re: Craft Beer Mules Exposed

Interesting read. A few thoughts:

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Ever wonder why it seems impossible to get your hands on those one-off beers you’ve read about on forums? It’s not because you’re unlucky, or that your local store can’t acquire them. Rather, a highly organized underground collection of beer geeks is controlling the market to intercept all the most coveted limited releases—and leave you with only “shelf turds” (lingo for common beers that sit on store shelves).

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This is a huge exaggeration. If a well-known brewery releases only a few thousand bottles of sought-after beer, then it's going to be difficult to acquire, mules or not. If the people who are getting it through mules weren't getting it that way, they'd be trying to get it through the ISO:FT forum like everyone else. I don't see the demand being much different.

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For Sam, joining Beerz 4 Fearz was like being a kid in a candy shop. For so long, his only chance to score rare beer was hoping he’d stumble upon a bottle of Founders KBS at Whole Foods; praying a local liquor guy might hook him up with a new Allagash sour; or waiting in line to acquire bottles from a Side Project release. Now, thanks to the Facebook group, he could have anything.

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If Sam had easy access to Side Project stuff, then he really had access to anything he wanted before joining the Facebook group. All he had to do was go an ISO:FT and trade for it. Side Project trades VERY well.

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The group shares a massive Google Drive spreadsheet that acts as its database. It lists all the important breweries and their upcoming releases, so if you want a particular beer, you simply list your name under the release and note how many bottles you’d like.

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This is the only eye-opening thing to me. Pretty damn sophisticated. I'm aware secret beer groups on Facebook that engage in similar banter ("Dat KBBS doe" so spot on) and active trading among members, but nothing that crazy. Most just talking about beer and posting pictures of beer. No nude photos of women either.

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Often, a guy like Jack is friendly with his local brewery and doesn’t have to waste time waiting in a snaking line with all the other shnooks; he simply loads as many cases as he needs into the back of his Buick.

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This kind of shite is on the breweries.

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At worst, Jack is going to have to call in some favors from friends and family to help him mule more beers. For other operatives, it might mean putting an ad on Craigslist to get a few warm bodies, or offering a homeless person a quick payday to stand in line with him. There’s even the apocryphal story of one mule who had a bum wait in line to help him buy a case of Tired Hands rarities in exchange for a case of Olde English forties.

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This doesn't bother me as much, as long as they are playing by the rules. If someone is crazy enough to do that, then more power to them. There are things the brewery could do to circumvent this behavior.

ETA: For the record, if anyone in a beer mule group is reading this thread, I'll be happy to be your Tin Roof mule.