Im just trying to see what others think of this beer. Is it actually worth the price I believe 23 dollars per bottle. Is this one that would trade well / trade up? Or is it more a novelty. new to BA so not sure if this is the right place for this.
First off, welcome. Second, "trading up" is rather frowned upon around here. This community largely operates on generosity and a sharing mentality. You reap what you sow. Onto Ola Dubh... they all sit on shelves, largely due to the high price tags. It really doesn't have much trade value at all. $23 is also a bit high - shouldn't really be over $20, and even that is overpriced for what you get.
Trade up may not be the best way to put it but to me that seems like the only way someone who doesnt live near a brewery releasing extremely sought after beers is able to get one. Being from Mass there is basically nothing available in this area that can/would make a trade for something on the order of Darklord, hunaphu, etc.
Trading up is the only way to trade! Pass on this one, the "win" per $ spent ratio does not make sense with this beer.
Trading up with this one seems like a reach. I recommend local-for-locals with other new traders, and then failing to ship your end. Low hanging fruit is the easiest kind to pick.
I live in MA and I've tried a very large percentage of the "highly desirable" beers out there. And I've obtained most of them without Hill Farmstead. First off, both Darklord and now Hunahpu (with their increasing bottle counts) can be had with beers that get distributed to MA. Goose Island Cherry Rye, for example, will quickly land either of those two. Parabola for Darklord has been done many times, for another example. But those are low hanging fruit. If you get creative you'd be surprised at what people might want. Second, the best way to trade is to start small and work your way up. Eventually you hit a point where people will extra you things like Darklord, because, well, BA's are awesome like that. But nobody is every going to send you killer extras if they see you trying to maximize the trade value on every bottle you have. Lastly, you live within reasonable striking distance of Hill Farmstead, which is basically the nuclear weaponry of trading ammo. There's very little that a nice HF limited release or DIPA growler can't land.
I guess ill have to see how things go trading with the smaller name stuff and then work up to the big things. From where I am in MA HF, Alchemist, MBC, Lawsons, are all about 2-4 hours away so i guess if i ever got really jumpy I could make a run up there for some trade ammo. Thanks
Since you're new, I'd strongly suggest taking some time and doing some research before jumping in with both feet. This is a must-read if you're getting started: http://alewatcher.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-trader-tips.html Keep tabs on the trade forums and get a feel for how beers trade and what good etiquette looks like. Impatience can lead to trades going bad and your reputation taking hits if you don't ease into the community. (I bring this up because your initial post is a good way to ruffle feathers.) Take a run through some threads in this General/Help section and you'll see a bunch of cautionary tales.
