Hardywood releases

Was a madhouse for sure. KMGBS tasted fantastic on tap, was surprised that I liked it more than the AB one but I did. Regular Christmas Morning is great too honestly. The coffee goes really well with the base beer.

 

The comments on the hardywood event page are a SHOW.

 

Still crazy or has it calmed down a bit?

 

I heard two different bottle counts on AB GBS and Ky Xmas Morning from people I trust that work for Hardywood. An employee, who is an old friend gave me the most reliable information this afternoon. Originally heard there was less AB Gbs than KY Xmas, but it turns out it was actually the opposite. Heard 2,500 or so for KY and close to 6K for AB. Ended up htting the line earlier than expected based on the numbers. Talked with a Hardywood employee earlier this week, and the reason for the increase in limits was because they needed to get rid of it, and the fact that BA GBS and Xmas Morning were sitting around for so long. Hardywood probably knew it would sell out today with the increased limits, but with upcoming releases, I don't think they wanrted to keep the limit so low that it would still be there next week when they are only open for two days or so. Breweries mess up releases all the time, and sure the limits could have been lower, but I completely understand their reasons for increasing them. If you didn't show up by about noon, then you got shut out of KY Xmas morning. That sucks, but it will hit limited distro. I also saw a bunch of people offer up KY Xmas Morning bottles to others that got shut out. I'm doing the same with all my bottles (hooking up people who missed out, or giving them to out of state friends and keeping nothing). Longest note I've ever written here, TL;DR. Totally fine by me

 

The line doesn't have any butthurt left, they all went home.

 

People thunk they upped the bottle count because they had a ton? If that was the case they would've made it 6 from the start. People woke up early and waited in the cold (trist me it was a lot colder at 9 am then noon) to make sure they locked down their bottles. People in this thread were all saying there is no reason to show up early and you'd be able to walk up later with no line and get bottles, apparently they were wrong & are probably the ones complaining on FB. Probably the same people who showed up late to despot day. Good thing with all these people boycotting Hardywood releases and Despot Day there should be enough to go around.

Boycott haha please

 

did ABGBS also sell out?

 

lol so true. shout out to my dmv folk waiting in line with me.

 

They did not "need" to get rid of it. It would have sold on it's on eventually. I was one who has stated for weeks if you showed up by 4/5pm you would avoid the lines and be able to walk right up and purchase. That was based on how the previous 3 weeks have gone. They had pallets of them leftover. I was wrong. The fact is HW is a business and their fiscal year probably ends Dec 31st. They made projections and sales goals at the beginning of the year and wanted to sell as much as they could in their last release of the year. They probably already met those but they wanted to make sure to end the year on a high note for themselves and any investors. Not to mention they have a $28+/- million facility in the works. I know none of this for a fact but speaking from understanding business and sales it was in their best interest to blow Q4 out of the water and go to their annual company meetings (if they have one of those) and report that it has been the biggest year ever with exceeding their '15 goals by ???%. They screwed us over with how they increased limits and I personally got shut out but at the same time I am not upset. There have been way to many great beers released on VA this year to get alll out of control over 1 brewery's and 1 weekend's release. We all could have chosen another way to enjoy this Saturday but hundreds decided to put all their eggs in one basket and chance the HW release.

 

I am disappointed I didn't get the Kentucky but I'm not mad. I think as a business decision to raise the limits, it was smart. As an "appease the masses" it was horrible. We stopped in at The Answer shortly after noon and got to HW probably around 3:30. The amount of people was greater than I anticipated. I was under the impression that the Apple Brandy would sell out first so I got that one on draft while standing in line. When we were about 1/3 of the way through the line, the representative made the rounds telling everyone they had hardly any Kentucky left. We waited in line a bit longer then decided screw it and went into the tap house. Around 6:00 or so we walked back out and jumped in a much shorter line to see what was left. Unfortunately I got no Christmas Morning at all but did walk away with a Bourbon and Apple Brandy. Not all bad, and I enjoyed The Answer a lot.

 

Did they sell outof apple brandy?

 

I believe they did. There were only a few individual bottles sitting by the registers when our group got ours. I highly doubt they lasted long as there was still a line behind us.

 

Still had bottles when I left around 8:00.

 

Why wouldn't they just keep the limit at 2 "per pass through" the line and if people really wanted to run it back, they could?

I'm sure this kind of thing is a shit show they don't look forward to, but it's a good problem to have and if they piss off enough people they will no longer have this problem. I'm in DC and would never travel even that far for a <10% abv stout anyways, it doesn't even look like this is trading for much anyways (never my rationale but I know it is for some).

 

Is any going to distribution or was it brewery only?

 

AB was brewery only but KY Xmas is supposed to see limited distro.

 

Any ideas where? I work right near TW Fairfax and may swing over there in a couple hours.

 

Usual spots you would see HW limited stuff, if they got Trickery, etc. maybe they will see this? Not sure when it will show up.

 

That's my thought, if you got your hands on Trickery at distro this should follow suit. It took some effort for sure on my part to get Trickery, but I think I wound up with 4 and the effort was still less than driving to RVA and standing in line for hours.

I get people being upset about being in line and missing out on KY Xmas. At the same time, seems like ABGBS being brewery only makes it the one to be happy they stood in line for since there's zero chance it's hitting distro and KYXmas definitely will.

 

FWIW, Trickery showed up in stores around Thanksgiving so I'd be really surprised if you find KYXmas before the end of the year. Best bet to ask your local shops, see if they'll have a list, etc.