The Locals HINTS AND HAULS THREAD

Meantime update your beer wants, if you want to trade a few bottles of locals send me a BM. We can start working on your trade rep.

 

Oh yeah for sure, that's completely understandable. I'd have no problem shipping first/early! I understand the whole "new people need to build their rep" kinda thing.

Yeah, I've been meaning to start adding wants... but to be honest, I don't even know what I want! I know the styles I enjoy, but haven't ventured out much in terms of trying different beers and knowing exactly what I want to try. Of course from reading this forum (and others) I've seen things that seem incredible, but nothing I realistically expect to get my hands on with my very small cellar.

 

Where in PA are you from?

 

York, about 30 min from harrisburg or so

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/ This will be a good start, click on the styles you like, and the top most commonly rated, and (by clicking "most popular") the highest rated (particularly the ones that fit both) are good bets for wants. You can also go to the list of beers from particular breweries you're interested in and do the same thing, sort by how many ratings/highest rAvg. It's not at all hard to get a hundred or so, and by that point everyone will at least have an idea what styles you like even if they can't get those particular beers.

While it is tempting, and there's nothing wrong with including some, do not just go to the Top 250 list and 'want' every one of those, it's sort of accepted that everyone wants to try all of those, and no one is sending you a BVDL or a Fou Foune in a BIF.

It's also not a bad idea to go to other people's wants/hads and copy their homework. And lastly, do what you can to get beers you've had rated (if not reviewed). If someone doesn't have a lot of 'wants' but their 'hads' are full of similar items, again it's a good jumping off point for someone packing your box.

Oh wait, one more, once the BIF has gotten under way, there will be hints given from people about who their target is, if you figure out your sender, or even narrow it down, start looking at breweries in their area(s) and get some wants in their back yard.

 

Thanks for the advice! I'll take a look at this in the morning (when I'm not quite as drunk... a night off before another day off is always a good time). Fortunately I've actually had a few of the "tops" (HT, Pliny, KBS, BCBS), but not a huge majority of them, so I've already got my feet wet in that regard. I'm honestly more interested in just trying different things from all over, especially things I don't have regular access to, regardless of rarity. I'll take a look at that in the AM and see what I can find!

 

I am up in Enola, if you ever want to grab a beer at Pizza Boy let me know.

 

That could potentially work. I work in Hershey (it's a crazy commute... I know), so Pizza Boy is only about 15 min out of the way for me on my way home. I actually stopped there a week or two ago to get a few pumking bombers to put in my fridge. It was my first time stopping there (despite having heard great things about them), and have been looking for a reason to stop back.

 

If you guys do this, let me know. I drive up to Al's every so often anyway.

 

You will be the second one from York in this BIF. I live there too. I am in the eastern part of the county between Hellam and Yorkanna. If you ever need any help with where to purchase or what to look for just send me a message and I would be glad to help.

Yes Pizza Boy is great. How can you go wrong with 100 taps and with 15- or 20 being their own. Good food too!

 

I think I volunteered to run the next round, have you on my list of interested parties, and was going to ask some of the veterans in here about having newbies ship early. So that sounds good.

Also, one of the neat things about these BIF's is you can get ideas from other peoples hauls (or wants); a lot of guys seem to send stuff that they personally like even if it's not the best known stuff nationally. And while we tend to stray a little bit, I think the original idea behind this was to focus on regional/local beers (hence the name of the group) as opposed to whales. As for wants, I didn't have any, and then added about 100 wants during our first round by narrowing down my sender and then looking for breweries in their areas. My one suggestion is if there is something you definitely DON'T want (ie, if you're allergic to peanuts you probably don't want a PB Porter) then mention that. You can also stalk people's profiles since some of us describe our general preferences.

 

This reminded me of another thing I wanted to toss out there regarding trades. (Full disclosure, I've all but stopped bothering with trading excepting the trade partners/co-BIF'ers I already know) The ISO:FT forum is dominated by walez:walez trades, yes. But there are occasionally trades put up for more local-level fare, and there's nothing at all stopping you from putting up your own.

You don't see these as often but I've had some very successful trades where nothing rare was swapped, say Alpine beers for shelf IPAs I have access to, for example. The trick is to find the beers you have access to that other people are interested in but can't get (growlers of Al's Pizza Boy for example) and put them up for trade, $4$ for whatever locals you're in search of.

Don't get greedy or try to squeeze value out of what you've got, but don't be shy about asking for something you want either; the important thing is to keep in mind what it would take the other person to acquire the beer you're after, and compare that to what it took you to get what you have. If "run to the store and grab it, any day of the week" is the answer to both, you'll do just fine.

 

the key is it's rare to you because you don't have distro.

I've tossed a few limited releases in these BIFs but I gotta be honest, it's mostly been readily available shelf beers. I'm going to be sad when Surly expands their distro once the new brewery opens. It's a Minnesota BA's secret weapon.

 

Is there anyone from PA not in this BIF?

 

I actually get out to the middle of PA fairly regular... I have friends who live in Harrisburg(east of the river, north of the city proper), towards Hershey...

 

Oh... and there is a box out for delivery on a FedEx truck in Denver.

 

Eagerly awaiting this one... pics will come tonight once the kiddo is asleep

 

Fortunately, PA has some pretty good locals... maybe nothing like HF or RR, but we do ok... especially if recipients are good with growlers (Tired Hands, Forest & Main, Pizza Boy)

 

This is exactly it, you've gotta find your "secret weapon" and use it to your advantage, for me that's Tired Hands, and I've gotten everything from New Glarus to FFF to Alpine to Cantillon for it, I don't try to get anything super rare (the Cantillon was a 375ml from a very generous BA), I just look for the things that are other people's 'secret weapon' like the ones I listed, and we both come out very happy. Doing the same thing with Al's shouldn't be too hard, especially once they start bottling (and before their distribution gets super wide, I feel for @billhelm losing his biggest trade chip to wide distro)

 

NJ is finally getting a trade chip with Carton expanding their canning.