Upland Brewing Secret Barrel Society

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Corbot_3000

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Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
http://secretbarrelsociety.wordpress.com/

2014 Membership $250:

The 2014 Membership will include the right to purchase 8 different Barrel-aged Sour beers (each bottle release includes (1) 750 ml bottles per release, with additional purchases available if the yield permits) to be released throughout the year.

Your membership also includes:
- 2014 Secret Barrel Society Certificate
- Two Upland Sour Program custom glasses
- First right of refusal for 2015 membership
- 1 free non-transferable general admission ticket to Sour Wild and Funk Fest
- Free entry to a special event for Secret Barrel Society Members

Every dollar generated through membership will bypass pockets and paychecks and go directly to growing our Sour Ale Program.

Please note, only your Sour reservation, not the purchase of your beer, is included in your membership fee. Your beer must still be purchased at a retail location (Indy or Bloomington) after it is released.
 
Yeah I just got this too. Here is my concern:

"Please note, only your Sour reservation, not the purchase of your beer, is included in your membership fee. Your beer must still be purchased at a retail location (Indy or Bloomington) after it is released."

What's up with that? I emailed them to make sure I'm not missing anything and that there is absolutely no beer included in the $250 membership. Upland Lambics are ****ing fantastic, but they're not $56.25/ea fantastic.

Edit - also, yeah, I see that there are glasses and a festival ticket, but virtually none of us sign up for beer memberships because of anything other than the beer.
 
Yeah, definitely passing on this one. Really hard to justify $250 with no bottles included, I wonder if it's some weird Indiana law that prevents them from including bottles with the membership.

I have a hard time believing 500 people will sign up for it. Can't wait for it to be even harder to win bottles through their lottery system.
 
Seems like a not totally unreasonable deal for locals, but still pretty unreasonable.

I guess this was their gameplan, get locals pissed off at always losing the lottery, milk them for more with a pretty crappy membership. Well played underpants gnomes Upland, well played.
 
Yeah, definitely passing on this one. Really hard to justify $250 with no bottles included, I wonder if it's some weird Indiana law that prevents them from including bottles with the membership.

I have a hard time believing 500 people will sign up for it. Can't wait for it to be even harder to win bottles through their lottery system.
I have a hard time believing anyone will sign up for it. It is about the beer. The rest is superfluous.

Edit: Oh MordorMongo, I forgot about your simple ways. I stand corrected.
 
Guess what dumb ass has two thumbs and paid before reading the fine print?


That's right....this gigantic loser mother ****er typing this post.


Just when I thought Upland couldn't piss me off any more.

Touche. Way to take advantage of a retard.

See above.

:oops:
LOL

Antoine-Dodson-Dumb.gif
 
I may very well piss on their bar when I am up there on the 26th
If you are a Secret Barrel Society member I think you are also allowed to drop a hefty deuce on the bar top at the pick-up location of your choosing. However, you still get no beers.
 
This sounds a lot like what Pelican attempted to do with their Kickstarter campaign: give us big money for trinkets so we can expand our already profitable business.
 
It seems like maybe this was put together a little hastily. No information on proxies, no information on pick-up windows or if you can have them held together for a larger pickup, no mention of the sour lottery continuing for non-members, and not even a hint as to what beers they're hoping to have as part of it.
 
It seems like maybe this was put together a little hastily. No information on proxies, no information on pick-up windows or if you can have them held together for a larger pickup, no mention of the sour lottery continuing for non-members, and not even a hint as to what beers they're hoping to have as part of it.
It is adorable you think backwoods Hoosier hillbillies actually may THINK about anything.
 
Caleb "hey maybe we can start a secret society....charge $250 for a couple glasses, a $2 certificate and a ticket to our fest"

Management "who would be that stupid?"

Caleb "I know that one ******* up in Sheridan that proxies all those bottles will"

Management "ok, go ahead and order a coolship, you're right, he will probably buy 5 or 6"
 
JESUS.... i was so freaking excited to see this header/got the email, and sooooooo disappointed when i read the details. I live 15 minutes from the brewpub and go to the production brewery tasting room every week, so i be soooo willing for a reserve-society type club with bottles and pub discounts, i've been waiting on it for years.... but holy ****, $250 bucks for the reservations? I love the concept of "reserve societies", but Upland missed the concept here, all of the clubs i've heard of in the past include beer (and/or a generous discount). based on my (generous to upland) estimates, we're talking about:

-2 custom glasses = $25 (at most, right? and they better be tekus!)
-2 Event tickets = $100 (at most again)
-1 Certificate = worthless to me/everyone else, but i'll give them $5...

so.... basically the extra $120 is a "donation to the growth of the sour program"?, and for the reservation of buying 8 $25 bottles of beer over the next 14 months? c'mon Upland, we are trying our best to give you a chance, but $250 is more than the retail value of the bottles/shwag AND IT DOESN'T EVEN INCLUDE THEM. $25 is already pretty steep, but adding another $15 bucks to each bottle that i have to pay in advance? nope

they'll sell a few, but not to those in the know. I'd buy it if it were $100, maybe at $150 if i knew i could go to the events and it included a 10-15% discount for draft beer, but good lord.

i am so disappoint.... again. They raised their prices 25% this year, and now this? they are good beers, but damn i'm about to give up
 
So now I feel that part of this is our fault, as locals, who have openly said numerous times that they need to start a society so that we don't have to deal with the pain of supporting our local brewery and not getting any special consideration for sour purchases.

If I could dial it all back, I would have told them how it all works with other breweries so that it would have been clear that we are getting beer as part of the membership with the other breweries.
 
Caleb "hey maybe we can start a secret society....charge $250 for a couple glasses, a $2 certificate and a ticket to our fest"

Management "who would be that stupid?"

Caleb "I know that one ******* up in Sheridan that proxies all those bottles will"

Management "ok, go ahead and order a coolship, you're right, he will probably buy 5 or 6"

please don't buy it man... don't encourage it! almost like Yogis charging $225 for a VE tasting starting with 030303, just laugh and move along ;)
 
Worth posting this excerpt from an email I just received back from Upland:

"The membership does not include the purchase price of beer, as that would technically be against the law in Indiana. It includes glassware and free entry to several events. Full details can be found at www.secretbarrelsociety.com.


We are limiting membership so people who don't find this option attractive will still be able to enter the lottery.
"
 
Jokes on all you mother ****ers, I will get each bottle at the low, low price of $50ish per.

Who's laughing now?

Come at me.


not exactly laughing, i love their beer. but if i'm dropping $400-500 on 8 bottles of beer, sheesh i'm not sure any would be from Upland! (don't get me wrong, i love their beer sours). That's a friggin' stupid big order from etre or something (or an entire bruery reserve society and BT allotment!).

woah. maybe i'm just madbro
 
They should just include a gift card/certificate for the brewery that happens to be in an amount that would allow members to purchases one each of the eight beers (and ditch the festival tickets)
 
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