Charged at a bottle share?

That has happened to me too. And they often try to charge me extra. The bill shows way more than I know that I had

 

Gotta read the fine print.

 

Kind of against the spirit of things imo.

 

I've contemplated doing this with my friends who are on the fence with craft beer...:like it and will buy it at a store but sure as hell aren't going to releases and/or fests. I need to liquidate my cellar a bit, so I thought about charging each person 20.00 to recoup some of the $$$ for bottles. I look at it this way: if I said "hey let's do a share." They are gonna go to local store and grab some garbage beer that prob cost close to 20.00 anyways. So why not just drink my beer, higher quality and I know what style to oppen. Haven't done this yet but am gettitn close to having a night or two like this.

 

OP is host. Finkel and Einhorn

 

So, let me get this straight. The host of this "share" is a friend of the OP and on BA. The OP starts a thread (in likely the most heavily trafficked forum on the site) titled "Charged at a bottle share?" about the host's questionable request. Yet the OP somehow thinks being a little cagey and unforthcoming in his responses will keep the friend/host from finding out they are the subject of said thread.

 

Been to many a shares, never once was there any money involved. Whether I've hosted or went to another person's house, money has never been involved. That's my idea of a "share." We do agree before hand about how 'big' we want to go with bottles, that way no one is feeling like they opened a whale and others did not contribute equally.

 

If you do charge, be sure you first get a license to sell alcohol in Florida.

Alternatively you could organize a share by assigning a participant something to buy for sharing with the others. Then you could spend some time explaining in the tasting what flavors there are in the beer, etc.

 

I'm hosting a small share in about an hour and this thread has been very entertaining. I hope that at least 1-2 of my guests have some smaller bills for change!

Just kidding.

 

Bottle shares should have nothing to do with secondary market value. Monetizing one's cellar doesn't seem like beer advocacy to me.

 

Oh god. You have won the internet today sir.

 

A beer share is just that, everyone brings an appropriate bottle or two. If you order food out you share the cost. Sounds like the guy is selling his beer.

 

I've had a "share" once where I asked everyone to chip in.

The situation was they all wanted to try the Cigar City El Catador Club beers from a full edition, but I didn't really want to open them all. So I told them if they really want them we can make the next "share" an El Cat tasting. I'll supply all of the bottles, but everyone chips in for what the cost of the round was. Everyone agreed far in advance and I brought extra bottles beyond the el cat bottles, too. I didn't ask for enough to even cover the el cat bottles and I thought it was fair since they didn't have to supply anything let alone comparable bottles.

Since then we've had many more shares where I've brought plenty of Hunahpu and other El Cat beers that were traditional share.

 

You don't have to charge your friends just because you went on a spree of buying more bottles than what you can drink.

If you really want your full satisfaction, liquidate your bottles by drinking them yourself.

 

My wife and I have hosted a few tastings at our house where we have asked our guests (mix of BAs and non-BAs) to just bring an appetizer while we supply the beer. It's great for thinning out the cellar, and more importantly, watching the facial expressions of those who are trying goses, barrel-aged stouts, peanut butter & jelly beers, etc. for the first time! We've definitely opened the eyes of a few friends and you can't put a price on that.

 

This guy gets it. I have never been asked for money at a share aside from chipping in to order food, nor have I ever asked when hosting. My friends have brought TG stouts to shares where I only had a quasi-limited brewery release. I have brought Handjee to a share where others have had far lesser bottles. Sometimes if it's important to us, our group will prearrange a certain theme or level of bottle, other times we just show up with whatever. It all evens out and is so not worth getting panties bunched about trying to always make it "even" or "fair". Honestly that just ruins the entire vibe.

 

If I knew up front paying was part of the deal of just not go, that's not a bottle share. Is he charging enough to cover his cost in the bottles, enough to cover the perceived cost? It's not very convuluted to me just say no to this kind of stuff, friends share been they don't charge for samples.

 

There are also what my friends call "leavers" and "givers" as beer compensation at bottle shares.

In simplist form, you go to friends house for a beer tasting. The host is really excited about what he has, and wants to sample 2-3 of his special beers that night. Because he's donating all the beer to be sampled that night (or heavily weighted towards his donation), I bring along few extra bottles/cans left over from my fridge or cellar that he hasn't had yet or just may enjoy to balance things out. Instead of drinking them (because we don't want to get that sloppy), they are just reimbursement beers for his enjoyment on his own however he wishes. Sort of compensation in beer currency, and possibly saves him a trip to the store for a few extra days. I usually try to do this when I have options to leave or give, and if not, then I just make up for it next time we get together for a bottle share.

 

Pretty much this.

And if it was a spontaneous "hey I'm gonna open some cellar walez - can you guys chip in?" my response would have been "nah, I'm good--go ahead and open them if you want to but I'll pass on those bottles" just to make it obvious how awkward and weird it was for him to ask for money to open some of his bottles.