Users could scroll through forum ISO:FT (In Search Of: For Trade) posts in search of beers, link to Google Docs or Excel spreadsheets of cellar lists, and set up trades via emails and private messages.
Now, beer trading has its own social media network. Called BottleTrade, it was founded by Charles Eck and his brother Patrick Eck, with help from their web development team, which includes Nick Jacalone and Brian Soumakian. Users can register a profile, upload bottles to their Cyber Cellar, browse other users’ cellars, make offers, and set up trades on the Trade Details pages. It also includes features such as the ability to add friends, leave a Trader Review on a user’s profile, and the Find A Trader tool, which matches traders with others in the network based on whether they have bottles in their Cyber Cellar that match a user’s ISO list.
The site launched in February 2014 and has more than 1,200 users currently. I talked to co-founder Charles Eck about beer trading and what BottleTrade is all about.
Craft Beer Brewing: How do you see beer trading fitting into the larger picture of beer culture?
Charles Eck: Community. Friendship. Appreciation. Trust.
I can't tell you how many great people I have met through bottle trading from all over the country. Some, if not most, of them, I have never met in person or seen a face to put to their name. It is amazing to me that people across the country are willing to put forth the effort, time, patience, money, and most of all trust, all for the taste of some liquid gold. And once these friendships are established, it's as if the two traders had known each other their whole lives. It really is a rewarding and awesome feeling to have people that you can trust as friends and trading partners. If one day you decide to go on vacation in their part of the country, you know they will want to take you out for a beer, all because you both took the risk to get to know each other and trade some local beers. That’s just another reason why I love this community of enthusiasts.
CBB: What three tips would you give to a beginner beer trader?
CE: 1) Fairness. Be as fair as possible when working with another trader. Consider your offer and make sure that you are not low-balling him/her and that if (s)he is offering you an amazing bottle, that you make sure to do the same.
2) Package your bottles safely and properly. I can't stress enough how many times people lose bottles or entire packages in transit because they didn't take the extra time to package their bottles as safely as possible. Beer trading is an expensive hobby. If there is any part of it on which you shouldn't try to pinch pennies, it's in shipping. We have a few recommendations and techniques that we list on our site on our Educate page, which is literally a whole section of our site that teaches users the dos and do nots of beer trading.
3) Communication and honesty. It can be very disheartening for traders who don't communicate promptly about a pending trade. If you can't ship your bottles out by an agreed upon date, let the other person know immediately. Nothing is worse then being that guy who has to keep texting or emailing about when his bottles are coming, except being that guy who is not shipping the bottles. The best way to handle a trade is to communicate with the other trader honestly, quickly, and patiently.
CBB: What do you want for BottleTrade in the coming years?
CE: We certainly have a whole laundry list of features and enhancements for BottleTrade that we are currently developing. I can tell you that we are working on mobile-optimized and native app support for BottleTrade to streamline the process even more for users who prefer to work from their phones.
We also are working with local bars, restaurants, and venues to host BottleTrade events that will include bottleshares, beer tastings, and giveaways of our apparel, glassware, and woodwork product lines.
We certainly plan to push ourselves forward and help educate the masses about why craft beer is important not only in our hands, but in the hands of as many craft beer enthusiasts as possible.
At top: a bottle of Tampa, Florida's Cigar City Brewing's Hunahpu's Imperial Stout finds a new home through BottleTrade.