What's your beer buying strategy?

Mood dictates. Sometimes I'm lazy and walk around the corner to the liquor store and pick up the basics, Lagunitas seasonal, Sam Adams (for the husband), Sierra NA, Stone. Or if I'm in the right mood, I'll go by the Safeway or Whole Foods and compare my beers and prices to theirs, and pick up something interesting. There are times I go to the craft beer store down the street and spend an hour or two looking up various beers on my phone and chatting it up with the owner. All the gimmicky crap like barrel-aged only matters if the beer is supposed to be amazing and I've never had it. Labels don't bug me when I'm buying personally, but when I'm buying for my grocery store I am very careful- not that "Raging Bitch" isn't a great Belgian IPA, but I can't sell it in a gourmet family store. Most of the Clown Shoes stuff is off limits too, even though it's great beer.

 

I usually spend between $150 and $200 on a trip to the bottle shop. About half of that is for favorites and the other half is on new to me beer. That is beer that I've heard about, want to try, top 250 beer, read about on BA, ect ect.

 

I buy beer based on the bottle caps. Seriously. Cans? Only if I'm going to be floating the river. Also, no stouts.

 

I follow a simple strategy: buy, drink, repeat

 

Walk into store. Stare at shelves for twenty thirty minutes as if hypnotized, slowly panning from bottle to bottle, aisle to aisle, in awe; like a pagan before the rising sun. Carefully stroke my invisible brewer's beard, contemplating the mysteries of the malt. Walk out with more treasure beer than I will need to get me through that week....especially since my Ark of the Covenant fridge still has some of last week's unfinished beer in it.

 

Here is what I have on hand right now:

36 bottles of Lagunitas Sucks
21 bottles of SN Celebration
10 bottles of Victory Hop Ranch
10 bottles of Victory DirtWolf
4 cans of Resin
4 cans of Bengali Tiger
4 cans of Hop Notch
10 cans of All Day IPA
4 bottles of Sculpin
3 bottles of Brown Shugga
2 bottles of Lenny Bruce RIPA
3 cans of Overbite
5 cans of G'Knight
10 cans of Dale's Pale Ale
3 bottles of Uinta Dubhe
4 bottles of BCBS
2 bombers of Hop Stoopid
4 bottles Stone IPA
5 bottles Troegs Mad Elf
2 bottles Terrapin Oak Aged IPA
4 bottles Hop Rod Rye
2 bottles Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

So in summary, anything that tastes good I buy.

 

I MUST have whatever the most hyped up beer is on the forums here at BA the day I'm buying....

 

Strategy? I follow Sun Tzu's Art of War when I buy beer

"The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself."

 

You can usually find great prices at stores that don't keep their beers right... If you see tons of dust on the bottles maybe they've had it too long. Usually the beers don't taste that bad despite their poor storage conditioning. There was a place I used to go to that had a half price beer rack for ones that they hadn't been able to clear out of stock. I usually prefer going to brew pubs or Breweries with good tasting hours and Growler purchases available. In Boston the Harpoon Brewery sells most of their regular beers for around $8.00/Growler and they have a line of double beers that are remarkable. Plus Harpoon is not as stingy as Sam Adams regarding samples. I think sam will poor you a limited amount of 19oz or something stupid like that.

I usually try to buy newer beers but have some standard faves I'll go to in a pinch. Many beer places that allow mixing and matching the beers they charge a higher per bottle charge for will give a rebate back of 15-20% if you buy 6 bombers for instance. The best way to get beer if convenient is to go right to the source of the brew so you don't get overwhelmed by the markup costs.

Founders, Great Divide and Butternuts are great choices. Many stores have the printed out BA reviews and ratings listed.

 

All of it.

 

This is my life. Except I would be totally broke if I bought something every time, so I often leave empty-handed or with just a single.

 

I usually go in already knowing what I'm looking for. I'll almost always peruse seasonals, but budget is the main factor. Deciding what not to try tends to be a difficult decision.

 

Buy until my wife tells me to stop...then buy behind her back.

 

That is a lot of IPAs floating on that list...it's been a month and a half since your post...curious to what is still left, if any?

 

Lately, buy whatever is cheap and tasty, so... Sierra Nevada.

 

If I see something new, I'll buy it but also buy something I already know that tickles my palate. Just.in.case.

 

Be over this weekend

 

I buy based on what sounds interesting. I generally don't buy anything that needs to be consumed fresh unless unless I plan on drinking it as soon as I get home or maybe they next day.

As far as things that will allow some age, I tend to get two or three bottles. One for consumption sooner rather than later, one for hanging on to for a while, and an extra for bottle shares and/or friends.

 

Jackson, WY is an expensive ski/tourist town so I look for sales on fresh beer first and foremost.

After that I try to keep about 12-24 regular sized bottles on hand at all times. This usually consist of 4-5 different styles of beer. So I try to buy whatever style I'm lacking. Only pilsners and pale ales? I'll buy a stout or porter. Only hefes and pales? i'll buy a lager and a porter/stout. etc. gotta keep it interesting. i try never to drink two of the same beer in the same day or even consecutive days.

further down the list i'll try to buy cans and local beers before bottles and beers brewed further away.

 

I follow the truck.