Anyone get to the bottle release today? I think it went really well. Bottle limits were in reason and everyone got some of each. 1095 Third anniversary Barrel Aged 730 Second Anniversary Barrel Aged 365 First Anniversary They streamlined the process for getting your bottles, getting in the door, and getting samples. well done IMO The place was packed, and the beer was great as always. Standouts were Hop Lab, Sunday Brunch (cinnamon maple morning bell), Apiary Brett, and Civil Twilight (session stout) Of course ANTEAD was great. the Barrel aged quads had a TON of barrel flavors, you may or may not like em.
Oast House Head High was my standout. In fairness Sunday Brunch is usually on most weekends and is amazing so I didnt get one today nor did I try Hop Lab due to time constraints. Just opened my 1,095 and didnt care for the aroma at 1st but it did grow on me as some notes faded and others picked up. Kane is still the #1 brewery in NJ in my eyes overall.
Have not had mine yet but I drove 1 1/2 hours and arrived at 3. Perfect amount of people. I did not get to taste the Coffee A Knight to End All Downs. Very Organized.
Having been to the ANTEAD shit show, this was the complete opposite. The line moved very fast. Got there at 11.25 and got my bottles at 1pm. Everyone was able to get all of the beers to the very last person. I think the bourbon ones are sold out, but the regular should still be around.
I agree that this was a much smoother event then the ANTEAD release was. I got on line around 1 and was out with the bottles I wanted before 2. Was a bit to crowded for me to get samples but a very well run event nonetheless. Great job Kane!
Excellent release. Got there at 10 and was able to get everything I wanted. I didn't bother with samples as the line was really long for tokens and samples. Not from the area so I also hit up Carton and got samples there and 4 packs of Boat and 077XX.
I went inside and did my samples first. Got on line, which was maybe only 20 people, around 1:45 or so. After a 10 minute wait I left with bottles. You don't have to always arrive hours early to get bottles.
I got there around 10:30 and was amazed at how much better the event flowed than ANTEAD. Though I was able to do much more sampling back at May's event (didn't do any yesterday due to crowd and being more hungry than anything) it was still a good time even while standing in line. I appreciated the pre-opening brochures they handed out, too.
Good job Kane in learning from the last release. Sounds like a great time was had by all. Kane makes great beers, happy for their success.
This is the area I would improve. It's weird and took a lot more time to have to buy tokens in an entirely different area, requiring getting in line THEN get in the beer line. They could've sold the tokens together with the bottles and separately right past the bottle register. We ended up selling the tokens to another attendee because the line to the main tasting was so long.
Setting up a table outside to sell tokens would've made sense with the line going in through the back of the brewery. All in all a much smoother release this time regardless of the token situation.
