SWTFYW Hints and Hauls!!!

I am sorry that my previous hints failed you.

Hint #9a: I am shipping north of Florida.

I am in a similar boat, but only stuck with 5 possible shippers I think. I can assure you that it feels exactly the same

 

Most amazing experience of my life. Don't know how to put up pic from my phone. Its a Droid.

 

did you name it R2D2? joking aside congrats Houser

 

Target: The package is approximately 25-27 miles (depending on the route it takes) from your location. Thought you might like an update.

 

Get ready to delete your browsing history...its time for more beer **** courtesy of CTJman:

The big 'uns:


Allagash Curieux: WANT, so sad when they pulled out of TX. Not so sad tonight.
Two Roads Conntucky Lightnin': Oooh...wasn't on my radar, but I'm excited.
Fritz Briem 1809: WANT...and 2009? Noice!
White Birch Berliner Weisse: WANT...gawd I love Berliners!
Maine Beer Company Mo: WANT...already in the fridge for late night consumption
Big Black Voodoo Daddy: WANT!
Three Floyds Blackheart: Mmmmm...also already in the fridge
NEBCO Wet Willy: Another not on my radar, but happy to have it

The little guys:

Ipswich Oatmeal Stout: Delicious and nutritious...and rated 100 by the bros!
Dragon's Milk: WANT...sooo want.
Weyerbacher Heresy: WANT...really excited about this one
KBS!!!: WANT...damn...just, damn.
NEBCO Weisse Trash Culture: WANT...wow, dat can
Grey Sail Flying Jenny: Nice...this one will be consumed with BBQ tomorrow
Gandhi Bot x2: WANT..."Be the beer that you wish to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi Bot
Grey Sail Hazy Day: another great warm weather option for tomorrow
Sweet Ass Gandhi Bot glass: MaHOTma Damn!

To top if off, CTJman had the nerve to send out a second box that contains "the best beer". I'm scared at how ridiculous I might act after opening that one next week. You absolutely killed it, Jarrod!

 

Congrats Dad!!! What'd you have?

 

More clues?

 

Maybe me. Maybe not me.

But definitely maybe me.

Srs.

 

A few bottles/cans ended up in the box about 40 pounds worth hope my target likes the NE goodness. I was going to aim to represent all the New England states but it didn't work that way.

 

Tried to hit some wants there...the Boris is pretty nice, white rajah is my abortive beer overall and tart of darkness is the shit! Hope you enjoy.

 

Thanks again. I tried the white rajah and the fat head tonite. They are both very good ipa's. The BA blackout really made my day. And the Jamison BORIS is going to be enjoyed at my fantasy football draft on saturday.

 

Ok, guys... I'm a mere 5 hours late on promised ****, so I've decided to make it up to you with some graphic close-ups. I hope you're into that sort of thing. If you're still rocking the 28.8kbps modem, you might be here a while.

A box lands on a nearby UPS's porch, promptly crippling both package transit for the day and the back of the receiver. I've somehow gotten it through the front door and onto the floor, but I don't have much memory of this:


As promised by the outside, the box was chock full of tubes! Masterfully packed tubes.


After an eternity of digging and unwrapping, a happy family of beers congregated on my kitchen table alongside an eager 6.5gal sanitized carboy:


Yes, that's well over 300oz of beer. My mind is blown. bcm75 has outdone himself. Here's some of the promised gory stuff:

FFF Zombie Dust (want!)
2012 BCBS (want!)
2013 DFH 120-minute IPA (want!)
22 July canned Jai Alai... how the hell did you manage that? (want!)

Seriously... these four beers have me so stoked. I regret that I didn't drink any of them tonight, and am looking forward to trying my first CCB brew tomorrow.

Here we feature a collection of New Glarus beers with some Founders and Central Waters thrown in for good measure:


CW Scotch Ale (bourbon barrel aged)
New Glarus 20th anniversary Strong Ale
New Glarus Stone Soup abbey ale
New Glarus Berliner Weiss (want! I am so excited to get another one of these after having some from a previous trade)
New Glarus Wild Sour
New Glarus Spotted Cow
Founders All Day IPA

onto some bigger bottles:


Central Waters Brewhouse Coffee Stout -- that deranged Wisconsin rooster fucked up my whole porch. I should have wanted it.
Pipeworks Coffee Break Abduction (should be want)
Pipeworks End of Days (just had batch 29 of this, and this is batch 167 or something... it will be really interesting to compare! )
Pipeworks Date Sugar Yeast Magik (the RHCP fan from the '90s in me is so excited right now... almost assuredly should be want)

Yes, there's more...

New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb
Pipeworks Paradisiac
New Holland Rye Hatter
Revolution A Little Crazy

And I forgot pics of two of them, but I'm stoked about both:

Brewery Vivant Trebuchet Belgian style double IPA
Pipeworks Ninja vs. Unicorn Double IPA (want! Oh wait... it wasn't marked... should have been a want)

The packing job on this one could almost assuredly have survived a trebuchet, but probably not a ninja fighting a unicorn.

My new instrument of oral pleasure:


And this is why I'm so late getting pictures up... I was otherwise busy this evening making a CDA/Black IPA/beer bastard. I feel like something this raw definitely has a place in this forum, but really it's just a tease for the things I'll get to do to it in about a month from now.


I know this post is bordering on tl;dr despite being a picture book, but I have to say hoooly shit bcm75 killed it. I couldn't even figure out which bottles were my wants and which weren't... I am so excited to try almost all of these and am really intrigued by the rest of them, which are stylistically all over the place (despite tons of stouts and IPAs in line with my preferences) and are full of bizarre flavor/style pairings. Seriously... 21 bottles and a piece of glassware -- I couldn't be happier with this haul. Wonderfully done.

 

First off, new traders take note: This is how the F you pack a box - inside another box, surrounded by packing peanuts.



And THIS is how the F you pack some swag! Also shown, an appropriate opening device. In this case, a rainbow stainless Kershaw Ken Onion Leek folder.



And THIS is how the F you confuse an 18 lb. cat with a bad attitude - add some huge boxes and a bunch of bottles to his environment. This is a 3/4 overhead shot of the entire haul - all 25 beers and two beautiful pieces of stemware. Wow.



Now, where to start. First of all, this one said "DRINK FROM THE CAN!" on it in an upper-case, semi-serif font.



If there's one thing I take seriously, it's an upper-case semi-serif font, so of course I happily complied with their directive.



I decided at this point that it was high time I take a photograph which portrayed the grandeur of this haul. It really is epic - think Grand Canyon meets Zion National Park in a bottling line at your favorite brewery. Or in this case, a somewhat organized row of incredible beer on the table in the dining room of my modest SF digs.



On to the details.

This glass is absolutely beautiful. I'm scared to use it - I just want to stare at it! This photo is deceptive - it's SUPER tall - think Shiraz glass. I'm the service manager for a very busy, high end bicycle shop in SF. As such, my hands are often tired from fiddling with bikes all day, so I relate to this stemware on several levels - my height included.



I'm totally unfamiliar with East End Brewing, but very familiar with this type of glass. My wife just broke a very similar one from a certain Santa Rosa brewery, so this is an extremely welcome replacement. She's not allowed to touch it.



First up beerwise, we have three 750 mL bottles:

• East End Brewing - Bigger Hop // As previously stated, I've not heard of this brewery, nor this beer. However, this is stylistically right up my alley - a high gravity DIPA. I can always get behind that.
• Night Shift Brewing - Ever Weisse // I've been aware of this brewery only since the beginning of summer, and I'm super stoked to have this in hand now. It wasn't a want, but it should have been. I've developed quite a taste for Berliner weissebier over the summer, and one aged on fruit is HIGHLY unlikely to prove any sort of exception. Super stoked about this.
• Weyerbacher Riserva 2012 // I've had a couple different beers from Weyerbacher before, and neither of them disappointed me in the least. However, this was completely off my radar. SWTFYW is working out well in my favor, I'd say!

Next, we have three incredible bombers out of this porch bomb:

• Southern Tier - Pumking // This was a BIG want for me. Last year, I gave up my bias against seasonal pumpkin beers thanks to Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin. Since then, I've really enjoyed a number of others, including a couple of recent Almanac releases which involved pumpkin as well. I am certain that this will live up to all expectations.
• Terrapin - Dos Cocoas // I can't imagine a world without chocolate porters. I've never had this, but like Weyerbacher, Terrapin has always treated me right. I am super stoked for this one.
• Hoppin' Frog - Barrel Aged B.O.R.I.S. // This last summer, a friend of mine from LA came up for a massive bottle share we had, and this was one he brought with him. I was bummed that day because I didn't get more than a 3 oz. pour. This was especially frustrating when considering this was the beer I rated highest among everything we drank that day. The list that day was extensive, and there wasn't anything below 90 on BA. It was wild. I did have this on draft at Mikkeller Bar SF last weekend - amazing - and a 3rd taste is certainly welcome in the form of another bottle. A want and a had just became a got thanks to Steve. This is so fun!

Two more bombers joined the formation:

• Tröegs - Flying Mouflan // I've had Nugget Nectar twice, and both times it was amazing. This reads to be a relative thereof. I'm not super well-versed in the American Barleywine genre, so I look forward to this immersive introduction. I can't help but wonder what would happen if I drank all of these beers at once. Probably nothing good....
• Voodoo - Big Black Voodoo Daddy // This is completely on target stylistically, and I've never had anything from this brewery. I have seen trade forum posts ISO this and its barrel-aged variants a number of times, but now I will be able to try it for myself. 12.5% ABV. Pennsylvania black gold!

Some smaller bottles asked if they could come over for the party. I said yes. However, I'm worried for myself because at this point I'm so giddy with excitement I'm beginning to anthropomorphize bottles of beer in the 12-ish ounce range. This is getting weird. Each of these three share some form of barrel aging in common:

• New Holland - Dragon's Milk // One of my best friends and I went to DLD at the end of April and then flew to KY to visit distilleries. Somewhere along the way we discovered the Louisville Beer Store, and all hell broke loose. This was one of the bottles we picked up and shared in our hotel room after a long day of ... well ... day drinking and eating barbecue. It was amazing, and I'm SO stoked to get another bottle of it. Great happy success!
• Captain Lawrence - Rosso e Marrone // This very well should have been a want. I love darker BA sours with some fruit involved. My wife read this label and said "you better not drink this without me!" Yowch!
• Full Pint - Rye Rebellion // Imperial rye stout aged in rye whiskey barrels? RYE NOT?! Bad jokes aside, my only wish here is that it was a bigger bottle. Since that's unrealistic, and perhaps even approaching selfish, I'm just stoked to try this.

Further unpacking led to some more IPAs. I am an admitted hop head, and nothing about this is disappointing:

• Dark Horse - Double Crooked Tree // Yet another one I've had, loved, and always wished there was more when it was over. Now there is more. I gave this a 4.25 on BA and I stand by that. It really is incredible. I brought a 6pk of this home from the KY trip to which I alluded earlier, and it did not last past the first week of May.
• Tröegs - Perpetual IPA // I absolutely love a good, floral IPA. When I last had this, it did not disappoint. I'm on target here for more love. This brewery has never let me down.
• Bells - Two Hearted // I've been wanting to try this for a while, but neglected to put this on my official BA want list. No worries - it's now occupying both want and got with the greatest of ease. At risk of sounding trite and repetitive, I cannot wait to try this gem. Steve, you nailed it here. You're like a hammer.

More shortly... 10k character limit - what!?

 

...continued...

Good LORD, some porters in the mix:

• DuClaw - Sweet Baby Jesus // I love peanut butter, and as previously stated I am a huge fan of chocolate porters, so it is my great hope that these two things combine nicely. I have seen this pop up on the trade forums in the recent past, and I'm honored to have gotten a bottle of it in this context. I'm greatly curious here, as I have no frame of reference. I'm like a child who wonders into the middle of a movie... I digress.
• Great Lakes - Edmund Fitzgerald // Two fun facts about me: (1) my family moved to Michigan when I was less than a year old, and we lived there until I was four. My dad used to take me sailing on Lake Michigan on a tiny little Hobie Cat he would borrow from a friend. I barely remember this, but I remember it nonetheless. The emotional leftovers of this are a great love and healthy respect for bodies of water. I know the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior, but whatever. (2) I've never had a beer from this brewery, but I am partial to chocolate and coffee in my porters. No worries regarding this being delicious. Also, this inspired me to listen to the Gordon Lightfoot song of the same name and now I'm down a weird path on youtube concurrent to this post.

Two things which are entirely new to me - I'm almost completely unfamiliar with anything ending in -bock, so this is undiscovered territory. Bravely forging ahead...

• Tröegs - Troegenator // The dude on this bottle looks like he would knock me on my ass. I am guessing at 8.2% that this beer will as well. Only one way to find out - thanks for enabling me, Steve!
• Weyerbacher - Eighteen // I try not to inform my experience with any particular beer based on other reviews, but I was really curious here, so I read about it. One review said "Savor the flavor, because the faults are few." I intend to do exactly that, and I hope the latter bit of that review rings true. Confidence in the statement remains high.

Founders is one of my favorites from the Midwest. I've got a lot of their stuff in my cellar, including a metric butt-ton of Imperial Stout and Breakfast Stout, as well as five or six remaining KBS. These are all new to me, however, and in my eyes they can do no wrong. Proceeding:

• Founders - Dirty Bastard // I recently learned that the way to say the word 'pervert' in Cantonese is ham sap lo, which roughly translated means 'wet and salty.' Don't ask me why I needed to know this, but it's proved useful already.
• Founders - Rübæus // I love turning wants into gots. Few things are quite as satisfying, particularly when raspberries are involved.
• Founders - Curmudgeon // Just like Rübæus, this was a want and now it's a got. This beer's name often aptly describes me. I'm prematurely like 90 years old in some ways. I can't wait to have a porch upon which to sit with my shotgun in a rocking chair. How cermudgeonly of me - I am my father's son.

The final countdown:

• Cigar City - Jai Alai // Right at the beginning of summer, I traded for 12 of these and drank them in short order. Citrusy magic in a can. I am really excited to close out summer with one more. Perpetual want. If anyone is still reading, let's work something out!
• Fat Heads - Head Hunter IPA // I had the fortune of receiving this as an extra in a trade, and holy moly what an extra it was! Wow. This beer is terrifically underrated. I love and hate how local-centric so many brews can be, and this is no exception. I love it when I get it, and I hate it when I can't.
• Alchemist - Heady Topper // As evidenced by the earlier photos, this is a perennial favorite. I can't get enough of this. My local world-class IPA which rhymes with Shminey the Welder has been in my fridge less and less thanks to this silver bullet. I recently traded a BCBCS and a bunch of other stuff for a case of Heady, and I'd do it again too! I drink this stuff like water, and my liver hates me for it. If I think hard enough I can actually imagine the smell and taste of this beer in an almost sensory way. Incredible.

There was ONE MORE unlabeled bottle with a Fat Heads bottle cap on it. I will post a picture of it tomorrow, and hopefully my gracious sender will fill us all in. This little mystery is almost as exciting as waiting for the 59 lbs of combined box force that brought all of these troublemakers into my possession!

Nearly three hours of unpacking and writing later...

Thank you again, Steve_Oldrati for such an incredibly encyclopedic library of beers. In my completely biased opinion, you are by far the undisputed king of this BIF. Thanks also to Cuzco for setting this up. My porch (as it were) was completely decimated by this, and I can't wait to see what everyone else received. Well done, Steve.

 

Wtf??

 

Package update: On the truck for delivery!

 

Hmm, there was a label on it when it went into the box... anyway, it's another bottle of Head Hunter, I rarely send a box without any. I'm sorry I couldn't hit more of your wants, but my cellar isn't very extensive at the moment. The Tired Hands growler will be replaced so you can have #properbeerforproperglassware once again.

I'm glad you enjoyed unpacking the boxes, I had a great time picking things out and packing it all up!

 

NO complaints of ANY kind here - all good things! So thankful.

 

I'm a beer ninja.

And watch out for the DSYM, there are some rumblings about possible QC bottling issues and flat beer (see the thread in the Great Lakes forum for more info).

 

Come on, there have to be more hauls out there that need to be posted!