The Half-Acre thread (2018)

Well, on the bright side, Brown Paper Tickets was actually able to facilitate a beer release where the website didn't crash. So there's that.

 

Now lets all cross our fingers for that toppling Goliath email today haha

 

Yeah we can't use up all of our lottery luck on Big Hugs right?

 

You're including yourself in that group, right, since you were one of the many trying for tickets?

But, like your more recent post stated, nobody should be surprised by this.

 

Wow that sucked .

Well that $200 can go towards my KBBS & Assassin!

 

I think you guys just ensured that next years release will be pre-sale only.

 

Honestly I just wanted to see what was going to happen. I'd been waffling for a while before I decided I had no interest in actually buying $200 of beer that I'm not too big a fan of.

 

I normally have awful luck with these things (struck out for DLD this past year, for example) but miraculously got a presale. Had two browsers up (mobile was my 3rd but that crashed), a buddy had another (whom I'm splitting this with). Only got through on the one.

 

Nah...they like the line out front on release days.

 

This is accurate.

I'm assuming there were not a bunch of these whole enchilada allotments available for this exact reason. They want folks to come party.

edit:



Sounds like they got the scoop. There were 200 allotments. Sold out in 10 seconds.

 

It's also solid marketing for them. Just like Black Friday at Binny's for BCBS.

 

I honestly don't understand the anger at getting shut out. That being said, I don't understand Half acre's barrage of tweets, posts, etc hyping up this presale when there were only 200 available - only increasing the amount of eventual disappointment.

 

I'll respectfully disagree. They get $50 more on the package! If they want people there to party and line-up and aren't looking to profiteer they could use that $50 per bundle premium they made on having a free party for the folks who bought the bundle. It worked great at Prop Day- where GI gave away free beer that was covered by the premium they got on Rare sales that day by cutting out the distributor and retailer.

 

Refresh spamming revealed an additional opportunity about 8 minutes in. I was not fast enough to get it in my cart.

 

It's provocative; It gets the people going

 

Not sure how, but I got one. Not sure when next week I'll pick it up, but am going to avoid the snow and cold Sunday makes it worth the extra money.

 

Or, and I know this is a wild idea, but bear with me here....

They could sell you a bundle, which cuts out the distributor and retailer. And then they could have a party, and people could buy the beer, which also cut out the distributor and retailer. And they could sell out of it regardless but then have money to show for it and since they're not an AB-InBev backed shop, they'd have like, tens or hundreds of thousands of money to spend on operating/expanding the brewery.

 

Among this, the MD release, the KBBS/Assassin release, and Prop Day, the beer gods are pissing all over me this fall. But I don't care -- I will NOT apologize for dumping the '16 Prop at FOBAB!!

 

So what time does everyone recommend to head over on Sunday? I wonder how the weather will impact the release.

 

You expect to arrive on SUNDAY and get some?? You basically need to be in line right now!!!!

 

Let's hope HA staff can get in to assist. Would be pretty sad if they can't get enough employees in to run things smoothly so people are stuck out there an additional 8-9 hours on top of what they are already camping out for. Though on the other side, if someone dies from exposure, the government is going to have to start regulating these releases.

 

Last year I got there at 930 and was around the corner and like a block down. I was in line at least an hour after opening. 2 caveats: 1 No BABH, 2. They handled the line about as poorly as possible where they had only two registers going and they separated cash and credit after opening. The problem was that cash only went into the taproom (colliding with anyone wanting drafts) and it was a giant mess. Throw in the weather and who the hell knows. I wondered if the presage would help but not with just 200 bundles

 

I'll probably swing by later in the day to see if there's anything left; part of me feels bad for everyone standing in the snow tomorrow morning, but if it's still going by then, at least it'll be a nice view.

 

I saw somewhere that they have 1200 full allocations? That I think would last a pretty long time especially because of the snow.

 

I would normally 100% agree, but it's Half Acre, so I'm not sure that an earthquake + meteor shower would stop people from showing up.

 

Very little of me truly believes that this snow will shorten the line significantly.

 

First person in line @4:30ish...
Lines is 42ish deep now

 

Current line?

 

So much for the snow being a factor....doesn't look like it will hit until afternoon.

 

1200 allocations including BA?

 

I dont know where I heard it from but I would guess a "full" allocation is 4x big hugs, 2x vanilla, 2x ba big hugs, 2x espresso, mug and glass.

I just saw it said somewhere to it could be 100% no accurate.

 

Rolled up late- about noon to see if we could just easily grab some regular and try some variants on tap. Grabbed my 4 bottles of regular and stil waited about an hour outside. Once inside had the vanilla, salted Chocolate espresso and regular on taps. I have to say that anyone waiting out there at 4am for these beers is off their fucking rocker. The vanilla was decent- probably the best of the bunch i tried but have had MUCH better vanilla stouts. Dark matter in there tastes nice. The salted chocolate was COMPLETELY underwhelming. Tasted very similar to regular. Little bit more chocolate espresso roast. Didn't try that barrel aged version but I'm positive that I wouldn't even wait the hour I did spend again for Big Hugs, and anyone who got there at the ass crack this morning for those variants is nuts.

 

The earliest person according to an employee at the door was 2am.

 

That's ludicrous. Good for HA that they're generating this level of hype for Big Hugs, though.

 

Got it line at 10:45pm. Around 12 they announced that there are no more variants. If they making hug events for this, why they have variants for only about 100-200 people? That's ridiculous. They just building too much hype around it. Next year the line will be bigger.
Went to tap room (after about 30-40mins in another line), tried salted caramel and barrel aged.

 

I was laughing at some of the untapped check ins when we were sitting in the taproom trying some of these. 5/5!!! Best beer ever!!! No. what you're tasting is hype my friend.

 

Decided to go to the taproom once i heard variants were sold out. I thought the barrel aged was a solid (maybe even excellent) representation, the salted chocolate espresso was very thin and underwhelming, and the 2016 vanilla very inferior to the 2015 vanilla on a side by side comparison. That said, the regular Big Hugs was the best version i've had yet ... so i happily waited 15 minutes in line for 4 bottles of that after leaving the taproom as opposed to 4-5 hours in line for variants.

 

Yeah, this is why I use Untappd mostly for my own beers. The app might as well be called Hyppd for how crazy the ratings on there are.

 

In their defense, no matter what anyone says, the best beer is the one you currently have in your hand....

Glad to hear the these weren't that impressive(not for HA's sake, but for reinforcing my decision not to go to HA today for them). Hopefully HA just does this with Benthic next year, that is their flagship, they just don't know it yet. BIg Hugs should be so named because it is a consolation beer, "I'm sorry you have to drink this, let me give you a great big hug to ease the burden...."

I would have camped for Benthic variants!

 

I'm gonna be honest, there are a LOT of times where sadly, the best beer is not the one in my hand.

I didn't have BA Big Hugs, so I can't say whether I think it should be their flagship stout, but based on Benthic I agree that that should be it going forward.