Awesome take up so far, reaching out to more than just beer bloggers and into brewers and pubs and non-blogging drinkers. This is good. Beer Swap is out there and I’m sure we can snare a few more in this week… Before we finalise the deal, here’s some more things to sort out between us.1. The number of bottles? I’m going to say let’s do four. It’s probably better to go for a moderate number for a few reasons: cheaper postage, cheaper to buy the beers, quicker to drink them, shorter blog posts.
2. The type of beer you send is totally up to you, but I’d say make it the best local stuff you can find. Don’t just send any old crap because they brew down the road, get the good stuff. And try and go for a bit of variety, so send beer from at least two breweries. And if you brew your own then feel free to put that in too.
3. How the hell do we select who sends to who? This is the tricky thing logistically. I think the sensible starting point is to create as North/South divide and draw between them. I also think it’d be better if it’s all interlinked, so you don’t just send and receive with the same beer brother. I think randomly drawing names works, so maybe Andy (or here) and I could do a live draw over twitter.
4. Finishing dates. You need to send, receive, drink and blog by is the 4th December (blog it any time in the week before) and then we can do a little round-up for the 6th December. I think this works…
Anyone with any more ideas then throw them in. Anyone who hasn’t said so yet and wants in, then let me or Andy at Beer Reviews know. I will post next week about the next step, which will be drawing the names and sorting out who sends to who. Until then, buy the beer and use the #beerswap hashtag in twitter so we can keep track of everything!!
And a huge thank you to Barm/Robsterowski for the logo – it totally rocks! I’ve got another idea which needs a logo so I might drop you an email… I can only pay in beer though!
Nice one fella!
ReplyDeletejust stealing your post and putting a copy on the blog ;o)
i hope everyone is as excited about it as i am?
postage wise im just waiting to see if the test package arrives with @realalereviews - if it does ill let you all in on it!
cheers
andy
Still no text from couriers, but the part B of test swap is well under way with the discovery of beers from 2 unknown breweries in the local area. four bottles will be winging their way to moggy very soon!
ReplyDeleteI've just got back from a local micro brewery (Nutbrook) where they took me through each stage of a live brewing process. It was very cool and I will be churning through the pics and video later to make a blog post. I know where two of my beers will be coming from for sure!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if it was worth making a Beerswap Posterous where every participant is a contributor - that way we could cross post everything even if it also exists on our own blogs. It would be a central deposit linking off to all the individual blogs.
Anyway, time for a beer ...
@richardmackney
sounds like a good idea mate, glad u had fun at the brewery!
ReplyDeleteA year or two back I ran a Euro-wide food box swap even though postage to Europe is very expensive. It was much more fun if you didn't know who your box was coming from, it being from a different person than to the box recipient you sent. Should work well for the beer thing too...
ReplyDeleteBring it on! I've got loads of shit free beer to get rid of. I mean, I can access the finest beers that my local micro's can brew. Although, strictly speaking, my local-ist micro is actually Nutbrook... and I've never been there :-O
ReplyDeleteThis is a great Idea. I can be nice and lazy as I live within walking distance of 3Rivers and Robinson's.
ReplyDeleteBring it on :D
Mark, Andy,
ReplyDeleteIs there a list anywhere of the participants, their general location and their twitter username?
I have the idea for my second Micro and don't want to duplicate with anyone else in my area :)
Cheers
@richardmackney
Nice one everyone. And don't worry about dupes as they'll be going to different people in different places - I'm sure there'll be plenty of dupes from us southerners!
ReplyDeleteAs for Posterous, I don't know what that is... I think Andy will sort that out though. And RM, I'll put that all together for the end of the week.
I'm in too - just been out on a special mission to round up 4 local-ish (well, Midlands-area) beers - not able to get hold of exactly what I'd want to send, but I'm presuming if the swap goes on, I'll get the opportunity to hunt down more :-)
ReplyDeleteSo, I'm ready now to be told where to send them to, how to use the amazing £4 courier service, and whatever else really!
Don't know if you've concluded how you're going to match people up or do a draw - I like the idea that this might carry on and I might be paired with different people/parts of the country at different times - FWIW I'm keen to make more of an acquaintance with Cumbrian and N Yorkshire micros, and I don't know the smaller Cornish/Devon etc. breweries that well - but whatever goes really!
I'm fortunate enough to like all beer styles, so up for trialling anything I get sent - I'll probably be sending out a mixture of beer styles in return.
So, roll on with it guys - I await my instructions!
I'm in!
ReplyDeletePlanning on starting a blog really soon with my mate.
I live in West Yorkshire near Bradford/Leeds, so plenty of good beers being brewed around here.
I'm on twitter @BGRTRob
Cannot post on here at work tho, bloody IT restrictions!