How do you run a case swap?

[Bribie G]

I've been in a couple of case swaps but never participated in the actual dividing up and repacking of all the cases so that you get n cases going into the system and n mixed cases going out.

With case swap season on us, and more and more new brew clubs being formed, it might be helpful if old hands could contribute their wisdom about what algorithm works best to get the thing done quickly and accurately, usually with everyone half cut by that stage in the day :beerbang: :

labelling by participants
layout of cases in and out
checking
allocation of a task to each "officer" doing the packing

etc.

I'd guess the first job would be well in advance, to draw up a list of who is in the swap, what are then putting in the swap, and give each brew a code number 1 ... n ?

 

[sponge]

Numbers on lids for sure. Preferably 15 participants in total which fit perfectly in a milk crate (14 participants/bottles excluding yourself).

Put bottles on the floor grouped by lid number/participant.

Get each participant to go around and grab one of each bottle (excluding their own) to fill up their crate.

15 happy participants with 14 other beers neatly tucked in their milk crate.


EDIT: Assuming longnecks all round.

 

[Fents]

sponge is on the money :

 

[madpierre06]

Check out post #602....starting from the back line out across from #1 to #? Then pick from along the side, that way you one of everything. Surfing is optional, to cut down on aggregated drinking time and potential stuff ups, have one capable volunteer do the placing and repacking.

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/77632-se-qld-xmas-in-28th-of-june-2014/page-31

 

[Yob]

sponge is on the money :

That's not right, there's no mud and it's not pissing down...

 

[Fents]

true, pretty sure it was a xmas case swap. Ferg might remember....or not hahahahahaha!

 

[droid]

brill'

Found this auto-awesome version of Snow going swap bottle surfing and laughed

20140628_162152-MOTION.gif

(You may need to click on the image to see the animation)

Hey look at my new case swap shirt! Can you see yours in there?

ImageUploadedByAussie HomeBrewer1407227568.867363.jpg

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1407227620.303421.jpg

great idea

 

[Curly79]

That's not right, there's no mud and it's not pissing down...

And it's not dark with black texta numbers on black plastic lids.

 

[Nullnvoid]

And it's not dark with black texta numbers on black plastic lids.

Haha they are the flippen best! And by best I mean worst

 

[Curly79]

A few times after the winter swap I found myself with the lid up to a light thinkin " is that a 11? Maybe a 7? Or a 1? Oh well, let's just drink it..... Hmmm. Very nice. ****** if I know what it is but, very nice [emoji13]

 

[technobabble66]

Specify: must be in plastic longnecks.
We've had reports of a few near-miss explosions in the last year or so. The placky ones will still explode with force (& mess) but with much less shrapnel and blood. Maybe that's another reason to limit it to 15, given there're sold in lots of 15.
Or maybe limit it to 30 ... 15 seems so few!!

Also, get everyone to label their crates.
Make sure that the crates plus the number on the lids are in *permanent* texta. Nothing like the inevitable rain on the Winter swap day removing a few names and numbers to add to the confusion.
If placky bottles with black lids are the go, maybe have a white Posca/texta on hand to avoid the black texta on black lid issue.
Swapping is done by 2pm. 4pm at the absolute latest. As mentioned above, drunk swapping done in the rain and mud at 9pm on a winter's night is not as awesome as it sounds.
Nominate 1 person as the Swap organizer.

 

[MaltyHops]

We've been doing a few swaps where the host has marked out spaces with list numbers for each swapper.

As each swapper arrives, swapper distributes their bottles into each marked out space.

This has worked well - spreads the work load, distributor is (usually) not half-cut while trying to put bottles down :lol:

Also a good idea if host can choose a spot for distributing the bottles to be under shade from the sun during the swap day - and also the next morning as usually some people leave it to the next morning/day to pick up their set of beers.

 

[madpierre06]

I like the idea of around 24 spots, it's enough for anyone doing a 23L batch to have leftovers. We take one bottle for every spot on the roster, so you get another of your own to take home and it saves the stuff around trying to leave one of each number out of each consolidated batch at the swap. Quick and easy so the designated swap guru doesn't have to delay getting stuck into drinkies.

 

[tricache]

*NOTE* Already posted this in a message with the Grafton boys but thought I would share it here too...

Hey guys thought I would put in my 2 cents with running a swap...

We ran a mini case swap in the club last year and all we did was give each swapper a number which they put on all their bottles. We had 10 people participate and it worked fine.

We had everyone bring 10 beers (10 people - 10 beers) and we lined them all up in there numbered rows. Then had everyone take one of each beer (1 to 10)

A lot of swaps say just bring one less beer but we found this method just easier to add up, we are brewers not rocket scientists! Bringing the exact number of beers along means you have one extra beer (the one left over beer is your own beer) but we just drank that beer on the night haha