(Ithaca, NY) – Ithaca Beer Co. hosted its fastest-ever sellout on Saturday, following trends we’ve seen with other recent beer release events like Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. The brewery offered both LeBleu Sour Blueberry Ale and Fourteen Anniversary Ale for sale with the former being the main attraction.
There has been a lot of chatter on RateBeer today. One member said he got there an hour before the event and was able to get bottles. Another estimated at least 100 people being shut out including himself after the guy in front of him bought the last bottles.
Ithaca set a limit of one case per person for the event with 1,200 bottles available. The brewery had one cash register going according to a Reddit user who reported waiting in line for more than three hours.
The Village Beer Merchant in Buffalo sent one employee three hours to Ithaca to grab some LeBleu and bring it back to the store. The store was so confident that it would get some that it even listed it for sale only to learn the employee would be among the empty-handed.
We need to make a correction: we posted earlier that we have Ithaca LeBleu sour ale in limited quantities. It turns out that by the time our buyer arrived at the brewery, there were over 200 people in line waiting for their turn to buy LeBleu. The supply ran out after only a few hours, and we are among the many who were disappointed to get none.
Surprisingly, no bottles have their made their way to eBay yet.
Here is Twitter reaction from the day:
https://twitter.com/#!/ithacabeer/status/190958967902576641
https://twitter.com/#!/BillBrews/status/191120011845320704
https://twitter.com/#!/jeffkupko/status/191160091628675073
https://twitter.com/#!/MaFraGeoBur/status/191187055068454912
https://twitter.com/#!/BillBrews/status/191193524425867265
https://twitter.com/#!/MaFraGeoBur/status/191207634756579328
https://twitter.com/#!/ithacabeer/status/191208137347436544
https://twitter.com/#!/BillBrews/status/191208363516891138
https://twitter.com/#!/ev_an_off/status/191216512751767552
https://twitter.com/#!/darknova306/status/191228566934007808
https://twitter.com/#!/BuffaloVBM/status/191271350680305664
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To say this was a Mickey Mouse affair would be an insult to Mickey Mouse. This brings mismanagement and disorganization to new levels. To look outside at 11:00 AM and see hundreds of people and then to continue selling LeBleu by the case is about the dumbest move I have seen in a while. Sure, they made about 75-100 people happy, but they sent hundreds home very disappointed, including me. I trekked over 500 miles for this release and could not get a single bottle. What made it even worse was all of the mules at this release. When I approached several of them to buy a bottle, they said they could not sell any, they were buying it for their “fill in the blank”. One freaking bottle, unreal. The real sad thing is, I was really looking forward to visiting Ithaca, buying LeBleu, buying a couple Ithaca T-Shirts, buying the Excelsior glass set, filling a growler, buying a case of Flower Power, and probably buying 6 14th Anniversary. After this BS, I was disgusted, I did not want to even stick around for free samples. They have created a life long enemy who will be boycotting their beer and sharing my experiences with this brewery to all that will listen.