"Chairgate"

I know of a place like that but the beer is bottled vs. canned.

Cheers!

 

Have you had ALien Church,, Pineal, High Road,..?

Cheers!

 

If it's not Union Jack it'll be something fresher for that trip, but I always check anyway. Maybe 3 or 4 times a year I'll get that one.

But between NJ, PA and NY there will be alternate choices available.

 

Oof. I usually err on the common sense side of these arguments, and I really want to say "yeah you can get practically as good beer in the stores with zero fuss" - my heart wants to say this, because I can't stand the direction things are heading with these local releases.

But my brain disagrees. In NYC at least, I can't think of any (D)IPA that's guaranteed to be available on the shelf of the store that matches or is close to the quality, of what's being made by local breweries - at least for my tastes. Yes some of the local releases (i.e. Singlecut) are available at stores, but they don't hang around so I don't view them as "shelf" beer in the way Union Jack (to use an example mentioned) is. Yes I avoid crazy releases (like this weekend's Other Half release) in favour of much more chill affairs like Interboro (unfortunately only a matter of time before they head same direction). Yes I refuse to line up for beer except in very rare circumstances (such as a weekend in VT near HF, where buying HF to drink over weekend was part of the reason for going). And yes I won't go beyond checking one or two local stores looking for Grimm, instead of hitting 10+ which seems to be the norm on here. And to avoid a lot of this I often opt for growler fills of the same beers people are waiting several hours in line for, for cans.

But (speaking for my preferences, and speaking specifically about hoppy beers in the NYC area) I don't agree that widely distro'd beer that's available year round at stores is close to being comparable enough to scratch the itch

 

The whole Grimm "scavenger hunt" crap is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

Sorry, I know that's slightly off-topic, but in the vein of line-waiting, I'll get up at 2 am to wait in line when I know I'm getting beer any day of the week over hunting forums and twitter to see if I can be lucky enough to be near a store that just got Grimm in stock 3 minutes ago.

 

I don't disagree - but I don't think one can be classed as ridiculous and not the other. The idea of a popular brewery being busy so you may need to wait a bit to get the beer on release day is one thing. But the massively FOMO direction things are going, where to "know" you're getting the beer means people going earlier and earlier to out-do each other is no less ridiculous IMO. People are now lining up @ OH 10 hours prior to the scheduled opening time. The Grimm hunters I'm sure could argue that they can devote less time to a sustained day or two of periodically checking social media and hitting the relevant stores as they become available. Either way yeah it's a fairly pathetic state of affairs.

 

Three key words seem to me to be "people are nuts". I abhor the behavior that I've seen that reflects poorly on the entire beer community. It's different strokes for different folks, but you don't have to be a phenom (@SammyJaxxxx , @beertunes ) about it all whether you chase releases, stand in lines, or just enjoy what falls into your lap. It's my choice whether to participate in the insanity that can happen or not. And I suppose we should be at least a little cautious making this discussion all-encompassing, although observation tells me that the phenomenal is becoming more the norm .

Well, I am doing it wrong too and will continue in my evil ways. I've never been willing to stand in line for much of anything. Saturday, we just wandered through our three favorite bottle shops and came out with everything we could want, plus I could have had two variants of Bourbon County if I wanted them (I don't). How is Cuvier van de Kaiser Blau at twelve bucks not a world-class bargain? Even the missus agreed. Picked up fresh Kiwi Rising, twelve ounce bottles of St. Bernardus Christmas Ale for the Christmas Eve table, Smuttynose Smistletoe, gift packs of three Spencer Trappist beers with glass (it may be a snulip - haven't dragged out the calipers yet) for @12.99, Backwoods, three variants of Trip in the Woods, Founder's Rubaeus (wife's fave), some other things my wife wants to try, and several other goodies for under my tree with no hassle, no chair required. I think I prefer being a knuckle-dragging savage

Shit, I even helped some guy in one store who was looking for a good porter for himself and something for his hophead son who is coming from Oregon to visit. That even put the look of wonderment on the wife's face...so both truly rare happenings! He was thinking Sierra Nevada IPA, and I was happy to point out some regional, and reasonably priced, choices that the left coast isn't going to get that his son would probably enjoy versus something he can get himself in Oregon every day and twice on Sunday.

 

There has been some discussion in this thread concerning Tired Hands selling their beer directly because of a freshness consideration.

Another reason they do this is PROFIT!!

I have seen beer industry folks post on BA that a typical markup along the beer supply chain is 30%. So for a distributed beer the brewery sells to a wholesale distributor. That wholesale distributor then sells to retailers with a markup (e.g., 30%). The retailer then markups as well in selling the beer to the end customer (e.g., 30%).

As an example let's consider the case of Tired Hands selling a 4-pack of HopHands through a regular distribution channel with the goal to have the retail price be $14 (the price they charge at the brewery). In this case the various prices assuming the 30% markups would be:

• Tired Hands price to Wholesaler: $8.28
• Wholesaler to retailer: $10.77
• Retailer to end customer: $14.00

So, by selling their beers directly to end customers Tired Hands is achieving an 'extra' profit of $5.72 (a percentage change of 69%).

What business would not want to achieve an 'extra' profit of 69%.

Now maybe there could be a 'kinder and gentler' manner in which Tired Hands could conduct direct sales (e.g., conducting an online lottery was previously mentioned), but there is a very strong financial incentive for Tired Hands to conduct direct sales.

Cheers!

@FatBoyGotSwagger @surfcaster

 

Larry, how easy is it for you to find ‘top shelf’ IPAs at your stores that are under a month old? Was the Kiwi Rising less than a month old?

Cheers!

 

If you think this is the only way to get a good IPA with < than a month on it, I am sorry for you. Not an issue at all in NC and would guess the majority can get such without it.

Good luck.

 

Do you feel sorry for me too?* I very rarely see packaged 6-packs at my local beer stores that are less than a month old. I have purchased a few cases (Victory DirtWold, Troegs Nugget Nectar) that have been less than a month old.

Another option is buying growlers from local brewpubs but frankly I am personally not a fan of buying 64 ounces of beer which needs to be consumed right away; my Iron Hill growler is labeled with "Keep Cold - Consume Within 48 Hours".

Cheers!

* No real need to feel sorry for me since I have fresh homebrewed beer in my basement.

 

I think Sammy's point is the future of craft beer. I don't think it is just for IPAs either. A brewery starts out small. If it gets a good reputation and puts out great tasting beer, people start to line up for it. There is no need for a distribution deal when you sell out of all your stuff the same day it is released. A smart brewer will also use social media to his or her advantage. If a beer becomes extraordinary, that same social media fuels the fire and the brewery becomes a national name, even though it doesn't even distribute.

 

Hi, Jack. Yes - the Kiwi is under a month old and just a dumb luck find. I even sprung for the 4-pack! In general, however, I would agree it is difficult finding "freshies" as the cool kids call them. I like my IPA as much as the next guy, but as the lines at the breweries have grown and my unwillingness to stand in them remains intact, I've just not been purchasing them as much because they do seem to hang on the shelves for a while. Plus, since my consumption rate tends to be low, I don't like buying too much of anything that runs the risk of aging further after the fact. So absolutely - that four pack will be at some risk! I buy IPA mostly in the summer when we're out and about and often times it is "hey...let's visit XYZ brewery" and we do something else while we're out.

I just don't see the point of it anymore. Maybe it is a reflection of the overall climate where I can still find Bourbon County in two stores and not have to endure Black Friday madness??? If I gotta have a fresh from the source IPA, I'd rather go somewhere that has a taproom (vs. tasting samples) and avoid the whole "release" scene if I can. There's no place I'd call close by that I can just jump in the car and get there before things get crazy - even Trillium (about 35 minutes) and Proclamation (20 minutes when they open their new digs). I watch their Twitter and most times they are saying something has sold out before I even think about heading there. If there was a brewery across the street, maybe I'd think differently. If I absolutely had to have that Kiwi "hot off the press", I'd have to make a day of it and head up to Framingham, enjoy some great food as well as the beer in their hall, and find something else to do to justify the trek. I'm not gonna drive an hour and half just to get beer. As it is, I hardly think it will be a waste.

If I hadn't stumbled on the Kiwi, I would have bought something else. Probably more St. Bernardus or Backwoods. Now that you mention it (sort of), I've got my one obligatory bottle of Celebration for the year (and I will freely blaspheme and say I really don't like it, but it's become something of a tradition) - but I've already been sitting on it for two weeks

 

One other aspect that I do not think has been mentioned is beer trading.

On the monthly Tired Hands threads in the Mid-Atlantic forum I have seen folks opine that a significant portion of the can releases are not for personal consumption but for trading. It seems to me that much of the Extreme Exuberance associated with the weekly Tired Hands can releases is for commerce.

Cheers!

 

For sure. When people at OH are using a handcart to move 4 x cases of hoppy beer to their car you can be fairly certain that not all that beer is going to be ultimately entering the city sewers.

 

I think this is truth, and I believe it s a new model of doing business. It also hedges into that "local" side of the equation and the freshness of certain styles. If I had a great brewery I could get to easily, I'd buy direct from them all the time, but I don't. I have world class all over the place within what I consider reasonable driving distance (for a weekend excursion), just not on my way home from work or on the way to the grocery store on Saturday/Sunday. For me, they have to be planned trips with some other justification than a beer run. When you add it all up, it really becomes a time matter - I have to drive to the brewery, then I might have to wait in line, then drive home. And oh by the way while you were driving up there and waiting in line, whatever you thought you wanted has tapped out. Then what do I do? And even if they have whatever it was I was seeking, do I buy a case of beer that is gonna take me two months to drink anyway?

 

I have yet to get lucky and find a 6-pack of hoppy beer that is less than a month old.

In all probability that is likely reflective of my personal consumption of fresh hoppy commercial beer. I am about 15-20 minutes away from the Tired Hands brewery(s) and all of my purchases there have been for on-premise consumption. Tired Hands is now selling kegs of their beers to local beer bars and one beer bars that I frequent often has Tired Hands beers on tap.

Cheers!