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12 Comments

  1. Jason
    February 29, 2012 @ 6:00 pm

    Well put Alex.

    Reply

  2. Andy
    February 29, 2012 @ 2:53 pm

    Wow, I can’t believe people are paying that kind of money for this beer. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful beer, but it’s JUST BEER FOLKS!!! While I can’t fault the folks at Alpine for being appalled by this I also agree that they should not react with such vitriol. I have no problem with them making Expo a tap-only beer. Do it just like Russian River handles PTY — it’ll bring people to their pub, and they can send it out to the various bars who carry Alpine products. And, btw, Expo was still on tap at the Alpine pub last week when I was there.

    Reply

  3. AlexV
    February 29, 2012 @ 9:09 am

    Man, I was a big fan of Alpine, until today. I converted so many friends to craft beer with their beers. It pisses me off that Pat, thinks so low of us(LA fans).

    If his goal was to sell less beer, then it worked. I’m not going out of my way to buy their products any more. His message tells me that he cares more about his reputation than his customers and community. When we(people from LA and points unknown) go to Alpine, we usually spend money in other local businesses, food, beer, cigs, gas, hotels, etc… we put money in the pockets of their loyal locals.

    Expo, PH, Nelson, Duet, etc..now leaves a bad taste of angry dude in my mouth. Ostracizing people from LA because a dipsh*t tried to sell a growler on eBay…no bueno. They need to find better things to do with their time, instead of trying to police people on ebay. What people do with their money is their business. The buyer and seller take all the risks. Until ebay takes legal action to stop these transactions, it will continue to happen. It sucks but it is what it is.

    Their distributors should dump them and bring more beer-community-friendly brands up to LA. There are many other great breweries in SD and surrounding areas, that don’t sh*t on their customers and fans, regardless if they are local or not.

    Reply

  4. Robert
    February 28, 2012 @ 7:28 pm

    So drove from the IE, waiting it line 2 hours and picked up my 6 bottles. I guess I’m the chump cause I just gave 2 bottles to friends and shared 2 bottles. So just because I drove a long way to get this beer doesn’t make me (and the rest of us) bad. Stop making great beers and we will stop wanting them (please don’t stop). For the record I have NEVER sold any beer even though my wife would love me to cash in on my Chocolate Rain 🙂

    Reply

  5. MEHer
    February 28, 2012 @ 7:16 pm

    I have a bottle in my fridge too! Get me in on that action!

    Reply

  6. Steven Torres
    February 28, 2012 @ 7:09 pm

    Regardless of the 1 person in question. Regardless if its growlers or bottles. Pat says in his email, and aknowledges that theres bottles on Ebay and its illegal. And goes on to say that people coming down from LA and “denying the locals a chance to buy some.” So it seems as if he has more of an issue with outside SD locals hoarding the beer and selling. BUT! Like Alex said, its the locals that are buying up the bottles themselves and selling them.

    BTW I have a bottle in my fridge right now for sale if anyone wants it..first bidder gets it!

    Reply

  7. Jason Harris
    February 28, 2012 @ 6:17 pm

    The item listing on eBay says the seller location is Los Angeles, CA.

    Alpine really strikes me as a brewery that couldn’t care less about all the hype on their beers. They’ve had tons of opportunities to open their beer up to a wider market and choose not to.

    While the BeerAdvocate losers eat that up and will romanticize them even more for it, there’s not much the brewery can do about that. I say good for them, stop doing growlers of Expo.

    Reply

  8. Ken Gartin
    February 28, 2012 @ 6:09 pm

    The eBay seller in question was from Los Angeles. Pat is anti-beer geek/hype. He’d be just as happy making and selling to the local Alpine residents.

    Reply

  9. Alex
    February 28, 2012 @ 5:30 pm

    @ Steven: good point. only 6 of the 24 auctions he linked to (1 is for hopslam so n/a) are from LA. all the rest are SD-based.

    Reply

  10. Whorres
    February 28, 2012 @ 5:02 pm

    MEHer..

    Reply

  11. MEHer
    February 28, 2012 @ 4:42 pm

    Whorres…

    Reply

  12. Steven Torres
    February 28, 2012 @ 4:37 pm

    How do they know its people in LA? I get the feeling they’re using this as publicity and seeing the PtY hype and using this as an excuse to do brewery exclusive. I know 3 other TIPA’s that Ive had anyway that are better..
    1 PtY
    2 Hopocalypse Black Label
    3 Founders Devil Dancer

    So do what you have to do Pat..now you can start bottling Bad Boy

    Reply

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