Slate on Beer Flipping...

Brewers are getting pissed about folks scoring their small release stuff just to re-sale on E-Bay:

Seriously frowned on in the beer community as well. The bartender seeing that kid putting Hill Farmstead into his canteen should have stopped serving him immediately.

Flipping Westy is absolutely disgusting.

Oh please.

Oh shit, you guys posted something Rick disapproves of. You better delete it.

Really Joe? That’s the best you can do? A lame, pathetic attempt at a personal attack… and one that’s offbase and wrong to boot?

Troll harder.

No response, no trolling.

So, what is the objection? Russell Wilson thinks flipping beer is crappy too.

Flipping bottles of beer is no different then flipping bottles of wine (not that I do either of them, but that’s neither here nor there). Now pouring pints into a canteen and trying to sell that? That’s a serious A-Class douche move. I can’t even imagine dropping any money at all on someone trying to sell something like that on ebay. “Trust, me, this is 4 pints of XXX in this canteen. Yours for only $99.99”. Really.

I am with Rick on this one: oh please. WTF? I buy it, it’s mine to do with as I please. Anti-flippers don’t have a leg to stand on but keep trying!

You still haven’t actually said anything on topic. WTF are you even posting here for? Just to whine at me? Here’s a hint - posting just to get a reaction IS trolling. Go away troll.

On Topic… it’s beer. Really, aside from something like Westvleteren, how rare is beer? Even that is rare only because the choose to make little of it.

Wine, at least, has the fact that it’s a once-a-year thing. Coupled with vintage variation and aging potential and I can see some argument for rarity. But even with that… once I buy something I own it. If someone else is willing to give me $500 for a six-pack of Westvleteren I see zero moral reason I shouldn’t sell it to them if I want to.

I’m not objecting to the posting of the thread. I think it’s silly to get worked up about flipping beer is all. I buy the beer, it’s mine. If I want to resell it, I can. Putting some in a carafe? douchy. But selling a sixpack? Don’t see any reason for moral outrage.

There is no room for it, Rick. However, this is the first time brewers are experiencing the terrible feeling of “leaving money on the table” and they’re in an uproar to claim some of that lost revenue. If any of them say this is about “true fans” getting the beer at a “reasonable price,” they’re talking out of their asses. It’s the exact same thing as flipping wine: some people make money by having access. Eventually, the release price of the beer will rise to its market value (just like Lafite, et al) and “true fans” will grump about being priced out of the market (just list Lafite, et al), yet the brewers will certainly go silent on the issue.

People are free to do what they want. No argument. Westy is sold by monks in order to benefit their monastery and the charitable work it provides. The monks live a simple, humble monastic life.

Unlike Chimay, Trappistes Rochefort & the other Trappist monasteries, they have chosen to stay away from exporting and big production. There have been a couple of Belgian retail outlets to order from, or one could bring it back from Europe. Buying it directly at the monastery is extremely inexpensive.

This year, they needed a new roof, so their exported packs to the US and were quite firm on the price at retail.

Buying multiples of these to sell them online is, while perfectly within one’s rights, a bit gross to me.

There are actually a lot of rare beers both imported and in the US. The Hill Farmstead mentioned in the article is nearly impossible to find, as are other seasonals with high demand for low production.

Gene,

People can flip and some choose to, but it is frowned on by a large part of the craft community. Trading is the more common outlet for getting beers that aren’t in your area.

It isn’t better or worse than wine flipping, it is simply a different means of exchange. We have a commerce corner here, on sites like BA there is a trading forum. If someone were to go on there and post $ cost for beer, they’d be flamed.

You still haven’t actually said anything on topic. WTF are you even posting here for? Just to whine at me? Here’s a hint - posting just to get a reaction IS trolling. Go away troll.

Rick, It must be nice to be able to hide behind your keyboard and make comments like this, I’m quite sure that if you were standing in front of me you would never say this to my face. As far as going away I will do that. You make this place so much better than anyone else who posts here and I am gone!

That’s interesting about the different cultures.

“Oh please” what? I don’t get your point, Rick. What do you mean?

EDIT: O.K., I’ve read your follow-up comments (the ones where you actually state your position), and now I understand where you were coming from. I agree with the point you make — once you buy it, you can re-sell it. However, I can agree with your stated point (and I do) and still be frustrated that some of the beers I like to buy are made noticeably more scarce by flippers (and I am so-frustrated). Same thing with wine — it’s an old topic, although it’s somewhat new in the world of beer.

For example: I sincerely believe I have to start hoarding the Belgian gueuzes and lambics that I adore b/c I have a real fear that they are soon to become flippers’ objects of affection — and said beers are already hard enough to get one’s hands on, even without having to compete against flippers. I find that frustrating. Thank goodness I’m not a fan of Belgian quads – Westvleteren 12, in particular – as I otherwise would have been very frustrated to have to fend-off the hoards of flippers had I wanted to get my hands on one of the Westy 12 6-packs that were recently released.

I think folks are just frustrated more than they are morally outraged, but there is an element of outrage/frustration to it, no doubt — call it moral, or whatever; this is no different than seeing a Shelby Cobra be purchased by some idiot who’s not into cars, but simply has a lot of money, and who never intends on showing or driving it. Does that person have a right to buy said car and do whatever the hell they want with it? Of course they do. But, many still perceive an element of “unfortunate-ness” about it, even to those who could never afford said car. Same thing with seeing a '47 Lafleur get consumed alongside numerous other rare wines, with ice, with Pepsi. Of course, to feel this way about a physical object requires that one be passionate about said physical object.

I don’t know what physical object(s) you’re most passionate about, Rick — perhaps it’s wine? Perhaps you have no such passion for any physical object, and that’s fine, too. Even if you don’t personally agree with those who perceive some “unfortunate” in these situations, I would think that you could at least understand where they’re coming from (at least intellectually, if not emotionally); after all, I don’t entirely agree with your viewpoint, but I understand where you’re coming from.

One difference between beer, on the one hand, and wine and rare cars on the other, is that that beer is not a rich person’s game. If you have any disposable income, and free time enough to pursue hard-to-find beers, then virtually* the whole world is open to you. Maybe that adds to the frustration with black-market beer sales.

*I have to add “virtually” now because until I read the Slate article, I had no idea that the secondary market for rare beer had gotten so pricey.

makes me want to sell my Westvleteren. No beer of mine is worth $100 a btl.