Shangy's hopslam thread

I figured we'd have a thread being updated by people who've gotten their hopslam from Shangys or who have talked to them about it.

Bell's says it's shipping to Eastern PA tomorrow 1/21.

I posted on Shangy's Facebook page asking and they said 7-10 days from that which seems very excessive. So post if you find out they have it, if you just got some, what they were charging, if they ran out, etc.

Will this also include the annual Shangy's bashing posts, or should we look for that in a different thread?

Hopslam season just wouldn't be hopslam season without the annual "bashing Shangy's" posts.

I won't bash anything as long as they get plenty of the that honey pineapple goodness

I'll be calling!

How 'bout a poll:

• I hate Shangy's because they lied to me on the phone about Hopslam.
• I hate Shangy's because they didn't let my wife/neighbor/buddy buy a case of Hopslam, too.
• I hate Shangy's but I still got my case of Hopslam.

Arbitrator needs to write a Shangy's review

the best part of this is that all 3 of those things will 100% happen.

You forgot to add that you will also be making multiple trips to shangys to buy more Hopslam(in disguise of course)

What's that you say? One case per car?

Where's the closest Enterprise rent-a-car?

i remember last year alot of people complaining in january. I went there the last weekend in feb, not even thinking about hopslam, and they still had cases of it so i'm not sure what the deal was with that.

you just summarized the entire point of this thread..... welcome aboard! =D

lol, i know. I went for NN and picked up some Two Hearted as well..As i was leaving a guy walked in and asked about hopslam and i'm thinking (based on what i read here) "Is this guy nuts? hopslam was gone a month ago, they're going to throw you out on your ass for asking such an outlandish question, be gone!" Guy was like, sure HOW MANY cases do you want? haha....no limit. I picked one up as well and left one happy camper.

There was a first wave that sold fast. Like four days fast. Again, aided by the fact that in every single thread where HopSlam is mentioned Shangy's is also mentioned. There was less fuss over the second wave, and I have no idea how long that stuck around there, but it sounds like it lasted a long time.

"We only have one case left"

Just called they said 7-10 days from now

I don't buy Hopslam. First, because I don't think it's quite as amazing as everyone else thinks to go out of my way for; and second because I hate Shangy's business practices, particularly with Hopslam. Yeah yeah, I know...more for you YOU guys! But you know Shangy's will have Hopslam it sitting around in their warehouse into April, so if you feel special getting one of those cases, be my guest.

From talking to my local distributer (who moves a lot of craft beer), Shangy's treats their non-wholesale distributer customers like crap too, and not just with their piddling allocations of Hopslam. They said throughout the year they regularly have to send cases of beer back to Shangy's because it's almost at or past the expiration date. So, Shangy's tries to sell a beer themselves for an extra buck or two of profit per case (like they do with Hopslam) but when it doesn't sell they try to unload the old beer to other PA distributers and, in turn, their customers. The distributers have no choice but to deal with them, because Shangy's has exclusive distribution for so many breweries. I would have no problem with Shangy's evasive phone calls, or 1 case per car limits, if only they would just do their job and distribute their beer like a "distributer." Imagine that...

So there's my rant... a little bit different from the "poll".

While i appreciate all the info this thread will provide (in time), we all know the creation of it 7-10 days before it actually arrives will just cause more of a frenzy, and make it that much tougher to obtain.

To my point before, maybe Hopslam wouldn't be so hard to obtain if Shangy's did their job and distributed it properly. If they want to keep some to themselves to sell, that's fine, but do they need stacks of Hopslam aging in their warehouse into April? It's not good for customers, and it's not good for the beer.

Larry Bell is known to be fanatical about his beer, and I'm honestly shocked he hasn't caught wind of Shangy's shenanigans with Hopslam year after year. There are other wholesale distributers in PA that would love to carry Bells.

They told me today, that it was a week out. Their fb says they got over 3000 calls last week, who's counting over there?

All three of those things will happen, and they'll have some left until May.

I'd love to see that happen, but it won't. Shangy's owns the distribution rights in PA, and will for some time. To be honest, if I'm Larry Bell, I pull out of PA completely.

It really is a shame people continue to do business with these scumbags. I can assure you, the shenanigans with Hopslam every year is but small tip of the ice berg. I find myself buying the brands they carry less and less. Bell's, Moylan's, De Dolle, and a number of others...I miss them, but I just can't justify supporting Shangy's anymore. They are the antithesis of what makes the craft beer community great.

I have no doubt people are calling, but 3000 calls? C'mon - that's about 1 call every 80 seconds for an entire week. Exagerate much? But it must be true cause I'm sure Shangy's wouldn't lie.

For those of us not planning to buy from Shangy's, can we expect a similar arrival from other distributors, or will Shangy's get it first? This is all new to me.

Shangys get it first, then ships it to other distributors.

I thought the same thing. Comical but that is what you should expect from Zima and crew. And I like the comment about beer almost being at expiration. ALMOST???? That is a funny one. Shangy's would have no problem putting out ten year old Pliny if they could.

Pull out of an entire state (and forever earn the scorn of all of your fans in that state...and the surrounding states were people drive in just to take our precious HopSlam) just because the importer for one section of it, granted it's the biggest market, is really weird/idiotic with their handling of one of your beers? Is that a good business decision? I would think if anything, they would try to get the importer changed, but I do not pretend to know the ins and outs of those contracts.

Any cost savings on the case would be negated by the cost of gas to drive to and from Emmaus. I also value my personal time too much to spend an afternoon just to get one case of beer, but that value is subjective.

I agree with you (even though I DID just drive to Marietta, Ohio to pick some up). Assuming I could find it locally, I'd happily pay the few extra bucks to buy it at a nearby distributor or bottle shop. However, as much as I like hopslam, I'm not sure I need a case of it, and for that matter, after a few weeks of drinking it on tap, I'm usually done for a while (though the first glass I had on tap last Saturday sure was tasty). All good reasons for not making that drive up to Emmaus.

PA's beer distribution system runs basically like this:

1. Brewery register their beer with Pennsylvania liquor control board.
2. Brewers can only sell their beer to a wholesale distributer. There are very few wholesale distributers, and brewers typically do exclusive regional distribution deals them.
3. The wholesale distributers sell the beer to the local distributers throughout their region. Regions can be very large, for example Shangy's region for Bells is all of eastern PA. However, wholesale distributers are also allowed to sell beer at retail on location to individuals and local bars/restaurants, just like any other distributer.
4. The local distributers (the vast majority of PA's distributers) sell the beer to individuals on location, or to their local restaurant/bar customers, who in turn sell to individuals.

So yes, Shangy's gets all of Bells beer first [or Westy's for the western half of the state], then it gets distributed to local distributers/bars/restaurants. The problem is that Shangy's distributes a pathetically small amount of Hopslam to the other distributers in their region, and hoards the rest to sell at retail themselves for a couple extra bucks profit per case. The local distributers [and their customers] are completely at the mercy of Shangy's.

No matter how Shangy's does it, they will never please everyone.

I'm not sure what all the huge Shangy's hate is about. Guess it's one of those gotta have it happen to you deals. Last year when I heard they had it I drove 40 minutes and walked in, asked for a case, and walked out a minute later after a dude from the back brought one out. Painless.

That's been my experience at Shangy's as well. Drove from Jersey, got there, got my case.

So it is fair to assume that distributors in York, PA must first get their Hopslam from Shangy's? Bummer...

Westy's does indeed buy directly from Bell's.

No, those of you in the land of CPA units get their Bell's from Westy's.

I've never had a problem with Shangys ever before. I drive up from NJ, get my case and then head to Weyerbacher and Pearly Bakers for some beers and lunch and head home. I don't ever bother calling them because I'm sure they're annoyed as hell getting 3,000 calls within a day inquiring about a single release. I think a 1 case limit is pretty reasonable considering the volume of calls they receive about it. I've driven there a few times with friends in the car who also wanted a case, so we just walked in separately, bought our cases and left. Not a big deal.

Does Westy's sell Hopslam to retail distributors in their region or do they retail it all themselves? I'm sure if I asked Nima he would post his exact thought process in his distribution of Hopslam or anything else he carries that has more demand than supply.

while we're at it. Fuck their sales team as well!!!

Westy's sells hopslam to retail distributors as well (and unlike Shangys, retail accounts are able to purchase it at a wholesale price). As a result, they run out of it pretty quickly. Whereas I've heard of Shangy's having cases of Hopslam for sale into Spring and early summer, last year Westy's sold out of hopslam in roughly a week.

Just to make sure I understand your post... Nima works for Shangys, correct? (you post seemed to be asking for information regarding Westy's, which is why I asked).

As for Shangys reasons for doing what they do, we go through this every year, but in a nutshell, here's why I find their behavior puzzling.

At least in past years, there have been numerous complaints about Shangy's "one case per customer" policy. Assuming you can believe some of the posts on BA (which I tend to do, as there have been so many of them, with others often verifying many of the more incredible stories), folks calling Shangys have been told they were out of Hopslam (when in fact they had plenty), that they only had a single case in the store (when in fact they had a huge supply), and that they would only sell a single case per car pool (apparently to discourage busloads of thirsty beer drinkers from NY, NJ and Maryland from buying it all up). Some of this behavior would make sense to me if Shangys was selling every drop of HS they got in the store within the first couple of weeks after they received it, but again, I've heard of too many reports in the past from folks who have walked into Shangys in Aprill and May and seen a pile of HS for sale. Frankly, if I'm businessman, money is money, so it's never really been clear to me why Shangys is so rabid (allegedly) about limiting customers to a single case of hopslam (at least not when they literally have a huge pile of the stuff, supposedly).

The next biggest complaint I hear about Shangy's is how they treat their retail accounts when it comes to hopslam. Again, I've heard all kinds of stories about their awful business practices (limiting purchases by some accounts to just a couple of cases; forcing customers to buy other products they don't want in order to obtain hopslam; etc.). I honestly don't know what the truth is, but it seems pretty clear that Shangys severely limits the amount of hopslam most retail outlets can buy from them. Initially, that made some sense to me, as I figured that Shangys likely makes more money from the sale of hopslam at their store than they do if they sell it at a wholesale price to other commercial accounts in SEPA. However, I was corrected on that supposition. Apparently there is no "wholesale" price on hopslam, and so retail accounts have to pay the same price for it as anyone who walks into their store to buy it. So once again, if retail accounts have to pay the same price as regular customers coming in off the street, why limit how much you sell to them?

Whatever. I'm resigned to the fact that I'm never going to be able to make any sense out of Shangys' business practices. However, those practices have become fairly legendary at this point, and now even the source of considerable comedic and/or entertainment value. It's something I've come to look forward to almost as much as the beer itself.