thatjonguy said:
Not to derail the thread too much, but a list of the most commonly requested (easier) beers would be great for those of us that are beer disadvantaged. Especially when we travel to other areas (I am in Texas right now), but don't get much in North Dakota.
If course I did. When I get out if ND I try to hunt down beer for myself and my friends. Guess I will just grab a case of Cantillion abd Saison Dupont.
Since there are very few beers in North Dakota that are special.
Well, if you are able to get anything Cantillon by the case, I'd say that's a great start. You can hoard half of it and trade the other half out for other rare, hard to get, and/or sought after beers. While you're in TX, as already suggested, pick up some Jester King or St Arnold. Those don't seem to appear too much on MAW lists, but are great beers and have trade value--again, can probably land you some bottles that are frequently seen on MAW lists.
I understand you may have less access in ND, I don't think any of us could take any of these lists to the bottle shop and really expect to find two listed beers just sitting on the shelves, no matter where we are located (although sometimes it happens). Many of us have been building up our cellars for years and this is where a lot (maybe not all) of the MAW hits are coming from. For instance, one of the extras I sent skeezerpleezer was a 2011 Weyerbacher Blasphemy. Not necessarily a hard to get beer, but one I've been sitting on for two years.
I'm sure you already know how this works and you probably have a cellar of your own; I'm just trying to help.
As for a list of what people are looking for, read the thread and find the wish lists that have been posted; I don't think anybody here is going to do your homework for you.
After a quick scan of seekabrew, I see at least three breweries available in ND that appear on a lot of wish lists. If you haven't already, I'd recommend following them on twitter, subscribe to their email newsletters, or however you like to get your information. That may help you to learn about special releases, etc. And as mentioned earlier in this thread, nothing beats building a relationship with your retailer for getting a jump on special releases that he may get in but that never make it to the shelves.
I took your question as "how to get into the game." Hopefully I read it correctly; I just gave you a few tactics to that end. Hope it helps. Hope to see you jumping in on this soon!
Cheers!