Whale Hunting. It was a phase of craft beer that we remember either fondly or with white hot hate for people hiring people to stand in line for beers or those mercenaries who were only buying to sell.
Now pick your side before reading this short Punch article.
And we are back, with the hindsight of 20/20 vision, I would have put all the FOMO in a box and set my energies to selecting those beers that I wanted to hunt for vs the ones that if I tasted, cool, but that I wasn’t going to be out running for and then sat back and watched the show.
To an extent, I did that, I had a next best beer available mentality for the most part. But I did chase afield sometimes when I could have drunk local and done almost as well, if not better.
My other regret was not being strident enough in my denunciations of the re-sellers. I was clearly against them but I probably could have said harsher words and maybe even pranked them a bit as well.
My gut does tell me that craft beer whales will be back and I will get a second chance with it. Collecting is a unique American vice that never goes out of style, see Stanley Tumblers, see Bourbon now.