Tired Hands (August 2018)

If they had the capacity (or desire) to do 2000+ case canning runs, they'd obviously do things differently. Part of the reason the cost is relatively high is that they just aren't making that much beer to can, and they probably don't want to given that their restaurants and saison/barrel program is a huge part of what they do. Their goal is not to become a production brewery for IPAs and the occasional other beer, so they run their can releases this way to help move the beer at the price point they want/need.

 

This is one of the most intelligent things I've ever read on BeerAdvocate. Cheers!

 

Exactly, this is one of the many reasons the "Why don't they release like Tree House!!" criticisms are so absurd.

 

Hasn't that ship already sailed? If they are averaging close to $100k of IPA can sales a week, that's $5 million a year. I have to imagine that is dwarfing their restaurant/brewpub sales.

I don't know much about the restaurant industry but some googling indicates that a successful 50-100 seat restaurant might gross $1-2 million a year.

 

Onto lighter matters, I will be at Tired Hands in two hours, what were the top recommended food items at the ferm?

 

I usually just get an assortment of tacos for the table honestly.

 

More often than not I go for the burger; I have never had a bad burger there. As regards other items on the menu sometimes they have come out good and other times not so much.

I also frequently ask the server if they have suggestions. On more than one visit it was recommended to me to avoid certain item(s). I guess they heard complaints from previous customers?

Cheers!

 

While the ferm is certainly the best option for the family I miss heading to the cafe back in the day before kids and getting some of their bread, the candied bacon, pickles and a panini. Could spend quite some time there. I think I spent like 3 hours there for the first anniversary party and they were passing out free strawberries for the tables too. This was also back when I lived in Rittenhouse and could just take the train back as well.

 

My favorite thing is to go to the cafe and et a panini and some pickles. If ferm I love the veggie burger.

 

Eh, there’s a huge difference between making lower limits that do not bow to out of towners the way Tree House did in Monson versus almost every other brewery in existence.

@kdb150 I also think TH realizes they could easily fade into obscurity if their product were even more common than it already is. They can a lot more than most and are leveling pretty low limits more and more often. I suspect it’s a combination of where else can we go in Aardmore? mixed with a little fear that they would be losing desirability by making even more product.

How many properties does TH have that are closed to the public?

 

I think they have 2 not opened to the public. The dispensary where they do a lot of barrel aging and have some lager tanks. And Jeans basement has a coolship and some barrels as well.

The crazy thing is, is that the bottled saisons are some of the best beers that they make.

 

Not sure what you mean? I'm referring to the complaints, some of them in this thread, that question why Tired Hands doesn't operate like Charlton does. The comparison is absurd because it doesn't account for a number of significant factors that differentiate the two breweries (locale, general ethos, production capacity, etc.).

 

I assumed your comment was a passive aggressive response to me that you didn’t want to actually tag me in. My response is above. I’ve already specified that I’m talking about limits, not what they think of plants and trees and shit.

@NickCaff Agreed. That’s interesting that Jean’s basement is still used.

 

It wasn't... I was just responding to people calling for Tired Hands to adopt a Tree House-esque release model when that probably isn't practicable and ignores the significant factors I listed. Sorry for the confusion? Not sure where you got the idea what I was referring to limits (or plants and trees for that matter).

 

The only factors that matter are supply, demand, and space to hold the extra product.

See above. The plants and trees comment is a joke about how you think the ethos of a brewery would matter in this conversation.

 

Once again, I've only been talking about the release method at large and not solely the limits so, no, much more matters than supply, demand, and space.

See, e.g., where the brewery is located, the brewery's relationship with neighboring business if there is any, the brewery's relationship with the township, the type of population attending the event, how far those people come from, parking in the area, the brewery's existing infrastructure... I could go on. And yes, the brewery's ethos (which is more than their thoughts on plants and trees lol), as in: "we want to cater specifically to locals," or "we want to cater to anyone who buys the product," or "we want to make sure our beer gets in as many hands as possible," or "we don't care about those things at all." I hope that makes more sense, now.

 

And yet that’s all determined by supply, demand, whether or not you can store the product.

If TH didn’t have a gargantuan chair line of 5-700 a couple times a month and consumers knew they could get products without being in line then that would go, Aardmore’s ordinance to fight chairs before noon wouldn’t matter, parking would probably be less cut throat, etc. It really only comes down to allowing consumers to buy less so there’s less panic about something selling out hours ahead of time rather than allowing people to buy 4 4pks and sell out fast.

I also think they should do a release model that locks people in earlier so 9 folks don’t show up for 3 chairs to lower that potential stress and desire to line up early but hey, we’ve all been saying that for a while now.

 

Ignoring all my other factors: How does the intrinsic differences between Ardmore and Charlton not affect this? Obviously that's a significant factor here, right, demand and supply completely aside?

If Tired Hands was located in the middle of nowhere outside of Erie, PA with exactly the same level of supply and demand and capacity but had gargantuan parking lots and no surrounding businesses (sort of like Charlton!), then they would surely have different circumstances with which to develop release methods. Sincerely confused as to how I'm not communicating this point effectively because I feel like it's incredibly non-controversial...

 

I fundamentally disagree that Tired Hands is a small operation. It isn’t Charlton but it isn’t run by two guys out of a garage like many often imply. Charlton’s whole probalem actually is space (parking), which is why they institute things to move people out of the brewery like limiting how many drinks you can have.

My problem is that it seems abundantly clear that they could solve almost all their problems by more efficiently organizing their release method and lowering limits to cut fomo. EX: for a weekday release at 5 pm, announce how the line is going to work on Instagram. Tell people you’re going to give wrist bands and make a list of everyone at line by 11 am. Disperse the line and have people come back 30 mins before release. There’s a lot of beer leaving Tired Hands that goes to resellers and high volume traders, not normal people, and that makes normal people think they need to show up super early when they don’t.

I also question the hype for Tired Hands. They’re doing 1200+ cases for 4 brands and not selling out. I highly suspect this all has more to do with not wanting to lose the hype rather than any real limits on their production, funds, storage space, etc.

 

I didn't imply that it was? My only point throughout has been that locale (along with the others I mentioned) is a significant factor that can dictate release methods. Not to sound argumentative, but I don't think that your comment pushes back against that in any way?... You said before that literally the only factors are supply, demand, and storage space. Once again, I don't think that's the case.