Value Assessment: Double Crooked, Hopslam

I've gotten double crooked as an extra, and hopslam is several months old now and will likely scare some off.

 

Those trade for shelf beers when fresh. But Hopslam is way past its peak at this point. Double Crooked is basically a barleywine so has more interest with some months on it, but it's also not hard to get.

So no, you probably wouldn't land any KBS for either of those.

To land a 'whale' as in your examples, I think you'd have to give up a ridiculous quantity. Like 12-16 Double Crookeds might land you a DL, but I wouldn't get your hopes up...

 

YOU DON'T AGE AN IPA

unless you are taking it on a boat trip to India

 

No. The hops are what makes it what it is. Once they fade out, it's a boozy mess.

 

You can age Double Crooked. Double Crooked is not that hard to get. KBS is.

 

Also have to point out the Venn diagram issue. Many, many places that got KBS also got Double Crooked and Hopslam (all Michigan breweries after all) so you might have trouble from that, even ignoring the freshness. The others you listed (DL/BCBS) are also Venn diagram-y.

 

IPA's rarely trade for rare stouts/sours/barleywines. The exceptions are generally brewery-only releases.

Plead the 5th isn't in very high demand either. Barrel Aged Plead the 5th is, yes, but not the regular one.

The best way to look at trade values is to ask yourself "did I just randomly walk into a store and pick it up off a shelf?" If yes, then 99% of the time it won't trade for much, because if you could do it, so could lots of others.

 

Go buy some DCT and sit on it and crack one every couple of months and throw some in as extras and call it good. The "value" in this beer isn't in trading, it'll be in trying it with some time on it and throwing it in on another trade. That isn't a bad thing.

 

I disagree. Depending on the distro you can certainly walk into a store and randomly find things that have high trade values. I've 'randomly' stumbled upon limited CCB beers in stores that have landed me bigger things in trades. Another example, Mexican Cake was in stores in Charleston, so one could have randomly stumbled on that. Don't disregard beers just cause you don't have to go to brewery only releases and wait 6 hours in line to get them.

But to the OP, I know nothing about crooked, but honestly don't think you can land anything with Hopslam at this point. I've offered it many times in trades or as add ons in trades and not a single person has shown interest. That being said, I still crack one open about once a week or once every other week, and they are still drinking pretty well. In fact, I'd say old Hopslam is still better than 90% of the IPAs/Double IPAs out there. So even though you're not a huge fan of the style, it might not be a bad idea to pick up a six pack to enjoy.

 

This can be true, but only in cases without the venn diagram problem, which definitely is big in this particular case. For example, I can pick up PtE off the shelf when I'm in Cali and have traded it here in Chicago for good stuff. Also, I can vouch that Chicago gets plenty of Hopslam and Double Crooked Tree, so you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone with BCBS or DL willing to trade for them.

 

As I clearly said, "99% of the time". Your examples are valid but they are the 1% outliers. They also happen to both be very tightly distributed brands - not Bell's or Dark Horse. Also, you slightly misunderstood. Tons of beers with decent trading clout can be gotten at stores - but if you walk in there a month+ after release and it's still on the shelf, it's probably not going to land much.