Hello everyone- I was thinking about trying to find a trustee for either Crooked Stave Cellar Reserve or The Bruery Reserve Society. I have a couple of questions though: 1) For those of you that have experienced both, is one better than the other? 2) Besides the obvious paying for the shipping, what else is the typical arrangement for a trustee? Is it sending a couple boxes of beer, giving them some of the beers from the bruery, giving them the use of the additional discounts. I have no idea of what the typical agreement is for this type of thing and any help would be appreciated. Thanks
to answer 2) I usually have the RS member purchase 2-3 12 bottle shippers (depending on their buying habits) and ship me the shippers when they're ready for their allotments. In return a few boxes a year as a thank you is greatly appreciated or access to local releases.
I have/had both. I am looking forward to both again this year. If I could only have one I would take crooked stave, but this year the Bruery list looks insane so it would be a tougher choice this year.
Responding to part two of your question, I think you have two options: 1) Find someone who is looking for a lot of beer that is locally available to you and then set-up a trading/shipping agreement 2) Plan on comping someone near the Bruery with beer from time to time and either pay for shipping or send shipping labels. I'm fortunate (thanks Vick!) to be in the first situation. I have sent as much Hair of the Dog, Cascade and Upright beer to my trustee as he has sent me Bruery RS stuff. He will send me money via Paypal for the beer, but we don't generally worry about shipping since so far this year, the number of case shippers going back and forth has been equal. If you can find that type of situation, it is ideal.
I had a fantastic trustee (Bruery). Couldn't ask for someone more timely and great about everything. Brett's a good dude. I didn't renew this year though because of cost. Things just became too expensive. Not so much the allocations... just shipping (paid to and from) along with the thank you packages. It got a little outrageous. It gets to be more than you initially think.
On #2... You definitely need to pay for shipping AND the cost of a legitimate shipping box. It's not fair to your trustee to make him spend an hour bubble wrapping your bottles into a box taken off the scrap heap every time. So add in a $13 shipper for every box of 12 beers. Keep this in mind - between shipping and packaging, you're basically adding $4 to the cost of every bottle just to get it delivered to you. As for compensation - every relationship is probably a bit different, but obviously it's nice to hook your trustee up. Many BA's are generous, happy to mule, and refuse anything in return - but a Reserver Society trustee is a much bigger chore than muling a few bottles. Thus, a nice big thank you box or two for the year is probably about the norm, depending on how much beer you are ordering. I would imagine nearly every trustee is also a member, so offering them Bruery bottles or use of your 15% discount probably isn't that exciting. On #1... I don't know much about Crooked Stave, but The Bruery RS is definitely the much more popular one.
1. Shippers from Uhual.com delivered to their door, pre-paid FedEx labels in a PDF file. 2. I try to send a good few (3-4) quality Cantillon 750ml's plus the odd local each year.
