beer brand and type? Or do you shop the inventory at your favorite beer cave, and take home a different brew each time you buy?
I ask the question because my favorite craft beer purveyor is located inside a huge, privately owned pharmacy nearby my home. In a corner of the pharmacy is a 60 foot long wall shelved with four packs and six packs of craft brewers from, literally around the world. A second wall creates an L in the corner of the store and that wall contains singles for mix-and-match sales. The shelves reach up from just off the floor, to about nine feet in the air.
A trip there for me, usually lasts at least 40 minutes to an hour, because I read a lot of bottle labels and cartons before I settle on a beer for my day. Although I have a half dozen or so, favorite brews, I do try new on occasion–especially if a brewer has introduced a new Porter to my area.
So, what is your modus operandi when heading out to pick up some beer?
I’m a creature of habit . North Coast brewing , Fort Bragg CA, Red Seal it’s a red ale and Srimshaw a light pale ale . Both are very good . I stick with those two or something from Mendicino brewing another California beer . I mainly drink CA micros .
I’ve been on a local (PA/DE/NJ) kick recently. I mostly drink beer outside the home and there are quite a few places locally that have extensive local brews on tap. I tend towards IPAs, reds, hoppy beers. Victory, Yards, Dogfish, Sly Fox, Flying Fish. Iron Hill has some good choices.
I do like to keep some bottles in the fridge at home. Usually I get the mix-&-match six packs from the local Wegman’s or Giant. Right now there’s some Victory Hop Devil and Yards Tavern Ale. I’ve had some great beer conversations while perusing the single-bottle cases at Wegman’s.
I tend to drink a lot of one type of beer and then move on to another. For a while, it was Pale Ale & IPA, and I had a few months of Lagunitas, Captain Lawrence, Dogfish Head, Sculpin, Brooklyn, etc. Now I’m all about Gose style, so I’m working my way through Sierra Nevada Otro Vez, Finback I Feel the Universe, Evil Twin Mission Gose, Hitachino Nest and like that. Once it gets colder, I’ll probably get my stout on.
I’m not much of a beer drinker but my husband is, so I’ll speak for him. He favors IPAs and drinks them year round, but likes seasonal beers of different style as well (stouts/porters in cold weather, sours/Gose/Koelsch when it’s warm, etc.). He reads enough beer-related websites to know when something new and interesting has received favorable reviews. On any given trip to a store with a good selection, he’ll generally buy something he knows he likes (or a new offering from a brewery he knows he likes), plus something totally new to him. I detest IPA so he’ll often choose something he thinks both of us will like (I like lighter styles, anything sour, Gose, etc.) as well.
At restaurants he loves to try new things if the list looks well-curated. He has definitely discovered some interesting local breweries that way.
We have a small bar close that has 25 rotating craft beers. I have tried them all or at least tried to, but for me I always tend to prefer any kind of stout or darker beer. I am trying to train my taste buds to like IPA’s but that is a work in progress. This is a new white stout that a friend just gave me to try and wow is it good. So good in fact we are going to their brewery in Oct. which is close to Indianapolis just to buy some more.
That is inventive! I can’t imagine how the ingredient list for that Stout is put together. I’ll have to look out for it here in SE Michigan. Thanks for the tip, gearguy.
After 30 years, I’d say it’s mostly guided by whim, freshness, and what’s for dinner. I’ve become a big fan of the rotating stock for growlers at a couple shops around me. I’ll mostly just grab two different ones at a time based upon the aforementioned factors - though fruity stuff tends to get little love.
That being said, Mrs. Stoudts popped my cherry back in '87, and, I guess, I still have a place in my heart for her. Their beers are still quite solid, across the spectrum of styles
Next time you’re in Chicago, look up the places that serve Firestone walker nitro merlin milk stout (only available on tap, check their website under “milk and cookies events” for locations )
I shop at a local liquor chain called Spirits, and I find that they have a pretty wide selection of craft beers. I usually get a couple of new bottles to try each visit, but tend to default to anything made by Dogfish Head (no IPAs though… my taste buds haven’t evolved that much yet, ha).
My daughter is an owner of a 30-tap craft beer bar in the Bay Area so I get lots of good recs from her. Unfortunately we live in SoCal so we’re mostly limited to beers we can find here. We love Barley Forge, Four Sons, and Artifex down here and Fieldwork up in Berkeley.
They have food trucks almost every night. I know that people DO bring in food, but I’d suggest you call to ask if they have any rules. I doubt it but I don’t get there often enough for me to know for certain.
