Easy button!

When news broke that Mikerphone and More Brewing were collaborating on an imperial rye stout with vanilla and lactose, there was much excitement in the Chicago beer community. But when the January 21 cash-only $25 per bottle limit two release of Vanillanoize at Mikerphone was announced two days ahead of time, the response was more mixed. Complaints centered on the price per bottle, the short notice, the prohibition against bottle sharing in line and the fact that the release was being held on TEH LORDS DAY!

I'm not a big fan of lines, in part because I recently arrived five hours early for a release and was still 300th in line. On that particular day I was able to "double dip" by lining up again, which meant that had I been willing to settle for a single bottle I literally could've gotten there 20 minutes after the sale began and gotten a bottle while saving almost five and a half hours of my time. But I digress, sort of.

On the day of the Mikerphone-More release I was up early and monitored the situation on Facebook and Beer Advocate. (Chicago beer peeps love to talk about line length. It's just a thing 'round here. Also, every hour spent in line for a limited release entitles you to ask for more $$$ in secondary trade or cash value.) I'd decided the night before that based on the experience at the release described above I was going to spend as little time in line as possible. I opted to have my wife drive me there and drop me off, and I'd go through the line while she was off at a Starbuck's enjoying a coffee inside (the way winter was meant to be lived).

So we drove off in time for me to get into line at 10:58am, and moments later I was given ticket number 270, guaranteeing me one of the 500-something allotments. I chatted with a familiar and a few new buds during the grueling 22 minutes it took to get to the point of sale, and all was well. The Mikerphone taproom line was very long and food was needed so by 11:45 we were at More Brewing enjoying one of Shaun's stellar NEIPAs and a nice lunch. By 1 or so I was home and giggling at the many silly trade offers and sale attempts online, because god forbid one drink a beer, right?

Anyway, this was one man's experience on one day. But it's also how I plan to attend the majority of limited brewery-only releases moving forward. Cheers!