Pliny the Younger 2021 Sold Out Fast Leaving Many Disappointed

From Russian River:

We understand that many of you may be very upset about not getting the Younger mixed case. For that we are sincerely sorry. There were over 110,000 active users on the site trying to purchase the beer at the same time, which is extraordinary!  We are very, very grateful that the entire site did not crash. Our IT Director had Shopify Support on the phone at 11 to troubleshoot any issues immediately, which thankfully there were none.  We have also started the process of reviewing all orders in search of any evidence of BOTS, which we don’t suspect.  But anything is possible.

Ecommerce platforms unfortunately don’t hold items in your cart until the transaction is complete, which many of us have experienced before when purchasing other things. With 110,000 people essentially “in line” to buy the same thing, we were bound to run out before everyone checked out.

Trying to release Pliny the Younger during a global pandemic with major restrictions to our business operations has posed many challenges for us as well. It is certainly not ideal but we are doing the best we can given the circumstances. We made as much Younger as we can physically handle repacking and shipping from our brewery. It will take us 2 solid weeks to get all of these orders packed and shipped out! This was always intended to be a one-time only online Younger release. We plan to resume our normal in-person release next year along with draft distribution.

Again, we are very sorry that many of you are frustrated and disappointed about missing out out on this year’s Younger release. Thank you for all of your support especially during these challenging times. We look forward to getting back together again in person in 2022!

Thank you!

Natalie, Vinnie and the entire RRBC Crew