The "grass is greener" mentality

Or buy it from your local Whole Foods/Wegman's. I actually pay really fair prices.

 

OP - I agree that some want more to try beer that is unobtainable locally, while locally available beers may be greater in quality than those they seek out. That's a mouth full. But hey, I love Pliny, and I like hunting for it, but having Myrcenary available fresh all over the place definitely fills in the voids between Pliny deliveries. Catch my drift?

 

I feel like you and I live in/near different Philadelphias. edit: a lot of your are specifically due to prices. Drive out the burbs a little more. Prices are better and we have Tired Hands. that should take care of your issues with local IPAs.

http://phillytapfinder.com/brewery/hill-farmstead/
http://phillytapfinder.com/brewery/central-waters/

Hill Farmstead comes around about one a month once every other month. Shipments vary, all kegs. Central waters is available in most bottle shops and the Deschute's has been here for about a month (we've gotten their regular lineup each Spring of the past few years).

 

Grass sure is greener here, but the beer selection sucks. Who knew its be a raw deal moving from Cleveland to Hawaii?

OK it's not too shabby, but the beer selection is pretty terrible especially being on an island that isn't Oahu.

 

I've lived in Ohio for 25 years and I'm curious, what local beers are are just as good as the top rated beers in their respective category:

-Sours (like Russian Rivers, Cascade, Allagash, Bruery)
-Bourbon Barrel Aged Stouts (like BCBS, Parabola, Black Note, BB Pt5)
-Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywines (like King Henry, BA Churchill, Arctic Devil)
-Saisons (like Arthur and Anna)
-Berliners (like NG Berliner, Pipeworks Berliners)

When you're talking about other styles, I totally agree, but I trade for beers that are styles I can't normally get regularly - sours, barrel aged stouts, barley wines, saisons, berliners. If I could find those styles more regularly in Ohio or Michigan, I doubt I would trade as much. Browns, Porters, Ambers, and Wheat beers are boring for me nowadays. When I'm eating at a restaurant or going to a bar, I'll drink Great Lakes Brewing or Bells, but when I'm at home, I want to drink the styles listed above.

Granted, I do enjoy getting packages with random surprises, along with the thrill of the hunt, but it does come down to me enjoy certain styles that aren't available locally. I'd love to live near Cigar City, Hill Farmstead, Cascade, Russian River, or Crooked Stave. The grass is most definitely greener in craft beer centrals like Portland or Denver culturally.

 

Sours - none, but I don't think many places have quality sours in the US. Russian River is one exception and there are a few others, but for the most part I like Cantillon and 3 Font. I do know that Fat Head's is going to start brewing sours and if any brewer locally can do it they can.

Bourbon Barrel Stout/Barleywine - I'm not a big fan of barrel aged beers, but we have plenty of locals that are good. BA Boris, BA Jack Hammer, BA Siberian Night, BA Blackout, etc. I would take BA Jack Hammer over King Henry easily.

Saisons - none, but I've had a ton of the best and even those don't make me a fan of Saisons.

Berliner - Same as the sours. I like a few of the ones I've had that were brewed in the states, but for the most part it's a style that does not excite me at all. But Jackie O's does do a good Berliner.

I drink mostly IPA/IIPA and I am more than happy to drink Ohio beers in that style.

 

When i was at the Cantillon brewery i realized that was the greenest the grass would ever get

 

I'll admit I got caught up in wanting the beers I can't have , I mean its the reason we don't watch **** with average looking women in it , we lust after things we think we have a hard time getting. I've gotten my hands on some pretty choice beer in the last month and while I'll admit they were outstanding brews , Pliny , Zombie , Abyss to name a few, I didn't feel like it was worth the effort put forth to obtain said beers here in Arkansas , trading , shipping to friends out of state. Now I'm not saying I would turn down any of these beers or I do not believe them to be world class , but I am saying I realize I have the ability to put my hands on some damn good beer right here where I'm at , maybe not the best , but still some damn fine brew. So in other words I finally got to hook up with the super hot bikini model and realized I was too lazy to put the work into doing it again , Ill just take women who I can pick up at the local bar , like my beer , haha. Cheers all..............I hope my wife doesn't read this

 

Arbor has never really impressed me (although Corner's sours are good), I'll definitely have to track down Jack Hammer. There actually is a world class barrel aged barleywine in the area, but it's released once a year if we're lucky - Kuhnhenn's BBBW.

I've never been impressed with BA Boris, it just doesn't have that pronounced barrel character common in most stouts. I haven't had BA Siberian Night, I was under the impression that it hasn't been fully distributed in the state yet. BA Blackout is good, but you have to make a trip out of it and it's a bit expensive.

I definitely agree with you regarding IPAs/DIPAS, I've always said that the best IPA is the freshest IPA you can find in your area. Granted, you'll never find something as good as Heady Topper, but I definitely wouldn't complain drinking White Rajah, Head Hunter, Great Lakes IPAs, Bells IPAs, and Three Floyds IPAs.

Consider yourself lucky that you only really like IPAs!

Yikes... Arkansas would be one of the last states I would want to live when it comes to craft beer. I guess it could be worse... you could live in North Dakota.

 

BA Boris is as good as many of the hyped stuff I've had from other places, but yeah, not my favorite style. BA Blackout is too expensive, but it's only 15 minutes from my house to the brewery, so not a long trip. BA Siberian Night will be in distro soon from what I hear. Agree in regard to BBBW.

I'll take Rajah, Head Hunter, Hop Juju, Bodhi and IBUsive over Heady, but we know it's all subjective.

This area is good for Lagers too, but it's not a hyped style so nobody really cares. I like them though and drink a lot of growlers from Fat Head's and GL.

 

I'm very happy with what we have access to in the Seattle area. Sure, it's been fun to try Three Floyds, Heady, Hill Farmstead, Lawsons, etc., but I see no need to drop extra cash in trades and shipping costs to acquire that stuff when we have great beer all over the place. It's not like we live in some beer wasteland that doesn't make quality products. I feel like people out here forget that sometimes.

 

Honestly, even with all the crazy laws and markups, I'm pretty impressed with the selection available in Pennsylvania. Having worked in the bar industry for a bit, handling ordering and beer selection for a small craft beer bar...it's incredible how much is available, but even more incredible how few bars and bottle shops take advantage of great products from awesome breweries. I see all the same old stuff at most of the bars in town, and don't really see too many businesses taking "risks" by putting on less popular/better products.
Depressing. The world is at their feet, and they're too busy trying to tie their shoes to notice.

 

I can't complain living in northern VA (about beer, that is...traffic, cost of living, & land use are other issues). Plentiful access to two one of my favorite brewers (Victory & Troegs) and no trouble getting Bell's, Founders, Lagunitas, Great Lakes, Stone, etc. Really, it could be much worse.

When I travel there, it seems that Maryland & south Jersey may have access to some more brewers. However, I never have up-to-date info on inventory & new releases there. Probably because I don't have any "beer guys" there. Finding the right bottle shop(s) & sources of local information seem to be just as important as finding the right state to live in.

 

I find the grass to be pretty green everywhere I go these days.

 

Part of the reason I stopped trading was because I too can get better beer made locally with ease than I can trade for. Sure, there are exceptions, great limited release beers that are indeed the finest beers made. But I have had enough of them, and enough disappointments searching for them, that I no longer care. Is Fremont Cowiche Canyon a little better than all the other wet hop beers? Absolutely. But now I am able to get five locally made that are the tiniest step less great. This harvest season that may be ten. Next year maybe 20.

I'm with Dan, we all have access locally to great beer nowadays, or soon will have access, why trade?

The craft brew revolution may not be over, but it looks like it is close to over, and we all won, what a great time to be a fine beer lover!

 

I live in beer hell, no breweries around and limited goodbeer choices. SO I drink the best my town has to offer, when I'm out of town I drink local and bring back what I can. But I never have understood the BA/Ratebeer hype machine that generates vast amounts of virtual ink telling everybody what is the hot new beer they need to be chasing. Will I die without tasting the "best" beer in the world in all of recorded history? Probably, but I will have had a wonderful beer filled life that I enjoyed on my own terms.

 

The owner of my local retail beer distributor (Kunda) told me that Deschutes is now available year around in PA.

Cheers!

 

Ahem: http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/the-grass-is-greener-mentality.91909/#post-1348041

 

Went to AZ the last week and was stoked to try to some beers I can't get out in Pittsburgh (and no doubt did I fullfill that mission)

but

After our Rim to Rim hike through the Grand Canyon, we spent 2 nights on the North Rim and loaded up beer. At first all I wanted to buy was "big" beers and hypetastic brewskis. But sitting there, I realized I could really use a Headhunter or a Perpetual IPA. Trip made me appreciate my local beers more and actually how "well-supplied" my locale is with good/consistent beer.

 

That should have said "some people," because there are some out here who go out of their way to crap all over anything that's good and actually local. But that happens everywhere.