Bottle shares in London

Discussion in 'United Kingdom & Ireland' started by patrickinlondon, May 26, 2015.

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  1. patrickinlondon

    patrickinlondon Initiate (0) Apr 9, 2015 Illinois

    I’m a recent US transplant who just moved back to London after spending some time Brooklyn, brought quite a few US beers back with me and am frequently looking for trades to get a bit of a taste of back home (as well as good stuff I haven’t tried from this side of the pond).

    Hoping to recreate something I got introduced to in Brooklyn, namely bottle shares with like-minded craft beer fans.

    If you’re not familiar, the premise is that you get together with a group, usually at someone’s apartment (unless can find a pub that is OK with hosting), everyone turns up with 2-3 bottles of stuff that you can’t get very readily locally. You pop the bottles and everyone basically shares their stuff, chat about the brews and just hang out (and of course at the end line up all the bottles and snap a photo to brag to fellow beer nerds!)

    I’ve seen something along those lines being offered at Brewdog, where you pay to participate and they basically crack a few bottles for everyone to try. But the last thing I want to do is fork over any money to them, especially for something I can do much better and in the comfort of my own home.

    Would be hoping to set up fairly regularly, and don’t mind hosting this sort of event every now and again either.

    Any takers feel free to reply to this thread or PM me.

    Cheers
     
    #1 patrickinlondon, May 26, 2015
  2. Aye

    Aye Initiate (0) Jul 21, 2011 England

    Are you a member of the other place? Not to do this forum down at all but it seems more Londoncentric over at RB so it may attract more locals than here.
     
    #2 Aye, May 26, 2015
  3. patrickinlondon

    patrickinlondon Initiate (0) Apr 9, 2015 Illinois

    Appreciate it, someone else just gave me the same heads up, so will post there as well..
     
    #3 patrickinlondon, May 26, 2015
  4. HurrahBeer

    HurrahBeer Initiate (0) Jan 20, 2015 England

    Their forums are just brutal. The website has the worst design I have seen.

    Exciting concept. Agreed with you that I have no desire to go to BottleDog's overpriced attempts.
     
    #4 HurrahBeer, May 26, 2015
    patrickinlondon and Zimbo like this.
  5. Zimbo

    Zimbo Pooh-Bah (2,305) Aug 7, 2010 Scotland
    Pooh-Bah

     
    #5 Zimbo, May 27, 2015
    patrickinlondon likes this.
  6. patrickinlondon

    patrickinlondon Initiate (0) Apr 9, 2015 Illinois

    Yeah, just had a look through to see which beers someone had rated, it looks like the only way to do so is to click through page by page once you've sorted? (ie 300 different pages, as an example). That experience alone makes me never want to use that site again.

    Guess if that's what people in this part of the world use, I will at least have to check the regional thread every now and again..
     
    #6 patrickinlondon, May 27, 2015
  7. wesbray

    wesbray Initiate (0) Feb 29, 2012 Canada (AB)

    The other place is great if you are a serial ticker. People starting threads to congratulate each other on reaching 5000 unique ticks is utterly laughable.
     
    #7 wesbray, May 27, 2015
  8. shyhenry

    shyhenry Initiate (0) Oct 11, 2010 Minnesota

    No. It's actually quite easy to look up what other people have tried.

    I get tired of people driving a wedge between the sites when there doesn't have to be one. What's the point of users embracing internet beer site tribalism?
     
    #8 shyhenry, May 28, 2015
  9. Aye

    Aye Initiate (0) Jul 21, 2011 England

    No one is really. I personally find the other place difficult to navigate and, as has been said, a bit London-centric. Plus I like the easy going, good natured, rarely serious thing we have going on here. No antagonism intended.


    P.s. Who's up for a board invasion?
     
    #9 Aye, May 28, 2015
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  10. patrickinlondon

    patrickinlondon Initiate (0) Apr 9, 2015 Illinois

    My understanding is there is a way, namely paying $12.95/year for a membership to the site...if so, no thanks!
     
    #10 patrickinlondon, May 29, 2015
  11. JSOBB

    JSOBB Initiate (0) Jan 16, 2013 England

    It looks like I'm a little bit late to the party, but did this end up going anywhere? I'd be up for a bottle share.
     
    #11 JSOBB, Jun 23, 2015
  12. RendoMike

    RendoMike Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 England

    Hate to kick up an old thread, but I'm very interested in a bottle share group. American here also (been here 8 years) and I have a few good bottles in my cellar. Most of my fellow beer aficionados are living back in the states and I find myself hesitating to crack some of them open to drink by myself or share with people who don't fully appreciate great beer. I'm an hour on the train from London.
     
    #12 RendoMike, Jul 5, 2015
  13. leighton

    leighton Initiate (0) Jun 23, 2009 England

    We had a good meet-up back in early June (c. 10 people), and it was great to meet Patrick. I think we're due to have another group bottle share, so if there's interest we should try to set a date.
     
    #13 leighton, Jul 6, 2015
    tendermorsel, patrickinlondon, JSOBB and 1 other person like this.
  14. patrickinlondon

    patrickinlondon Initiate (0) Apr 9, 2015 Illinois

    I second that, was good times indeed! Even if I felt like I showed up with a knife to a gunfight with the beers that the other guys brought..

    Have a few trades over the coming weeks, so should have some decent beers to offer in the event we did.

    Leighton, any chance you're headed to Siren on Saturday? Booked my ticket a while back, definitely looking forward.

    Cheers
     
    #14 patrickinlondon, Jul 9, 2015
  15. leighton

    leighton Initiate (0) Jun 23, 2009 England

    I'll be down to Siren on Saturday, along with a few of the other guys you met at Clerkenwell. Should be a great event.

    The last week of July and first week of August I'll have some time to meet up for beers (pretty busy and/or traveling between now and then).
     
    #15 leighton, Jul 9, 2015
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  16. tendermorsel

    tendermorsel Initiate (0) Oct 22, 2006 Massachusetts

    The London RB crowd is top notch. Insane tickin maniacs but great beer people.
     
    #16 tendermorsel, Jul 11, 2015
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  17. Goudie

    Goudie Initiate (0) Jun 13, 2014 Northern Ireland

    Just for info as I am looking into setting something like this up in Belfast.
    How many is a good number? Reason I ask is if someone has a 500ml bottle and there are 10 people you aren't really going to get a great amount per person. Or is there a rule, if you have already tried it you don't get it. That would seem a bit mean to me though.
     
    #17 Goudie, Jul 31, 2015
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