Bruery RS/HS Allocations (2019)

I would add in this hypothetical that included bottles could be things like Poached Fig that are new/experimental but NOT super limited.

 

I think we all want what's exciting to us and want none of the junk. And I understand that's different for everybody. Just for the record, I have no issues at all with how Bruery has handled the society this year or last year all all. Not upset about low allocations for Wee Heavy Coconuts or substituting Mash and Grind for Apfelsap. I understand included beers are brewer's choice and will take whatever they assign me and still happily renew for hoarders. I'm more Bruery apologist than critic.

But the question was if we had a choice, do we want more of our desired beers as included or extra allocations and I rather have them included. Take last year for example. BT Reserve for hoarders was 2 included and you can buy 1 more. I was happy with that. But if there was an alternative with two regular BT included and you can buy 5 BT Reserve, I'd prefer the original option.

 

Nope I like being a member of the Bruery. Not planning to quit anytime soon. But I've done the buy everything, max allocations thing before but that's not sustainable. Just the included bottles and maybe 1x allocations is good for me now.

 

Exactly this. I like being able to try everything (and, since I live so close to them, usually grab a few more allocations if something particularly appeals to me), but it was refreshing to realize I don't need multiples of everything. Heck, I skipped BT and most of its variants last year, because I didn't need a third box of that stuff in my closet! No FOMO here!

 

I’d love to hear thoughts on Icky Thump if anyone gets the chance to taste at the TR or in a can.

 

It’s the greatest beer you’ve ever smelled! Sell your first born!

No don’t. It’s a coffee stout. It’s really good. But you’re not missing out on a world of happiness if you aren’t able to buy it.

On the other hand I have a bottle
Of Fundamental Theorem I’d love to sell you for $2500.00

 

I seem to be in the minority here, but stating that a given beer (Apfelsap) is included, then pulling it and replacing it with another beer that I may or may not have any interest in (M&FT, which I do not have interest in), and making me pay MORE to buy the Apfelsap, is literally the definition of bait and switch marketing and is illegal under consumer protection laws.

I get that production problems happen, but the fine print of The Bruery has the right to switch any beer out for any reason does not protect them in the event that they turn around and make that beer available to the same consumers that it was marketed to as "included" for more money. This could have been avoided by issuing a credit for the bottle, no mess with vouchers or such, just let the society member decide if they want to spend it to get that bottle "back" if it is still available or use the credit towards a replacement in the future. Under no circumstances should this activity become the norm, for every person you make happy, you are likely making someone unhappy.

 

I would of been much much happier with an account credit for the cost vs mash and french toast.

 

I'm with you. My good faith excitement is heavily based on this being a once every year or two occurrence.

An alternate scenario is that they just went ahead and blended the shitty barrels in with the good ones to increase yield and released a shit beer. Then everyone would just say, "remember when they included that shit beer?" and move on.

The voucher solution makes sense. As they've said here a couple times, their system doesn't allow for that, but they're looking into adding the functionality. Not sure if the system also doesn't allow for bulk credit issuing though... If not, doing that manually sounds like an unreasonable amount of time for a couple thousand members. We'd see some kind of resulting hiccup in service I'm sure.

 

The alternative would be for Bruery to just not list every bottle included. LOTS of other clubs don't release a full list and I don't get why we're demanding so much more from the Bruery. I think they were trying to avoid a full list this year and that's why they only teased a few bottles when renewals went out but then everybody kept asking for it so they finally released the list.

 

This is an excellent point. Seeing the included bottle list was very important to me when deciding to commit to HS. I'd rather see the list with a touch of uncertainty than go in flying totally blind.

 

I know it’s only Tuesday... but checking in on this anyway

 

Really would be nice to know a ballpark for the thresholds. Are they supposed to be in effect for this year as well? Depending on what rewards are, there would likely be more incentive to get to that level.

 

if they made the thresholds public they would almost certainly make them public in the form of "be in the top x% of spenders"

 

Anyone ever try Citrus is Life? Would love some tasting notes.

 

The FOMO is real. Since they don't mandate purchases I'm sure you could theoretically take a year off without purchasing anything while just enjoying your included bottles. Personally I'm terrified of getting an overseas assignment or 365 day deployment because I'd really be up a creek. I just started putting 2016 beers into cold storage earlier this year.

It's also kinda funny that I was able to get another bottle of Apfelsap which was advertised as a low yield beer but got shut out on Hold The Spoon.

 

I'm curious why Hold The Spoon is so popular.

 

A few cases of Bakery cans just showed up at a liquor store near me today. Is that now a regular production beer? Either way it was the best beer they had so I grabbed some cans haha.

 

Agreed. Was shut out on cans but was able to get a pour in the tasting room last weekend. Sounded amazing on paper, but didn’t live up. Was relieved that I missed out.

 

I was mildly underwhelmed with it (had it on draft, didn’t try to buy cans either time), but was glad to see something that wasn’t a super heavy base that was then multiple-adjuncted. The blonde/imperial blonde base is nice change of pace for a few different brews they have going.

Related: a solid bottle shop near me has like 3 cases of Hold the Spoon, and the beer guy said he could fairly easily get more. I told him about the online shitstorm about the access to it and we had a good laugh.