Drink Craft Beer's 5 Rules to Rare Beer

Drink Craft Beer posted an editorial about how people should act around rare beer. I tend to obey all those rules, especially #s 1 and 2. When I see the latest Divine Reserve at the local honey hole, I automatically assume someone will be in after me, so I only buy 1 six pack. If it's there next week, though, it's fair game. And I never put it up on eBay.

Beer of Tomorrow posted an article further exploring #3, and the chase card mentality that is too often on display around these beers:

"Ironically our consumer culture has wired us to amass and hoard instead of simply consuming, and I would urge you to think about what you are more interested in having: a closet full of expensive and rare beers, or memories of drinking and sharing a wide variety of beers with your buddies. Every bottle in your cellar is a bottle of beer that you didn’t enjoy. Certainly don’t cellar a beer that you’ve never tried!"

I have a friend who travels a lot, and is always bringing great beer home to share with us, and if we can't be there to share, she'll wait until we can all get together. For her, the sharing of the beer is the most important part.

What do you think?

And Speaking of Heady Topper. . .

According to Alchemist Brewing website regarding their Heady Topper, a double IPA: " we brew 180 barrels per week in twelve 15 barrel batches. We never hold back inventory, and we move all of our beer weekly in a concerted effort to provide the freshest, hoppiest packaged IPA on the market." Apparently, they aren't brewing enough.

Stephanie Hoffman, 28, from Burlington, VT, was arrested last week for selling five cases of 16-ounce cans Heady Topper on Craigslist for $825.

The beer retails for about $14 for a four pack. She sold the beer for $27.50 a four pack, almost a 100% profit.

The brewery saw the ad and tipped off the authorities. Undercover investigators for the Vermont Department of Liquor Control drove to Georgia, Vermont, to meet with Hoffman, where she was arrested for selling beer without a license.

Heady Topper is a highly prized beer, and the fierce demand for the beer forced Alchemist to close their retail shop because of the traffic.

Jen Kimmich, owner of The Alchemist said, “It's a compliment in an odd way. But at the same time, we don't want to see the consumer being cheated by paying too much and getting a product that hasn't been taken care of properly.”

Most brewers don't mind folks trading beer, but object to people selling their beer at a huge markup. Natalie Chilurzo of Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa california recently took on eBay sales of Pliney the Elder. "People were running liquor stores on eBay without any accountability," she said.

I've said it before: stop buying beer on eBay and Craigslist! Drink your local brewery's beer. Sure, it may not be as good as Heady Topper, but at least the brewer the gets the money for the beer so they can invest in their business.

Brewery Employee Arrested for Stealing Rare Beer

Adam Dickenson was arrested in Boulder, Colorado, when he tried to sell rare beer from his former employer, Avery Brewing Company, on eBay. Police found 500 bottles of beer worth about $15,000.

STOP BUYING RARE BEER ON eBAY!

eBay to Temporarily Stop Alcohol Sales

When "20/20" producers had a teenager go on eBay to buy alcohol, eBay was horrified. Horrified, I say! The teen was able to buy 5 bottles of vodka and have it shipped to his home.

eBay began pulling beer and spirit auctions and would not allow them until they had set up new procedures to prevent TV producers from pulling a similar stunt.  I mean, to make sure minors couldn't buy alcohol.  Sorry. Slip of the tongue.

Westvleteren 12 and a Blind Taste Test

For a long time, I've been saying that you should take the scores on RateBeer and BeerAdvocate with a few grains of salt. I written extensively of the folks who believe that the harder to get a beer is, the better it is.

Jeff Alworth, over at Beervana, recently conducted a taste test of some of BeerAdvocate's highest rated beers:

• Westvleteren 12 [BeerAdvocate rating 100]
• Chimay Grande Reserve (Blue) [95]
• Rochefort 10 [99]
• La Trappe Quadrupel (Trappist) [91]
• Straffe Hendrik Quad [89]
• Saint Bernardus 12 [99]
• Urthel Samaranth [90]
• Ovila Quad [87]

In a curious turn, out of twelve tasters, only one chose Westvleteren 12 as the top beer in the flight. Nine tasters choose Rochefort 10, Straffe Hendrik, and Ovila as the top beers, voting evenly split amongst them. And Chimay was at the back of the pack.

Jeff didn't post a ranking (which would have been interesting) but I think the point is made: Don't automatically trust the scores on review websites.

From the Interstate

I finally found some Divine Reserve 12 old ale. That's right. On the interstate.