A whole new world

So I picked up an issue of "Draft" magazine a bit over a month ago for my reading pleasure. In this particular issue there were several great articles. One about "Real ale" or cask beer, one on collaboration beers and another on "beer trading". The article on beer trading was very interesting.

Beer trading is something that has been going on for some time now. There are several social networking such as beeradvocate.com that serve as a place for beer drinkers to share thoughts on different brews and also as a place to seek out people who may have beers of desire but that one can't get their hands on. On your profile you can list the beers that you "got" and "want". While living in San Diego does allow for a fantastic selection of great local brews and a great assortment of west coast brews...we/I am still limited in selection.

Inspired by this article I decided to give it a go and see how it would work out!

While many traders refer to some beers as "whales" or "white whales" (think Moby Dick), I wasn't planning to go after any of those on my first go around. I set out to get my hands a bottle of Sah'Tea, a brew that a friend heard about in an article a couple of months back. It is a yearly release from DogFish Head brewery in Delaware. Easy for east coasters to get...impossible for west coasters. I proceeded to start a thread on BeerAdvocate.com in search of a bottle of this. Over the next day or so I got several "beermails" with offers for a trade for this brew! (being from San Diego) I do get a little bit of help becuase people now the beer selection out here is pretty good!

Then I get a "beermail" that makes my jaw drop... one person replies with "I will trade a bottle of Sah'Tea, I also have a bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin that I would be willing to part with." The TNP is on my "whale list" of beers! It is the 3rd strongest beer in the world...weighing in at 32% abv! I almost can't believe it, my first trade and I am going to get one of my "whales" and it wasn't even solicited? Now the question becomes what I am I going to be sending out in exchange for these beers? Well my trading partner was great about keeping communication flowing between beermails about what brews he wanted and what he had access to. So we decided to do a trade based on $4$. (dollar for dollar) This means I was going to be sending a pretty hefty box since the TNP cost about $65-70! In addition to multiple other bottles that were coming my way. the good thing is that the majority of the brews that I sent out I already had sitting in the cellar!


All in all I ended up sending out 11 bottles (Alpine Pure Hoppiness not shown). Now this is were it becomes fun! Since it is a federal felony to mail alcohol through the USPS, private shippers are the way to go. The thing is that UPS and FED-EX "will not knowingly ship alcohol", so you have to be careful when packaging and shipping your brew. You individually wrap each bottle in bubble-wrap and lots of packing tape. In a big box packed with shipping paper and Styrofoam and just encase there might be any "sloshing" or liquid sound coming out of the box...i added to packages of rice-a-roni to cover up the sound. Then take to a UPS store and send it off. And religiously track the package online for a week.

When my package arrived I was like a child on Christmas morning. The kid who new exactly what he got and it was exactly what he asked for!
I start cutting through the all the tape and bubble wrap that ensured the beer was safe on its journey. My trade partner was awesome, everything I wanted and then some. He included several "extras" in the package including a DogFish Head Old School Barleywine, Capsicum habanero Stout, Troegs Nugget Nectar and a terrapin Hoppy Monster! We already are setting up another trade to happen in the coming months...and you can bet he is going to get some gnarly extra's in his box next time!

The world of beer as reached a whole new world now! Not only do I have my normal stores in SD that I know get the rare stuff in but now I have a friend on the east coast forming a symbiotic relationship! I get him great beer he can't get and he does the same for me!

Can't wait for the next beer tasting event!