Let's Remember Some Beers (In Memoriam: Old Whales)

[jdhende]

First unbeknownst-to-me whale was the 2009 BCBS bomber. Slung some fresh Hooby Tippler tins to somebody (jdhende ?) for some Chicagoland tasties and the 09 might have even been an extra in that trade, can't remember. No surprise to anybody here, but wow. Better than OG Rare, IMO.

I think that was me. Great memory! When beer trading used to be fun and easy.

 

[jdhende]

Walking into 3F in I believe 2013 and being able to buy unlimited seasons sets was pretty cool. Only bought 3 due to the cost of around 120€.

 

[sacrelicio]

Since I am bored and taking this off the rails anyway, Matacabras from Dave's Brew Farm. The brewery went up for sale in 2014, and then no one (outside of whatever town they are in?) ever saw or heard from this beer again.... but according to their super uninformative blogspot, the brewery still exists. I should have sent my buddy there when he went to MSP last weekend instead of stupid Forager.

Visited once when they had Matacabras on. Fun place.

 

[lb304854]

Walking into 3F in I believe 2013 and being able to buy unlimited seasons sets was pretty cool. Only bought 3 due to the cost of around 120€.

Bought at least 6 of each season online shipped directly to my door. They were up on Etre for a really long time.

 

[trickytunadicky]

Walking into 3F in I believe 2013 and being able to buy unlimited seasons sets was pretty cool. Only bought 3 due to the cost of around 120€.

The seasons are still known by lambic people... and yet, I recently was going to offer up one of my remaining bottles for a reasonably limited mead that apparently was only being traded for super rare JWB and TG stouts, got responses of "What are seasons?" and "Oh. Sours." Then a friend brought a Herfst out to a share and I was like... "WTF was I thinking? Keep that and drink it!"

 

[GetchaPull]

A now-friend of mine was in front of me in line at 3F for the Herfst release...just him and me at the brewery. 24 euros/pop...no limit. He bought 12 and I thought he was nuts. I bought 4 and thought "man, that's MORE than enough".

Derp.

 

[stupac2]

Probably a regional thing. Midwesterners new who they were and Morning Delight was huge before KBBS. There are probably a number of breweries that were subject to the regional bias that seemed to blow up nationally on the strength of one beer. Peggy's whateverthefuck and Funky Buddha for instance.

Peg's Cantina/Cycle is probably a good example.

 

[Lutter]

My memory is terrible, but I don't think any CCs were "on site only" until recently (2013-2014).

Speaking of, CC available to-go today....

Then WTF was that beer’s deal back then? I was trading for **** like Dogfish Head back then (we got like... every 3rd release back then here in TX) so it was a wee bit above my level. I remember going to GABF in 2015 and still being in awe that this beer that traded so crazily was on tap with not that big of a line.

 

[gregkoko]

Just picked up a four pack of Cigar City Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown. Let's see if it's as good as that one time from seven years ago. I've since built it up to mythic status in my head. I also blacked out and lost my phone that night. (40 tap Cigar City takeover...yikes). I know it's not a whale just reminiscing about **** I once thought was the greatest stuff ever

It was fine

 

[SeaWatchman]

Since I am bored and taking this off the rails anyway, Matacabras from Dave's Brew Farm. The brewery went up for sale in 2014, and then no one (outside of whatever town they are in?) ever saw or heard from this beer again.... but according to their super uninformative blogspot, the brewery still exists. I should have sent my buddy there when he went to MSP last weekend instead of stupid Forager.

Love the BrewFarm. Dave is still doing it in a limited capacity and he posts pretty regularly on Facebook about what he’s up to. He recently brewed an imperial mango kolsch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[stakem1]

One of the worst beers that didn't come from that box was Bullfrog Crime of Passion, which reminds me of how the Le Roar Grzzz beers were massive instawhales the first time they came out, and now I don't hear anything about them.

I had crime of passion when it was a draft offering (months/years?) prior to its bottle release. It was one of the most acetone heavy things i ever put near my face. I remember the bottle release and how they forced you to buy it as part of the grzzz allotment. I kept thinking, there is no way in hell this can possibly be the same beer, they wouldnt do that to their customers.

Boy was I wrong. Classic example of “we fixed it by adding fruit to it!”

Grzzz was something that completely shocked me at how good it was when it was draft/cask prior to its bottlings. The first bottles were amazing but I dont know if they aged all that well like people hoped/expected. Later releases got weird with some of the fruits they added that just made the beer gross (in my opinion.)

Some of those grzzz bottles physically hurt my throat. Like, to the extent that all I had was 5-6oz and my throat hurt into the next day. Some of the bottles were so harsh that I truly wondered if they unintentionally contained some chemicals that were not intended to be consumed.

And one last point about Grzzz. That is probably the single most iconic example of a single person/group of people creating buzz/hype that led people to go bat **** crazy in anticipation of a release. Grumpy offered a bottle of Midnight Sun M for what I think was 6 bottles of the first Grzzz release and instantly people thought all they had to do was buy $120 worth of Bullfrog bubbles at the follow-up release and they could have “M” caliber trade bait. People flew in from out of state, hired hookers as mules and the beer was a flop (other than 1-2 of the variants.)

 

[jmgrub]

I remember sending the old swingtop bottles of this around the country circa 2005 for the likes of: Dogfish Head 120 and Festina Lente, Speedway Stout(green bottle!), Victory Storm King, Founders KBS, etc..

The Hooker imperial porter was also a top 100 BA Beer around then. Paul Davis knew how to brew great beer back then.

The one beer I never got to track down that was my whale before stepping aside from beer for 5 years... Dark Lord

Liberator was one of the first beers I ever traded for. Loved it. Need to get my doppelbock game back.

 

[Lutter]

The one beer I never got to track down that was my whale before stepping aside from beer for 5 years... Dark Lord

You didn’t miss much.

The barrel aged versions tho... they honestly live up to the hype. I have been lucky enough to try a couple of those at shares, but would never pay the price myself.

 

[jmgrub]

******** Iowa.

Sister city to Intercourse, PA?

 

[trickytunadicky]

Love the BrewFarm. Dave is still doing it in a limited capacity and he posts pretty regularly on Facebook about what he’s up to. He recently brewed an imperial mango kolsch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If you see Matacabras will send you all of the Yuengling you can handle for it.

 

[sacrelicio]

If you see Matacabras will send you all of the Yuengling you can handle for it.

I just realized I was thinking of their chocolate chili stout, Mocha Diablo, which was sort of a local wale when it was in growlers. Matacabras was bottled and might be on shelves here somewhere. I'll grab it if I ever see it.

 

[Der Fuchs]

Speaking of getting praise from the right people...

This beer on draft was the bees knees.

 

[JCastle1]

OH GOD.

The only one more disappointing was Southampton IRS, which I am still convinced was just Topo Chico, cocoa powder and cigarette ash.

Damn, I loved Sexual Chocolate. Got the BA version from Shilt a few years ago.

 

[jmgrub]

Not really a whale, but one of the first beers I ever really wanted to trade for was Voodoo Black Magick (pre-spiffy barrel room collection labels). That beer was great - maybe not as great as some of the barrel room collection iterations (Pappy and Apple Brandy probably being my favorites) - but still great.

 

[mymrnngjckt]

I had crime of passion when it was a draft offering (months/years?) prior to its bottle release. It was one of the most acetone heavy things i ever put near my face. I remember the bottle release and how they forced you to buy it as part of the grzzz allotment. I kept thinking, there is no way in hell this can possibly be the same beer, they wouldnt do that to their customers.

Boy was I wrong. Classic example of “we fixed it by adding fruit to it!”

Grzzz was something that completely shocked me at how good it was when it was draft/cask prior to its bottlings. The first bottles were amazing but I dont know if they aged all that well like people hoped/expected. Later releases got weird with some of the fruits they added that just made the beer gross (in my opinion.)

Some of those grzzz bottles physically hurt my throat. Like, to the extent that all I had was 5-6oz and my throat hurt into the next day. Some of the bottles were so harsh that I truly wondered if they unintentionally contained some chemicals that were not intended to be consumed.

And one last point about Grzzz. That is probably the single most iconic example of a single person/group of people creating buzz/hype that led people to go bat **** crazy in anticipation of a release. Grumpy offered a bottle of Midnight Sun M for what I think was 6 bottles of the first Grzzz release and instantly people thought all they had to do was buy $120 worth of Bullfrog bubbles at the follow-up release and they could have “M” caliber trade bait. People flew in from out of state, hired hookers as mules and the beer was a flop (other than 1-2 of the variants.)

I would argue Bullfrog Frambozen being the first example of artificial hype. Particularity, BA members from Pittsburgh who went BSC trying to hype of this beer. I got into an amazing message fight on BA with one of them. Wish I still had that too.

 

[ExPimp]

This thread is bringing all the feelz. I had to go look for something... I used to hand write all my trades on note cards with info on the other side to keep track. Dug a few out that were with some of the people here and found a trade that definitely trumped my Crianza(and I added a growler of LO?!) for Bruery trade.... Oh man, KungFuMike pedaling all those infected White Birch beers.

 

[jmgrub]

This thread is bringing all the feelz. I had to go look for something... I used to hand write all my trades on note cards with info on the other side to keep track. Dug a few out that were with some of the people here and found a trade that definitely trumped my Crianza(and I added a growler of LO?!) for Bruery trade.... Oh man, KungFuMike pedaling all those infected White Birch beers.

While that trade with mikesgroove aged pretty well (2 whales), the one with kungfumike is one of the worst I've ever seen. Apparently Mike giveth, and other Mike taketh away.

I wish I had something like these note cards!

 

[stakem1]

KungfuMike and Mikesgroove

2 names I tried to erase from my memory and was successful in doing so until I read them here.

 

[MikeG1]

This thread is bringing all the feelz. I had to go look for something... I used to hand write all my trades on note cards with info on the other side to keep track. Dug a few out that were with some of the people here and found a trade that definitely trumped my Crianza(and I added a growler of LO?!) for Bruery trade.... Oh man, KungFuMike pedaling all those infected White Birch beers.

Lmk when you wanna trade. I'm open.

 

[ExPimp]

Lmk when you wanna trade. I'm open.

Haha, all my "whales" are gone now. I used to be flush with lambic (mom was living in Belgium from 2007-2012) and no one else gave a **** about it so I made trades like this.

KungfuMike and Mikesgroove

2 names I tried to erase from my memory and was successful in doing so until I read them here.

Yea, I was successful in erasing that trade with Kungfu from my mind apparently, until I found the card.

 

[furley]

Since I am bored and taking this off the rails anyway, Matacabras from Dave's Brew Farm. The brewery went up for sale in 2014, and then no one (outside of whatever town they are in?) ever saw or heard from this beer again.... but according to their super uninformative blogspot, the brewery still exists. I should have sent my buddy there when he went to MSP last weekend instead of stupid Forager.

Dave's is definitely still open

SwedishJesus - tavernjef still goes there, no?

 

[corby112]

Swing top talk reminds me I used to like the East End beers corby112 used to send me. Always wanted the OG swing top batch of Toaster but could never land it. Illustration Ale was a solid Belgian dark.

Damn, I forgot about those. I think they also did The Big Hop and Homewood Reserve in those swing tops

 

[NClambicguy]

This is so beautiful... NClambicguy

Kinda reminds me of when BA Cataclysm III dropped and the Charlotte locals would actually chastise others for making trades where they didn’t clearly win. There are some truly awful people on the beer scene out there that only care about winning the trade on secondary valuation and telling others what to do with their bottles.

 

[thebandit1]

There are some truly awful people on the beer scene out there that only care about winning the trade on secondary valuation and telling others what to do with their bottles.

They’re called losers.

 

[ripps1]

There are some truly awful people on the beer scene out there that only care about winning the trade on secondary valuation and telling others what to do with their bottles.

This is why I don't trade anymore. Just too much ******** in it these days.

I don't recall anyone bringing up CBS (B1) in here yet. I remember people losing their **** over that beer. I thought it was a good beer. Perhaps it was hyped up too much by the time I had it.

Speaking of which I have to give the latest release of that a try. Think I'll throw one in the fridge and give it a try.