Portland, 11:35 am, May 4, 2017—A seemingly innocuous Facebook post from Tin Bucket, a North Williams Avenue beer bar and bottle shop, started the rustling. It said, simply: “Today’s New Releases! Details in the comments. Love you all.” The post was accompanied by a photo of five bottles of beer: Two bottles from Tillamook’s de Garde Brewing and three from Jester King, a brewery based in Austin, Texas.
A quick glance down Tin Bucket’s timeline reveals a number of similar posts—new kegs coming on tap, new bottles in the cooler, and the like. To the untrained eye, the latest Facebook post may have appeared to be just another re-stocking photo, but this particular image contained something special. Within minutes, buyers began flocking to Tin Bucket, forming a line that stretched out the door. The precious that these beer Gollums coveted so dearly? A bottle of Tin Bucket’s special anniversary brew, the Broken Truck No. 3, made by the up-and-coming de Garde brewery. Within two hours of the Facebook post, all 30 cases were gone.
There were five uncommon beers in that photo, but only one sold out that Thursday. Each was a seasonal or limited release not readily available at your neighborhood 7-Eleven or Fred Meyer, and they all boasted high ratings on the beer-rating websites. Jester King doesn’t even have an official distributor in Oregon. Was the Broken Truck that much better?
The frenzy at Tin Bucket is emblematic of the current state of beer culture at its sharpest (read: geekiest) end, where rare beers of certain stripes quickly get snatched up for reasons you might not expect.