Selling out NE breweries.

People complain a lot about people buying cases of IPA and other beers. But people do also remember that the other gigantic population of average drinkers buy 30+ racks of Bud, Miller, etc constantly, all day, every day and can piss through them daily.

Imagine if craft got to this point. Spend a few hours outside of a local package store and just watch how much alcohol is purchased...especially non craft

 

Are you the guy who lives next door to me!?!

 

With all of these problems with craft brewing I still have 1 big problem every time I go to get a beer. It takes me too long to decide which great beer to have. I really have never had a problem with not being able to find a great beer I want to drink. And every once in a while that beer could be considered a whale.

 

Sorry for being pedantic, but there is no "other" gigantic population of average drinkers. The population we're a part of is niche. Super niche. Some members have volume, but what gets talked about here is not remotely close to a representative sample of average drinkers, including people who drink craft.

Also, there's the supply/demand aspect, which I think is the bigger point. It's not about buying cases of beer. It's about buying cases of beer that can be hard to find a 4-6 pack of. It's Shaun Hill's argument: I can get it all, so I did. Sucks for you. vs. I got 4, you got 4, she got 4.

 

Sorry Shaun, property rights trump all. If I pay money for your beer, it is no longer your beer. It's my beer.

Personally speaking I'd never sell a beer for a profit unless we were talking life-changing amounts of money.

I'll trade the hell out of some beers, for sure. But if I buy it I usually plan to drink it. If others want to try to profit, that's their right even though we mind find them silly.

 

Says the guy who's avatar is him chasing a Alchemist Heady Topper truck.

 

I think you are being a baby. Free market society...people can buy as much as their money allows. Sorry that popularity has ruined your good time but demand drives supply which leads to expansion which leads to more delicious beer for all.

 

“The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.” — William Safire

 

I would just like to be able to convert the energy spent on this thread and others like it, to heating my house next winter.

 

Not to put words in someone else's mouth, but reading the article I never got the impression he said you are not allowed to mule/trade/sell. I think the point was that it's bad form, that's all.

 

Not sure how Sean went from people buying a limited bottle of beer and reselling it to us destroying ourselves as a civilization. They are likely selling it to someone who is unable to travel to Sean's brewery to purchase it for
themselves - is that not helping someone out?

Also if he is all about helping people out then not why not increase the channels to purchase his highly sought after
beers and allow some of those who cannot travel to these releases a chance purchase them directly from the brewery.

That is the thing about business and ideals - the responsibility is a two way street on both the consumer and the
producer : )

 

That was my impression as well.

 

Thing is for those people who HAVE made the trek, you soon realize that a case of Heady Topper is not a whole lot once you've shared them with friends, shop works and/or bartenders you want to share with. Throw in a beer-drinking spouse and you might be looking at a 4-pack or 2 for yourself. Setting aside any arguments about whether beer should go to out-of-towners, it's actually pretty easy to see why someone would buy as much as they are allowed.

 

This is true. Last time we were in VT, my fiancee and I bought a case of HT; ~half was given away to friends when we got back, and a dozen or so cans of beer for two beer-loving people living together isn't that much.

 

Honestly, all these lines can be easily avoided. Everyone is getting freaked out that Trillium is "blowing up" but that was the one time, and that was EBF, when thousands of craft beer fans were in town. The line yesterday at Tree House was not a surprise, you could purchase a case of cans and 5 beers were on tap. That's the most they had in months. The MtL line was huge yes, but it was a much anticipated re-release of an infamous beer. If you're smart you can plan around these and find a time that works for you. The sheer idea behind a limited-release or small batch brew is that it's an exclusive experience that not everyone is going to be able to participate in. If you don't like to stand in lines you're going to have to deal with missing out on some beers. That's just how it goes. There's plenty of amazing beers you don't have to line up for that are available around here. (Trillium's offerings still being among them)

Also, I do not feel guilty buying the full allotment. Tree House or Hill Farmstead is a long trek and sometimes a long wait. I might as well make the most of it and get all that I can. To put it in perspective though, I usually only go once every couple months and I'm only buying for me not others. What it boils down to is the brewery sets limits on what they think they can handle. They should adjust them accordingly if they want more people to try their beer (like HF's new policy).

 

Yeah, he's just giving his opinion, but in the end, can only control it so much.

Regarding the topic as a whole- all I know is that I've been a craft beer drinker since the late 80's and that when I walk into a liquor store, the selection of quality beers is better than it's ever been. I have three teenage girls and work long hours, that whole section of the market where traveling and or lines are involved I don't even concern myself with. Is Fuzzy Baby Ducks better than anything I can get in the M&R across the street from work? Sure, but who cares? I'm fine with the fresh Sierra Nevada Summerfest I just bought at lunch, or the six OC Backseat Berner I killed last night. I understand the OP's point, but the residual effect of this version of the craft beer revolution is that there's a lot of good beer out there. Now I'm off to Firefly Hollow where there will be no lines and the beer will be pretty damn good. Heady Topper good? Don't care.

 

Great attitude to have

 

All this "discussing" has clarified one thing for me. I like beer and now I need to have one. Thanks for everyone clearing that up!

I do believe Tree House will do everything they can to stay true to who they are and how they want to share their offerings. The more people they can make happy the better off they'll be so I would expect they try to be better about adjusting quantity limits, hours, production, etc as they can. They obviously got a little overwhelmed yesterday and they will learn from it and move forward. Just glad such a great group of people run the place and that they make really great beer!

 

End of the day while the hype means I might not get to try every release I want to, there is way more great easy to get beer than ever before. Five years ago there might not have been crazy lines for anything, but you also couldn't walk into any liquor store and be guaranteed to find something as good as Jack's Abby or Limbo or Night Shift, which you can do at virtually any decent place in the city and plenty of places in the burbs, too. And that's at the lowest spectrum of the effort level - Trillium and Wormtown are still super easy to get basically any day there isn't a special release and we all know that's A+ level stuff.

 

That was Treehouse for a lot of people for a while...