Sympathy for the Devil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBecM3CQVD8
Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones
I listened to a bunch of covers of this song(Motorhead, Jane's Addiction, Bon Jovi) to see if one of them was better than the original... NO WAY! Great song, and it was on my soundtrack for an event I recently attended.
People that are beer geeks know that there are certain beers that get people to wait in line and pay ridiculous sums of money. One of the types of beer that inspires such craziness is barrel aged barley wine. Anchorage Brewing Company is known for one of the best barrel aged barley wines called "Deal With The Devil". This year they released a box set that had a beautiful wooden box with six different barrel aged varieties. The box set was $300 for six 750ml bottles in a laser etched box, but they have been going for ridiculous sums of money on the secondary market.
Each barrel imparts different characteristics and since the product is organic it is kinda a unique year to year product. The longer it is in the barrel the more of the wood and it's original liquor impart flavor to the beer (or malt liquor as some have made the case that barley wine should be classified as).
My adventurous (or foolhardy) self camped out in a parking lot to buy this limited edition product. I arrived at 8:30pm because the brewery said that they weren't going to let anyone get in line until all their regular customers had left for the night which was estimated to be between 8:30 and 9. This was a LIE. There was one security guy, John, who was very friendly and kept us informed but was ill equipped or trained to handle the situation.
I was prepared and brought food, drinks, extra clothes, a first aid kit, and all the camping gear I needed in a hiking backpack style set-up. I met some really nice people and we shared some great beers. There were people in our immediate area from Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina, Washington, and Alaska. People flew in from all over the country some people were paid to fly in and wait in line. I slept from 2am until just before 9am. After that... it went down hill.
No one was given a number when we arrived. During the night people had started cutting in line (they either showed up overnight or in the morning). More egregious, after the line formed at 11am people that OBVIOUSLY WERE NOT THERE ALL NIGHT skipped inline. After the line formed one couple skipped half the line and when we repeatedly called them out they acted like we were crazy. When we tried to get someone in charge to intervene, they told us that there wasn't much to be done about it. The brewery opened at Noon and I thought I'd be inside within an hour, NOPE. They only had one cashier and it took two hours. Also when it came to single bottles they had no purchase limit so with only 180 cases of Cognac barrel they sold out in 30 minutes. Most of those Cognac bottles went to one guy that paid people to buy them for him. WE SAW HIM blatantly do it.
I got in and bought what I planned to get for friends of mine and had a glass of "Deal". It was really good. I hope they make changes because I can tell you there were some very pissed off people. I know a lot of people were on Facebook saying how great it was and people shouldn't complain... maybe those were the people cutting in the line?
Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones
I listened to a bunch of covers of this song(Motorhead, Jane's Addiction, Bon Jovi) to see if one of them was better than the original... NO WAY! Great song, and it was on my soundtrack for an event I recently attended.
People that are beer geeks know that there are certain beers that get people to wait in line and pay ridiculous sums of money. One of the types of beer that inspires such craziness is barrel aged barley wine. Anchorage Brewing Company is known for one of the best barrel aged barley wines called "Deal With The Devil". This year they released a box set that had a beautiful wooden box with six different barrel aged varieties. The box set was $300 for six 750ml bottles in a laser etched box, but they have been going for ridiculous sums of money on the secondary market.
Each barrel imparts different characteristics and since the product is organic it is kinda a unique year to year product. The longer it is in the barrel the more of the wood and it's original liquor impart flavor to the beer (or malt liquor as some have made the case that barley wine should be classified as).
My adventurous (or foolhardy) self camped out in a parking lot to buy this limited edition product. I arrived at 8:30pm because the brewery said that they weren't going to let anyone get in line until all their regular customers had left for the night which was estimated to be between 8:30 and 9. This was a LIE. There was one security guy, John, who was very friendly and kept us informed but was ill equipped or trained to handle the situation.
I was prepared and brought food, drinks, extra clothes, a first aid kit, and all the camping gear I needed in a hiking backpack style set-up. I met some really nice people and we shared some great beers. There were people in our immediate area from Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina, Washington, and Alaska. People flew in from all over the country some people were paid to fly in and wait in line. I slept from 2am until just before 9am. After that... it went down hill.
No one was given a number when we arrived. During the night people had started cutting in line (they either showed up overnight or in the morning). More egregious, after the line formed at 11am people that OBVIOUSLY WERE NOT THERE ALL NIGHT skipped inline. After the line formed one couple skipped half the line and when we repeatedly called them out they acted like we were crazy. When we tried to get someone in charge to intervene, they told us that there wasn't much to be done about it. The brewery opened at Noon and I thought I'd be inside within an hour, NOPE. They only had one cashier and it took two hours. Also when it came to single bottles they had no purchase limit so with only 180 cases of Cognac barrel they sold out in 30 minutes. Most of those Cognac bottles went to one guy that paid people to buy them for him. WE SAW HIM blatantly do it.
I got in and bought what I planned to get for friends of mine and had a glass of "Deal". It was really good. I hope they make changes because I can tell you there were some very pissed off people. I know a lot of people were on Facebook saying how great it was and people shouldn't complain... maybe those were the people cutting in the line?
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