What are your folks opinion on the best beers that NJ gets that would make other states drool. I know the seek-a-brew applet is good to compare brewery distro but seeing the same beers over and over gives me a settled feeling, eyes glazed over, and bored. What should I not be settling for, some really special beers that I should feel so lucky to be able to access.
NJ get a lot..not just Kane, i know that cause i have been buying beer here for a 2le yrs and still havent bought any Kane(soon)...many states would be jealous of this distro..OP what are you tired of?? whats in your rotation??
Kane obviously. A couple guys that I am always looking for their seasonal or limited releases in NJ are Founders, Great Lakes, and Maine. I think it's safe to say that if you don't have those 3 distributed in your state, you probably wish you did.
yeah Kane is awsome love their stuff have you had sea change yet best sessionable beer award. I guess I am just jaded to the beers we get. Maine is great stuff and i guess access to founders is something to live up(just picked up my sweet repute) but as an overall i feel the selection of beers is kinda lackluster not too many gems, just a lot of run of the mill beers. Can anyone convince me otherwise?
How are you guys leaving out the flying fish exit 16 wild ride ipa, I think that's the best ipa in the state.
Compared to what states do we have bad distro? I always thought we had some pretty solid distro. It depends on what you're comparing it to though. Obviously we're right between Philly and NYC - both of which get some pretty great stuff. But otherwise, you pull a random state's name out of a hat, I think much more often than not, you'd prefer our distro to theirs. I do think we're getting the short end of the stick in terms of home grown breweries though. But we're catching up. Not much other than Kane and Carton are really worth mentioning in the state. With the exception of a beer here and there - Flying Fish's Exit 16, Ramstein's Double Platinum, etc.
Assuming you've been into craft for a while, you've seen basically all the state has to offer and while a few new breweries are entering our distro (DC Brau, Great Lakes) recently, most of the stuff stays the same. But if you dropped someone from North Dakota into an average NJ store they'd probably walk out with a $300 haul. We're spoiled because usually PA or NY is within an hour drive and that adds to even more awesome stuff.
I've heard rumors of some other new breweries entering NJ (Deschuttes, Bells, Duclaw) and can only confirm that Duclaw is already being distributed since my local bar already has a keg of Sweet Baby Jesus ready to go on sometime this week.
If you've been to some of the better stores and bars and weren't satisfied, then I doubt anyone can convince you otherwise. Or maybe your standards are too high. NJ distribution is pretty damn good compared to other states and is only getting better.
thats good news as far as deschutes and bells i hope it goes well and they will send some of their more limited offerings. I don't mean to come off as having too high standards, i guess just being in a state with great distro and getting used to the products offered is what happened. I might have the american mentality where I need variety and more is never satisfying. I guess for that wide variety i so yearn for I should get into trading. @CassinoNorth as far as DC brau goes do you know if NJ will get and OTWOA?
If you're bored with the selections at your local liquor store then start looking for draft only beers. Most of the "core" breweries that have been in Jersey forever put out some sweet draft only beers. For example...Sixpoint is now a boring contract brewed mess with it's canned offerings but those of us who remember sixpoint way back when they were draft only know that what's actually produced in Brooklyn is pretty good stuff. Their spice of life and mad scientist series ain't half bad. Founders is now putting out some of it's regular beers as "nitro" and yeah that really does change the taste and again draft only. Those are just examples. Go to brewery events at the better bars in the state and you'll see some awesome one-offs that probably rarely leave the breweries. Allagash puts out some great draft only specials and hell allagash's yearly beers are worthy of saying suck-it to many other states. Also one of the best parts of Jersey is the proximity of 2 high quality craft cities and the state's they're within. I live 10 minutes from NYC(without traffic) 25 from the NY State line to the North and roughly an hour from the nearest part of PA worth drinking in. NJ gets a high volume of beer distribution but NY and PA probably have better overall quality of distribution. NYC is 10 million people and Philly is 3million. These are a large number of people in a small amount of space. NJ has 8million spread over a large area with several distributors needed in most cases to cover the whole state. Can you see why it's more attractive for a brand to go to NYC or Philly first? A distributor handling those cities also handle it's in-state suburbs ballooning the reach of those beers to much higher numbers of people with just 1 distributor. It's just business. Do you know how many states are still impressed that we have dogfish head? Hell Yuengling is only in roughly 20 states. Wahhh we don't get Bell's but NY does. Well they've had it for a few months with NYC just getting it. They still don't have Kane and we've had it for over 2 years. I brought a bottle of regular Kane Morning Bell not barrel aged to a group tasting at Brooklyn Brewery a month ago and it was chosen as the best stout/porter of the night and probably the best beer of the night of roughly 60-80 beers and Hill Farmstead, Lawson's and Heady Topper were all there. Even New Glarus Serendipity was less talked about than this little brewery down the shore. I'm drinking craft beer for 10 years and I've had everything available in the state and look forward to a new brewery launch as much as anyone(cigar city is in negotiations to enter the state soon) but we do have a good selection if you're willing to look.
DuClaw is definitely available... I haven't found anything about Bells or Deschutes, but I will be happy to see them if/when they come!
