Vintage Collectors Gather to Drink Legendary Beers
The Search for Ghost Whales
But just how does one acquire a ghost whale? The issue is the intrinsic rarity of the beer. Local bottle shops obviously don’t carry them, and forget hope with online beer retailers such as HalfTime and LetsPour, as they’re like any other bottle shop and sell only what’s currently distributed. For a while, rare beers were sold on Ebay under the premise that the purchaser was buying the “collectible bottle,” not the beer, but after an ABC News “20/20” expose on underage kids using this loophole to purchase alcohol, its online beer sales quickly ceased.
A website remains, however: MyBeerCellar.com, which continues to operate under the “collectible bottle” premise. This site is probably the fastest way to get your hands on a whale, but at a price: At the time of writing, white whales like Lost Abbey’s Cable Car Kriek and Cantillon’s Feestbier were going for a soul-crushing $1,500 and $2,799 respectively. And that’s nearly twice the going rate a private collector would charge an acquaintance; in this game, it’s whom you know.
Enter the European beer collector. While lambic beer has only more recently become popular in America, Europeans have long known its cellaring potential and extensively collected it. As various new players have come into the global fold, a handful of old-school European collectors have proved willing to part with their gems for the right offer. Sometimes for beer, but more often, straight cash. Establishing and cultivating these relationships takes time, and these new ghost whalers are usually none too willing to give up these sources they’ve carefully developed. So, while many everyday beer hunters operate through trades conducted on sites like RateBeer.com or BeerAdvocate.com, these incredibly scarce, highly valued beers are usually exchanged through a word-of-mouth network, a tight-knit group of elite traders.
Ghost Whales on the Table
The tasting itself was at Young’s house in Denver and occurred while throngs of the beer faithful gathered at the Colorado Convention Center for the 2013 Great American Beer Festival. Hunters arrived on Young’s doorstep from all over the country, their beers having been shipped weeks earlier to allow for proper settling time. In the end, six hunters made the cut, though Diego Ganoza, owner of Miami’s Gravity Brewlab, was forced to back out by a last-minute emergency.
Given the class of the beer, one might expect a good deal of pomp and circumstance. The sort of intense anticipation and solemnity a comparable wine tasting might experience. Instead, it was beer-geek casual. Invitees rolled in groggy from traveling, wearing hoodies and worn-out sneakers. Apparently even at the highest level, beer tastings are still not the domain of the sports jacket and Italian leather loafer crowd.
The tasters, excited for the afternoon’s event and abuzz with the latest industry gossip, caught up and settled into the basement cellar to review the collection of awaiting whales. Talk quickly turned to Ganoza’s absence, while his ghost, Cantillon’s cranberry lambic Spuyten Duyvil, sat among the bottles. Wheels were already turning in everyone’s heads about what to do with it.
Commissioned by the famous New York beer bar of the same name, bottles of Spuyten Duyvil were never supposed to have left the establishment. Somehow a few did, though, and they now command a hefty price, especially after the bar’s last bottle was sold years ago. A strategy session was held among the group and within minutes an offer of $1,250 was agreed upon and texted to Ganoza. However, a quick reply of “No” was returned; he too wanted desperately to try this beer and wasn’t willing to part with it, regardless of the offer.
Though disappointed, the focus quickly turned to which beer would kick off the tasting. Like a mother asked to choose her favorite child, this was no easy task. Since all the beers were lambic-based, it wasn’t as easy as holding back the intensely flavored IPAs or stouts for last. Eventually, it was decided that Cantillon’s Soleil de Minuit, whose fruit flavors were supposedly very delicate, would lead the way.
A Cantillon lambic steeped in Swedish cloudberries, Soleil de Minuit, like Spuyten Duyvil, was also commissioned by a bar: this time, the world-renowned Akkurat, in Stockholm. In English, the name translates to “Midnight Sun,” in homage to the near constant summer sun that ripens the native berries. Released in 1999, only a single barrel was made and was available for purchase only in Sweden. Over the past decade, it’s amassed an impressive reputation and, when paired with its incredible scarcity, has become one of the world’s most sought-after beers, and probably the most recognizable of the ghost whales poured at the tasting.
This story appears in the July issue of All About Beer Magazine. Click here for a free trial of our next issue.
Patrick Dawson
Patrick Dawson is the author of Vintage Beer, a book that explores the cellaring of beer. When not at home in Denver, he’s traveling the globe in search of new and exciting brews to add to his cellar.
