Hair of the Dog Clusterf**k from the Wood 2011

After three days of reflection, can we finally ask the question, "What the hell happened?"



I wasn't there. I got the vibe a couple weeks prior that there would be 'issues' and 'frustration,' so I opted for the Hellshire II release in Eugene. When I returned to Portland, it was nothing but sour grapes, complaints, and 90+ reply strong threads on those beer websites. After reading through the commentary and speaking to some Portland beer geeks, I understand the Hair of the Dog Dock Sale went something like this:

People lined up early. Some came from out of state.
The beer was sold at 9am with 1 case limit on Adam FTW, no limit on Bourbon Fred.
The line was split into cash & credit.
The credit line moved faster.
There were line cutters.
There were many proxies.
Many people did not get beer.

Sounds pretty run-of-the-mill to me for most of these release things. Let's go to the website and figure out why people were upset:

"Pretty lame overall. Showed up at 7:30 didn't land a single bottle of Adam From the Wood either. Would have been great if someone from HOTD had mentioned it to the people standing outside as well because we had no idea they had run out. Do breweries ever lower the bottle limit as they notice they're running out? There were still over 100 people in line when I left." -BeerlyAwake on BeerAdvocate

Your problem: Didn't get up early enough

"I don't understand why there wasn't a 6 bottle limit. With less than 70 cases and 200+ people, a lot of people walked out without [Adam from the Wood]. Plus it would have been nice if tickets or some numbering system was used. The line ballooned in size ahead of us during the two hours we waited." -oregonskibum on BeerAdvocate

Answer: Because there was a 1 case limit. Again, get up earlier next time.

"What did everyone expect out of this? [Cherry Adam from the Wood] is very limited and sells out every year in less than an hour...a YEARLY limited release. [Adam from the Wood] takes years to craft and it's not like HOTD has the barrel capacity of [Firestone Walker], The Bruery, etc. Alan has limited capacity for this with all the barreled beers he makes. If you wanted the beer then you should've got there at 5 to make sure noone was ahead of you. Everyone must magically be "entitled" to tell Alan how he allocates his beer. I understand the cash vs credit problem as that sounds a little weird...hopefully he won't do that again." -waltersrj on BeerAdvocate

Portland Beer and Music APPROVED! Nice move, Walt.

I'm still trying to figure out what the issue was. I understand people are upset, but the setup was laid out way before the sale and there should have been enough foresight on the part of a knowledgeable beer geek to get up at the asscrack of dawn to ensure bottle procurement. There is one X-Factor though, something mentioned below:

"Line jumping" -bolts13 on BeerAdvocate

If this was indeed true, where was the mob justice? If someone got either in front of or behind me who didn't belong, I wouldn't have hesitated to make a stink. In hindsight, I'm sure many of the passive cutees who didn't get bottles and didn't say anything to the offenders would have retroactively opted for physical violence against these subhuman beer predators.

Can we blame Alan? Of course not. The dude wants money and as little hassle as possible. Did you see the video he made for Entrepreneur Magazine? Doesn't exactly leave you thinking that this is a man of the people. And why should he be? He's a business owner with a family to feed. For Alan, every bottle of Adam from the Wood is fifteen little dollar signs fleeing from your wallet in to his.

I will leave you with a quote directly from Alan, from a John Foyston Oregonian interview from 2008:

"Usually, the people who get in line earliest buy up all the rare stuff"

Couldn't have said it better myself.