I recently made two trades with the same guy. I managed to lose bottles both times to bursting/breaking. The first time, the box was detected and thrown out. The second shipment attempt made it here but only because it was wrapped in a trash bag. I opened the box and the only bottles to break were 2 out of 6 of the flower power. The rest were in tact. Has anyone ever had specific problems of Flower Power bottles breaking easily in transit. Or maybe even Ithaca brewing bottles?
I've dranken hundred's of bottles of FP in the last 3 years and never once thought that they were fragile or sub par in anyway ; Maybe the packing job was insufficient?
I wouldn't be surprised. Ithaca has had issues in the past and some piss poor customer service that I haven't bothered with them in years.
Did the package spend a lot of time under 27.4 F? From what I understand that's the freezing point of a 7.5% ABV beer. They probably get their bottles from the same wholesaler as a lot of other brands.
I'm not sure it went that low in temps during shipping. It was just peculiar how both shipments had broken bottles. I was really hoping there was some explanation other than insufficient packing.
I am referring to the release of Old Habit in 2010 or 2011 (batch E017!). This beer was delicious when it first came out but had some horrible issues with infection. I had bought several bottles prior to them revealing there was any such problem. One of the bottles I opened up just erupted everywhere and another was undrinkable and sour. I called them and was told by customer service I was wrong and I probably just shook the bottle. I sent an email after that and received no response. A couple months later a thread formed on here (it is gone now when all the old threads were purged) and finally someone from the brewery got in touch with me and explained how they were going to make things right. After being in contact with that person on here for a while nothing ever did come about and I am still sitting on some of these bottles. Basically being told I was wrong and then admitting they were wrong and lying about making things right just did not sit too well with me.
That's a crappy experience to have. I never really thought of brewery's having customer service departments but it sounds like Ithaca really shit the bed on that one. Sorry to hear that and I'll likely stay tuned for more stuff like this. I have a two strike rule when it comes to restaurants and in some cases, one strike if it's that bad. If that would have happened to me and they never got back to me, I'd make their lives hell for days on end.
I think most have customer service departments somewhat. I will share a positive experience from a brewery where they went above and beyond. I have been a fan of new holland spirits for some time now and periodically purchase their Zeppelin Bend. A couple years ago they had an issue with the corks they were using where they would just sort of break into the bottle. My cork broke and went into the bottle but fortunately for me I had a spare decanter that I was able to transfer the whiskey into while filtering out the pieces of cork carefully. I just sent them a heads up email to let them know about this and alert them. They not only apologized profusely but got me in touch with the person in charge of their spirits. He insisted on sending me a new bottle of Whiskey and replacement corks just in case anything ever happened again. The next day I have a new bottle of whiskey and a bunch of swag on my doorstep. Another reason why I will continue to support this brewery and their spirits and visit them as much as I can.
Severe cold too, your enemy no matter how well it's packed. Any box is subject to at least 2 days of air temp treatment . Ship into the NE this week good chance your losing bottles .
70 trades and counting, only 1 breakage due to poor packaging from the trading partner. "Adequate" is a code word for "not enough" for me. A shipment must be well-packed or over-the-top to eliminate any possible chance of breakages due to "adequate" packing. I've heard of cold weather shipping reported on the forum causing low ABV (around 5%) and high pressured (Cantillon) to freeze/burst, but not D/IPA or stouts. I'm also curious why you have to trade for Flower Power if you're in PA. My understanding is that Ithaca, including FP, is widely distributed in PA.
I just traded eight bottles of Flower Power in two different trades. Both boxes shipped without issue.
