ISO: Tart of Darkness x3 FT: You tell me, Im open

Trading isn’t always as smooth as I would like. Fortunately I have yet to run into any situations where the other party just decided not to keep up their end of the bargain, something I’m surprised to see happen at least once or twice a month.  I’ve come close several times with poor communication and long delays on their end, but they’ve always managed.

This is the tale of one of those times.

I’ve mentioned in the past how frustrating it can be every now and then to collect fresh Surly cans, it’s an off the self beer that you can pick up almost in every liquor store in the Twin Cities, yet I frequently see locals for Surly go nowhere.

I sent to him...

I don’t know what people’s mindset is, but I had grown a little frustrated by it so when I say the following thread by Kyle (kstrickler) on the 28^th of July, I knew it was time to put my money where mouth was.

ISO: Tart of Darkness x3 FT: You tell me, Im open

“I have been trying to nail these down for some time, I would love 3... 1 to pop fresh and 2 to age... I have a pretty good cellar if I have to open it up to get this done, but hoping to find an easy trade for these... You can still get these at the Provisions shop correct?

cheers”

At that point in time they were still available for $15 dollars a pop on the self at the Bruery Provisions just down the street from me.   Kyle also happened to be running the Sour 4.0 BIF that I was in and had over 50+ completed trades so I figured this would be a low risk quick trade.

I was feeling a little altruistic at the time so when he stated that as they (the Tarts) were off the self I shouldn’t be after anything huge, I told him I wasn’t concerned as was willing to go $4$ on this.

On my end it did take me a week or so to collect the three Tart of Darknesses he was after, $45 plus does not grow on trees and I needed to save up a little. I did he Kyle informed throughout on my status and let him know both when I had secured the bottles. 

Once I finally shipped out the three Tart of Darknesses plus a bottle of Hottenroth on the 15^th of August I sent Kyle a tracking number and asked when he would be shipping.  It took awhile to hear back from him but when I did he mentioned that he was waiting for some bottles to come in and would be shipping soon after. 

This is where my mind started to play games.  In retrospect it is clear he really wanted to put together a nice package for me as a thank you, however with all the recent rash of even good traders going bad (JoshVandy anyone?) I was a little concerned.

... and eventually got this in return

Don’t get me wrong this trade took it’s time and communication was less than stellar, but it’s not like it went on for months and he did always reply.

I don’t want to get the impression that Kyle is a bad trader, he isn’t and I would trade again with him in the future.  If this post is about anything it’s the need for patients and nailing down what is coming your way.  While it was cool to open out that mystery box I would have been better to know so that I could put my mind more at ease while I waited.

In the end Kyle held up his end of the bargain in spades and on the 16^th of September I opened my packaging from him containing the following;  Lips of Faith Clutch from New Belgian, Hoppyum IPA from Foothills Brewing Company, Terrapin Reunion Beer 2010, Tiny from Weyerbacher, Oak Aged Hatter from New Holland and Marshal Zhukov from Cigar City which as a huge want for me.

All in all a pretty awesome box of beer and worth the wait.

Cheers

-SNB

FT: Cantillion (Classic Gueuze & Rose De Gambrinus) ISO: ?

With the Sour BIF 4.0 (will talk about this in the near future) quickly heading my way I knew I needed to try and lock down at least one awesome Cantillion bottle for my package.

I’d been coming up zeroes in potential trades so when I saw a post by JM03, FT: Cantillion (Classic Gueuze & Rose De Gambrinus) ISO: ?, I knew I had to act fast.

I said in my BM that I could offer up a combination of the following; Exponential Hoppiness, 2011 Parabola, 2010 The Abyss, 2011 Older Viscosity and Batch 6 Consecration.  The first three were from his want list so I figured that might get me noticed.

I sent Evan...

He came back asking “So you'd do the Expo Hoppiness, Parabola, and Abyss for 1 classic and 1 Rose? “ Really wanting to get this trade locked down and done I said yes despite the fact that I really didn’t want to part with that Abyss. In the end though I’m really glad I did.

It turns out that the trade wasn’t with JM03 at all but rather his friend optimator13 aka Evan. 

For this I really wanted to only use beer I currently had in my possession, this included the extra – which in and of itself was hard to part with. 

On my side I sent Evan a bottle of Exponential Hoppiness from Alpine Beer Co, Batch 2 Parabola from Firestone, Deschutes The Abyss 2010 and my last bottle of the Bruery’s The Workman’s Friend.  It was really hard for me to part with the last two as I had been saving that bottle of Abyss for some time and The Workman’s Friend is probably my favorite Provisions Series beer to date.  I selected the Workman’s friend as it was on his want list.

... and got this in trade

For his part Evan blew me with the package I got from him.  Inside were 7 beers, that’s 5 extras over the agreed Cantillon Classic Gueuze and Rose De Gambrinus.  They include two awesome beers from Squatter’s Outer Darkness and Hell’s Keep, plus the Terrapin W-n-B, a Saint Arnold Weedwacker and a smoked wheat ale.

I was blown away when I pulled out that Outer Darkness.  You have no idea how awesome it is to me to have gotten this beer as a freaking extra.  I tried to trade for it several times and each time the guy I was working with broke the trade days before we were to ship.  I literally gave up on trying to trade for this so it really made my night.

To date this is definitely up there as one of the best trades I’ve been involved with not only in quality but also in speed. This trade was set up and completed in under a week.  It’s people like Evan that make trading fun and enjoyable.

Cheers

-SNB

La Choulette Framboise

I decided on the night of Bonnie and My anniversary that I needed to get a review on the site sooner than later.  So I went out to the beervault and pulled out one of my newer procurements, La Choulette Framboise, that I picked up at The Bruery Provisions the day before.   While drinking it I used the voice to text feature on my phone to send myself an email with my notes and impressions.

12 ounce bottle poured into a Bruery tulip, served at around 44-50. Label lists it as a French farmhouse ale brewed with raspberry juice.

Appearance: Purple-red with a slight garnet tint in head. Reflective light off the glass is a very deep red color. The frothy head clings well to side of glass with some lace lacing which barely sticks to the side of the glass

Aroma: Slight funky with tart raspberry. Bonnie detects an almost metallic smell, it’s very subtle and only something her super sniffer would pick up.  I can barely detect it, it similar to the difference between stainless steel aged chardonnay and chardonnay aged in oak barrels.  Somewhat of a “clean” smell in the back in my nose, by clean I mean the way a room smells after a thorough cleaning.  Not as much funk as I would've hoped for in a “farmhouse” ale but the aroma is very enjoyable and improve slightly as warms.   Swirling definitely helped bring out the raspberry character.

Mouthfeel: very small bubbles, some twang, bubbles pickle my upper lip. It has a very raspberry juice and champagne feel 

Taste: It’s definitely a raspberry beer, this is by far the most predominate flavor in the beer however it is not overpowering like some fruit beers.  The raspberry is very much in balance in this beer not overly raspberry.  It does have very little funk and is not as complex as I would've hoped

Overall: A decent beer but nothing extraordinary. Still it’s very clean very well brewed.  I went in wanting a nice funky soured beer and that probably clouded my review.  While I’ve stated a lot that I would have preferred more funk I am a lot happier with this beer than if it were listed as a farmhouse saison.  A little too fruity of a beer for what I would like in a farmhouse but to me farmhouse means a beer with a great funky bretty character smell and taste.

Cheers,

SNB