Beer cellar and divorce

Beer is not worth enough to fight over. Many people have wine cellars that are worth well over $50,000 that is worth fighting over.

 

Just to add to this:

Wine and Spirits have markets that exist in the real world, whereas beer does not. To be explicitly clear: stores actually sell wine and spirits, and you can look up what bottle X of Y vintage has sold for (whether from a store or an auction), or is currently selling for from a retailer/cellar store. The analogue does not exist for beer. Everyone that sells beer is doing so illegally, and the websites that exist to sell beer also operate illegally (as far as I know).

So, from a legal standpoint, even if you had 10 cases of BBT, Derivations, KBBS, etc., what could you point to for value? Nothing legal. Your only argument would be sentimental value.

Compare this to the wine and spirits world, where it is easy for a small collection to be worth thousands or tens of thousands of dollars with the right set of bottles, and it’s easy to see why someone would fight over the VALUE.

 

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-nov-06-mn-30725-story.html

 

Why would it be legal to sell wine and spirits but not beer?

 

I think the markets being referred to are legal secondary markets where vintage wines and liquors are auctioned. Id imagine the same entities could also deal in beer but don't because of lack of demand.

 

Mostly this:

There’s are stores that have liquor licenses that sell wine and spirits “secondary.” Note that this refers to price, but original owner only. I believe Kentucky is the only state that has enacted a “vintage spirit” law that allows retailers with a license to buy a vintage spirit from someone, and then sell it to someone else. I don’t think that is legal anywhere for wine either. However, auctions from various auction houses are, obviously, legal.

I know of NO such store that sells cellared beer on the “secondary”. I don’t believe it is legal to purchase from someone or to hook a buyer up with a seller (although the seller does not have a license either), and i know of no such store that has cellared beers just to sell later at a high markup. Craft beer King’s And the such not withstanding, since they get only very limited (widely distributed) options, all things considered.

 

@cavedave - I seem to remember you having a relatable story.

 

Indeed. Anyone wondering if beer cellars are open to being listed on the assets, they can. Ex #2 used mine (much larger back then) as bargaining chip. She ended up getting the generator and electric fence, which I'd negotiated early on to keep, and I kept the beer.

I ended up pissed off from her/her lawyer's tactics and instructed my lawyer to change my offer at the last minute for her half of the house by $5,000.00 less than we had "agreed" on, which was nasty, I know, and forced her to accept as I knew it would due to her financial commitments. But, hey, she went after my beer! This is why, yes, you can go after partner's beer cellar, but it might not be such a good idea.

 

how did they value the beer? was it just retail?

 

Glad we didn't have to fight that battle. She didn't think to value it because she was going to keep all the wines, few of which were valuable, and didn't realize my beer was worth anything until well along in the process, let alone much more than her wines. I traded keeping my beer for letting go a generator we'd paid 2100.00 and the electric fence electronics and connectors (I kept the buried wires) which was probably 1,000.00. I think if she would have paid someone to do a valid estimate I would have done much worse. I figure it would have been fairly valued at about 7K at that time.

 

What is that value based on, though? Retail?

Legally, I'm still not sure how a court could accept anything but retail value for beer, since no one sells cellared beer (legally) at secondary valuations. Pointing to Facebook or another site that illegally has people selling from one person to the other just doesn't seem like it would work

 

Skinner Auction house sells and appraises beer. They could also point to charity auctions.

 

Well, I have to agree with some of you who are saying that beer is not worth enough to fight over. I mean, yeah there are some incredibly great and expensive beer however there are not worth it. I remember back when my best friend wanted to divorce his wife, he was really afraid for his wine cellar, as it was worth more than 120.000 bucks!!! He had nothing to do with the cars, house and so on and so forth, however his beloved wine celar is something that noone has the right to touch. He actually hired some of the best lawyers from waymanandlong.co.uk in order to protect his cellar. When everything ended, and the wine cellar remained untouched, he was happy as a little child!

 

I was both lucky and unlucky. Unlucky that one of her friends likely said, "You know all those beers Dave has in the cellar? They're worth a lot of money." I figure I had to give up less than half their actual value (especially considering I replaced the $2100 generator for $800).based on me trying to replace them all, or, alternatively, what I could get for them if I sold them (something I would never do). Great enjoyment was provided by those bottles for my friends and I and how do you value that?

I also have no idea how they would be valued for a divorce, though, if it came to itemizing each one, I'm not a lawyer. But after seeing how our two hardball tossing attorneys did shit it wouldn't surprise me to see motions made supported by MBC prices.

 

I'm hoping I never have to deal with such a situation - I know I \moved in with SWMBO with a certain amount of beer - a few cases, and when we moved into our current house about a year after we were married, I moved about 40 cases, including homebrew (I think it was about 15 cases homebrew at the time.) I know if I cased it all up - it;s mostly on shelves now,) I'd probably have more than that. Some of it I could easily get some good money for on the secondary market, if I wanted to go that route. Though the arguement could at least be made they should be valued at purchase price.
I know what I have in guitars, for example, though I came into the relationship with most of them - I think all I've gotten since marriage is small bits and bobs, but you'd be amazed at how quickly a handful of effects pedals adds up.