Florida beer releases

I think the key is understanding the crowd and THAT day announcing limits. If most breweries announced a two bottle limit than that just means more people show up with friends, family, unemployed day laborers, etc in their fuel to get as many bottles as possible. By not making any announcement on limits and leaving it till that day you may avoid some issues. If a brewery owner/employee shows up and does a rough count and sees 100 ppl and they have 200 cases then a two bottle limit wouldn't really be needed. This allows for flexibility, and rewards everyone that shows up at a reasonable time.

 

The only way to do bottle releases is a 2 bottle limit with the ability to get back in line.

This rewards people who get there on time, allows people to buy as many as they want if the demand is low, and guarantees almost the maximum amount of different people can get the beer while keeping the amount over 1 bottle/person.

 

It's not the breweries. It's the attendees.

 

A brewery's poor choices doesn't excuse people acting like a cry baby douche bag.

 

Except for that one guy, everyone at Rapp was cool and there wasn't a ton of drama. The situation all over has gotten to a place where demand exceeds supply and that's going to result in some people not getting what they want.

I agree not having a bottle limit was a little silly. Setting the bottle limit day of is probably the best solution. But as for the line situation at Rapp, there really wasn't anywhere, where a line before sales started would have been feasible. The only way would have been to snake it through the non-wet zoned parking lot that is used by other businesses which could have ended horribly for Rapp as a business, so I can't really blame them there.

 

There are two easy and quick solutions to this problem:

1. Jack up the price of these limited releases to meet demand. 200 bottle count? Making the price $200 a pop will thin out the crowd.

2. Don't sell beer or allow sharing during the release.

I would hate to see either of those things happen. But I'm not gonna be surprised if I do see it happen.

 

this idea seems pretty good though i don't think it'll work for everyone. mainly because without knowing what the bottle limit is, people will just assume it'll be the worst, so that means they'll be more inclined to show up with more mules, get there earlier, etc.

 

I Absolutely agree that this method would not work for all breweries especially a brewery of your size. I think larger craft breweries are still in the process of figuring out the best method for anticipated releases. I can't imagine trying to do a realistic estimate on a crowd size of 100+. But for smaller breweries such as Rapp, Cycle, 7venth Sun, etc this may be a smart way to handle some possible frustrations. Sadly, though some folks will bitch no matter what.

 

I was at Cycle on Friday and all went smooth and well. Ended up with two bottles and had several varieties of the RareR on tap.

IMO, I think more didn't attend or there weren't more problems was because of the near constant rain moving in off the Gulf all morning and into the afternoon. Most know that there was limited space with the small brewery, and I think many didn't want to stand around in the rain, beer or no beer.

 

Not sure if announced bottle limits will prevent mules...just look at the Zhukov release. Hoarders gonna hoarder.

Unless you tell people ahead of time that it's case limit (or at least 6 bottles or more), I think people that have access to mules will still bring mules. I do agree that it'd be a lot tougher for a brewery with a following the size of CCB's to accurately estimate the size of a the crowd for a popular release.

However, I don't know if I'd agree that not committing to bottle limits ahead of time would cause people to line up earlier. I'd hope that if you told people ahead of time that bottle limits would be announced at the time of release based upon the number of people that they'd assume that means that the maximum amount of people possible would be getting bottles.

 

oh absolutely, announced limits have their issues, too.

the only real way to avoid any sort of nightmare is to A) make a shitload of beer with no limits, and make it abundantly clear that there is a TON of beer, or B) make bad beer so no one cares.

A isn't very feasible for many of these beers, and in some cases, it still doesn't really matter (see Goose Island's releases).

 

I know the releases bring a lot of people in the doors which is good but I'd like to see a variation of the Upland lottery applied to some of these releases (Hunahpu or MZ for sure). The major change I'd make from Upland is to eliminate proxies. If you win, you've gotta show up in person during the pickup window. Leftovers are then sold in the Tasting Room after the window has passed. This wont eliminate people using local friends as lottery mules but it does prevent the melees weve witnessed over the past few months. The people will still come to the tasting room but will be spread over a more manageable time frame.

I was less bothered by the sell out at Hunahpu Day than the unsafe conditions for the attendees. I saw one gal get knocked over in the bottle line at Huna Day by a guy looking to push his way to the front. She fell into some broken glass. Nothing happened fortunately, but peoples safety should not be compromised at a Beer Fest or bottle release. It took some real coaxing to get my wife and other ladies we know to come back to CCB. Every building has a finite occupancy level and theres little doubt in my mind that the Marshall Zhukov events have pushed that envelope.

For small outfits like Rapp or Cycle this isnt practical but for someone larger its becoming a necessity. Just one mans opinion.

 

Personally, if I knew that the limit wouldn't be set until the time of release two things would happen:

1. I wouldn't attend as many releases. (since I have to drive an 1hr each way, not worth it for 2 bottles)
2. I wouldn't bother showing until release time since they would set a limit to get everyone there a bottle.

I think many people show up earlier and earlier because of fear of getting shut out. If you take that away by setting limits to get most everyone (within reason) an allotment at set time of release, no more camping out. You could even state that limits would be set 30 minutes before release.

Again, this is just theory until proven - but Cycle has effectively done this (on smaller scales) and I think it would only help CCB and others. Cash only is a no-brainer for releases these days too, IMO. And don't tell me about change, just round your beer prices up if you have too.

 

I support these breweries physically releasing the bottles at a time during their normal operating hours. It is a great way for them to potentially drive captive sales of their other brews in their taprooms. We all know the taproom is an important income generator for these breweries. However, herein is where the main problem begins.

IMHO the faux-paus we see are primarily because of these bottle releases either being a part an event, or being their own event in themselves. That is not to say that a brewery could not be successful with this being the case. It comes down to logisitics and communication for all things pre-release and release day.

My long winded answer below assumes that is how breweries will continue to operate. Of course there are things like lottteries and silent releases that would work just as well, if not better in some cases.

The following are the biggest challenges I see at these events, and a few suggestions:

No "Traffic Cop": These releases need a central voice that has a bull horn, micrpohone, or really loud voice, to make sure the event day crowd is clear what is going going to occur, when it will occur, and how.

Line Formation and Control: This is clearly the hardest thing depending the space each individual brewery has to burn for people just standing around. No real suggestions except keep the a reasonable distance away from the bar if possible. Additionally, starting time of when people are allowed to be in line can be difficult to manage. I like the Cycle model here... announce when the line can start with 24 hours of the release day, or less, and give clear directions on how you expect the crowd to act, and when & where to line up.

Signage and Staff Knowledge - It's the most frustrating on release day when the staff cannot articulate in a few words where people should go and other important details. This should also be clear by signs that MUST be posted IMO.

Payment and Bottle Pick-up: The lesson here is that the line is to pay for your beer, NOT to pay AND get your bottles. The bottle pick-up should be very nearby (maybe a table down from the payment table/area). Think assembly line... This will speed up things, particularly if it is cash only. Though if credit sales are allowed, this would still allow the line to move. If it were up to me, I would go cash only. One last thing, the payment table and bottle pick-up table have to staffed by two people each, minimum, plus one runner available for change, to get the next dolly of cases, etc.

Bottle Limits - They are must for almost all release days. It is the best attempt to equalize things out there. Still doesn't stop people from bringing mules, but at least gives everyone a fighting chance. Also, don't announce the actual number until as close the bottle release time that is feasible. Let me restate that a little... tell people there will be a bottle limit, but hold the number close to the vest until as late as possible. This may mean gauging the crowd with as little as an hour to go in some cases before making the annoucement in extreme cases.

Crowd Size Estimation - Its hard to know 100%. But there are some indicators that could tell you what to expect. Not piling on Rapp here, but their Facebook event page had 130+ people that said they were going to attend. This was for a shot at 192 bottles. Again, when you have this kind of knowledge, use it. If you don't, then don't lock yourself in on any details like bottle limits until the release day. When you have no idea what to expect, treat things as if you will sell out out the day of the release.

Patron Bottle Shares - So that is an issue that is easy to mitigate for your release days. My thought... no bottle shares on release days. I know this would be somewhat unpopular, but it would ensure additional revenue for the brewery, tap room servers, etc. Besides, no matter what your motive in buying the release, you are there to support that brewery that day. Most servers will tell you they don't mind the bottle shares, but that's because they are being nice and trying to maximize their tip since you aren't buying as many beers.



I pull my thoughts together from my attendance at these beer releases and my experience co-chairing a Relay For Life event for three years with my wife. The latter may seem like an odd example, but the principles truly are still there. 1,000+ people there for the same reason, looking to be given direction and structure on what is going on and how to participate correctly.

And, yes... I did offer to Joe at Rapp after the release on Saturday to volunteer to help next go-around. And I would be willing to help anywehre else too. I work cheap...pay me in beer! Cheers!

 

lots of good ideas. i especially love the no bottle shares idea. that whole thing just needs to go away. you're at a beer event, drink the beer there.

 

Well said Nate. Especially the part of having some indication of how many people might show up. Besides Facebook, just doing a small amount of browsing through local social media and checking through sites like this (BA) could help a lot. I have a hard time understanding why turnouts are poorly underestimated. It doesn't take a genius to guess there will be more that 200 people showing up. Every year is just going to get worse and breweries need to start planning better.