Whale Hunter

matedog · Mar 7, 2014

Wow, that's personal.

stupac2 · Mar 7, 2014

matedog said:
Wow, that's personal.

I think it's mostly (entirely?) a joke. Though if it's not... wow indeed.

sacrelicio · Mar 7, 2014

tinypyramids said:
i myself am not a whale hunter, but i wrote a sort of mini manifesto on this a while ago. i have no idea where it went, though.

there's a million factors that could amp up the trade value for a beer. something gets to whale status because of:

- low bottle count
- hype over the brewery
- hype over the base beer (if a BA version of a base beer)
- style hype (lambics, sours, ba stouts, ba barleywines, etc.)
- low bottle limit at release time (if it's the kind of beer that is even released to the public)
- one-off (not regular release)
- non-american brewery (not because of quality but because of difficulty of acquisition, as most beer traders seem to be american)
- bottle cost
- age of the beer (and how likely it is to still be good)
- how many bottles are likely left in the wild
and last but not least,
- how the beer tastes.

I hear this point often, that taste doesn't matter that much, and it's all about the rarity and hype. I don't buy it. A beer has to taste good first before anyone cares about it. This goes for hyped shelf seasonals as well as white whales. You or me or anyone else might think the beer isn't that great, but outside of a few exceptions, the beers people want are generally good to great.

ridglens · Mar 7, 2014

carchadon said:
The worst type of whale hunter is the lonely one.

Drinking Veritas 004 out of a plastic cup in an airport hotel in Newark, while waiting to move to Germany, while eating cupcakes from Carlos' bakery (Cake Boss). Alone, my family was asleep. . .

On the night my youngest son, Leondias was born in Germany, he who had been conceived in a porta-potty in the VIP section of the Ithaca beer fest in 2011. . . but on the night he was born, because you can't stay overnight in a German hospital, drinking a Cable Car 08, and then having a fresh Lente next, which Armand talked me up as he sold me, with 11 others. Alone. . .had a second Lente as well. . .the Cable Car should have been an abortion.

Drinking a 2L growler of Pliny the Younger in 2010, in a plastic cup again, in about 45 minutes! in a hotel outside of Daytona on the night of the 500, and then running outside and peeing on all of the NASCAR replica cars. Hey, that car is made with Tide, it'll come clean. We drove from Buffalo to Key Largo then Orlando, swam with some dolphins went to Disney World, and OH YEAH, I was at Sea World a week later when the trainer was killed by the psycho whale. The whale game isn't always fun for all. Alone. . .

Went to the Festival in Portland, had a 3 session pass. Huge line to get in for the last session, as the volunteers basically rioted. Snuck? in the workers entrance with a wristband and went straight to the Drie Fonteinen table and proceeded to drink about a bottles worth of 99 OGV from 3 bottles, with a friend of mine, Shaun Hill and a couple others. I had about 2000 ticket and just kept pulling them out of my pocket, like intestines from a disemboweled child. I guess I wasn't alone on that one.

Who are you?!

carchadon · Mar 7, 2014

stupac2 said:
I think it's mostly (entirely?) a joke. Though if it's not... wow indeed.

Every single word was true. Why would I make stuff up?

A couple of my Army stories are the WOW ones, like this one, like being inside a giant tent, called a BASE-X, that blew away, about 100 meters, and up and over some trees. The Platoon Sergeant (PSG) woke up the platoon and told them "the BASE-X is gone, it blew away. . . .McDonald was in it" The laughter was deafening.

Later, other Soldiers would come up to me and ask how it was, and what it felt like to be inside of this huge tent that blew away. . . I replied: it was intense!

Still later that day, I got out of a Humvee to get some coffee, which was in my PSG's tent, a small Arctic tent, as it was Ft Drum in February. The winds had been gusting to about 80. As I was walking, someone else came up to talk to me about what happened. I paused for a minute or so to tell him, always using INTENSE, as it was so clever, hopefully, you got it. Anyways, after talking to this guy I got to the tent, and then HOWLLLLLL the wind blew and a dead tree, about 70 feet tall, broke off about 30 feet above the ground, and that log broke into about 7 pieces into the air, and all of the pieces fell onto the small tent, completely destroying it, basically exactly where the percolator was on the heater, right in front of me.

That's just 1 of about 20 EPIC stories. I am very stingy with that particular word, and although I don't know why all of these things have happened to me, and I definitely should not still be alive, I am a good time when drinking.

Lefty Hyzer · Mar 11, 2014

carchadon said:
Every single word was true. Why would I make stuff up?

A couple of my Army stories are the WOW ones, like this one, like being inside a giant tent, called a BASE-X, that blew away, about 100 meters, and up and over some trees. The Platoon Sergeant (PSG) woke up the platoon and told them "the BASE-X is gone, it blew away. . . .McDonald was in it" The laughter was deafening.

Later, other Soldiers would come up to me and ask how it was, and what it felt like to be inside of this huge tent that blew away. . . I replied: it was intense!

Still later that day, I got out of a Humvee to get some coffee, which was in my PSG's tent, a small Arctic tent, as it was Ft Drum in February. The winds had been gusting to about 80. As I was walking, someone else came up to talk to me about what happened. I paused for a minute or so to tell him, always using INTENSE, as it was so clever, hopefully, you got it. Anyways, after talking to this guy I got to the tent, and then HOWLLLLLL the wind blew and a dead tree, about 70 feet tall, broke off about 30 feet above the ground, and that log broke into about 7 pieces into the air, and all of the pieces fell onto the small tent, completely destroying it, basically exactly where the percolator was on the heater, right in front of me.

That's just 1 of about 20 EPIC stories. I am very stingy with that particular word, and although I don't know why all of these things have happened to me, and I definitely should not still be alive, I am a good time when drinking.

I feel like every story from here on out from you, no matter how long it is. I will read. And I hate reading long posts.