Cantillon Overshadowed?

Nope. In fact, I've seen a resurgence in desire for the LP series. Now I do overall agree with your sentiment in regards to "lower end" or "shelf" loons, most specifically RdG, Bio-things... I do feel like Fou '15 has been a bit easier to attain, but that's a very good thing to me. And finally, their "old desireables" have and always will be readily sought after.

 

I agree; I could not believe how hard it was for me to finally acquire a LPF this past fall for my wedding.

 

I would agree to some extent also. The year around loons have been fairly obtainable, even got a few here in Florida. The LP series and FF have been slightly easier to get this year, but my favorite St Lam, in my opinion has been the hardest to get of the yearly offerings.

 

I decided to go after Cantillon this year after holding off in prior years, and I was able to land quite a lot without too much hassle. I was able to pick up about a dozen bottles (2 Fou, 2 St Lam, Vig, Rose, Kriek, and 6 regular geuze) without much trouble - I only traded for a few of the bottles, and the rest I bought online.

If you have a credit card and are willing to roll the dice with shipping from Belgium (and willing to get reamed on price) you can pick up Cantillon pretty easily. If you want to pay a fair price you have to have good timing, but even then it isn't too bad to just order them - lucky timing and I got most of the above at well under what they trade for from a retail store.

Hard to justify trading for something I can just order to my house with zero hassles. 4 orders from Belgium and the slowest was 8 days to my door, with shipping not much more expensive than ordering from California... Just have to be a bit lucky with timing as sites sell out super fast.

 

People tend to want the newest and latest beer. Simple as that.

 

Which website(s) are you using? I've tried Belgianbeerz in the past but for Fou/LP I've only seen them sold as a "set" which regular geueze and other "lower end" bottles. I'd willing to pay the exorbitant shipping if I could order the beer individually.

 

Disagree, Cantillon pulls as much as it ever has

 

Same sites - they all do the whales as sets. I don't mind because I like the other stuff I get, be it classic gueuze or other lambics. The sets sell out really fast anyway, so I am not surprised they bundle. For something major like Fou I don't expect to get away for less than $300 for a set of ~8 bottles; sometimes closer to $400 if the set is a dozen.

Belgiuminabox has a great box that came on this morning - 16 bottles, some are shelf beers here, others are definitely not (Like LPG), and others are really interesting beers like Lindemans Special Blend or Tilquin^2. The box has a golden blend, a Belgian flag Cantillon (always wanted that bottle) and a bunch of other good stuff.

It will be $500 delivered to my door ($380 for the box and $110 for shipping). There are 13 750ml bottles and 3 375ml bottles, so doing the math, that is $34 a bottle for the full bottles and $17 a bottle for the half bottles. It isn't expensive per bottle given what is in the box.

I'll be really surprised if it is still available this afternoon, so I don't think I am alone in thinking it is a solid deal. Sure, some of the bottles are shelf beers here (like a marriage parfait) but still an excellent beer, and LPG / Golden Blend are definitely not shelf beers, and half the box doesn't see distribution in the USA.

Also, remember the box isn't put together for just US customers. Tons of people in Europe order it, and the shipping is way less for them. If I lived in England or Germany, I would be all over a box like this.

 

Yes it is, these bottles cost way, way, way less at the breweries or in physical stores. I'm sure you could buy distributed beer in the US and trade for this stuff and spend less money.

The only reason people buy this is for the one or maybe two rare bottles in the lot, and considering what you're actually paying for them it's really crazy.

 

True, most of these beers cost way less in Europe to buy off the shelf. I could trade with someone in Europe, but the problem there is shipping cost as a private person. It is enormous if you mail a box yourself through the post office. I also still have to go and find all the beers the other person wants which takes a lot of time and effort!

Packing materials are at least $10, and my last order was a 30kg box. I looked up what this costs for me to send through the US Postal Service; it would be $220 to post to Belgium.

I also still have to pay for the beer I send. The average price for non-special bombers (regular IPA's etc...) in the US is about $10 a bottle after tax, and the average limited release barrel aged price is more like $20. I am getting 16 bottles in the box I ordered, so if I assume a 50/50 mix of IPAs and barrel aged beers I would need to spend ~$250 on beers to go bottle for bottle on a trade. I then have to box it up, and pay outrageous postage, so all in, I am spending at least $480 to send an equivalent trade box. It isn't any cheaper than just ordering, and is way more hassle...

 

I'm sure I could be done for way less, but I agree it's not as easy as just ordering online

When I see how much profit these webshops make it's crazy though, they basically ask 200 euro for the Selection lambic 1999. I don't understand why people from Europe fall for it. But maybe I should also strat a webshop like this, hahaha.

 

Yeah, if you live in Europe and these beers are available in stores that is different! I am pretty sure they are targeting the US market & lazy people for the most part. To be honest, even if a trade saved me $100 off the box, it is still a ton of effort and I am pretty lazy...

Taking it back to the OP's original question, I am just not willing to go to the effort to track down rare bottles of American beer and trade it for Cantillon - I can just order them online and pay for it. I'm lazy and I can afford it, so I really only trade for stuff I can't get any other way.

 

One benefit you'll get from trading international is building up a trade friendship, which will ensure you to get almost all future limited releases from your tradeparter, without visiting those webshops twenty times a day. Usually, speaking for myself here, it won't be too hard to make both sides happy.

An average box sent from the US to my porch will cost roundabout 100$, with you receiving 5 750ml of lambic.

 

Fair, and agreed, it is awesome to have long term trading partners. If those 5 bottles were say, Fou, LPF, Vig, Kriek and RdG, then that would be a pretty kick ass box, and would be totally worth it, but I imagine most people would want to get a similarly kick ass box back in return? At least 1 or 2 of a BCBS variant, Huna, Parabola, stuff like that?

I mean, I wish I could go and grab beers off the shelf like that, but it is a lot of effort to track them down. The effort is a big part of the barrier - if I can just spend a bit more and order it with zero hassle, I am probably going to chose to do that - I am just not saving much money via a trade, and I don't have to do anything extra.

 

They're certainly way, way less at the brewery, but at physical stores it depends on the store and the exchange rate. I've paid $20-30/bottle for Cantillon at stores (in Europe) and could easily have paid more if I was willing to shop at places with higher markups.

 

Right, and that is the thing - the online stores have these beers come up at sometimes double or more of the Europe store price, but it is still relatively cheap compared to trading for them. I can have a Fou Foune delivered

If you could buy Tree House for $10 a can from a legit store online and get it delivered to your house, the trade value of Tree House would crash...

 

Believe it or not, it's still available as of this post.

I wish I had $500 to burn because the convenience makes it a lot more reasonable than it seems. I mean, I'm pretty sure most stores here in the states are charging ~$30 for an LPG and probably ~$40 for a 750 of Golden Blend (I don't know for sure, because the only size I've ever seen on shelves is the 375).

Honestly, for me, the issue is dropping that large of a sum in one go. The per-bottle cost isn't really that off-putting.

 

I saw that - damn it... Now I am tempted to order a second box
The issue for me is more finding the damn stuff - I wish there were stores in Chicago that sold Golden Blend or LPG at retail - that is always going to be behind the bar / onsite consumption, and the Chicago scene is so damn competitive - easier to just order online...

Back to the OP's question, in the last 6 months, I have ordered the following online:
3 Fonteinen Golden Blend
3 Fonteinen Intense Red
3 Fonteinen Hommage
3 Fonteinen Framboos
Cantillon Bio Geuze
Cantillon Cuvee saint gilloise
Cantillon Grand cru bruocsella
Cantillon Iris
Cantillon Kriek
Cantillon Lour Pepe Gueuze
Cantillon Rose de gambrinus
Cantillon Saint Lamvinus
Cantillon Vigneronne
Cantillon Fou Foune

Often multiple bottles, and shipped to my door no hassles for pretty reasonable prices. Hard to justify trading for beers I can order online.

 

Sure, but for most of those bottle releases, you can usually only buy 1 bottle, and have to fill the rest of the box for the best shipping rate (still around $100+), so you end up spending a lot of money to get the 1 bottle you really wanted.