Trying local brews while travelling can be a lot more satisfying than ordering up the more generic suds – you know, beers that may or may not rhyme with Mud Kite, or Killer Pie Knife .
If you appreciate the finer things of beer, it is a great pleasure to sip the local take on the alchemy that is craft brewing. But what happens when you’re back home and stuck with the same old choice of regional beers? Or worse, if you don’t live in a craft brewery mecca? How are you to survive?? How are all the individual brewers to survive??
HOW CAN IT TASTE SO GOOD WHEN IT HITS YOUR LIPS IF YOUR LIPS ARE SO FAR AWAY???
(Record-scratch on background music from The Notebook)
These are the exact problems that the Rivette and Trisler brothers have set out to solve with Barrel Backers.
The platform allows customers to pre-order otherwise rare and hard to find craft beer — the kind that you’d only find locally. If enough people pre-order, the beer ships to your door. This means you don’t even have to put on pants to try exquisite “local” beer from 4 states over.
Currently they have beers ranging anywhere from a lemon Saison to a nectarine IPA or a chai tea Porter. If you don’t see a beer you find appealing, you can vote or suggest new beers, much like you’d submit or upvote a post on Reddit.
The per-bottle pricing for each pre-order campaign include shipping and is quite competitive with other online craft beer services offer. As you may know, shipping alcohol is a pain in the neck. Each state has different laws and some even ban it; sales tax is required in most states; beer is heavy and susceptible to extreme heat or cold. Moving this stuff is not nearly as fun as drinking it, so for those of you that have mastered the drinking part, this service could be a nice complement to your own talents in the craft.
If you have an exact beer in mind, then Barrel Backers might not be the best solution. But if you’re adventurous and willing to spin the wheel on random beers from Michigan or Nantucket, Barrel Backers is a pretty exciting way to snag your next 12-pack.
And reminder: you’re getting beer delivered. To your doorstep.
Cheers to technology.
