Side Project (2018)

Price doesn’t bother me at all. Bottles like that are meant to be shared. When In town for PN8 few weeks ago we drank 10-12 varying botttles over the 2 days on site. All beers you could only get if you lived in STL or drove up for their releases. All pretty expensive but it’s part of the romance of the place. Just like going to Westbrook and paying 200$ to drink Reserva. Well worth it.

My only complaint would be they need to have some kind of charcuterie to pair with the beers. No food on site at either location was a disappointment.

 

Does anyone that tried OWK think that $60 for a bottle of it was overpriced?

 

As a totally regular, honest, blue collar Joe, they are some of the best stouts one will ever drink and for me, it's completely worth it. I do think their prices are steep but in the grand scheme of things, trading and secondary market, it's a pretty good deal to roll in to St Louis and be able to drink Cory King beers. I may be a fan boy but these are 100% worth the hype in my humble opinion.

 

The market will bear it, so no.

For me, personally, yes.

Edit: actually, I don’t think I care about the price - just the format.

 

you tried it and have buyers remorse because it wasnt worth what you paid?

 

While I normally agree with your posts, this one I don't. -Simply because of scale. Yes SP beers and stouts are world class, and yes $60 beers will sell out - but that's also due to the world they created.

If every stout they released, they had say 2,000 bottles, there would always be bottles around, and people might balk at that. But, knowing the scarcity of what...100-200 bottles? Obviously that market will clear. Doesn't mean it is not at the extreme highend, and that this discussion would not be different if supply was greater. If they also were not ALL scarce but only a couple, this might be different. And my argument that "I want to sell out of this release TODAY even if that means selling it a case at a time" encourages shit lording, further artificially limiting supply.

It's a viscious circle. Still, saying the market clears is not a valid argument with such a small supply (to me).

 

I went to Pebble beach a few years ago and paid $375 to play one of the best golf courses in the world. I have friends who would never pay more than $50 for a round of golf anywhere. Some people can't tell the difference between a $50 bottle of wine and a $5000 bottle. Some people wouldn't know a $10 shot of Single Malt scotch from a $1000 shot or a KBBS from a KBS. But for those who can.......

 

What SP is doing is obviously working. However for someone who has a family and can’t drop everything to go get a whale, it’s very disappointing. I was 4th or 5th behind the last person who got a bottle of O.W.K on Sunday (15 mins after opening) and none of the bartenders said anything about being out until I asked for a bottle nor was there anything posted on social media about being out. Now I understand they have other beers on the menu to sell but when people are driving in for a particular beer only to get told they’re out isn’t good business IMO. Cory and his team produces some of the best stouts I’ve tried but I think some people are getting rubbed the wrong way and eventually will stop supporting some of their non whale beers. To someone else’s point earlier, I don’t understand why they don’t do draft releases instead of packaging everything in bottles. To me it would keep the overall cost down and I think people would pay $15 for a 5oz pour and in the end have a higher profit.

 

Draft would be a madhouse. Think it would go just as fast. Irrational decisions when things on draft. Even more than usual.

*If* he cares about having it last longer, time to ratchet up the bottle price and conditions big time. $100+. Need someone (maybe 2?) with you to share bottle or have SP be able to locate someone else to split. Take names/ID. Max the 1/2 (1/3) pour. No per day stuff, i.e. once you had your share of a bottle, that's it.

People are pretty readily paying $100 for vintage BCS variants at Goose. Based on the reviews of these SP beers, they are a steal currently. Not surprised at all they are gone in a day.

All that said, I think they should do whatever is best for their business.

 

Vintage is a keyword there. Breweries have historically increased prices on long since released bottles that are still in demand and no longer to be released.

They are gone in a day even moreso due to the prohibitively limited quantity produced on top of the hype. Not a single person bought this beer because of a review.

 

This thread summed up: no matter how SP releases a beer it’s the wrong way to do it.

 

I don't think I've ever actually seen you make much of any criticism of what or how Cory does anything. Of course, you also posted that Perennial didn't want the information out that du Chene members got a larger BA sump allocation this year, because it went to members in an e-mail before it went "public." -It's pretty obvious they know that will get out as soon as the e-mail goes out; it's just a veiled attempt to protect trade value (for which you posted a trade same day or the next day?).

It's very reasonable to think that there are problems that could be solved if Cory wanted to solve them. No problem cannot be fixed. That said, you're right that you can't make everyone happy. I think everyone gets that. The biggest issue I think people have (and that I have) is that Cory puts on this persona that he (1) doesn't want his beers on secondary market, but he doesn't try to prevent it, (2) wants his beers into as many people's hands as possible that will enjoy them, but encourages shitlording by trying to sell out at each release, (3) could keg some (and bottle some) rather than bottle all (which should increase profit at larger $/pour, and would increase the # of people that get to try it).

This disconnect is frustrating for many of us. I've yet to hear what Cory has done to solve these problems, only that he "cares."

 

...in very large part, this thread comes across exactly the opposite to me.

 

1) The BA Sump stuff has basically nothing to do with this thread, and you can’t tell me that Perennial is immediately wanting it broadcast publicly as soon as the email goes out. If they did they would tweet it out like they did with BAA, where members got an email after the tweet. Does it leak out? Obviously, but it’s implied they don’t want you posting it everywhere the second the email goes out. As far as the trade value comment, that’s how the beer game works. I gave one to someone without asking for anything in return, so don’t imply I’m “shitlording” or whatever either.

2) As far as SP critcism? Here we go:

a) the bottles are too expensive. Still don’t know why Pulling Nails is now a $35 bottle. I was shocked SdF pinot 2 wasn’t $30
b) la coterie: they claimed they chose trusted people but a lot of members sell bottles through sock accounts so there goes that “trust”
c) Every beer is a hype job. Nobody actually gives a shit about Copains. It doesnt need a long blog post.

3) As far as “sell out in one day” there have been 2 (I think) actual releases since AdF: Pitter Patter & PN8. Pitter Patter was available for 2 weeks and was still a strict 2pp on the actual release. PN8 had a super low bottle count so of course that sold out. It seems to me like they’re actually addressing the “shitlording” aspect, but we’ll see with Raspberry Biere du Pays & Raspe.

4) The OWK blogpost makes it clear that they want this beer to last years, so I highly doubt they went through all of it Saturday. Either way it was on site only and 1pp. That’s about as “spreading it out” as you can get other than draft. I’m sure there’s a keg or teo of it, but SP has never done a ton of kegs of their “whales.” Should they do that? Probably but it’s how Cory wants to run his business. Either way most people at both the brewery & the cellar are more than happy to split bottles so it’s not that hard to find someone to split with.

 

Speaking of not yet announced beers...

 

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong but I believe Fuzzy was the only release where they upped the limits after the initial line went through. Whatever their reason for that, I have no idea but I hardly constitute that as helping people “shit lord.” That was just one instance I believe.

 

saved

 

Yes, I did that on purpose, but both have been tweeted about/mentioned. There’s a difference between those and something that’s compltely unannounced.

 

Yeah, just thought it was funny; and I agree on the difference between that and the BA Sump scenario.

 

What about world hunger? Seems to be a pretty hard problem to fix?
(1) Cory is actively trying to prevent his beers from going to the secondary market with his membership, allocations (arguably too high at times but never unlimited), as well as the amount of bottles that he has on-site (Ex: QdF never released, OF b2 and O.W.K. only membership). The only way for him to completely keep his bottles off secondary would be to have everything on-site which would not go over well.
(2) Cory tries to get his beers into as many people's hands as possible by having bottles on-site more and does not try to sell out at each release but some brands have lower production and/or higher demand than others. (to-go at Cellar 5/31 was BdP b6, Burk, Copains, Foedre Fermier b2, Grisette b5, Marietta Ave. b3, NdF b2, Base Weight, Oranges on Wheat, Random Signals and Noise, Table Nouveau) I understand that these are not whales but there are beers available to-go and on-site.
(3) I would like to know the reasoning for so many on-site bottles as well because that just seems like wasted cost on materials for bottles, labels, crowns, boxes, and wax.

I would say more of no matter how "insert brewery" releases a beer, you cannot make everyone happy and someone will be upset.

They allowed multiple times through the line and it was just the same people over and over so they upped the limits to allow for fewer trips through? Might just be my guess though.