We have some great craft beer bottle shops here in the Seattle area.  No matter where you are around the Sound, you’re never really too far from a craft beer bottle shop that offers a wide selection of craft beers from the Northwest, the rest of the nation and indeed the rest of the World.  The only real limitation these bottle shops have to what they can offer you (beyond any possible space limitations) is determined by distribution.  Not all breweries distribute their beers to the Northwest, so there are always plenty of beers out there that we may long to try but don’t have much luck getting our hands on, unless we take a trip out of state to track them down.  There are several local breweries that produce beers that can be difficult to get your hands on as well, unless you have the time to make a trip to the brewery for their release.

There is, of course, a booming craft beer ‘trade’ going on all the time for beers that aren’t distributed here.  There are Facebook groups, forums, online clubs, etc. where people arrange to trade a few local and coveted craft beer selections with someone else who can send them something that we just can’t get in our local craft bottle shops.  While this type of trading is a common practice, it’s actually illegal.  Anyone trading beers in this way is illegally shipping alcohol across state lines and violating liquor distribution laws.  They also risk their packages being confiscated if whoever they’re shipping with (UPS, FedEx, etc.) discovers that the package contains alcohol.

So how can we get around this problem?  Is there a way we can get our hands on sought after beers from both local breweries as well as finding a legal way to get beers from breweries that don’t currently distribute to the Northwest?  This is the question Tavour‘s Chairman, Philip Vaughn, asked himself a few years ago.  Along with his partners and co-founders Rafik Robeal (no longer with Tavour) and CEO, Sethu Kalavakur, they believe they’ve found the solution.

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