Local Only Trade (LOT)

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Cheers from Austin. This was super tasty.
 
I'm from Central PA (Hershey/Harrisburg area). I have access to Tattered Flag, Troegs, Boneshire (and a few others in crowler form a bit less frequently like Millworks, Zeroday, Moo-Duck, Iron Hill, etc.)

I'm looking for just anything "new" from parts I won't be able to have access to. I've never done beer trading (so obviously I have no beer trade feedback) but want to start making regular trade partners and start becoming a beer trader. (Less drinking out and more drinking can/bottle at home).

Any help would be great. Thanks all!
 
I'm also a beer blogger and beer reviewer ( http://thebeerthrillers.home.blog/ ) so it'll be great to get to review beers that most of the people in my area who are reading my blog won't have seen before. (Likewise if you have your own brewery or whatever and want reviews, I will gladly do it.)
 
Bender_Braus_Brewing said:
I'm from Central PA (Hershey/Harrisburg area). I have access to Tattered Flag, Troegs, Boneshire (and a few others in crowler form a bit less frequently like Millworks, Zeroday, Moo-Duck, Iron Hill, etc.)

I'm looking for just anything "new" from parts I won't be able to have access to. I've never done beer trading (so obviously I have no beer trade feedback) but want to start making regular trade partners and start becoming a beer trader. (Less drinking out and more drinking can/bottle at home).

Any help would be great. Thanks all!
Click to expand...

I’ll grant you after the box from @wstbrewing arrives. Assuming there is no one else in line, but I’ll double check. Then you can work with him to get a box together to ship to him. Once he receives the box from you, the next person will ship a box to you to enjoy.
I think I got that all straight. It’s been a long day.
 
pshankstar said:
I’ll grant you after the box from @wstbrewing arrives. Assuming there is no one else in line, but I’ll double check. Then you can work with him to get a box together to ship to him. Once he receives the box from you, the next person will ship a box to you to enjoy.
I think I got that all straight. It’s been a long day.
Click to expand...
Will I get a message with the person's address and everything or will it be posted in here? Just wanting to make sure I do everything by the book.

Thanks.
 
Bender_Braus_Brewing said:
Will I get a message with the person's address and everything or will it be posted in here? Just wanting to make sure I do everything by the book.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Addresses and tracking numbers get sent via private message or conversation (I forget what HBT calls them) between the two people.
You will see when your time is up to ship and then receive but always feel free to ask any questions here.
 
pshankstar said:
Addresses and tracking numbers get sent via private message or conversation (I forget what HBT calls them) between the two people.
You will see when your time is up to ship and then receive but always feel free to ask any questions here.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks. So, I'll start off with some basic questions:

1) 48oz is the minimum to ship?
2) Whats best to ship - FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc?
3) What is generally the cost to ship 48oz?
4) Is there an ABV limit (minimum or maximum)? Do people typically request what styles (ie. stout/sour/IPA)?
5) Does brewery size matter? (ie. Microbrewery vs. Nanobrewery vs. Large/Regional Brewery)?

Thanks!
 
Bender_Braus_Brewing said:
Ok thanks. So, I'll start off with some basic questions:

1) 48oz is the minimum to ship?
2) Whats best to ship - FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc?
3) What is generally the cost to ship 48oz?
4) Is there an ABV limit (minimum or maximum)? Do people typically request what styles (ie. stout/sour/IPA)?
5) Does brewery size matter? (ie. Microbrewery vs. Nanobrewery vs. Large/Regional Brewery)?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Well it looks like you’ll be granting for me.

We generally request styles and have no abc requirements.

I like Barleywines, imperial stouts, and any non-milk stout or porter. Generally, I don’t prefer iPas, pale ales, Or Pilsners. Too many great local ones, if I’m looking for an IPA, I’ll generally ask for it.

48oz is the minimum, but most ship more than that. Review the thread and you’ll see what others are shipping (many post a picture of what they receive).

Shipping company is your choice, all have risks. Boxes get damaged, get lost, and can be confiscated due to containing alcohol. If/when that happens, it is generally the shippers responsibility to re-ship at his/her own expense. (Buying new beers and paying to ship again...)

Shipping price depends on weight and distance, east to west my larger boxes can cost me $45-50 to ship. Staying on the same coast it’s usually closer to $25-30.

My shipment is scheduled to arrive Monday. Maybe a pic will get posted to show about how much I sent. I generally try to send to others the same amount of beer I’d hope to be sent (if that makes sense).

Generally we offer up breweries in the area and ask what a person is interested in, no sense in sending something they can buy on their own or that they’ve had many times before.

I’ll PM you with my shipping info once Phankstar confirms he has received the box on Monday.
 
@wstbrewing did a fine job of explaining it for you, but I will add some thoughts of my own. The LOT thread started beer trading for many of us, myself included. I've now shipped and received, combined, probably forty or fifty (?) boxes of beer.

@Bender_Braus_Brewing Some supplemental information for you...

In the LOT thread you say what you want and the person granting you provides beers of those styles.

For the Fellowship (FotD) trades, it is quite different. There is one going on now, so you could theoretically get in on that should you grant WST quickly enough and ship quickly enough.

1) 48oz is the minimum to ship? As WST noted, it is the minimum. Sometimes people ship 48oz and other times people ship 84oz. A reasonable guideline to follow is to see what the person who you are granting shipped and try to reciprocate. It's not a contest (unless you win), but we all want to be fair with each other.

2) Whats best to ship - FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc? One of those three. USPS is fastest, but it can sometimes cost a few bucks more. You can also opt to ship in flat rate boxes and ship multiple boxes. UPS and Fedex are often cheaper but at the expense of more days in transit. NOTE: INSURE your packages. If they confiscate the package they will still pay out the insurance claim. I am speaking from experience, now with all three carriers. I have a reputation on here for getting caught...not a good reputation to have.

3) What is generally the cost to ship 48oz? Box size/dimensions, weight, and location factor into cost. Use 20lbs as your weight and go from there; that's a pretty good estimate.

4) Is there an ABV limit (minimum or maximum)? Do people typically request what styles (ie. stout/sour/IPA)? As long as it is alcoholic, we are okay. Styles are requested by the person who you are granting. If you do not have options where you are at for their preference it is okay to put yourself next in line after they are granted.

5) Does brewery size matter? (ie. Microbrewery vs. Nanobrewery vs. Large/Regional Brewery)? The idea is that you are shipping beer (etc) to someone who cannot otherwise get that beer because of a lack of distribution. The thread itself is named Local Only Trade because the idea is that you will ship beer that is only local to you. For example, there is a brewery about twenty minutes away that nearly stopped bottle distribution. In fact, I have been to four places that usually carry there beer, and there is nothing. That's what I would ship to someone. There is a website that you can use to see where the breweries near you distribute to; however, I forget the site name. I imagine someone will read this and know what I am referring to.

ADDED INFO
Some people also include glassware in their shipments. It's cool to get glassware from other breweries, shirts and other stuff is also accepted (size matters). I am a little odd in that I'll send Mexican grocery items across the country, too, such as chorizo, mangoes, jack fruit, Mexican candies, ... you name it.

You will also see that people will include their homebrew in grants; however, those should never been counted towards the ounces. They are usually doing it because we enjoy feedback from each other. It's a brewing forum first and foremost...the trades only add to it.

There is plenty of information on the internet on how to package beer. Some things to remember: line the entire box with a trash bag, and inside the trash bag is the beer. The idea being if something breaks, the bag conceals it. Each beer should be wrapped in bubble wrap and someone sealed in it's own bag. Some of us use food sealers. They're great at protecting spills should something break.

I will correct WST on this one aspect. If you ship something to someone, and for any reason it does not make it there you are obligated to replace that shipment. Now, if you ship 10 beers to someone and one of those breaks you are not obligated to ship anything else. In cases where glassware was sent and arrived broken, or a really unique beer that you wanted the person to taste arrives broken, the person who shipped it will oftentimes replace whatever got damaged. In the cases of glassware, use the insurance. If it was a damaged beer, chalk it up as a loss and decide if you want to replace it or not. You don't want to raise red flags for yourself.


That's all that I can think of now, but that's a hell of a lot more than what was given to me when I started. You kind of learn things in time as to what is right, what is wrong, what is expected, what is not, how to package so things don't break, and most importantly how not to be a d!ck.
 
Awesome information guys, I greatly appreciate it. Being Central PA, I have access to Troegs which is a bigger regional place, which most people along the east coast can get, but I also have access to some smaller breweries like Boneshire, Tattered Flag, Rotunda, and a few others (problem with some of them is they only do crowlers and don't do their own bottling or canning).
 
Bender_Braus_Brewing said:
Awesome information guys, I greatly appreciate it. Being Central PA, I have access to Troegs which is a bigger regional place, which most people along the east coast can get, but I also have access to some smaller breweries like Boneshire, Tattered Flag, Rotunda, and a few others (problem with some of them is they only do crowlers and don't do their own bottling or canning).
Click to expand...

I would never say no to a fresh crowler and I’m sure others would agree. I’ve sent some crowlers from NY to CA a few times.
Those smaller breweries would probably be a good choice, but if my memory is correct Troegs does have some brewery only beers that would be a good choice too. Their splinter series come to mind and some of their one offs (aka “scratch” beers). Pizza Boys and Mellow Mink are two places I like to stop at on my way through that area. Troegs too but it’s a little out of the way but worth it. Anyhow...
WST and TG provided a heck of a lot of good information! It members like this here on HBT that make it such a great community of people!
I’ll post a picture of the box that arrives from @wstbrewing today assuming it’s not delayed. That will help give you an idea too but definitely go back in the thread to see.
Cheers bud and welcome!
 
pshankstar said:
I would never say no to a fresh crowler and I’m sure others would agree. I’ve sent some crowlers from NY to CA a few times.
Those smaller breweries would probably be a good choice, but if my memory is correct Troegs does have some brewery only beers that would be a good choice too. Their splinter series come to mind and some of their one offs (aka “scratch” beers). Pizza Boys and Mellow Mink are two places I like to stop at on my way through that area. Troegs too but it’s a little out of the way but worth it. Anyhow...
WST and TG provided a heck of a lot of good information! It members like this here on HBT that make it such a great community of people!
I’ll post a picture of the box that arrives from @wstbrewing today assuming it’s not delayed. That will help give you an idea too but definitely go back in the thread to see.
Cheers bud and welcome!
Click to expand...

Whats the turnaround time neccessary to send? Due to work (two jobs), kids (sports this time of year), it probably won't be this Thursday but the next (6.13) that I would be able to send. Would that be ok? If not, you can push me back one, that'd be fine.
 
Bender_Braus_Brewing said:
Whats the turnaround time neccessary to send? Due to work (two jobs), kids (sports this time of year), it probably won't be this Thursday but the next (6.13) that I would be able to send. Would that be ok? If not, you can push me back one, that'd be fine.
Click to expand...
I don't think there is any timeline to ship but just be in touch with the person who is shipping to you out of courtesy. Most of us are in similar positions and life is more important than beer, which we all respect and understand. @wstbrewing has been insanely busy with life too (congrats again on everything bud!) and it's taken over a month to ship. No big deal b/c it's just beer. Also it's not uncommon for there to be some time to find out what the person likes and time to acquire those beers too. I know when I ship beers, I try to make sure they are fresh cans/bottles especially if they are IPAs or heavily fruited beers, so that always adds some times.
This thread moves quickly at times and slower other times. You may find you ship to WST in a couple of weeks but then it may be a couple of weeks till someone jumps in to ship to you. Don't fret over these things b/c we all end up with some great beers!
 
Bender_Braus_Brewing said:
Ok, didn't know if it was a very punctual thing and that I'd be holding everything up or anything.
Click to expand...

One additional recommendation is to go back about 10 pages and read forward. Not only will that show you how the system works, but it'll also provide you with timelines as each post is time stamped. I think I went through all 20-30 pages when I first jumped in the LOT thread...lots of downtime so it was helpful to/for me.
 
Bender_Braus_Brewing said:
Awesome information guys, I greatly appreciate it. Being Central PA, I have access to Troegs which is a bigger regional place, which most people along the east coast can get, but I also have access to some smaller breweries like Boneshire, Tattered Flag, Rotunda, and a few others (problem with some of them is they only do crowlers and don't do their own bottling or canning).
Click to expand...

While I highly recommend Rotunda Sours. I highly recommend you don’t ship them as you can see from the pic they either aren’t done fermenting or they are going through a secondary fermentation due to the fruit. The cans will most likely pop while in transit this time of year.

138BA949-A1C4-44C1-8184-1CF2EC9AF6EB.jpeg
 
TBC said:
While I highly recommend Rotunda Sours. I highly recommend you don’t ship them as you can see from the pic they either aren’t done fermenting or they are going through a secondary fermentation due to the fruit. The cans will most likely pop while in transit this time of year.

View attachment 629639
Click to expand...

To help mitigate this issue, I started to included frozen chorizo in my kettle sour offers. I would also keep the kettle sours refrigerated. That seems to help keep the cans very cold throughout their cross country journey; however, I've shipped plenty of explosive cans :)
 
In the process of assembling my package. It might be another week or two as the one brewery has their can release next Thursday. Its swim season for my daughters so there's lots of invitationals and meets, so things are a bit hectic. But I promise I'm working on it.
 
wstbrewing said:
Bump cause I just left my third brewery in a Friday night after work.
Click to expand...

Yummy yummy put some beer in my tummies! I've been slowly collecting some beers for either a LOT or FOTD trade...at least in the LOT thread you get exactly what you want. The FOTD is a little bit of a gamble...like going to the Goodwill store looking for something very specific. Unless it's a dress coat or sport jacket from the 70s (or later) you have no guarantees.
 
TwistedGray said:
Yummy yummy put some beer in my tummies! I've been slowly collecting some beers for either a LOT or FOTD trade...at least in the LOT thread you get exactly what you want. The FOTD is a little bit of a gamble...like going to the Goodwill store looking for something very specific. Unless it's a dress coat or sport jacket from the 70s (or later) you have no guarantees.
Click to expand...

I’d say the FoTD is more like going to a strip club. You’re not sure what you’re going to see or get but you know you’ll be happy with the end result!!

Bump this. If original grantor can’t get it together for grantee in the next week we move on.
 
Sorry, I will be shipping Friday/Saturday. The passing of my grandpa co-insiding with a trip and another family emergency (brother in law issue, as well as the birth of a niece) kind of threw the last 10 days into a complete loop.

I do apologize for how long this has been taking. I didn't quite realize how difficult it'd be to assemble a package from various places with the life of a some-what single father of 3.

My apologies.
 

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