Trading Homebrew

Personally I would never do anything like "talk up" my homebrews and try to convince others they should want to trade for them, but if I sent some as extras and someone really liked them and specifically asked to trade for more, I'd have no problem at all including them in a trade. I'm not entirely sure how one would "value" them though, I'd be inclined to say "1-1 with reasonably priced off-the-shelf beers of the same container size". Thoughts on that aspect?

 

Curious what the trade was for? Was he supposed to get commercial beers?

 

I generally only send out my home brew if someone asks to try it and even then, I consider it as an 'extra' extra. I have on occasion sent it out to regular trade partners, in random surprise boxes and such. With that said, I only share home brew that I feel is worth sharing and most of the time it is an experimental beer (e.g., peanut butter imperial stout) or a sour/wild that I'm looking to get feedback in return (good or bad).

 

Not sure I understand the question. Are you asking if your buddy got screwed or something?

If somebody clearly agreed to trade for homebrew, then I don't really see the problem. But tf they agreed to trade for a $50 mystery box, and it was mostly homebrew, then that would be kind of bullshit though.

Homebrew is almost always an extra, but I've had a few homebrews that are every bit as good as the commercial beers in the box, so I could conceivably see trading for something of that caliber.

 

I have "traded" homebrew for homebrew with local people, but honestly it was more of "here try this, and can I try some of your stuff". Usually I send (and have received) homebrews as extras. I would never trade my homebrew for commercial beers, including my sours which I feel are up to or better than a lot of commercial examples.

 

If both parties understand that the trade is "homebrew" for "homebrew", it should be fine. Both sides can make sure that they open the bottles outside so they don't get soaked by the inevitable foam bomb.

If you are trying to trade $4$, good luck. I would be pissed if someone sent a homebrew as anything but an extra.

 

God. Damnit.

 

You're still not being very clear. It was a BIF box and he sent a bunch of homebrew instead of real beer? If so, that's arguably breaking the rules of the BIF if he substituted homebrews for commercial bottles.

 

Yeah, also confused whats going on here. What was the agreed upon trade, and what was received (without giving specifics if you dont feel comfortable with it). Pretty simple.

 

He is talking about a box I received. 100 oz minimum, 5 home brews were sent. 4 12oz commercial bottles were also sent. 2 of them were national distro shelf beers (Bigfoot and Saison du buff)

 

was it a BIF? If so i would be in contact this the person running it, as that does sound like a shitty box. I hope it wasn't from that one guy who was known for falling short on a bunch of BIF

 

Unless he specified more than half of his box was going to be homebrew, that's pretty fucked.

 

I was/am the one running it and I am working on getting it solved as we speak.

 

I've traded my homebrew for commercial beer before. If someone shows interest and wants to try it I agree to the trade on the condition that I get to ship first and they send what they think the homebrew is worth only after trying it. If they think it sucks then I don't expect anything back. I do always make sure to throw in a couple commercial beers as extras just in case they don't like what I made. So far its worked out pretty well and people have been overly generous in return (I'm lookin at you Bitterbill, hugonaut13, davey101, yamar68, bstyle, cfrances33, standardcherry, and the rest of the old school LNBA crowd).

 

The quality of commercial beers is a different issue, and honestly a losing cause so long as they meet the BIF reqs. But substituting homebrew for BIF requirements is not acceptable, and shouldn't even need to be said.

 

To be clear, I'm not really concerned about the commercial beers. Yes they are easily obtainable, and one I had given a 2 on hads, but there is no requirement to send awesome beer in a BIF. I join fully knowing I could get a dud box. I just posted the commercial brews to show that the home brews weren't sent as above and beyond beers meeting the requirements. I also love getting homebrews as extras, but that wasn't the case here.