Disappointing Trend

I get this bullshit a lot whenever I post an ISO. I always inevitably get someone who responds saying I can do this then start fishing around for HF or Heady... when I live IN MAINE 3 HOURS AWAY FROM ANY ACCESS. Then I never hear from them again. Instant add to my personal DNT list.

 

I hear ya but it happens in every state. I get the same thing with JK. It's damn near a 9 hour round trip for me and everyone only wants the special releases that have a one per day. Part of the reason I've stopped trading as much. As you mentioned the stout you enjoy, I enjoy plenty of local stuff that I don't have to drive 9 hours for, possibly rent a hotel, etc just to flip it for something slightly better than what I can get locally or online.

Also, playong devils advocate since I'm so good at it There may be plenty of people that live in the midwest and have the same problem as you with Jackie O's. In other words, correct me if I'm wrong, but Jackie O's isn't distributed, right? So if you want an Oatmeal stout from Jackie O's it may require someone driving quite a bit to get it and if they are local, perhaps they don't want to spend the time and money on shipping a great stout to get another stout they have little interest in or may be almost equivalent.

 

Eh, I get what you are saying but on the other hand if somebody has to drive out to Jackie O's they might not want to trade it for shelf beer. Somebody in Cleveland could be thinking the exact same thing as you are "everybody always asks for BA Jackie O's beers..."

 

Yep. Casey. People don't realize it's a 6-hour round trip drive from Denver (and that's when there's no ski traffic) and he's open one day a month.

 

i agree. i dont really get OP's point. you want to trade your unheard of shelf beers for beers from highly regarded breweries and you're having trouble doing it, which makes you upset because they're asking for beers from highly regarded breweries as well? you can always go locals for locals...it happens all the time

 

In a lot trade talks folks will ask about Perennial and Side Project stuff. Fair enough, I probably would send some as an extra anyway, but they only ask about the rare or more sought after ones. No, I'm not interested in expanding a trade to where I include a Derivation (especially when the potential trade partner doesn't have much to offer)

 

I'll be Devil's Advocate, too.

If you use the example of the Mayflower Winter Stout...well, it's great that you love it. But the masses have rated this as a "very good" beer. And though those masses may not appreciate all that you see in the beer, why would I bother to trade for it? I probably speak for 90% of the population when I say that I can likely get an oatmeal stout that is as good, or better, that Mayflower Winter Stout locally.

So why trade for it?

I wouldn't bother. There is so much good beer being brewed locally (& more all the time) & so much good beer being distributed (& more all the time), & it's so expensive & time-consuming to send stuff cross-country, that there is simply no reason to trade for a "very good" regional stout. On the other hand, this beer sounds like a perfect extra!

 

Get this all the time with Other Half cans, am about a half hour from the brewery (you can't buy their cans anywhere else, they are not in stores), but no, I will not stand in line on a Saturday morning so you can get a 4pk in return for a beer that is sold in stores across many states...I work hard all week and am staying in bed on Saturday morning. If you want to trade a beer that required YOU to get up at the ass crack of dawn on a Saturday, THEN we are talking. Cheers folks!

 

A couple things:
1) I think your issue may be more with ratings (the underlined passages as a single sentence is near-gospel) ... and in many cases, I wouldn't disagree with you: Confirmation bias is an unmitigated juggernaut in this echo chamber.
2) On the other hand, others have pointed out that you're falling into that trap yourself. I will admit that some folks live in Beer Eden and others live in Beer Hell. But the grass often isn't really greener elsewhere; it's simply different. Thats why, as @Fahmie25 correctly suggested, having a few regular trading partners in different regions is a great way to go. You can share really good, and maybe excellent, local treasures and likely get some unexpected whalez along the way.

 

Good riddance, I say: They've self-selected on to a "do not trade" list.

 

Oh Hi! I'm that someone in Cleveland. I share some of these same frustrations. For instance trying to trade for stuff I know sits on shelves on the West Coast for example, but ppl only interested in Jackie O's stuff or Hop Juju (out once a year). Meanwhile I have 95+ rated stuff here from FatHeads or Brew Kettle I'd be happy to send.

 

Anyone who would turn down Fat Heads hops is a fool!

 

I get this with Tired Hands and Pizza Boy all the time. "Hey man, I see you're in PA, got any Parageusia or fruited sours from PB?". No I didn't wait 5 hours at a Tired Hands release to trade for your shelf beers and I didn't even bother making the 4-5 hour round trip for a bottle of two from Pizza Boy. I think everyone gets this from their local area.

Also, to play devils advocate like other have, if I'm making a trade, I don't want someone else telling me what I should trade for. If you think that Mayflower is a badass beer, great, toss it in as an extra and if I agree with you, I'll be coming back to trade for more. I once added a couple bottles of Free Will Kragle into a trade and a few weeks later that same guy messaged me asking for more.

If you're looking for shelf for shelf trades then you just need to specify that and the whale hunters won't come calling. There are a lot of people out there that just love to try new beers. When I first got into trading I usually just traded shelf for shelf until I realized that I may be spending $25 on beer plus $5 for supplies and another $20 to ship just to receive 10 cans/bottles. I started thinking about how I was essentially spending $50 for a bunch of beers that are no better than the shelf stuff I can buy myself for half of what I spent. Now, if I'm trading one or two higher valued bottles a lot of times I will ask my partner if he/she would like to fill out the boxes with a mixed 6 or $20-$30 of local stuff. If they agree, that's when I would add something like that Mayflower.


Edit: Just wanted to add that just because you love a beer doesn't mean everyone will. The beer you mentioned has average ratings across the board across different rating sites (BA, Untappd, etc). So while you may love it, the average drinker is rating it either 3.5 or 3.75 on Untappd. There are hundred of bottles with that rating that I haven't tried yet that are just sitting on shelves for $2-$3 a bottle.

 

Isn't that why trades exist, to get beers that one cannot get otherwise? Don't blame someone from another region for not knowing specifics about your area of the country. The west coast has the same issues. Firestone is a 2 hr drive, RR is a 4 hour drive, kern river 2-2 1/2 hours up into the mountains. Doesn't hurt to ask, or explain about the brewery in question's size, availability and distribution footprint.

 

Not that I like it when someone asks how close I am to New Glarus. I'll justify the fishing (which should be more outright asking).

I don't like trading with strangers all the time. I'll make smaller local beer trades to develop a relationship with someone who has access to breweries or beers I always want. And, it's nice having a good relationship with someone who can just pick up something local for you, and you trust it.

 

People really only hear about the heavy hitters from other sides of the country, and naturally if you're going to go through the effort of packaging bottles and pay $20+ for shipping you want to get something you are ISO, rather than random suggestions. I really do get the frustration but not sure I have an answer here. Hell, ever try trading Jackie O's bottles that aren't BA stouts? Crickets, even though they are nearly brewery only and very solid.

 

This is kind of related, but I've also seen people who live in Vermont trying to pull "Whalez" with SoS and Heady Topper. I'm thinking, because of where you live, these beers are not that difficult for YOU to acquire. But asking someone for something they may have had to wait in line for, or drive a long way for, or TRADE for... you get the idea. That said, I'll probably be trying to find one of these people next year... haha.

 

For the record, these days those beers are still pretty hard to acquire. I wouldn't consider them "whalez" but far from shelf as well. Heady in particular is only distributed to a small area of Vermont and most stores lately have a 4pack per person limit. The stores that have higher limits usually have people lined up pretty early. Everybody also usually sells out within a few hours. It's also generally only available during the week.

So for me (coming from Boston, which is the closest real city to Heady-land) to get any quantity of Heady I have to:

1. Take off of work
2. Drive ~3 hours to Heady territory
3. Stop at several stores

I would equate it to something like BCBCS (not regular or BW) in terms of obtainablity.