Too many beers?

What size were those packaging runs these said pro brewers publicly stated that on?
While I don't doubt that it'd be hard to do. I would surmise that it would be an enormous pain in the ass and that they got away from it the minute those labels ran out, and the second they could afford or come up with another option that wasn't a bite in the ass to pull off.
I'd venture to guess as well that your e-mails are met with a certain grumbling that's not fit for print.

 

Size of packaging runs? No idea. Pain in the ass? Probably but that’s more motivation for them to do it right. However, last time I bought some Loose Cannon IPA (Baltimore), the brewery was using notched labels and I've seen a couple of others that have notched labels and relatively large distribution.

I think you're probably right about the reception of the mail in some cases. :-)

But I figure if they want to thumb their noses at us by not dating a product known to be at its best when fresh (effectively saying "buy it my way or not at all," they deserve some frustration and grumbling when someone takes them at their word. Given the realities of the distribution chain and the fact that it is not perfect they ignore those realities at their own risk not mine.

 

Bubble? What bubble?

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/are-we-in-the-midst-of-a-beer-bubble.245003/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/price-bubble.30140/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/price-increases-is-this-the-bubble-buster.155984/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/trendish-bubble-about-to-pop.51069/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/too-many-breweries-bubble-will-burst.62429/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/here-comes-the-bubble.95059/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...le-burst-and-who-will-be-left-standing.98774/

And my favorite, "The end of bubble discussions": http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/end-to-the-bubble-discussion.119950/

 

What you doing to help them out at said bottle shop? If they are locals. Get them in your place and in front of people. Give them a leg up and let the public decide.
I'm not buying that there's a bubble, but I will bite at there's going to be an industry correction happening because there are too many breweries trying to be and do the same thing, and also trying take more on their plate than they can handle.

 

This only works on labelers that use glue to attach the label. The labels (without adhesive) can be shipped and handled in packs where they all face the same way and line-up. They can be notched with a knife or saw and loaded onto the machine where they are then glued onto the bottles at high speed while the bottling line is running. The vast majority of labeling machines use sticker labels, not glued on labels. You cannot stack stickers end to end (they would stick together); they come on a spool of 1000-5000. There is no way to "hacksaw" a date notch on them as they do not line up on the spool (or at any point, ever).

The glued-on labeling machines are old, large, expensive, and need to be a part of a full bottling line. Small breweries usually don't have the space for that, nor the money.

Yes, breweries with glue-on label machines where the labels are loaded in packs of several hundred can simply add a date grid to their label and score the labels with a knife, hundreds at a time. That situation is, however, very rare for very good reasons, so the vast majority of small breweries cannot do this very well known and very old trick.

Bottle dating machines are simply too expensive for the vast majority of small and new breweries. I wish it wasn't the case, but it is. It isn't because the brewers and owners are stupid, or mean, it is the fiscal reality of the situation.

There is no "hacksaw" idea that can magically allow small breweries to date their bottles for cheap.

 

If you got to have a "choose one" beer, he could do much worse than Torpedo. I wouldn't mind one right now.

 

I wish my problem is "Choose one beer"... My problem is choose one brewery. My issue is 18 within a 30 min drive of my house and 2 more coming on line, there isn't enough days in a 2 week period to hit one up per day. Heck, even if you pare it down to really good breweries it is still 9 or more. Something I still can't do in a week. So sad the problems we have in life.

You know that if I didn't have any within 30 min of the house, I would be complaining about that too.

Stuff gets worse when out of the blue, one of my "pared down" breweries, up and brews something real good, blind squirrel finds a nut syndrome, it screws up my whole schedule.

Always in the eye of the beholder.

 

I visit local breweries to support them and drink their average/decent beers on site for the enjoyment of the visit to the location. I don't buy their overpriced and lower quality beers at the bottle shop. When I'm buying for my home drinking, I'll buy best products (either repeat buys, new ticks from brewers/styles that I trust or highly rated ones that I haven't tried). Frequently best value is part of my decisionmaking. Like Lagunitas Cappocino Stout bomber for $5.99. Never had it, I've always had good luck with Lagunitas products, it was cheapest bomber on the shelf and had solid BA rating. It went home with me.

 

This begs the question: when will the bubble discussion bubble burst?

 

Don't know, but if the question is too many beers I say yes...and too many of them are crap!

 

Yes the competition is getting intense and there are so many good options . At some point, you're not going to re-buy a beer unless it's better than most of the others. No brewery can survive on people trying it once and moving on. So with that said, the weaker breweries that can't make it beyond the initial hype of a new beer will be weeded out.

 

Funny, around here, the beers from the bigger craft brewers tend to sit longer than those from the smaller breweries. There is also a strong "buy local" ethos around these parts.

 

I would like to see more national distribution of the better breweries.

Too much mediocre stuff on shelves. Need people to snap out of the mentality that they have to try everything, and then maybe some long overdue thinning of the herd will finally happen.

 

I tend to think the exact opposite because the further your beer gets out of your sight, the harder it is to genuinely know what the actual perception of it is and believe that less breweries need to get this notion they should distribute and be everywhere. I'm more of the mind that breweries who think that penetrating new markets is the way forward without having penetrated their own first are the ones who should cool out because it's their product that clogs up the shelves. It's also not for nothing that some of the biggest fanboy breweries this site defaults towards also have decided that playing the nationally distributed game is not for them, and never will be.

 

Exactly. The market will dictate who gets shelf space and who does not, who stays in and who goes out of business. I will buy local only if the quality meets what I expect for standards. I'm against buy local just for the sake of supporting the little guy. If the 'little guy' doesn't put out quality products, I'm not going to spend my hard earned money on an inferior product. There is way too much great beer available now to just blindly support a local brewery if their beer is just average at best.

 

You aren't missing out on anything with Flying Monkeys...not even a top five Toronto-metro brewery

 

There is an old Commander Cody tune "Too Much fun" with the following chorus:

Too much fun, that's news to me
Too much fun, there must be
A whole lotta things that I never done
But I ain't never had too much fun

We should put that tune on, kick back and keep in mind that we can never have too much beer.