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Monday, August 1, 2011

Beer Trading and The Barrel Aged Yeti Trade

I go into beer trading back in the summer of ’10 as a way of keeping my fridge stocked with my favorite beer Surly Furious which is only available in Minnesota.  My first attempt to set up this quote “Surly Exchange” was a post in one of my homebrew forums targeted at brewers in the Twin Cities, after all it was a nationwide site.  It received no bites but I was redirected to the trading forum on BeerAdvocate.com.   

Instead of posting up an ISO:FT (in search of / for trade) thread for my first trade I sent out a bunch of private messages or beer mails (BMs) to people who had Surly in their “gots.” It took a few days but I finally set something up; a box of requested locals for a box of Surly.  As a new trader I shipped first and after a few weeks a box of Surly was at my first door.  

I've been hooked ever since and trading is a big reason my cellar is out of control. There have been a few times where I've felt I got the worst end of the deal, but I'm sure that is not uncommon. I've really got into BIFs (Beer it Forward) and will talk about the ones I have in works when they come in.

I could go into more detail discussing how to set up a trade, how to package a trade, how to ship a trade, thoughts on extras etc but all of this has been already done better than I could do here and here.

Going forward I’m going to be posting my latest trades and the logic behind them starting with my latest 

FT: 100% Barrel Aged Cuir ISO: Inside.

I sent him this...
In this case I had a beer I was filling to trade and after a specific list of beers I wanted to obtain. In this case I was after 2 Turtle Doves and The Wanderer from the Bruery, Barrel Aged Yeti from Great Divide and Beatification from Russian River.  

I needed the 2 Turtle Doves to complete a hole in my 12 Days of Christmas Vertical, The Barrel Aged Yeti for an upcoming Yeti Tasting,  The Wanderer because I love it and Beatification as I've heard it's an amazing beer.

For I while I had two deals in place; 1 for the 2 Turtle Doves and the other for the Barrel Aged Yeti. Unfortunately what they say is true and a deal is never done till it’s done and unfortunately the deal fell through for the 2 Turtle Doves.  Fortunately everything was set on the other end so I was able to set up a deal for the Barrel Aged Yeti.
... and got his in return

I sent him the 100% Barrel Aged Cuir (the put), in addition I sent him a series of extras (bonus items in the name of beer advocacy). This included Nobility from Noble, a Duff from Mexico, a Bourbon Barrel Aged Wookiee and a Cohiba Cigar (the last two were selected as he mentioned he is a fan of cigars and bourbon.)

In return he sent me the Barrel Aged Yeti (the target) and two bottles of local beer from Ohio breweries I’ve never heard of; Black Jack Robust Porter from The Brew Kettle and Old Man Hopper's India Pale Ale from Rust Belt.  I love trying new things and love both these styles so it’s win-win. 

Cheers

SNB

2 comments:

  1. Great info! I think I read one of your postings on AHP on trading, but this was very insightful for someone that may be interested in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shawn,let me know if and when you want to start the adventure in beer trading

    ReplyDelete

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