Insuring Your Beer

Over the past couple of years, I've started to amass a quite a collection of beer. The other day, after I inventoried, I got kind of worried about what would happen if my house burned, or if I was robbed (the most valuable thing in the house now is probably the beer, and it's conveniently in boxes).

So, I exchanged emails with my insurance agent.

Things you will need to know to insure your beer.

1. The amount of the beers you have.

• Do an inventory of your beer. Write down the Brewer, Year (if you know it), and quantity of your beers.
  

2. Purchase price of your beer.

• If your beer is stolen or burns, and it is not a vintage, this will probably be the amount you will recoup.

3. Current value of the beer.

• Vintage beer will get to be more expensive, the longer it ages. Some beer will not age well, but normally higher ABV beers will. An old bottle of Bud Light won't be worth what you paid for it, unless it's a collectible bottle.

• Certain beers will gain value from the second it's purchased. Three Floyds Dark Lord is $15 a bottle on Dark Lord Day. Later that evening, you can find it on EBay for probably $80 a bottle. Is that the current value? What's the value on a two year old bottle?

Knowing these pieces will help you and your agent come up with the replacement value of your beer. My agent recommended that I yearly provide him with an updated inventory.

Happily, your beer is probably covered under your home-owners, or renters insurance. There will probably be no limit to the replacement costs that you can get for your beer. My agent said that it is covered under the "named perils" part of the policy.

So in other words, if there is a particularly valuable bottle/case/etc., you would need some sort of documentation showing that it is worth more than an old can of Bud!

If (since) your beer costs more than a normal can of beer, they will need some documentation showing that. You don't necessarily have to keep receipts, just document what you have.

The biggest thing you should do is talk to your insurance agent and find out what kind of documentation they will need. Mine says an inventory with purchase price and current value is about all I'll need. He will be keeping that list in my file. He asked that I update him yearly with the new inventory (the man doesn't realize that it has additions monthly or even weekly).

It doesn't seem like you will have to have photographic documentation of your beers, but that probably can't hurt. As a little tip, if the beer doesn't have the vintage listed on it, write down the year on the cap with a sharpie. If you don't want to mark up the cap, put a piece of tape or sticky on it, and write on that. Or you could color code your tape by year, if you want to get REAL creative.

In addition to giving your insurance man the copy of your inventory once a year, I recommend keeping your current monthly inventory in a place other than in your home, or on your home computer (as that will probably be stolen/burn too, when you need it the most).

That's about it. Call your insurance man, he'll probably have no idea that beer is worth more than $12 for a case. Inventory your collection. Get prices for your beer.

On a funny side note, my insurance man asked me about a beer that he had, and was it valuable.

Hey - I have a bottle of Three Stooges beer - is that worth anything!?

I told him, that it looks like an empty bottle of it is going for $8 on EBay. Also recommend that unless he stored it in a temperature controlled environment, and out of light, that it probably wouldn't be any good to drink, due to it being a macro-style lager. I did inform him that it's collectible nature is higher due to it being full, but that's like having an antique toy with the box.

If you are worried, call your insurance man.

My beer cellar

Saturday, I was bored, and did something that was long overdue. I went through the basement and inventoried.

In my basement, I've got 125 different beers, and 263 total beers. Here's some of the highlights.

5 bottles of Bells Expedition
3 bottles of Dogfish Head 120
4 bottles of Dogfish Head Raison d'extra
2 bottles of Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout
a pack of the Dark Horse Stout series, One, Too, Tres, Fore, and Plead the Fifth
2 bottles of Dieu Du Ciel Peche Mortel
4 bottles of Founders Breakfast Stout '07
23 bottles of Founders Breakfast Stout '08
10 bottles of Goose Island bourbon County Stout '06
4 bottles of O'Fallon Whiskey Aged Smoked Porter (#'s 16,17,97, and 240)
14 bottles of Three Floyds Dark Lord '08
2 bottles of Three Floyds Dark Lord '07
a bottle (each) of BrewDog Paradox 001, 005, 008, 010, and 011


Most of the 263 bottles, I'll just let get older. But some are probably too old, so I should drink them soon. I count 28 bottles that should be drank somewhat soon, otherwise they might show some bad aging effects, these include some IPA's, DIPA's, wheats and some other lower alcohol beers. The hardest part with maintaining the cellar is to not give in to people who want me to open a beer. "Come on V, open a Dark Lord... you've got 14 of them!"

I did have 4 bottles of Czechvar down there, that have been there for nearly a year, that didn't show too many signs of aging, and were actually better than some Czechvar's that I've had at bars, so the conditions in my basement seem to be really condusive to aging beers.

I'm wondering if I should call my insurance agent to find out about insuring my beer for theft or fire, or if it's covered in my regular policy, as the beer is (just about) an investment now.