Waiting in Line for Beer

I go to limited release occasionally but also have 2 cases of year round/ easy to acquire shelf beer in my basement. I get his point and enjoyed the article.

 

Been damn lucky. Waltzed into the Alchemist when it backed Ben and Jerrys. And got 5 growlers of suds at Hill Farmstead just a few years ago. Back when it was fun and easy. Now it blows. Life is too short.

I'm to old to give any more f***ks.

 

This makes two threads on Pg 1 that start with a link to a thrillist "article"......

SMDH

 

edit: I'm too old to give any more f**ks. So much beer, so little time. Like women, worth trying a bunch out rather than waste time on that one thinking its the bomb...

 

I could not be bothered with Hill Farmstead it is to far from anything else and too much hassle when I can hang out in Waterbury and Stowe and go to places like Craft Beer Cellar, Prohibition Pig and The Reservoir and drink plenty of their stuff.

 

Will Gordon's take on chasing trophy beers...

http://vinepair.com/wine-blog/stop-chasing-trophy-beers/

 

Just met a potential NEBCO contact waiting in line for Fuzzy Baby Ducks whose wife travels for business and buys beer for shipment home. We talked about meeting at Tree House or Armsby Abbey and helping each other out. Takes a 4 hr RT and cuts it to 2. Win-Win.

Meanwhile, I waited in line to buy $215 of Artaic and other outstanding Trillium beer for my 5 main trading partners, one of whom is shipping me from NC not just brewery only-releases from SD County on his business trip there last week, but a CO2 beer gun to transfer 2 64s of FBD into 4 32s. Win-Win.

I think 5 trading partners is a perfect #, for if I can get a case of Artaic, we all get 2, plus I get 10 other outstanding beers, from NoCal, SoCal, IA/MN, IN, NC. I can cover New England within 2-3 hrs; some of my friends have to drive further. Win-Win.

Waiting in line for hoppy beer? It's called helping out existing friends and potentially meeting new ones, plus growlers of Julius, Hill Farmstead, Trillium, and other great NE beers. Can't wait? Better hope your brewery has big batch sizes. Don't want to wait and brewery makes "big" batches? Delay to arrive an hour past opening or even near the end of the day.

 

I still dont understand why this is so controversial of a topic. If you hate lines, dont wait in them. If you want to try a rare beer, you might have to wait in a line.

 

I went to Russian River for Pliny the Younger once and that is enough for me. I am also not really looking for special beers if I see them at the store when I visit I will get one if not I live in California I get awesome beer all the time (have Abyss on shelves now just not the variants, and still have BA Narwal and BA Bigfoot at the store too). I am also lucky that my favorite place to get a beer had BCBS on tap this year didn't have to look for a bottle.

 

The only way to end the line-up "problem" is to jack the price waaaaay up. Simple economics; demand is far greater than supply. Don't get mad at the people waiting in line or the things they do/say while waiting. What an inane argument.
My comment from the cellaring thread applies here:

Is this really the best conversation craft beer can offer? Douche-y articles judging the preferences of others?

 

I really don't wait in any lines except at busy brewfests.

 

I just waited in the line at Other Half today from 7:30a till the 10a release. Met some good dudes, made some awesome trades, drank a few beers, and left with a good haul.
Beer Lines Rock!!

 

I happened to be staying in Santa Rosa a few weeks back, as fate would have it it was Pliny the Younger time so after a couple beers elsewhere we wandered in that direction, of the 8 of us 6 took a look at the line and said nope and headed back to quicker servings , myself and the one guy that I felt would appreciate the experience toughed it out the hour it took to get in . I dont do lines very willingly but we were both glad we took advantage of the happenstance , would not make the pilgrimage that others in the line had made but at that time and at that place happy I did.

 

Trading is what is causing lines at many of these Brewery releases as people are lining up early to make sure they can buy the max of whatever the newest canned release is. Buying way more than they can drink themselves because they know 2 cases of the latest Tired Hands release can help them score some Treehouse, Other Half, Heady, Foundation or Bissel Bros. beers. Just look at the trade forums the day after a release. It's become a vicious cycle. Hopefully limits are lowered at a lot of these releases so people just buy what they want to drink and we can all just stroll in and buy a 4 pack at our leisure.

 

First question is, how many people who are new to craft beer even know about the rare beers? The "real die hards" that he's talking about are a small fraction of the craft beer community I would guess. So how do the line waiters even impact the overall craft beer community?

Second question, doesn't waiting in line actually make beers more attainable by the average person? Let's take Tree House for example (though not truly an example of a rare beer). They sell their cans of beer for generally between $3.75 and $4.25 and sell every can every week. I went there last Wednesday and was in and out in about 5 minutes. I happened to be driving through the area but generally its about an hour and a half away from where I live. I'd gladly drive back there again just to buy beer because I found the beer to be worth it. They could increase their capacity but that would be at the expense of quality. Given the demand they could distribute through liquor stores but that would likely increase the cost to the consumer since those beers could easily sell for $5-$10 if not more at a store. So yes only people willing to travel and/or wait in line are able to obtain these beers but that's how life works.

If the hard to get beers aren't any better than what's easily available then no one is missing anything. As with anything when the ingredients are better and the attention to detail greater you've got a better product. Whether someone finds greater value in that over a "lesser" product is up to individual taste. A kobe beef burger made by an expert chef is intrinsically better than a burger at McDonalds yet not everyone will choose the kobe beef burger. Value is very personal and if waiting in line for a rare beer isn't worth it to you then you've lost nothing.

 

I wait in line when I want to pay for my beer but people are ahead of me at the register.

 

who?

 

Amen brother , amen! What is happening with these releases is eliminating sane people from getting these beers.

 

So is it trading or is it the increase in knowledge. You are sitting in New Jersey describing getting beer from small breweries in NY, Maine, MA and PA.
If there wasn't social media showing you friends drinking those beers, web sites alerting you to new releases then you wouldn't know about those beers and want them.
But now when Tired Hands release a beer everyone who reads their facebook or sees it here knows about the beer and wants some. That leads to more people asking traders for them, more people travelling to get them , more locals turning up etc etc.
If only locals knew about the beers then you would/might be able to just walk up and buy a four pack but now rather than 50 people asking for the beer now 100 people want it. If there is only enough beer for 75 then the people who see they weren't there in time turn up earlier next time, then earlier. It also means that the brewery sells all that beer quickly allowing them to survive and grow. If they weren't pushing that information then they may not survive and we would not have the depth of new breweries we do.
I know I read Beer St journal and feel like a kid in a candy store. I keep thinking that looks good how do I get some.
The craft beer scene demands and vacuums up this information but that drives the lines. I don't like the lines but I like knowing of all the new beers that I can get by driving to all these new breweries.