The concept of trading hard-to-find beers among fans has been around for a long time and chances are that if you’re a self-proclaimed “beer geek” you’ve either traded beer yourself or have friends who do. I first wrote about (well to be fair, Josh @ brewsandbooks.com wrote a guest post and I published it) the phenomenon in October of last year here — but the tradition of beer trading goes much beyond that — and its popularity has only increased with the burgeoning trend of special beer release days, such as Kate Day at the Portsmouth Brewery, Dark Lord Day from Three Floyds, the release of Sexual Chocolate from Foothills, Vagabond from Allagash; the list goes on, across the country.
So it’s interesting to see the trend getting some media attention outside of the beer world. The large food & drink themed site, Chow.com, recently wrote a piece on the rising popularity of beer trading (please ignore the gross inaccuracies about Kate Day in the opening paragraph; no one ‘reserved bottles the day before’) with instructions on how to trade (or how people get away with it currently, since it is technically illegal) and a list of some of the more sought-after beers people are looking to trade for on the popular beer forum, BeerAdvocate.
Check out the piece for yourself; who knows what you’d be able to snag for that bottle of Black Tuesday from The Bruery you’ve been stashing away. Do any of the readers out there have any experience with beer trading? Please share (if you are willing & able) in the comment section!
3 Comments
I’ve done a few trades, but it’s always because I have a rare beer that someone else wants, I’ve never initiated a trade. There are certainly beers unavailable in Maine that I’d like to try, but I prefer to enjoy those great beers we do get here as opposed to paying shipping charges and not knowing if what I’m supposed to receive will even arrive unbroken. Others get addicted to trading, and I have no problem with that. In fact, I’ve gotten to try some amazing beers because my friends who trade are very generous.
Agreed. I have some close friends who trade regularly and regularly share the results with me (for which I’m very thankful) but I’ve never done much myself. While I’d love to get my hands on a Pliny or a Sexual Chocolate or something, in the end I’m too cheap and too lazy 🙂
Never completed a trade, but hopefully I will get a golden ticket to Dark Lord Day this year and will have a few extra bottles to send around. If I can get something unique that I haven’t tried before I would definitely do it.