HOLIDAY SPIRIT[S]: The 2014 Styleforum Christmas Beer-It-Foward Thread

[Ken P]

What's a better way to celebrate the holiday season than sharing a beer with friends? Let's do this Styleforum style! Last years worked out very well and I'm looking forward to another round

The idea is very similar to a secret santa: Sign up, get a name and address, ship your favorite local beer to that person, and sit back and wait for your package. Your sender will remain anonymous to you and will not necessarily get who you are shipping to yourself. @indesertum will be making a program that does the picking to ensure that you: 1. Get someone from a different part of the country/world 2. Don't get the same person as last year.

REQUIREMENTS
To participate you must:

• Have been a member of Styleforum for 3+ months and have at least 100 posts
• PM me: The subject line should read "Beer-it-forward". In the message provide me your name, address, and any beer preferences you have (hate IPAs, prefer stouts, etc.) If you don't provide any preference it will be assumed you're open minded.
• Provide a scan of a Valid ID: proving you're of age if requested - I don't plan on acting on this but I need to be able to cover ****** if necessary
• Purchase a minimum of $30 dollars of beer. If you feel generous, great, go crazy. Extra beer/brewery swag/holiday cards are all great extras
• Package and ship your beer. This will run you up to $25 - $30 depending on your recipients location. If you're not willing to spend that on shipping please don't participate.
• Ship internationally if necessary: There's a chance that international people will want to join in. For those shipping international your minimum will be lowered to $20 to accommodate for higher shipping costs. If you absolutely do not want to ship internationally we will work something out
• Post a picture of your box: Sharing is the fun part! Make sure once you get your box to post a picture in this thread so we can see your spoils. Senders of exceptional boxes may be getting a surprise from me as a thank-you.

THE TIMELINE

• Deadline to Sign up is two weeks from today, November 27th (Thanksgiving) You will receive your target by Monday, December 1st - the latest.
• Deadline to ship is December 15th, 10 days before Christmas. This gives you 2 weeks to do your shopping (although nothing is stopping you from starting now!) Shipping earlier is always better as couriers get quite bogged down during the holiday season.
• Deadline for International Shipments is December the 8th.

HELPFUL TIPS
Beer Selection: Sticking with your local/regional breweries is your best option. To get a sense of what breweries distribute to your recipients state use Seek-a-Brew. Aim to get your recipients beers they cannot find in their state or beers that are hard to find in general. As a rule of thumb, only send beers you would enjoy receiving.

Packaging: These two links are great resources to those who never shipped beer before: 1, 2. My usual process is to get a wine or 750ml beer box from the liquor store/brewery. Take out the divider and line the bottom and sides with a sheet of bubble wrap. Place the divider back in the box. Put all the beers, one by one, into gallon sized zip lock bags and seal them. Just in case a bottle breaks this prevents them from leaking on the box and the courier refusing to deliever. I then wrap the ziplock bags in bubble wrap and place upright in the divider in the box. Fill any of the empty spaces with paper/bubblewrap/peanuts. Print your shipping label and place in extra copy on the inside of the box (in case the one of the outside comes loose this assures the courier has another without having to dig around in your box). Seal the box with a generous amount of packing tape assuring you go over all seams in the box.

Shipping: I do not recommend you ship with USPS. If you do, I assume you've done it before, know the risk and know how to properly pack a box. FedEx Ground and UPS are your best bets. They let you sign-up for an account for free online. You can print your label from your home and drop it off at one their locations without having to talk to prying employees. If you work in an office there is a very good chance there is a daily pick-up - ask your receptionist! FedEx accounts let you set up a pick up at your residence as well.

THE PARTICIPANTS
I'll update this list as I get your PMs.

1. @Ken P
2. @concealed
3. @13k
4. @caid-bp7
5. @habitant
6. @Pilot

 

[caid-bp7]

Had I known there was an active beer thread here (I stick to my subscriptions) I would for sure have the 100 posts required to join. Have fun guys.

 

[alexg]

Damn, I'd love to do this again, but I'm traveling too much for it to be possible in December. Maybe next year...

 

[concealed]

subscrizzled. @caid-bp7 - probably could make a case for you if you are active on BA or RB trading forums/etc?

 

[nahneun]

why do you tempt me so @ken p

 

[Ken P]

+1 An exception for you can be made if you can prove to me somehow you're not a scammer. Should be relatively easy. Even an eBay account with feedback would work.

@nahneun You know you want to

 

[caid-bp7]

Hmm - I have a mediocre untappd account (sticksandbombs should anyone wish to add me) that doesn't prove much other than I do like beer.

I'll figure out what I can come up to with prove my legitimacy other than really old lurking accounts. I think I'm all the way up to 100 posts in the 5 years I've been on superfutute.

 

[13k]

I'm in this year for sure. Still settling in to a new area but being in CA I have many options to share.

 

[Ken P]

Caid and 13k officially in.

People who were involved last year who I've yet to hear from: @indesertum (I'm presuming you're in but shoot me a PM anyways), @kwilkinson, @otc, @ocooney, @cocostella, @bdeuce22, @OmniscientCause, @JohnGalt, @thats.mana

 

[habitant]

I'm in, should be fun. How much beer are we supposed to send? From what I understand you should send to Canada using USPS to avoid problems.

 

[concealed]

I will probably send 3-4 large bottles and 3-4 smaller bottles and cans

 

[Ken P]



I'm in, should be fun. How much beer are we supposed to send? From what I understand you should send to Canada using USPS to avoid problems.

PM me your info. Shipping from the US to Canada - USPS is better than the other options. We are going with a $30 minimum for amount. I think for international we will do $20. That way you can save some money for shipping.

 

[habitant]

For shipping it's all about keeping the weight down. In Canada our bombers are around 5$, I could probably pack and ship about 6 of them for around $55-$60.

 

[concealed]

I'd rather 2 Cantillon, jus sayin

 

[habitant]

I'm tracking some cantillon atm.

I think the saying goes 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' though.