Best of Luck man, enjoy Cleveland, I hear they do a nice job with their marathon - Rock N Roll series right? Very cool. I am going to say you will run a 3:53.22 and you've put in an impressive 642 miles of training. Let me know what the funniest sign you see says Congrats @Elkevjoe , nice guessing. And congrats on the move and career change @Steban ! With a few possible new folks getting into the mix this time, I'll be happy to step up as your sponsor. Send me a BM (not a bag of poop but a personal message or Beer Mail) to get started. I'm going to need 3 likes, 3 dislikes, favorite song to slow dance to, favorite non-BA stout, favorite movie, least favorite New Jersey-an, and what car you think is the least likely to get you laid.
Is that what BM stands for I just assumed it was Beer Advocate Message but I guess that would be BAM. I recruited some new participants for Round 4 so there will still be some boxes from S.E. Florida. @elgato31, @CBrodbeck - Get in on Round 4 both of you No excuses. I can sponsor if need be.
Also @SuicideByCyanide you need to get in on the next round with some goodies from NY. I'll sponsor you if need be.
Well for sure and this goes for all newbs, update your wants. This gives us an understanding of what you like plus we like ticking them off if possible.
#VBS Cheers to you all for welcoming newbies! PS: I know Monk's Blood is not the most exciting share - it is distributed pretty widely. But my appreciation for this beer grew because I tried to make it myself and there are so many ingredients: figs, vanilla, cinnamon, oh my!
I'm deff in for round 4. Late June/Early July targets with a end of July ship date would be pretty boss for me. I've got some friends that may be interested as well. @Liquidswordz and @Saudereth.
Since talk about a new round is happening, I'll ask a question that I have which could help lurkers and newbies for the next round. My cellar is really weak. Pathetic! Right now about 10 bottles, which are 80% from recent trades. I only have 2-3 beers that I bought in there. I know I need to step my game up a bit, hunt more and get 2-3 bottles of a release. Any advice? What are you guys spending weekly or monthly? I raise this question because when the round starts, I'm sort of at a disadvantage for hitting wants. I've lucked out in the 1st 2 rounds with local releases, but don't want to always rely on that. Just looking for some advice. I know this is more of a casual BIF, which is why I joined. But I want to step up my game a bit.
@beatjunkee Good luck this Sun! and thank you for the LIF. I'll go with 3:41 and 459 miles Congrats @Steban on the move and @Elkevjoe for crushing that LIF!
I've pretty much learned the hard way, don't speculate on what you might think will be wanted or liked by anyone. Buy what you like, if it's keep-able / age-able maybe pick up another, either for yourself, or as a trade / bif bottle... slowly you will end up with things that not only you want to drink, but want to trade / bif I've got quite a bit that I really like and enjoy.. but if only going on ratings (which some of the bif's require to be 85 or 90+), most of it doesn't fit.. is also why I'm semi-uneasy about joining in. some weeks I don't spend any, as nothing released sounded good.. I've also dropped 100+ (and more) in a single trip (in my defense, I wasn't going to pass up the case of KBS .. pa distro laws) If we don't end up being each others targets, give me a shout, maybe we can help each other
Great question here @SRBush1974! I'm just one opinion from a recent newbie-newbie but here it goes. I sense potential beer trader/BIF participant beer cycle stages at work. This is generalized, and might not be applicable to every single person: At first, we start out not knowing what hoarding is, then we ramp up and start hoarding everything, then we switch into hoarding quality, then we realize we have too much and start chipping away at it, then when we're done we end up hoarding a lot less and drinking and sending it in the present. I've transitioned from hoarding everything into hoarding quality such as Parabola, most to 'BIF out', some to build verticals few years into the future. As of today, it helps me to prevent that mild BIF anxiety over meeting my future target wants. To get there, I started utilizing a lot more social media and informal & local beer buddy networks providing heads up on what is showing up where and when. However, I'm neither pleased nor proud to hoard at a current high rate. It costs a lot, takes a lot of driving and hunting and also gives me above-average allocation of limited releases which frankly isn't not what being a good advocate should be about as more for me means less for everyone else. I'm few years behind @KyleDavis who seems to be in that post-hoarding stage and simply builds inventory in between rounds but not months ahead. @oldmetalguy just stated "maybe pick up another" which is healthier than "pick up the whole lot and figure it out later". Separately, it also helps when we as targets all have nice & broad wants and not just some top 250 rarities. Lots of great local beers out there worth trying even if they are not massively hyped up.
Slow and steady wins the race. Don't over-extend yourself or your finances. That is absolutely paramount. If you like participating then most likely others like when you participate, too, and no one wants to see you get burned out and leave.
Calling on @bshemansky. Check it out and read back through some of the pages to see if it's something you'd like to try out. These are a bunch of guys who like to talk/drink beer and for some reason hate porches....
THIS. When @Eziel won one of my LIFs, I was like, "damn, that dude drinks a ton of great beer, what can I possibly send him that'll be a new and exciting?" Then I come to find he still has 600+ wants. It's always a great relief to see a wide variety of wants, rather than 150 very limited, very hard to get beers. It seems like someone mentions it at least once each round, but it's worth repeating: Update your wants!
This is probably this most important part. I know I just click on people I know on BA, people in this thread and others, and I see what is in their "wants". I figure if they want it and I haven't had it, why not right!? I'm sure @Houser won't mind me mentioning him but check out his "wants" if you want to see a great list and steal some good ideas!
Looks like we got a lot of new blood coming in which is fantastic. I know there's been some talk on when to start the round and my proposal is: 1) Sign up period for June 1 - June 15 2) Sign-ups go out by June 20 3) Shipping window July 1-July 15 (or earlier if you want) I've talked to a few of you and figured I'd run 1 more round and then turn it over to someone else to join in on the fun. Another question I have is, does anyone have suggestions on themes? We've always tried to keep things simple, which I think is a good motto but some slight changes to format might also make things interesting. Therefore, I'm all ears to what you guys might have in mind.
