Whales that are or aren't worth the hunt?

Alpine - Keene Idea, I drove 2 hours to pick it up in the latest release. Perhaps it was 10x better prior to the Green Flash acquisition, but I was not a fan of this batch.

 

The only beers I've ever traded for were Pliny the Elder, Supplication, and OG Alpine Nelson.

All were great. Pliny is definitely one of the best IPA's I've ever had. Nelson was great but definitely not worth the can of Heady I traded for it.

The longest "line" I ever waited in was for MBC Dinner. Again, one of the best IPA's I've ever had, but the line, plus the $8 price point was absolutely not worth it. Especially now I can get it any day I go to the brewery. I sat in 30 degree weather from 3 am until 7 am when they started selling it. So dumb. Can't believe I did that.

 

The only whale I’ve come across (other than my last Tinder date) was when I won the opportunity to purchase a bottle of BCBS Vanilla Rye in 2014. I aged it until 2017 and ended up trading it for a huge haul of Other Half, Tree House, Trillium, etc. One huge “whale” isn’t worth it to me. I’m glad I made that trade.

 

We get Maine here in SoCal, but they say that won’t send Dinner because of its “fragile nature.” That being said, I willing to try it after a 3,000 mile journey

 

I had Keene before the Green Flash disaster and it was great. I also drive down from OC for the latest batch and was underwhelmed. Oh well.

 

It's Pliny for me, and it's my favorite beer story.

In December 2015, my wife and I had plans to spend NYE in Denver with a good buddy of mine and his wife, then see Umphrey's McGee on New Year's Night.

I'd been looking to trade for Pliny for months at this point, but things always fell through, mostly with traders were worried about temperatures.

Our flight out got cancelled the night before we left, due to an ice storm here in Illinois. We already had an Airbnb booked, Umphrey's tickets, and our flight back.

We decided to rent a car the next morning and drive to Colorado. Enterprise opened at 7:30, we were waiting outside at 7:25, and drove 15 hours that day to Colorado. Dropped our bags at our Airbnb, then headed to Star Bar in Denver.

First beer I see on the tap list? Pliny. Ordered two of those, told the story to the bartenders (my Cubs hat gave us away as out-of-towners), and they let us keep the New Belgium snifters they served the Pliny in.

 

The closest I've had to whales is when I was hunting styles to get to all 111. My last two were Happoshu and Gruit, and they weren't available here though I spent two years looking. I got Happoshu in trade thanks to @Harrison8 , and to get a Gruit I watched a Wisconsin brewery website (Oliphant). When their Groot rotated into their taproom I made the six-hour drive to have it. I made it a family shopping trip to justify it, with my son and I dropping the womenfolk off at an outlet mall on the way. Gruit is a hop-free style that uses other spices like coriander for flavor. Since the commonality is no hops, Gruits can vary in flavor a lot. Not a new favorite style, but OK.

 

Pliney for me too, and for me it was as good as advertised. My brother is a beer hoarder and has untold amounts of bcbs. He told me last week that he is drinking it down, and will give me 5 bottles of 2014. Cant wait.

 

I’ve traded twice. Once was for BA Speedway, which I wouldn’t say is a whale, but at the time (2013) definitely something on the harder-to-get end of the spectrum that I really wanted to try. Really enjoyed it but definitely didn’t blow me away. And in hindsight would have preferred to keep the BCBCS I traded for it (don’t feel too bad - I got lucky and picked up a bunch that year).

That’s it on the trading front. Never bought on secondary. Not part of any memberships.

As far as lining up for beer goes (not counting busy bars/festivals/events), there are only two places I’ve lined up. One is at Other Half by accident (my local spot - normally I time it to get there once line dissipates, but this one time I fucked up and had a 20 min wait), so N/A. The other is whenever I’ve gone to Hill Farmstead. Doing a 7-8 hour drive to the brewery I consider to be American Beer Mecca is my one allowance to myself to line up for beer. Worth it every time.

edit - I’m glad we’ve gotten to a point where someone can post a whale thread, and people can mention Pliny and not get dumped on with a post with a link to the doc containing Wooden Hell etc

 

Sip Of Sunshine. I was after it for many years so eventually I decided to take a day off work, fly to Burlington with an empty suitcase, fill it with SoS and fly back. The beer was totally worth it. What do you know, less than one month later, SoS started distro in my area. Oh well. It was still worth it, IMO!

 

In my opinion beer isn't worth trading for.

Either life finds a way to bring it to you or somebody near you is brewing something just as good if not better because it is fresh.

I say that because I believe it is true for 99% of people.

I find NEIPA's and barrel aged stouts too easy to recreate to be worth it. For instance, I couldn't wait to try CBS. Once I had it i enjoyed it but it wasn't as good as humble old Black Out Stout from Great Lakes. Or I lived an hour away from Trillium Canton to Virginia. The Veil is pumping out beers just as good if not better then Trillium.

The only beers that I have had that have been worth it in the end have been things that can only really come from one place. For example, some Belgian beers, lambics, German beers fresh, etc.

Now for my Whale story. I wanted to try Westy XII forever. Didn't want to spend the money on shipping it here or trading it and waited on my hands to let it come to me. One work trip to Estonia later and there it is just sitting on a shelf at a bottle shop. Super unique and one of a kind. One of the only beers I have longed for and lived up to the hype.

 

I was once interested in going to the party to get a Dark Lord, but after reading some good and bad comments in forum threads about it, this beer seems to be somewhat divisive. I'm no longer interested, never having tried it myself.

 

We get MBC beers here too, but no Dinner. It’s a pretty good beer though I’ve only had it once. When Monks Cafe in Philly hosted MBC they brought kegs of Double Dinner with them, the first time outside of the brewery. Bet that was good.

 

I went hard for an OG Bramble last year. I knew it wouldn' be worth the cost of admission and was right. Oh well. Way she goes...

 

A keg of Dinner makes its appearance in CLT at my favorite place about twice a year and lasts 3 hrs. I think it still is in my top 5 IPAs. The bottles are very rare to show up.

Maybe just getting "old" but stumbling on something local that is a big hit or a rarity that shows up unexpectedly at my local shop and enjoying the surprise has come to deliver more satisfaction than any trade or line or haul ever did.

As I may have said in an ancient thread--I no longer hunt but gather.

 

Ten years ago I would sweat not only the whales but also hyped breweries. Now I take a far more organic approach to it, which is to say that if I am traveling than I'll pop into a place or two for whatever there is locally that I have to try, but not necessarily whales (unless I luck our). My last few trades weren't focused on whales, just good West Coast IPAs. I could possibly grab some Veil or Aslin stuff to try and make trades for something special but honestly don't have the energy anymore.

What I would make an effort for is most anything from The Other Half, possibly Trillium. Individual bottles that still elude me is ADWTD, Kuhnhenn Barleywine and the Westy lineup - guess that's what I may still chase, but I'm not going to stress over it.

*Edit - realized I didn't properly answer the question. I have only waited in a line for more than about 30 minutes once, which was the 2 hour Hardywood line for Trickery. Good beer but not a waste 2 hours of my day good beer, which honestly at this point I have no idea what kind of alchemy would suck me in to such a wait again.

 

Westvleteren XII, it cost me a pretty penny and was one of those "you only live once" kind of purchases, ordered some from Belgiuminabox, it was worth it to try it, definitely one of the best beers I ever tasted, just not sure I would shell out the coin to get it again.

 

Line, drink, line: One year at the Jupiter Craft Festival, and I'm in line for the annual 3 pm riot-Funky Buddha tapping MBCP, when other folks stroll by saying "damn, this stuff is good", "this is the shit", etc. I ask one of the people and the guy points me 3 lines over ands says "rum barrel Ten Fidy". Got my MBCP and quickly got into the Oscar Blues line. Everyone was right.

 

I’ve only had one true Whale and that was the first year that CBS was ever bottled and distributed. I traded that for as much Pliny and Blind Pig as I could squeeze out of the deal. I’ve had Westy 12 don’t remember where I got it, but I put it in as an xtra into a trade. I also gave away a shit load of HF after my first trip to Vt after suffering severe palate fatigue. Took months to get over that hop binge.