Hello friends and readers, welcome to what shall be known as my first (of potentially many) blog entries about beer. I’ve been meaning to pontificate on my most pressing obsession for awhile now, and considering I have a bottle share I’m attending today, figured this would be a nifty guide for future novices. By the way, yes that bottle share is on a Wednesday night, don’t judge.
So maybe you’ve been to a bottle share, or maybe the closest thing you’ve come to one is picking up a couple beers and heading to a friends house. I hosted three such bottle shares before being invited to my first “real” one. I was somewhat unprepared, because in my small minor league world I had the best beer of any of my friends. Amongst professionals that have been hoarding beer and trading for years, I was out of my league. It wasn’t a complete disaster but from these various experiments I’ve learned a few do’s and don’ts about the wonderful world of sharing beer with friends, acquaintances, or in several cases complete strangers.
Why bottle share?
Before I elaborate on what proper protocol is, let me just elaborate on the whole sharing concept. Now this isn’t some kindergarten lecture on sharing is caring, although that is a nice way of saying it. I always considered bottle shares to be the best of both worlds. It’s like trading except you get to drink your beer and the ones you would have traded it for. Even the best beer is perishable, and although you can age some for upwards of a decade, beer is meant to be drank. Sure it’s cool to post a picture of your “cellar” or a sweet 7 year Dark Lord vertical you painstakingly acquired, but that beer should be consumed, and you should enlist your friends to help you.
Bottle shares bring people together. You make new friends, you make connections, you get to try new and exciting beers from all over the world you might not have even been aware of before. We all have favorite styles, beers, or breweries, but a bottle share helps introduce us to the tastes and preferences of other eclectic tastes. I’ve managed to try a hell of a lot of beers thanks to shares that I either never would have had the trading firepower to acquire, or in some cases would have never even thought to trade for. They also make a great excuse to help empty your cellar, but word to the wise rarely do all bottles get consumed. Last time I hosted a bottle share I wound up with 30 extra bottles of beer, which is one of the reasons I’d recommend hosting one.
What do I bring?
This is a surprisingly multi-faceted question and arguably the most important and simultaneously inconsequential question when faced with a bottle share. Depending on your set up or theme it helps to have a sign up sheet. Spreadsheets are often used in bigger bottle shares to help others know what to bring or what’s missing. It doesn’t hurt to follow the holy trilogy of something hoppy, something malty, and something sour. However if you’re attending a tasting of all sour beers, it wouldn’t necessarily make sense to break out that 2012 Bourbon County Coffee bomber.
Some bottle shares are centered around specific breweries, maybe it’s a Cantillon tasting (please invite me to that), or a selection of beers from The Bruery, Founders, or perhaps all Bourbon County variants. This is where spreadsheets are almost essential. It also never hurts to bring more than you can drink, after all you can always take them home. Rarely does a bottle share ever run out of beer, but over packing helps prevent any panic from running out of ammunition.
In the event of a general bottle share where there is no sign up sheet or central theme the task of what can bring might seem a little easier. Most people follow a pattern of brining one beer they’ve been saving for any sort of special occasion. This is often coupled with something they’ve been reluctant to drink so they don’t mind having some help polishing it off (hence the reason there is ALWAYS a Stone Vertical Epic at every bottle share). There is also the excited but scared to try beer, something that might be phenomenal but sounds a bit weird (like many of Pipeworks or Cigar City‘s strange offerings). If you’re unsure, it’s good practice to bring something not readily available in the area. If you regularly trade, or if you recently went on vacation, these are great options. Obviously not everyone in Chicago is going to have access to Cigar City beers or sours from Wicked Weed, etc but if you do, even the shelf items can be big hits.
Depending on who you are and your particular resources you might be the guy/girl who tries to “win” the bottle share. Every bottle share has this person, and in some cases, several of these people, in which case you’re in for one hell of a tasting. If you’re the one hosting the bottle share it’s good practice to be the one who “wins” the tasting. After all you want people to attend the next bottle share you host, and for the people who missed out to hear stories of the legendary beers they missed out on. This also raises the stakes for the next time around.
This brings me to the next almost completely contradictory point. Bottle shares should have no judgment. Every bottle share might very well be someone’s first. So who cares if they brought a beer everyone’s had 100 times, or some random bomber they clearly picked up on the way to the share, don’t bat an eyelash. Beer it forward. Hook them up with some legendary beer from the guys who know what they’re doing and the next time they get invited to a bottle share they’ll hopefully know better. Many beer enthusiasts live by beer karma. A vague notion that if you take care of people with beer, other people will take care of you. I’ve had more than enough of this work both ways to know in many cases it’s better to give than to receive. This logic can also apply to beer trading, but that’s a separate blog.
How do we go about sharing?
We’re going to skip the whole event creation, I’m assuming you know how to throw or be invited to a party, otherwise I’m sorry. There are however a few very important rules to follow as far as proper sharing etiquette. Regardless of who the host may be, the person who brought the beer is god of that beer. If you want to crack open that bottle of Parabola, you best find out who brought it and ask them, otherwise wait until the rightful owner comes along to pop that. Conversely if you’re the one who brought the Parabola, then at any time feel free to open the beer, after all it’s yours.
This one should go without saying, but you’d be surprised. Every beer is for sharing. The first share/beer party I hosted a friend of my girlfriends decided to help herself to another friends 4 year old Matilda, and then proceeded to drink straight from the bottle. Not only did she violate the opening another person’s beer rule, also completely ruined it for sharing. I know this is obvious, but conversely even if you brought the beer, it defeats the purpose of bringing a can of Heady Topper to a party if you’re going to drink out of the can without pouring some for your friends to try.
To go along with that is the universal rule that the person who brought the beer pours the beer. Did you bring the bottle of BA Abraxas? Cool pour as much of it as you want to drink before sharing the few remaining drops with the beggars and scavengers. You can conversely delegate this responsibility. The first share I attended without also hosting I brought a bottle I never got to drink because I had to leave early. It was donated to the party with the blessing to do with it as you wish.
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| When in doubt, bring this to every bottle share |
As far as determining the order, this is usually up to the host. Everyone will be excited to try different beer at the beginning of the event. If you’re doing a vertical tasting, feel free to go in ascending or descending order. Some people like to group styles together in tastings, ie stout section, sour section, etc. I for one am partial to mixing it up. So there isn’t really a wrong way to go about destroying these bottles, although for the host it wouldn’t hurt to set up some sort of order. Perhaps let each guest take turns picking the next beer, and keep things somewhat democratic. Communication is key and don’t hesitate to put the next beer up to a vote.
Drinking Etiquette
It very often happens at every bottle share that someone is going to get a lot drunker than everyone else. If it’s your birthday (thanks for a wonderful 31st guys), it’s accepted, if you’re puking at that persons birthday party, not cool (you know who you are). Now any good host should have some accommodations set up. Whether that’s a couch, a few extra blankets, the number of a cab company, etc. You don’t have to crash at that party but only an inhuman monster would send someone out to drive home after being over served at a bottle share. If you’re not willing to let people sleep it off at your place, perhaps you shouldn’t host.
That said there is one very important rule of bottle sharing, you don’t have to drink everything. Have you had the Vertical Epic 11.11.11? Of course you have it was at the last dozen bottle shares. So when that bottle is being passed around, simply take a pass and save your liver for a more worthy beer. Snacks are great, and drink more water than you think humanly possible. This not only helps refresh your palate, but will make you feel a lot better the morning after.
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| Always a bad idea |
Who Will Drink the Last of the Beer?
Generally speaking after a bottle share has been going for an hour or so, it’s not uncommon to see a dozen or so bottles with 1-2 ounces of beer sitting in the bottom of them. In some cases you’re waiting for a friend to get to try them, but more often than not, every single person who wanted to try the beer did, and no one wants to be the “jerk” who kills off the bottle. This is the same logic inherent in a group when there is one piece of pizza left and no one wants to accept responsibility for being the one to eat the last piece.
So I offer three solutions which it might help to set up before the share gets going. Who kills the bottle? Well option one is the person who brought it. Let everyone get a pour, then if there’s some left, top off your own glass and commend that bottle to the empty graveyard where it’ll wait for it’s fallen comrades to pose for a sweet picture.
Option two is to let the host have the honors. After all if it’s their house they have the slowest distance to travel, and if they want they should get the leftovers of whatever is still around.
The third option is a designated bottle killer. You can make this the person who brought the least amount of beers, or whoever brought the best stuff. Let them be rewarded, or punished with polishing off whatever is left over depending on the bottle.
A caveat to this is to slow your roll with opening bottles. If there are 10 bottles with beer still sitting in them, the host should press pause on the share until those bottles are polished off. This also helps cut back on the clutter of countless open bottles of beer.
Everyone Can and Should Clean
Dirty glasses, empty bowls of guacamole, bottle caps, and empty bottles are going to pile up at some point in time. Regardless of who is the host, it doesn’t hurt to help keep things tidy. Often times there is a designated bottle graveyard for the empties, and if you top off that particular bottle feel free to walk that bottle over yourself. This might seem like common courtesy, but people forget these things when drinking.
If you’re one of those people who collect empty bottles, make sure you ask before claiming someone else’s empty. If there are bottles that were never opened, it is acceptable to take your own beer back, but check with others before claiming their leftovers.
Keep some of these things in mind and you’ll have a bitchin’ bottle share and you can avoid some of the awkward rookie mistakes many people make.
One last bit of advice. It doesn’t hurt to bring your own tasting glass, at the very least it avoids any confusion over which glass belongs to which person, and you’ll seem like a seasoned vet.
Cheers, and share away
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| If you did it right, the end of your night should look like this |
