Would a BCBS Rare trade 1:1 for an Alpine Great? Or would one be worth more than the other? I have heard that Great gets brewed and aged from time to time so it will have more vintages than Rare, but I'm also sure that the bottle count is immensely lower than Rare. I see Rare traded more than Great and Great is a major tick I'd like to knock out. Rare was just an off the head example of a beer that carries weight; basically just looking for the trade value of Great.
From what I can remember they have bottled Great twice, I think '05 and '09. I've never seen a '05 and can't remember seeing one for trade in the last 4 years I've been on the site. The one bottle I managed to get in trade was right after the second release as part of a big trade. It is easily one of my top 5 BWs and I've had shitons of BWs. If you love BWs as much as me, this should be a must try! So thats what I know about it. My opinion on Rare landing a Great? Probably not gonna happen. For the original release, you are gonna needs some whales!
Correct on the '05 and '09. '05 was an oddly shaped 500ml bottle that I believe Spdkillz has a nice photo of for reference and '09 was a 12oz bottle. I had one bottle of Great and would not have traded it for anything, ended up opening it at a tasting that had WH. Given the bottle size and dollar difference I do believe you might be able to find someone willing to do the trade but what will make it hard is that there are so few bottles of Great left floating around. If you wait a year you may get lucky
I have had the 05 and it was in a different bottle than the 09. I still have a few 09s laying around but it is so hard to trade some beer because you really cant get anything in a trade that is as good. Rare is close though.
Something so rare and great that not even a Rare can land it?! I heard there was another bottling coming up. Someone want to help me get a bottle??
I dont know how much help this is, but I will post it anyway. Maybe it will be useful to someone. The last time I heard a friend of mine trading for a bottle of Great, he gave up a bottle of Gratitude that was either a recent vintage or a year old. So he traded 2x the volumne of "equally limited same style goodness" for the 12oz '09 bottle. Call it ignorance on my part but somehow/sometime in '09-'10 I was gifted with 2 bottles of Great as extras in different trades. I tucked them away and completely forgot about them until a couple months ago when I found them. A friend and I drank the one bottle and I previously traded away the other before ever having tasted it. Had I drank the Great first, I probably never would have traded the other bottle away. That was some tasty stuff.
FYI, here's a pic of 09 and 05 side by side. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59/img00170201205092315.jpg/
Not planned...I have pretty much traded my cellar away except for cantillon/3f and some rarer US bottles. Trust me, anyone who knows me on here knows I'm not "that guy". Just trying to help the poster who was trying to describe the bottles.
Just a lighthearted jab is all...believe me I'd show those brews off if I had 'em. I need to start using those smileys more.
Traded a Fou Foune for a Great '09 a week or two ago. Both of us were very happy with the trade. Great is probably my favorite beer ever.
No worries bud. I totally understand...looking back at the pic now, I can see how one would think that. Cheers!
