Monkish Brewing

I'll play devil's advocate here.
Why would some one in line listen or give two flying eff's about what you have to say about keeping a line in order?
For some donated beer?
Legit question.
If you, who isn't associated with the brewery, walked by me in line and told me something, I would tell you to your face to kick rocks...
For the record, I'm a peaceful, law abiding, no cutting, no drinking in line, square who likes and has waited patiently in line for Monkish beers.
I love Monkish. My son played soccer with Henry and Adriana's son. Supported them from almost the beginning. But at the end of the day, the line ups and line cutting and all that is on the business. They need to come up with a better way and call it a day.
No matter what they do or don't do, the beers will sell out and people will either be happy they got their cans or upset that they didn't. Life goes on.

 

so your idea is to ask if someone else can regulate the line?

with all due respect, that's already been thrown out there, and obviously it's not working

deli meter is actually the best idea i've heard, other than the actual best solution which is online sales. no storage? then online pre-sales with one day pick up window

 

Deli ticket does work, I mean, the marker or whatever indicator to point placement in line based on when you arrived is the key. But I guess the problem with deli tickets is that someone could grab an extra one or two with the "well, I'm saving a spot for my friend" excuse.

At some point accountability for our own actions should be put on the spot. We need to stop the mentality of saving spots for buddies and anchoring down a placement as it does contribute to ballooning up the line.

 

Whatever happened to wristbands? Just use different/unique ones each release... Wristband guarantees full allocation. If you don't have a wristband when you get to the counter (until the wristband people get through or Henry says so) you go to the back of the line.

Seems simple enough, what am I not thinking of?

 

It's simple until you still have the complaint that the line balloons up prior to the passing out of wristbands. So that folks who were in the wrist band realm suddenly lose out on the purchase. It has happened. They come out with the wristbands about an hour to an hour and half before the sale. But in that time folks do the chat and cut, anchor method and various other ways to basically get friends in.

Marker, Deli tickets or any other self governing system to indicate when you showed up in line would be a good way to nip the line ballooning issue.

 

Then there is a chance that the bros that go to their cars to drink the BT Verts would miss out on a wrist band...

 

The point isn't the wristbands. They already do wristbands. The point is the line cutting that screws people that are already waiting in line. A lot of people get wristbands after they've jumped in line with their friends. The more people jump in line the less of an opportunity people already waiting in line have to even get a wristband.

 

I would say, go through the line starting roughly an hour before open and selling. Bring that ipad with square and sell colored (multiple colors needed for multiple can releases) and numbered tickets. Once tickets were purchased, you could leave and come back before COB that day and pick up.

Now with any other option this comes with its flaws:
Employee(s) would need to be doing this
Only prevents those that cut after the time they started selling tickets
Allows less than honest ppl the chance to see what ticket colors / numbers their friends got and allows them the chance to go and find a roll and grab numbers near to what their friends had.

Pretty much exactly like the wristband idea they have already been doing.

I only mention this since Alesmith did this exact same thing for the second viet speedway thursday sale they did. One color ticket got you the bottles if you were there early enough to be in the count for them. The second got you the special speedway pours (obviously this could be swapped for can release #2), which they had plenty of but since this wasn't at the bar counter and instead towards the back it allowed easier access to obtain the beer and not have to deal with cash/card/wifi not working that far in the back.

 

2 Things that would make Monkish easier

1. Deli Marker. Hire one employee to hand out the markers. Prevents I'll grab a few for the homie neckbeards (Yes he would have to be there at the butt crack of dawn)

2. Around an hour before release walk outside and start charging credit cards with Square. GIVE receipt that designates allocation bought. Makes the line move 2x as fast. The line moves sluggish even after they start selling. They need to pre charge to just walk up and walk away.

 

I like the pre charge idea

 

I say just chain people together as they arrive... You aren't locked into the chain, you aren't in line...

 

Hands across America style.

 

I still vote for the day before presale with a very short pick-up window. Shorter lines, you would know beforehand if you're getting any, and cold-storage shouldn't be a problem if window is only several hours.

 

Give them orange jumpsuits too. Confuse the cops when they show up later on. =P

 

The more and more I think of it, a deli counter or like at the DMV

I like this although you don't really need someone there handing out tickets at the crack of dawn. You could maybe do it when the line gets to about 30-50 people then have that person hand out numbered, dated (tough to counterfeit) deli or dmv style tickets. ID and wrist band them.

Not sure about pre charging. That one might be an issue with refunds, people change heir minds etc. I think the line moves pretty quickly once the roll up door comes up.

 

Pre-charging is probably the best suggestion. I don't think people who get into a line at 4AM are going to change their minds. Not only that, isn't alcohol one of the few things you can't get a refund for?

Once the initial surge dies down you can set up shop business as usual.

 

People are waiting for hours and then changing their mind? They do it in the in-n-out drive thru I don't think there is a rush of people changing their minds about it after the fact.

My one (and I swore only) release that I lined up for the line moved extremely slow once the door opened.

 

I'm not familiar enough with how early they announce the release, but why not some sort of sign-up sheet at the brewery or maybe a Google Form. They announce the release date of the beer and any time between now and then, people can sign up. It would bring some more business to the tasting room throughout the week before the release. I suppose in some ways this isn't too much different than an online sale, but it would mitigate some of the extra work/loss of revenue associated with an online sale. I suppose the biggest argument against this is that this would just cause a cluster of people to descend upon Monkish at another time, rather than the release date.

Honestly, I think the best solution(s) is(are) an online sale with one day pick-up OR release whenever ready with zero announcement.

 

So glad this turned back into the waiting in line thread. So tired of the beer talk...

 

So speaking of I think the Velichor variants should be almost ready soon no? So love that base version