HotD Earthyday Sale
by Beeraroundtown ~ April 23rd, 2009. Filed under: Uncategorized.
Like most other PDX beer enthusiasts I will be spending Saturday morning waiting in line at the annual Hair of the Dog Earthday Sale. Starting at 10am Alan opens the door to his brewery to sampling of his beers and offers up some great beer for sale. This Saturday there will be a limited allotment of his Bottleworks X anniversary beer Matt available along with fresh Blue Dot, some Fred from the Wood, and maybe a couple vintage beers. If you haven’t been to one of the dock sales before I highly recommend it, sure waiting in line for beer might not be your thing, but I promise there is no such thing as a boring wait when surrounded by other local beer enthusiasts.
I’ll be there bright and early on Saturday to meet up with some friends and take in the cool spring air. I am hoping to bring along a loaf of jalapeno cheddar bread (which I might post the process later tonight when I start it). Keep an eye out for me and say hello, I’ll be there camera in hand to document the festivities.
So who else will be there?
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Be glad Dr Wort doesn’t own the brewery…. I’d be charging $1 a sample and $2 for the specialty beers. I wonder if the line would be as long…. :-O
Alan is most generous to his beer fans!
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Derek,
What time are you planning to get there. I was thinking 7:30ish. Not sure if that’s too early or too late.
-Matthew
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Oh, I think if you really want to get those hard to get HOTD brews, you should be out there no later than 3 AM to wait in line….. Sleeping bad and warm parka might help too…
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Doc,
I’m not sure how sleeping bad would help
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I already got the Matt, and there’s nothing else new and/or that I don’t already have on the list, so I don’t have much incentive to show up early… unless The Table makes another appearance.
-anónimo
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Josh….. That’s BAG! Sheesh!
April 24th, 2009 at 12:26 am
While I agree that Alan is famously generous (breakfast served up for the 15th, are you kidding me?) with his beers, anybody not ponying up at least a $1/sample in the tip jar is a d-bag, frat boy wolf in beer snob clothing. Esp. when Alan’s father in law is serving.
I love the sales, but I’m not attacking this one with the zest some of you are professing to muster – I was satiated by the 15th Anniversary sale.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:46 am
Bo,
I was planning on being there around that time, I have quite a drive to get there and will be stopping for some breakfast sandwiches first. See you there.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Patrick,
I believe tipping is the norm, I don’t think many people abuse the sampling, but I could be wrong on that and that would be a shame.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Derek,
I’m completely in agreement with you on that point, which is why I think the sample lines wouldn’t be impacted if Alan did charge a $1 or $2, as Dr Wort suggested. Sorry if that wasn’t clear to you.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Hey guys…. I was just throwing out a “what if.” Didn’t mean to create a serious debate…. ;-}
BTW, I’ve stood by the HOTD sampling bar for about an hour +/- during some of the dock sales. It’s interesting to watch WHO comes in to sample those beers. I’ve waited in line with people who had NO CLUE about HOTD beer, but where there because their buddies told them they could get FREE BEER. Bicyclists? They’re supposed to be socially caring and upright? I’m sure some are, but you should have seen 3 groups of people come in on their bikes, load up on the free-bees and leave purchasing or tipping anything. One guy in line asked me, “what are we waiting for?” I said, samples. He said, “Samples of what?” Another asked me if HOTD makes a Light beer…. others will walk up to the sample bar and ask for a full discription of every beer! They obviously have just walked in off the street and have no clue…. just looking for some free beer.
It all sounds sad, but I’ve seen it all. You know who puts those tips in the jar? Us! You, me and other beer geeks.
It would be interesting to know how much Alan does make in bar tips.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:39 am
I’ll see you in about seven hours, good night!
B
April 25th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Gah, I’ve had to work today! *grumble* No “free” beer to be had by me.
I was planning to bring my 1.5L bottle of Rose that I’ll likely never get around to drinking by myself…
Truthfully, I don’t even remember there being a tip jar… though I didn’t get a lot of samples at the last dock sale (most of my drinking took place outside, before the doors opened…
, but I was there for a few hours at last year’s Earth Day sale… they had a ton of snacks (pretzels, peanut M&M’s, etc.), but no tip jar.
April 26th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Interesting selection of Beers outside this year. Some nice Lost Abbey, Bell’s and others. It was nice a beer pot luck out there. Seemed like a serious group of beer drinkers.
Sale was outside in a tent. Nice new purchasing system. Crowd seemed to dwindle earlier….
Acquired some interesting samples from fermenting barrels….! ;-}
Tip jar was in it’s usual spot at the sampling bar, I counted about $16 in the jar at 1 PM….
April 26th, 2009 at 7:39 am
Doc,
You didn’t say hello!
Yah, I went inside at one point and noticed that the tip jar was rather empty, but also so was indoors, I have a feeling the beers outside might be cutting into their beer tips.
April 26th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I couldn’t identify you in the crowd! I only have your “Mississippi Mud Photo” to go by….. and you could look like many of the attendees. ;-} I saw plenty of familiar faces, many I can’t place a name to face. Some are friendly faces and others seem to be local jokers who appear at many beer events. Lots of friendly nice people and a few scraggly doofus’ who talk like they own Microsoft, but probably push a broom at a third rate software company…
I walk through as an observer; Watch people interact with others, Listen to the phony bravado, listen to people describe those pot luck beers and here guys talk beer and brewing. The bravado of some people is amazingly comical! I talked with people that have all different kinds of beer knowledge. Some listen and learn from others, while other loudly bellow out their ignorance. It’s rather amusing!
We could of had a conversation and I didn’t know it… I guess we’re kind of on equal ground…. Knowing a name doesn’t mean much if you can’t put a face to the name. That’s why it doesn’t matter if DR Wort is anonymous, the name means nothing……
Maybe, Fredfest? I can identify a guy wearing a tag that says Derek and you can identify a guy named %$%#@%*&)(…. Oh no, what happened there….. ;-}
April 26th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Doc,
There are always going to be “those people”, but I have to say every event I meet more and more great people, the generosity never ceases. Anyway, I’ll probably see you at Fred Fest unless the Doc wants to remain mysterio.
April 26th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
The generosity and sense of community is the best part.