like chasing down beer, it's annoying and I'm too old for that crap.

 

Wait....what? Serious? Aren't the estimates for RS something like 2k-3k members? 2,500 ppl x $300 fee = 750,000 in interest free capital. And that doesn't even take into acct the Hoarders money? (possibly another 1,000 members @ $800ea, another 800k.....) I know you are by your own admission just "playing devils advocate" but I cant imagine an interest rate low enough (or an overhead high enough) where that kind of float doesn't make sense...

 

The last time anyone had something resembling solid numbers, it was ~450 HS members and ~2000 RS. I have no idea how different this year may be on those totals (I suspect they grew a bit), but the total is definitely well over $750k and probably approaching $1MM (if not over).

Regardless of interest rates, the cashflow situation for a brewery whose core business is barrel aged beer is not very awesome. Yes, they've been at it for a long time now, and yes, they've also expanded the non-BA side of their business, but their business model is significantly different even compared to a brewery like Modern Times. A few newer breweries have gone even more to that extreme (The Rare Barrel, for example), but the Bruery largely forged the path for an American brewery whose core business is aged product, rather than aged product being a cool sideshow/addition to a core lineup of high-turnover beers.

I think a lot of newer fans underestimate how the early years of the RS impacted the Bruery's trajectory and how intertwined BT is to that trajectory - in both good and bad ways in my opinion - but that's a really long discussion over what amounts to a tangent at this point.

 

Some very good points in this paragraph, specifically about the Bruery's unique model and how it's opened doors for others. The Rare Barrel bit's interesting since yeah, I doubt anyone could really get a read on how much money they do/don't make given low production, high emphasis on quality and (most importantly) low cost of business by not actually having to brew the beer or own any sort of brewing equipment. Purchasing wort probably isn't cheap, but still -- cheaper than the aforementioned brewing equipment. Only overhead is the wort and fermentation process.

 

I wasn't around in those days but kinda wish they had one now lol

 

I am somewhat serious, but I do not know enough about their overhead costs to really debate with any level of detail. All I am saying is the salary for 4-5 employees to run the program and rent for a climate controlled warehouse to store the finished beer in California can't be cheap. I would think storing those beers that don't sell and sit a long period of time before members pick up, is a huge cost vs unloading them on distributors. Also another key point would be the ability to use the interest on a loan as a tax write off if they just borrowed the same money.

Again, I don't have any numbers to crunch, but it would come down to overhead vs tax deductible interest. Even if they were close numbers wise, I could see the value in not having to deal with managing the program. In the end, no money is free.

 

To be fair, when winter comes, we do have break out our winter tee shirts

 

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Absolutely right.

None of us are being bamboozled. Otherwise the renewal rate would be zero.

Sure we crowd source/front load The Bruery, but it comes with an agreement that they will provide benefits. Benefits that are clearly valued.

In my case, being able to buy beer online, at my convenience, and having them hold it in temperature controlled conditions until I can get there, is a big benefit. As is a three week window to order new releases. Throw in a great tasting room next to where I pick up my beer and I'm in. And if I can't get there, I can ship it, even better.

The Bruery has tapped into a segment of the market that loves great beer and will pay more for the added convenience .

I may be buying a bit less this year, but I expect to be an RS member for many years to come.

Although I have admit if I moved out of state I would have to rethink this. The benefit of visiting the tasting room, getting member pours and growler fills, and going to the anniversary party are benefits value. The increased cost and loss of benefits would be an issue for me.

 

I hope that wasn't the sentiment I was conveying. I in no way feel bamboozled.

 

Just popped open Frucht Apricot. Anyone else notice it's a slightly milder version of Cuddlebug?

 

Can anyone point me towards any sort of official word to what is included with the HS package regarding the four melage bottles (2 each #13/#15). Have they been changed to the cuvees? I'm not sure what to buy this time around as I don't know what we are getting! @BruerJoel ?

 

Sorry, I also didn't mean to imply that you were suggesting that we were getting bamboozled.

I was just speaking generally about that fact that, for the most part, we all know what we are signing up for and the front loaded money gets paid back in benefits that we value.

Basically, just agreeing with your point that "no money is free"

Cheers

 

Anyone else care to chime in on Melange 15?

 

Melange #13 / #15 (the winners of the Hoarders blending tournament) have been renamed to 2016 Hoarders Cuvee (The Bruery), and 2016 Hoarders Cuvee (Bruery Terreux). Two bottles of each are included with your Hoarders membership.

Thanks,
Patrick
The Bruery

 

Speaking very generally here, only variable overhead costs are relevant when making a decision. 5 staff members whose sole duty is society fulfillment is a consideration. Fixed costs (like climate controlled storage for inventory, ecommerce interface, etc) are ignored since they exist with or without the society.

You'd also consider how much nicer the margin is when selling directly to your customers instead of to a distributor. Goes a long way to pay those friendly fulfillment center wizards.

The tax write off thing is an advantage for businesses without other options but pretty much obsolete in industries that have adopted crowd sourcing as an acceptable business model. (Bonus points for being able to crowd source yourself instead of paying a chunk to kickstarter, gofundme, etc etc...) If The Bruery needs tax shelters, there are many other ones at their disposal. (Source: I'm a public accountant with an industry focus on wineries and breweries.)

And none of that even starts to touch on @Xul's points about the benefits of a futures program for a specialty product like barrel aged beer. Production forecasting, budgets, etc... so much easier when you know that 5,000 Black Tuesdays have already sold (and have the cash in hand) instead of just paying in for a year and hoping for customers at the end of the road. The fact that society members will take care of out of state distribution for you? Nice cherry on top...

It's not the best solution for every brewery which explains why some have opted out. Its a liability, a form of debt... a lot of people don't like working after they have already been paid (since there is no carrot at the end of the stick), aren't interested in scaling, or lack the organizational skills and fiscal responsibility to properly utilize the funds. Don't mistake their shortcomings in execution as a failure of the system. For the more ambitious breweries out there (of which The Bruery is certainly one) there is really no question that the properly deployed "society" model is a boon.