Is it just me or does there seem to be next to no one trading either of these beers from the most recent truck sale? I've posted an ISO several times and there seems to be 2-3 more per page but literally no FT posts. Just seems odd compared to the past truck sales where it was fairly easy to acquire
The beers are awesome, unless your offering something awesome to pry them loose, don't expect too much. This years Petit surpasses last years Big Time.
I've traded for beers from the past three truck sales. People just seem to be holding onto them this time
You are probably right. 300 cases released vs. 500 cases. $120+ for a ticket and you leave with a case of beer vs. $98 for a case at the previuos focal/petit release pricing. Also, for out of staters like myself, most people probably had to get a hotel and stay the night instead of making a day trip. So to alot of us who ended up with a case, it was a expensive weekend and we had to go through alot for a case, it makes it a little harder to let go of I guess.
I have never traded before but browse the trade forums regularly. It seems to me like a lot of the trades are for ISO Heady/Focal/SOS. Being a VT local, I wouldent trade my Focal when I could just get some Heady/SOS and get the trade done with those. Some of the other trades asking for a whole case seem ridiculous too because there's no way I would give up a whole case of amazing beer for a few rare bottles. As said previously, this years Mutant is really fantastic and because each case only had 8 of them, I would much rather keep them to enjoy over the next few months. Just my take on it.
I think the Alchemist event beers fall into a trade black hole because: - the ticketing system curbed mule-ing, not a lot of extras to go around - $ value is something like $3.25 per can of FB and $6 per can for PM - This could be the last release of this type before they start building the new brewery in a month Also based on what I've seen: - people with lottery beers (Kiwi Herman, V015) seem to be looking for 1/3 to 1/2 of the allotment - people with brewery only / rare shelf want to go $4$ for a slightly smaller fraction of the allotment - both cases lead to big volume discrepancy, but not so big quality discrepancy
The long-term play, not so much for the Petit as the Focal, is to just wait around for the new Stowe brewery to get up and running. Between that, steady supplies of Sip (not to mention Second Fiddle), and Tree House's new canning line, the number of NE big boy IPAs out in the wild should increase markedly. Of course, sometimes you're tired of waiting, have a Vanilla Rye burning a hole in your cellar, and decide to make something happen. Either way works
I heard through the grape vine that focal wont be available again until sometime this summer and only available at local bars and restraints .... In terms of another "can release" that is always a crap shoot... So if your somebody that has the luxury of having focal your gonna hold onto that for dear life seeing it won't hit retailers for supposedly another year... I'm assuming this information is part of the reason.... Whether accurate or not!
