Craft Beer Mules Exposed

I read that last week. I linked it to Yeezy, and he said it was full of shite he already knew and seemed unimpressed, so I didn't post it here.

I thought it was a good read :)

Enjoyable read, but yeah, nothing too revolutionary. I laughed at "Amazingly, Sam’s only met two fellow group members in person. One was a loathsome tub of lard from New Hampshire who was as bad as you could possibly imagine a beer geek being"

I read it last night when you posted it. I thought it was a good read. As much as I love beer, the time, money, and energy some of these guys spend on this stuff is hard for me to comprehend.

Rouge is a good guy no matter what that article says.

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That was good. I clicked the link and followed it to this article which I found to be hilarious

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Woody, I did the same thing.

To the OP, it wasn't really news (to me) because I knew of people that were involved in such circles back in NC. Had contacts all across the country. At the time I was super new to craft beer and didn't really understand all the dynamics, but looking back it makes a lot of sense.

Then I've read another similar thread on reddit.

There are way too many easy accessible great beers out there now so it isn't worth it to me to spend that kind of time, energy, and money on rare or limited beers.

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you've clearly never tasted rare

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Can't be that good, Wise's body rejects it

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.

On a similar note. Here is an interesting read of a specific instance of "muling." Sometimes the breweries themselves have a little complicity in the matter.

Fallout from the 2014 FiftyFifty Eclipse Party (With Comments from the Brewery)

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Where things got squirrelly is when FiftyFifty sent out a memo the day before the event that they would be releasing an uberduber rare variation called Masterpiece Eclipse and there would be NO BOTTLE LIMIT. Word is there was only 400 bottles. The lightbulb immediately went on in many opportunists heads and you can probably guess where this is going.

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So basically because the brewery was dumb enough to not set a limit, supposedly only the first 18 people in line got bottles, at a party of over hundred people. There were reports on the forums of one guy buying 72 bottles and another person buying 30 bottles. Lots of upset people.

Here was the original email text.

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Hello again!

Tomorrow is the big day! We are really excited to have you all up here. We’re finally getting some snow/slush up here, so please drive carefully and take your time. I have a couple of last minute announcements to share with you all.

MASTERPIECE ECLIPSE: This year we have a brand new one-of-a-kind Eclipse product to present to you: Masterpiece. In early 2013, FiftyFifty was very fortunate to get nine freshly emptied barrels that had been filled at Stitzel-Weller in 1991. Yes, the original Pappy. To commemorate this we brewed a Double Imperial Stout worthy of these barrels, and aged it for 18 months. Original Gravity of 31.5 Plato, 80 IBU's and 12.8% ABV. We bottled this into 750mL bottles, hand waxed and numbered, with a custom neck label. We will be selling these at the party for $45.95.

BOTTLE LIMITS: None. Enough said.

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