Explaining bottle share to newbies

You must be part of the Rock Hill share group?

 

Yeah - it was the typo that got me wondering - "who the hell is this guy?" Love to be part of a Waxhaw share - drop me a line!

 

I'm inclined to lean more towards the belief that there's nothing wrong with shelf beer with the caveat of sharing the "rare" beers with people who will be able to appreciate the effort it takes to obtain them sometimes. For example, I was absolutely floored when someone showed up unannounced to a buddies house with a can of Heady once and I know I'd want to feel just as appreciated if I had done the same.

 

Since you say you've tried to explain in simple terms of bringing beer to share I'm assuming they responded to your explanation, what are their responses? They'd be helpful in knowing just what is throwing them off balance about the whole idea.

 

You may be overthinking this.

 

Totally with you on this one, brother.

I was once at bottle share that included some Newbies, and saw someone take a sip of their 2 oz pour of Utopias, and then they immediately poured it down the sink to the horror of several of us. I you don't like a beer, that's okay, but to pour it out instead of giving it away to someone who can appreciate it was gut-wrenching...

Whenever I go to a bottle share and I don't know exactly who all will be there, I bring a range of beers: good shelf beers, out-of-state stuff, harder to get stuff, special brewery release only stuff, and some lower tier whales. I open up what's appropriate for the people I'm drinking with, and usually open up something that's one tier up so I can introduce people to some of the "better" or "rarer stuff" that they normally couldn't get.

 

Bottle shares should be about sharing beer. Period. If it's shelf? That's great. If I like it, I can go buy some. If it's rare? That's also great. I got the chance to try something I would not have otherwise been able to.

If you want a narrowed share, you need to narrow the audience. Sounds to me like the folks you want to invite aren't your target audience.

 

So I say this having never attended an actual bottle share. I share practically 75-80% of my beers with my two buddies who don't trade and really don't drink much bought outside of the local grocery stores and an occasional liquor store. I guess I would be a bit disappointed if I went to a bottle share and found the vast majority of beers there were shelf beer especially when I know that I would certainly bring something along the more rare spectrum of beers to share. My expectations would be that others would be bringing more rare, difficult to obtain beers to share, as I would. I know better than to bring a true whale until I really know who the crowd is that I'm sharing it with. I guess like many things in life you need to understand the crowd you're dealing with. I like Gopens44's analogy with the Mickey Mantle baseball card though. I really like DaverCS's idea to ask that people bring beers that rate 90 or higher on BA though for sure….this is brilliant and I think would solve a lot of problems and eliminate a lot of concern for more avid collectors/attendees. DaverCS's comment is congruent with Mantooth's and I agree with him when he says that "when I pop a mega-rare brew, I'd like the folks I'm opening it for to understand the importance of it".

I do think you guys are being a little harsh on the OP when he says about "why these beers are important". His point is well taken (by me anyway)…certain beers have more relevance than others. Zombie Dust, Heady and SOS are strongly sought after, highly rated, difficult to obtain beers therefore they are more, let's say, interesting or intriguing than say Lagunitas IPA or Alaskan Amber which are readily available EVERYWHERE. While I agree, the OP has a chance to educate many people by sharing great beers with people who aren't up on the latest and greatest, I don't think he should have to be the only guy showing up there with great beers to share.

 

I think the easiest way to explain why this point of view isn't necessarily the right one to have is to simply say this:

I can get Zombie Dust whenever I want where I live. I can't get Alaskan Amber where I live.

Obviously that skews a bit when your share audience is all in the same area, but it kind of holds true even then. Availability and ability to obtain are both subjective. If you don't want to run the risk of someone attending who doesn't have access to the tier of beer you're looking, you need to curate the invite list.

 

OP's situation is a little different--it's not his party so it's not his list to curate.

Would you advise him to still attend the bottle share and only bring shelf beers, so that if someone does brings a rare beer/whale he gets to enjoy the whale while offering nothing similar in return? Honest question--when you go to bottle shares with unknown or Newbie attendees, do you always bring rare/whales and happily accept only shelf pours in return?

 

Honestly? Bring bag with a couple of bottles. Crack what you end up feeling comfortable cracking.

 

I bring an assortment of rarer bottles and awesome shelf beers when I'm not sure of my audience. But I'm an overplanner...lol. I like to have my bases covered.

I was at a bottle share recently where one person brought a single 12oz bottle of CW BBBW. It was like gold to him and I took pleasure in him sharing it even though it wasn't a high end beer. To him it was and that was cool.

 

Totally agree. Whenever I go to a bottle share and I don't know exactly who all will be there, I bring a range of beers: good shelf beers, out-of-state stuff, harder to get stuff, special brewery release only stuff, and some lower tier whales. I open up what's appropriate for the people I'm drinking with, and usually open up something that's one tier up so I can introduce people to some of the "better" or "rarer stuff" that they normally couldn't get.

 

Exactly what I do.

 

Title needs to be changed to "Explaining bottle share to beer snobs"