The Palisade

This is actually a pretty decent store in a kind of shabby area of Jersey City. Also stopped by Central Avenue Liquors which is nearby and this place beat them by a fairly wide margin.

A slightly above average selection of cold and warm sixes, singles, and bombers, with the usual suspects well represented. Lots of both European and Domestic craft. Prices were fair. If you stop in be sure to look closely at bottle dates as there were many things way past their prime sitting on the shelves.

This store fills a gap in the area to be sure. Super Buy Rite is the place to go in JC but you need to get yourself over by the Holland tunnel and deal with the traffic. Palisade will do in a pinch; it's certainly closer to home for me.

The staff was exceptionally friendly and interested in what I was buying and any thoughts I had about what they should be ordering, etc. Good guys, extra points for that!

Well, hey, it's a beer store. OK, it's a wine store. Right in the middle of nowhere. Who'd a thunk it? It took me nearly an hour to get there from Newark - maybe there's not a good time to drive that direction? Hmm. Well, maybe it's easier during the day. Anyway. It's in... It's in a big city. Finding it wasn't easy - 'cause I didn't have the address with me. Duh. Still, I got there despite not knowing where I was going. And I went inside. There is a largish selection of beer. I'm, of course, spoiled just coming off of a trip to Portland, Oregon, where the smaller of the two stores I visited had about twice this selection... But, hey, there's still a fair amount of stuff. Prices seem high - but prices seem high everywhere to me. They didn't look out of line, or anything. The beer isn't really in too much of an order on the shelves and is mixed in with wine and cider so it might be hard to find what you were looking for - if you had something specific in mind. Luckily I was just browsing... I found things to buy that I can't get locally and even found things that I wouldn't think would make it out here (Lobster Ale! Crazy! I can't imagine that gets a lot of traffic there!). Looks like a lot of old stock (winter ales, for example) on the shelves and in the coolers. The help was nice. If I lived in the area, I'd shop there on a regular basis. And coming from away, well, it was nice to find interesting beer so I guess it was worth my trip out, too.

Sunday July 27, 2008:

Heard this store had an impressive selection of singles, so decided to check it out... Only about five minutes or so from Hoboken...
They had a huge selection of great brews, macros, micros, and imports...
Full selection of Unibroue, Southern Tier, Rogue, Hitachino, Great Divide... Best part about it was that they allow you to create your own singles six-packs for about $8.49...
Service was average at best to nonexistent...
Very inexpensive items... Reasonably priced... Will definitely stop in here again...

Thought I'd give my local liquor store a little pat on the back. The Palisade is easily the best beer store in Hudson County. Without naming names, it's definitely better than any of the other places in Jersey City or Hoboken, even the ones that suppose to be "upscale". Definitely a wide range or east and west coast American micros, and German, English, and Belgian imports. And as everyone else has mentioned - they stock Climax.

The Palisade is just a notch below New Beer in my book. And though I'm not a wine person, I'm told their wine selection is very good too.

I am going to start this all by saying I am by far a beer expert and have only recently grown up from Pabts Blue Ribbon (which is still a great beer) to more mature tastes in beer

I am not really good at writing, but I would like to give this place a glowing review, I drive out of the way, on my way home from work to get to this place.

Went there on a recommendation that they carried Old Speckled Hen.

Upon first approach it looks like any other liquor store with no hint on the outside of what I Was in store for.

I walked in and saw isles of wines and spirits, and then the beer Isle, I had honestly never seen so many different beers. There had to be over 200 different beers mixed between the shelves and the wall of cold cases.

When I brought my 6 pack of OSH to the counter he asked me "did you have trouble finding anything?, I am out of 150 beers, at least"

They are very knowledgeable on beer and one of the owners travels the world to find beers, they also like to hear your input and opinions, not just buy and go.

It is defiantly a hidden gem

He has micro brew's from all over the world and local.
he also allows for Mix and match loose beers so it makes tasting so easy, Since my first time there I have tried to buy 2 to 3 different kinds of beer every time.

I am not big on IPA's but he had more then I could count.

I have gotten:
old speckled hen
Climax ESB
Arrogant Bastard ale
dead guy ale
Wells bombardier English ale
st peters englsih ale
piraat gold
moosbacher Weissbier
Anchor bay Liberty ale
tusker african beer
Red horse malt liquor Philippines
san miguel ale Philippines
Georg Schneider's Wiesen Edel-Weisse
bellhaven scotish ale
expresso stout

a few more, and I have only been there 4 times!!
I bought $90 worth of beers last night and can't wait to drink them all.

Update 3/0/08
Since first writing this I have since gone back several times and they never disappoint. I can attest to the freshness of the beer as the stock is constantly rotating. I have been there when the shelves are packed to the rafters with beer and also gotten their when their stock was depleted, and their is always something new to try.

The owner Bobby is very knowledgeable and ready to recommend something new and listen to all suggestions.

All and all I don't think I would ever buy beer somewhere else at this point.

This place is a gem in the midst of Jersey City. It's a pretty good sized store, though I think the space could be used a little bit more efficiently.

Lots and lots of wine- and good quality stuff, too. There's some cheap stuff to be sure, but the selection is vast and well-priced. Wine takes up about half the store, there's a row of hard liquor, then there's a long row of beer, as well as a row of coolers of beer.

A pretty good selection of beer to be found here. Of course there's all the regular macro stuff, but then there's Southern Tier, Stone, Climax jugs, Smuttynose, and more. The guys that work there are more than happy to order things for you, too. The selection could be bigger, I just get the feeling that the workers aren't always on top of ordering, or don't know what else customers would like. So if you drop by here, definitely make some suggestions for them.

Quality beer?
In Jersey City?
Who would have guessed it? Certainly not I.
Apparently, the owners had a store one block over and moved to this space in the summer. Much larger than the previous space with a more thoughtful layout and hardwood floors, they're trying to create something special here.
Wine takes up most of the space in the store but there is a good amount of space devoted to beer. There are about seven or nine coolers of six packs, most of which have craft beer. Across from the coolers there are about three, twenty foot long shelves with six packs and singles (mostly six packs) of craft brew.
Breweries!
Southern Tier (Unearthly, Oat, Tripel, IPA, Uber Sun, sold out their Pumking), Stone (Pale ale, Arrogant Bastard, IPA), Climax growlers, some Rogue offerings, Troegs (Hopback, Sunshine Pils, Dreamweaver, Troegenator), some Green Flash stuff, the usual Unibroue suspects, Butternuts, Slyfox cans, Smuttynose and more; plenty of stuff for a Beer Advocate to choose from.
One problem here could be a lack of turnover for some of the products. They may need someone to help them choose their beer... they will try to order stuff for you if you make a request.
Six packs mostly cost $8-$10 and singles (bombers and 750mL) are about what you expect depending upon the brewery (about $9 for Unibroue, Chimay, Gouden Carolous).
This is the best place for beer that I've encountered in the Jersey City/Hoboken region. Probably the easiest way to get stuff from Troeg's if you're in the NYC region.