What Whales Are Worth Trading For?

Pretty broad question that is open to personal taste. I'll do the Veritas series though...

001-003 = Not worth it, too old, muddled. Very hard to get and not really particularly good now.
004, 005 = These are incredible, as good if not better than the reputation.
006, 007 = Totally live up to expectation.
008 = Better than the reputation. Has vastly improved with age.
009 = Love/hate. I'm in the camp it is amazing.
010 = Overrated. Fruit is already gone and it is sulphury, don't really like it.

Despite your instruction I will comment on BT by saying that 2009 is amazing.

 

1414, BB4D, BBPt5

 

I'd trade for some Fou Foune and Lente again. I know these don't qualify as whales, but both of the bottles I had are now consumed. I'd also trade for another bottle of Batch 003 Beatification to keep my other bottle company.

 

Rare

 

I personally didn't think CBS is worth trading for especially with what was being asked for when it first came out. I had it on tap, which saved me money and beer and think KBS is a 100 times better. Now King Henry on the other hand is a hell of a beer. I managed to get a few bottles, but it is going for some pretty crazy beers these days.

 

Beatification 003
Although it is mighty tough to trade for

 

Cognac de Meurte and CFH 12

 

Of course "whale" is extremely subjective and taste is as well, but here are some hard-to-find beers I thought were phenomenal:

3f Hommage
3f Millennium Gueuze
Narke Stormaktsporter (more special than Kaggen I think)
Black Tuesday '09

There are lots of newer beers that are fantistic as well, such as Alchemist Luscious, Founders CBS, Hill Farmstead Birth of Tragedy, Struise Special Kay, and De Molen H&V MacAllan BA, but I don't think these qualify as "whales."

Jeff

 

Generally the crazy rare one off lambics are the same or sometimes not as good as the regular stuff. People go nuts over Millennium. I wouldnt even place it in the top 10 gueuzes I've had. That's entirely subjective though. Armand'4 is better than mostly all of those special vintages and one-offs.

 

I said this in the other thread, but if you're looking for a whale that's significantly better than readily available beer (or at least a not-hard-to-get beer like Parabola/Abacus/3F geuze/Pliny) you'll never find it because they don't exist.

 

BA speedway 03, deviation ( people say its dying off, i still think its great)

 

The only whales I've ever had that I would bother to trade for again are Drie Fonteinen Lambics. Specifically, I will be forever ISO '99 3F Oude Geuze, Malvasia Rosso, and Lente.

A few that were truly breathtaking but that I can't quite get myself to shell out for again: Alpine Great, BA Speedway, b2 Beatification, Isabelle Proximus, Blabaer, Crianza Helena.

 

Splinter Blue!

Beatification Batch 3, MUCH better than B5

 

Only the ones that are in my cellar.

Am I doing this right?

 

Dang it, I was 13 minutes too late to this thread... Nicely done, good sir!

 

V007, HF Ephraim, and numerous somewhat-easier-to-get beers (Adam FTW, Matt, BB4D, 100% Cuir, KH, BA Plead the 5th). Would happily trade fairly heavily to get any of these again in the future, including the several that I still have a bottle of.

 

In my book 5 is as good as 4 or 3 easily. 1-2 are way over the hill. When people still try to trade for Batch 1 and PH1 it really makes me shake my head.

 

PvW DL is absolutely one of the best beers I've had to date. I was able to do PvW DL and Rare side by side and Rare just couldn't hold a candle to it.

 

Of course this is personal opinion, but I think Batch 5 needs about a year to reach its potential.