Introducing Jester King 2016 SPON — Méthode Gueuze

Lottery doesn't minimize usage of mules. For a bottle release, people will just enter every possible mule they know into the lottery. Also, there are 10,000+ bottles. You don't need a lottery for 10,000 bottles.

 

Yeah, and the administrative task of organizing a lottery that big and then keeping track of everyone and dealing with people asking for exceptions etc seems like a completely unnecessary and unproductive undertaking for Jester King...

I feel like I'm in the middle of a brainstorming session where half the people aren't actually thinking about the feasibility or usefulness of their suggestions, and are just trying to come up with a novel idea. Which is fine in some cases, but this doesn't seem like one of them

 

Not sure how much work is involved on JK's end for this, but I like it.

 

If there really are 10,000 bottles of a single beer and they release several thousand with small (2 per person) limits, then I suspect you're right that a lottery wouldn't be necessary. But I'm not sure if I agree there are 10,000+ bottles. I read that there are 4 different blends, which I take to mean there are effectively 4 different beers. So that means it's more like 2,500 of each. If they're going to hold back some of each of those beers for onsite consumption, I'm guessing we'll wind up with maybe about 1,500 bottles each for to-go sales. I assume everyone will want to max out each blend so I think the lottery will be a lot smaller and not that hard to manage.

I also think you're wrong about he mules. You can only have a mule enter if they're willing to show up, so that will be a limitation. And if you're the 10th guy in line with 10 mules, they're all getting bottles. But in a lottery, those 10 guys may not all win and there's a better chance of spreading the beer around.

 

There are 7000 750ml bottles and 4500 375ml bottles.

 

Does this mean they blended four beers or that they made four distinct blends using different percentages of the 3 beers typically blended in a gueuze?

 

Does it matter?

 

Yes it does. Are there 11,000 bottles (aka a lot) or 11,000/4 bottles (aka not really that much of each).

 

This is spot on. Lottery/reservation actually increases muling. The best deterrent to mules is making people wait in line. It's par for the course here, but that's not feasible for most people, and even if it is feasible very few people are willing to wait hours in line as a favor. I saw a poster here say that lines encourage mules, but I don't think that's true. A brutal line is the best defense you have against it. That's why long lines are the standard, they require a commitment that most "mules" simply cannot give. People who work a 9-5 are not going to give up an entire day of their weekend just because their friend in Wisconsin is screaming at them on Facebook to pick up a bottle.

I heard a lot of people saying at the AR release that it was fun, but they wouldn't do it again. That's important. Because...

What increases muling is no commitment. Like, I'm not originally from Austin, but if this was released in my hometown, I could have 30 people easily sign up for reservation/lottery. Either purely as a favor, or as an "I'll drive and buy you beer." If you do a reservation system, it's important to know that people with large families/friend bases will be able to secure 20-30 bottles depending on the timeframe allotment. And it'll be easy, that's the kicker. You'd have to charge for lottery tickets, all for charity, but probably like $20 a pop so that people would have to spend money to get their crew to all sign up. And at that point it's just gambling.

That, to me, seems more problematic than people bringing five or six friends to wait hours and hours in line as a favor. And I feel like that's a rare case. Not many people have friend bases who will do that and not want their own bottles. The grandma waiting in line for 3 hours is a myth. IDK where you guys are getting that. A significant other, ok yeah that's probably common, but if you go lottery/reservation, with this beer especially, you'll have locals hitting up everybody they know who wouldn't want a bottle for themselves.

I said I wouldn't post more and I did. I am sorry But I stand by my original point: it'd be cool to have this beer last year round, but it'd be even cooler to just sell it all in a low stress environment. Any weekend at JK is full of people who are just there for the view and who were tipped off "check out this spot." It's awesome. That's why Aurelian Lure stuck around at 900 bottles despite the insane crowd on Saturday. Not everybody cares. This kind of release will always appeal to the diehards. It's best to recognize that, accept that, and cherish it. If bottles will be sold to go, the traditional route of long lines is the hardest to exploit. Sure, Mules will have to "win" the lottery, but if my chance is 30x yours, and I repeat it for three months or whatever, imagine 100 people doing that with no commitment or cost, and then ask yourself how that's going to work out for you?

If there is a lottery, there needs to be a cost to enter, all for charity, so that people can't just get all their friends to enter without donating hundreds of dollars, and out of staters can't just enter with no commitment because hey, they might be in Texas then, why not?

 

No, it really doesn't. Even if the four blends of Spon are not identical as far as percentages go, they are all still being released as Spon 2016. There are ~11,000 bottles of Spon 2016.

 

Yes. I definitely miss this method.

 

I miss being able to walk up and buy a bottle of AR over a few weekends...

 

soooooooooooooo was the beer any good at Funk N Line fest?

 

You obviously haven't been in four years.

 

We did four blends and packaging runs of 2016 SPON -- Methode Gueuze. Each blend had virtually the same percentage of one year old, two year old, and three year old spontaneously fermented beer.

 

Again, I appreciate the feedback / advice. We're not going to do a lottery. I still need to figure out the specifics as you can tell, but we're going to put X bottles for sale starting on 11/18 at 4pm, which will be available while supplies last. And we're going to hold X bottles back for onsite. So far, I like the idea of taking those X onsite bottles and spreading them out over the next 51 weeks. So maybe there's something like 50 to 100 bottles available every weekend onsite while supplies last.

 

Yes, the four blends are all Methode Gueuze. The other spontaneous beers, which I'll share more info on in the future, will get their own release weekends sometime after 11/18.

 

Event was great, slight line for Spon and atrial, and at some points collective brewing, but all in all a great event and a great managed event this year.

 

The Atrial release this year was perfect. I'd recommend something along those lines for the opening, and I'd probably keep back at least 2/3 of stock to see how it flows over December, January, February. If it's going fast, you can put more limits on it. If it's moving slow, you can open up limits.

Congrats on the achievement and good luck this winter on getting something going for 2017!

 

Really enjoyed drinking this at funk & sour. Thanks Jeff and crew for bringing out the bottles.

Very light, I guess I was expecting a sour bomb, but this is a nice drinking beer. I got 3 good pours without wait, and a few Atrial as well. The food was exceptional all around too.

Can't wait to drink some of that SPON Fruit next week at Shelton fest.