Hauling vs Hoarding

I showed up at about 10pm on Friday night to get a wristband early Saturday morning that allowed me to buy 6 bottles for $20 each Saturday afternoon. Slept on a sidewalk in MN in late October for the stuff.

If someone waltzed in there at 8am the next morning and complained about not getting any I would tell them "tough titty."

 

I think it all comes down to a person's intentions. If they plan on drinking that beer regularly then sure, buy a bunch. If they plan on sharing it with friends or trading it for something else they want to try... by all means!

The problem comes in when people (as previously mentioned) purchase loads and loads of beer with the intent of putting them in a cellar or on a shelf and not drink. What is the point. A lot of these beers are going bad.

This isn't doing anyone (except that one selfish person) any good. Let the beer be enjoyed by people. Let the glory of the brewery be known.

 

Very....committed.... of you. Congrats.

But this is about the hypothetical idea of you bringing 3 friends to mule for you.

 

I don't like hoarding because it inherently implies that whatever beer comes out once a year is the only beer worth having. There is more to beer than rarity, barrel-aging, and hype. I don't understand when I read about people getting over 100 bottles of Bourbon County or whatever.

As far as beer trading, I can understand why it started (as a way for people across the country to try beers local to your area), but it seems like it has moved more towards some grey market where people go looking for hyped up beers. I don't think it's true to its origins as much any more.

Buy beer to drink, not to hold onto as some sort of status symbol.

 

If I brought 3 friends to mule and I paid for all the beer and intended to drink all the beer (and not flip for profit) then I would be fine with it.

If I saw 4 guys in front of me in line why should I care if all 4 of them are going to drink 6 bottles or one guy is going to drink 24? Either way those 4 guys are drinking those bottles. I should have gotten there sooner to get in line in front of them, in this hypothetical situation.

My original argument was that hoarding is based on intent. If I bought the 24 bottles and then drank 6 and sold 18 at $40 a piece then that's a douche move.

 

If I can get 4 of something I'm happy. Drink 1,trade 1, gift/share 1, and "cellar" 1. If there's a limit I respect the limit. Went to FW last Friday intending to buy my limit of Maltose Falcons and the sales guy helping me fill my box noticed my wife was with me and encouraged me to get more. Stated it was 6 per person and told me to go ahead and grab more. Couldn't get the full limit cause I got a bunch of other boxes. No line, but the brewery store was busier than ive ever seen it. They had plenty of bottles left and the 9 I got didnt put a dent in their shelves. My guess if you went today theres still enough to get your limit.If there's enough for those who want them and you get a bunch then it's a "haul". If you buy out a store day one then its probably hoarding. After awhile though stores probably just want to unload the stuff. For example none of the other beers there were on limit.

 

As long as you're not buying it to store, cherish, and gawk at while patting yourself on the back before nightly night time...you're in the clear. Drink it. Trade it. Share it. Just don't forget about it.

I'd consider my 2 packs BCBS, 2 packs of BCBBW, 1 pack of BCBCS, and 2 Vanilla Ryes a nice haul for a "limited release" beer. I'm happy. The gf and I will share a bottle a night for the first week or so. Then, I'll have it to drink periodically for the next several months.

 

Agree with this. Spring of 2013 I walk into a local place that had a (4) 4 packs of KBS Sitting on shelf, no limit, place had no idea of the demand etc. I ruminated for 5 minutes what was fair to purchased and decided to grab (1) 4 pack and if I came back in a few weeks and more was left I'd grab more. Came back and they were gone , but I felt good that I grabbed what I grabbed...and turned out the beer wasn't worth the hype anyway and I saved $$. If you have to think about how much to grab you are probably verging on hoarding. Leave some for the next guy.

 

You are the problem.

But back to OP's question. As others have said previously, it depends.

But here's some easy rules:

If you're bringing mules, you're a hoarder.
If you're spending all day driving from store to store buying max allotments, you're a hoarder.

It doesn't matter whether you plan on drinking it yourself, trading it, or selling it. If you're doing these things in order to circumvent limits, you're a hoarder. B/c you obviously think your "needs" are more important than the rest of the crowd standing behind you in line.

 

Just wondering, if BCBS was available year round what beers would you drink less of?

 

It's absolutely hoarding even if you plan to drink or trade. I have a limited care level if that's what you want to do, but to pretend you're doing otherwise is a joke. Trading is to profit for yourself in the form of beer you couldn't otherwise get and drinking is to enjoy yourself (or with friends) but you're still hoarding if you do those things.

Edit: to be clear, I am talking about when you load up on limited quantity beers. It can only really be defined on a case by case basis, but if you drove all over town buying up all the BCBS and variants then more power to you, but you are still hoarding if you do any of the things with the beer described in the OP.

 

Hoarding is a weird way to phrase the basic question "How much of a rare beer can you buy before becoming a soulless jackoff?"

In my opinion everyone with a cellar is a beer hoarder (no negative connotation intended) because they fit the definition of a hoarder as someone who accumulates something for future consumption. If you want to stock a cellar with rare beers to try at different ages, more power to you. It's a marketplace and unless you violated store rules to get some (disguises, using friends, relatives, bums, etc.) you aren't doing anything really wrong. It's up to every individual to decide where their line is between selfishness and selflessness is.

I personally draw the line at trading. If you are stocking up on rare beers as trade currency on a site like this then you are no better than someone who is buying up all the rare beer to sell at a markup out of his trunk. You are blatantly abusing the purpose of trading for extremely selfish reasons. Unless you are trading a beer to an online friend because they don't live in an area where it is distributed, you are truly one of the aforementioned soulless jackoffs for buying a bunch to trade.

 

At the rate/speed that the Craft Beer hobby is growing, even the truly-phenomenal growth and opening of new breweries is not enough to place a reasonable damper on those who hoard the old favorites of the past eight years or so.

So yeah: Even though there's more of X (BCBS, a timely example) being brewed and distributed, there are more people seeking it, and so the behavior of those who truly do 'hoard' (insert relative, personal definition) is no less odious, in the present day, than it was in the past -- at least to those who only want one or two bottles for their cellar and/or for gifting to a good friend.

 

If you have access to something and trades ALREADY planned I do not find it much of an issue. I am a "mule" for 3 folks for Avery BA beers, but I do not find it to be an issue as these are predetermined $4$ trades. They state IF I can grab them each 1-2 beers please do so. I am not hoarding anything as these beers are already spoken for in trades. Those folks that are going out to get 20 bottles and then state offer me a trade I think would be hoarding. Yes they plan to trade them, but who knows what they are looking for in return. I am never looking for a first born or car payment just a $12 value in return.

 

IMO hoarding is when a person buys a large amount of beer just to let it sit in their cellar. Not a fan of cellars and not a fan of people bringing mules to limited release events. That said, at the end of the day it's just beer.

 

So you go back to Darkness Day next year and let's say there's a group of 10 guys in front of you, and they collectively pick up the last 60 bottles, meaning you miss out. And you find out 9 of them were just there to mule, you'd be like "fair play guys. I snoozed and lost"

 

I like to buy 3 - 1 for now 1 for a latter meaning 1 to 5 years and 1 to share with someone who my like the style but my not be familiar with this particular brew or brewery

 

I honestly don't care how much beer you buy, but it seems like you have redefined the actual meaning of the word "hoarding" to suit your needs.

 

This is my favorite post of the day. Thanks for the chuckle.

 

Why is someone else's time and effort more valuable than mine? If someone wants to show up next week and thinks they're going to get a case of BCBS then they are out of luck because they didn't put in the time and effort to obtain it. If I got up in a hungover stupor and stood in line in the cold to get BCBS then I am more deserving of it than the guy who thinks he can go pick some up today because his buddy told him it was good.

It's no different than anything else that is limited release.. cigars, bourbon, cheap black friday TV's at walmart. If you want to be rewarded with a limited release product you might have to put in a bit of an effort to obtain it.