Disappointing Bottle Releases

Lots of hate on here for 18th and every other brewery "limited release."

If you believe that hours in a line, in the cold/rain/snow/heat/etc., plus the cost of product, plus potential disappointment is worth having a couple of beers, then you should do it.

Me? I'll take what I can find on the shelf and be perfectly happy "missing out" on these things. Just the time alone is not worth any of this.

 

I was being sarcastic, but that doesn't translate very well in type. We need a font or something for sarcasm...

 

Not hating on 18th St., just saying it would have taken very little effort on a very cold day to physically let people know instead of just throwing it on their webpage and twitter...

 

Missing out on releases (especially after waiting in line) sucks, but it is what it is nowadays. More people than ever only want limited/hard to get/rare beers and don't bother with anything that can be found on a shelf.

I recently went to my 5th Hoof Hearted release for Dragonsaddle, their Triple IPA, and even though me and my friends got their earlier than usual there were well over 100 people in front of us. Did we get the beer? Yes. Did others miss out? Yes. It sucks, but if you know you want something that badly you have to get there early anymore.

 

I got it. I was doubling down on the sarcasm by being facetious.

 

To be honest I think a lot of breweries put more effort into building hype than they do the actual logistics of the release. Which makes sense. When you're small and you haven't had major issues in the past, I don't think it's on your mind. All of a sudden they hit a critical mass of popularity and viola, events like the BA hunter release happen.

The good news is that it typically only takes one fiasco to correct themselves and get the process right - whether it's more lines, lower allocations, etc.

 

Only bottle releases I attended was New Glarus and I never was disappointed.

 

To repeat my question form earlier up the thread: what is the point of this post? At best the OP is looking for a consoling pat on the back. At worst he's writing a bitchy, passive aggressive post to attack the brewery. I'm more inclined to believe it's the latter. Either way, who cares? I don't care about the OP's feelings in this case. We're grown-ass men and women here. You didn't get beer. Many of us have been there. It sucks, but don't whine to the world about it. There is nothing constructive about this thread. If you feel the release could have been run better, did you ever think that maybe you could contact the brewery directly and offer some polite suggestions? Who knows, they might even offer to take care of you somehow if they know the situation disappointed you. What are a bunch of random people in the BA forums going to do? This thread wouldn't exist if the OP got his bottles. It is about putting the brewery on blast because the OP didn't get the bottles he felt he was entitled to since he waited in line for them. It's a bitch thing to do and it doesn't accomplish anything.

 

I like the way Side Project releases are handled, no limits announced ahead of time. A rough headcount is done before sales start and limits are determined then so the beer goes as far as possible.

 

Wicked weed does them well by having 2 pick up days. As long as you can be in front of a computer during the 1 minute they're for sale

 

I feel like the beer biz has gotten a dickey do of its own and it's getting too big for its britches.