Bringing shelf beer to a share?!

First share I ever went to I brought shelf beer. Just was invited and that's what I had. I was scared to ask for the nicer beers around but that didnt stop anyone from pouring me plastic cups full. Ppl being nice made me want to get into beer like I have since.

 

I had a small bottle share recently. I had some really good stuff that I provided. One of my friends brought some homebrew pumpkin beer which was OK. The other friend brought nothing. :/ I don't think I'll be doing too many more.

 

With that context....that makes your friend look much worse!

 

There are some really terrific "shelf beers" in most places. I think everything or almost everything in my cellar right now came from a shelf. And it varies too.

For example, Big Bad Baptist is a good beer, but doesn't get distributed everywhere. It's widespread here, and some might call it a "shelf turd" because it sits. But wait, it's a good beer. Part of being a "whale" is exclusivity. Stone "Enjoy By" is a whale in Australia because it's hard to get there.

It's even variable by store. I was trying to find Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti. Sold out in 5 stores that I checked. I found one store that had a whole case. Score!

If you are worried about sharing your whales and getting whales in kind... hmm... IDK. Sounds like a first world problem.

 

Most beers are "shelf" beers, aren't they? I've never bought a rare beer because I've never seen one and I don't have an app for chasing down the beer truck. If you invited me to your event and I know there will be some rare beers there, I would have to bring some of my most treasured shelf beers and hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Or maybe I'd just skip the event because I don't want to be "that guy".

 

I have 4 oculto's left in the fridge that someone brought over, what time do I need to be there?

 

A friend at work whom I am taking under my wing to give a wider palate range recently gave me 5 Guinness Nitro IPA's and one Budweiser which he calls "golden delicious". I chuckled since I will review it...it's been a LONG time....like 20 plus years since I had one. Also had the little lady's niece from England and her boyfriend stay here while we went on our Brewcation up north to visit my Aunt and they had reign of the fridge and some good craft brews....they left 2 Miller High Life's for me to enjoy...again, it's been a long time and it was all they had to offer in exchange for enjoying what I had left....plus they are pretty much not well off financially so it was a treat to them.

Personally, I snub nobody's idea of a good brew, personal perspectives and all, it's the thought that counts.....that and sometimes you need something kinda light to wash down a Russian Imperial or port barrel aged triple, so it can be enjoyed.

Are you a snob----nah, just cognizant of price.

 

I've seen MFs that would bring shit, twice!

Cheers!

 

They're called keggers and they're awesome

 

The whole theme of "winning" has crept deep into craft beer and it's fucking sad.

 

which is why I didn't trade after my first. I encountered A LOT of pricks.

 

I had a share at my house and one guy showed up hadn't had much craft beer before at all , he got to try Dark Lord , Bo & Luke , Sexual Chocolate , CW 16 and many other great beers and I was happy we got to blow him away at his first real craft beer experience , if you want a whale share have a whale share and limit the invites , otherwise it's open game in my opinion

 

FTFY.

 

They don't belong at the event.

If they're one of the many Johnny come latelies to craft beer then maybe they don't know any better. But if not, then they likely knew and showed up anyway to drink other people's rare beer.

As others mentioned, maybe nudge them towards what bottle shares are all about in terms of what to bring, and if they don't become reasonable contributors then I wouldn't invite them any longer. I don't care if this is deemed snobbery by the political correctness police.

 

I don't got many walez so I take $50 of cheese and some shelf turds, or get $100 of snacks for the table if at a bar,
at least I realise that procuring etc walez is hard/expensive, but you cant blame, people who have no idea

 

Yeah, I think I know what you mean.

I would rather drink a Shock Top with someone who thinks it is "Rare beer" than sip Barrel Aged Unicorn Tears with someone who wants to tell me about how much they spend on beer and how rare it is.

 

If you don't have the whales just bring some weed. That's usually a hit.

 

As has been noted over and over on this thread, it's all about context.

As far as I'm concern, the *only* time someone bringing something "boring" is a problem is if they are doing it to intentionally mooch other non-"boring" beers while not having to pony up something themselves. In other words, if they know exactly what they are doing--like the guy who goes out to get food and drinks with everyone and eats appetizers off the community plate and drinks off the pitchers, but always has some reason for why he can't contribute any cash to the bill.

But if it's people bringing what they like or what they can get or that don't know any better or any number of innocent reasons, then who cares? The point is having fun with friends, right?

Edit: When I lived in KC, I used to have a small group of guys--only 3 or 4--who all liked beer, but none of them were really obsessed over it in quite the same way I was. As a result, I'd often get us all together to drink good beer with the intention of only opening my bottles as a way to share my passion with these good friends of mine. They, being cool guys, would always bring stuff anyway, and often times it was something that any one of us could have driven to the local bottle shop and picked up off the shelf. But that didn't matter. The fun for me was in sharing these beers I had gotten from out-of-market and enjoying each other's company. If they brought something to share it was a nice gesture and always appreciated.

To me, that's what bottle sharing should be about.

 

Same here. Even if it's just drinking my brews. I would enjoy sharing my beers with others that have the same passion.

 

A couple cans of Bud Raz-Ber-Rita and Bud Light Chelada showed up at a great bottle share last year, and I seized the chance to try those without paying for them. (I mean, you can't call them bad with any authority if you don't at least try them, right?)

As it turned out, they were both pretty bad, but the Chelada wasn't nearly as bad as the amusing reviews on BA would have me believe.