Hudson Valley Brewery (2018)

I wasnt able to make it up there this weekend but a friend did and said they still had full allotments at 2pm. Seems silly to line up the night before, but I guess if you want the glassware you have to...

 

I went in yesterday afternoon. No cans or bottles but drank the Peregrine and Soleil on tap and got crowlers of two of the beers from Saturday. Other than the higher price for crowlers, works for me.

 

I arrived at the brewery at 4 pm on Saturday, just expecting to try the newly released beers on tap. They still had 6 packs of Syzygy and Horizon Loop, and bottles of Peregrine. Got one 6 pack of each and 1 bottle. It was a very nice surprise! Syzygy and Free Fall were amazing.

For anyone who lives locally, we usually do what ONovoMexicano mentioned - visit after the release on Sunday or the following Thursday, and get crowlers of what was released. Avoid the crowds and still get the new beers. Of course they aren't in the beautiful cans, but at least you can get them!

 

went up saturday, arrived roughtly 630/7AM
missed out on the cool freefall teku by about 50 people. got everything else, even though we could have shower up later, had a lot of fun eating free bbq and hanging by the share table so it was worth it regardless.
the new beers are so good. I was meh on them saturday, but im thinking it was because i was drinking strong stuff earlier. revisiting horizon loop yesterday, it is at level with bloom and ultrasphere for me as one of my favs.

 

http://hudsonvalleybrewery.com/about-us

Looks like some more Silhouette variants in cans on Friday

 

I would imagine at least one of those cans is gonna be the passionfruit variant that they've been doing crowlers of.

That one's pretty tasty.

 

Anyone have an idea of when the line will hit 100 or so people this Friday? Only ever been there for Saturday releases ...

 

My suspicion is it’ll be more mellow than Saturdays because employment, but maybe I’m underestimating people.

 

The beers have generally outlasted the line, correct?

 

Last release yes

 

I'm confused by the wristband situation. So I have to get there at 3 to get a wristband and then come back at 4:30 to the same place in line? How do they police that? Are the wristbands numbered? I've never actually been there so I'm not quite getting it.

 

Wristbands are numbered. They'll hand them out at three for everyone who is in the line. Go the front door if you arrive after they've been handed out.

It's designed to give people some free timeto head into the town to spend a little money on lunch, etc. Last time around, we played a round of disc golf at the course nearby.

When you get back in line, just look for the people you were standing near and try to order up that way. I guarantee there will be people who cut ahead within their wristband color/group, though.

 

I plan to go up soon. So perhaps when I’m there I’ll “get it”. But I still fail to see how this method is any more convenient and/or fair than a regular line with wristbands.

 

Another thing to note is the wristbands are only generally in number order but not exact, so remember who’s near you in line. There were several people with higher numbers ahead of me and lower numbers behind me, people next to me were also did not have numbers near mine...

 

Ok awesome thanks for some clarification. I kind of feel like this really complicates things rather than just saying we open at 5PM and people forming a line before that? You're going to end up waiting in line regardless but who knows. I like the idea of a quick round of disc golf in between.

 

This wristband thing makes less and less sense the more it gets discussed, especially considering how unnecessary it is.

 

Agreed, which is why I have yet to wait on their line, and get pours and/or growlers instead on non release days. Which I recommend everyone do.

 

As someone who did it last release, it IS an improvement over just staying in your spot all morning. i was able to carry my chair back to the car, grab a nice sit down breakfast, and hang in the bottle share area until 1130 instead of worrying about my spot on line.

additionally, theyve been producing so much beer (im sure the short cans help), that there really isnt a need to rush unless youre muling and need your guaranteed full allotment. i showed up at 6am last time and got the same amount of beer as people who showed up at 4pm from what i understand.

putting my hot take out there: this entire batch will last to saturday.

 

especially when considering Matt's point that "the wristbands are only generally in number order but not exact."

if it's not exact and we're contingent on remembering random faces around us, what's the point of wristbands?