So we all know the whales BCBVS, KBS, King Henry, Kate the Great to name a few but I'm curious what would be a Texas whale? Is Whiskey Rodeo a whale? Beer Geek? Pumpkinator? Lets make a list.
LOL! Only wales available in TX are the ones shipped here(traded for) from other states. And the only way we'll probably EVER see a TX brewery produce a whale... is if one of the current "big boy" breweries moves here.
NXNW Barton Kriek. Has only been released twice in the last 6 years and the first release was 36 (12oz) bottles the other release was a couple days ago 28 (22oz) bottles
the beers I would put as good trade bait but not whales in texas are whiskey rodeo, whiskey pecan porter, ananke, and raspberry ananke, freetail ATE, wild bear, just because all were under a 1000 btl release ( with the exception of the last pecan porter release)
Also going to add, BCBVS, KBS, and King Henry shouldn't be considered wales, but if we're going to play this game of dragging beers onto the hype train, I feel that WBDPP won't be considered a wale because the last two releases have had bottling issues, leading many people to over look it. The only one I could see being anywhere considered would be something like a 2010 Ananke. Mentioning Whiskey Rodeo, Beer Geek Rodeo, and Pumpkinator as potential wales is really, really silly to me, but what do I know, wale watching is silly to me...
There is no Texas whale, at least not in the current state of beer trading. A few years ago I sent a 2 Freetail beers and a WBDPP for an Isabelle Proximus and JP Perseguidor though.
Traded one straight up for a 50/50 Eclipse 12 yr EC last year and a couple in a big trade for some Russian River and Firestone Walker stuff. Wouldn't classify any of the beers involved as "whales" though. Don't think we've seen anything in Texas that would classify as a whale...yet
To be fair, it was at the beginning of the "gotta tick em all" small brewery release phase of beer trading. It was the first release of WBDPP, which was around 25 bottles, and no one knew that all the BA offerings from Freetail were infected (BA Old Batrastard). I felt bad when everyone found out a few months later, but I traded them to Mikesgroove.... So I don't really care anymore.
IF BCS Rare is barely on the whale list then no. There is nothing in texas that you could trade 1 for 1 for a rare and even trying to imagine a combo of things that could pull a Rare these days from all Texas breweries beers is hard. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aX2Bo6odEgdMgzpyHNvgEwy-nA-TDtBl3T-9j3idSzA/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1
Barrels. Whether it's a wild, saison, BA stout, or BA barleywine. Most of the breweries that are doing these types of beers in Texas are still young and need some time to really fine tune their base beers and barrel program.
Hill Farmstead seems to be the only brewery pumping out new whalz these days. Mostly due to hype/rarity/quality. Some great TX breweries have enough rarity and quality but not nearly enough hype among the whole of BA for it to become a true whale.
Take that list with a grain of salt. I've had a plenty of trades that wouldn't make sense if you viewed that list as a guide to rarity.
90% of whale status is hype. Frankly, Texas breweries don't generate much hype. For example, KBS is a great beer, but there are dozens of BA stouts that are of the same or better quality. The difference is the hype. Whale is also a subjective term so it's different for everyone. If people pump it up on BA and it's not widely available, suddenly it's unparalleled.
And the beers hardly ever live up to the hype. Rather it be a whale or a beer you really wanted to try but have waited.
Screw you guys, I'm going home. /Cartman Seriously though, the term 'whale' is really stupid, but I think there is some merit to it because you only really hear it used for some of the best and most rare beers. I guess the thread is stupid I just wanted to get an idea of some beers that I have maybe not heard of in this great state of ours. Also, all of you fools where crying about how hard it was to get Whiskey Rodeo one day after it was released, so I don't wanna hear how its not rare.
it's all about wants/opposed to gots and just general niceness sometimes, overvaluing beer is dumb. I once traded tank 7 and saison Brett for 2 cantillon bio 750s and he threw in rose de gambrinus and a 2004 kriek as extras.
If Hops and Grains were to put some of their barrel projects in bottles I would mos def whale on that shit!
