Best/Worst Distro areas.

Depending on where you are at in Montgomery County, you could go up to Frederick and try Ye Olde Spirit Shoppe on 7th Street - huge assortment of craft beer (22oz, 6-pack cans and bottles). In Germantown Village Market there is the Germantown Wine - another good selection but pricey.

 

A couple years ago someone on this site (pretty sure it was retired star ticker @nickd717 ) created detailed beer distribution rankings for the the US. I remember that Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia specifically, was by far the best place for distribution. New Jersey came in a close second though, surprisingly. I can't remember what state was worst, but I'm guessing it was UT or AL.

 

Getting better all the time. Founders, Finch's & Evil Twin are three not so recent additions. Plus local & Missouri berries filling in some blanks...

 

Anyone saying Kansas needs to come down to Oklahoma, not even close. Odell, Hoppin Frog, Deschutes, Stones & Odell aren't here... ( & I'm sure I've forgotten at least 5 others ).

 

nickd717 is one of the creators of the much maligned seekabrew.com

 

Mississippi has to be the worst state I have ever been in for craft beer. In all fairness that was nearly two years ago now so it is entirely possible that distro has opened up a bit since.
I consider myself fairly lucky with WI distribution. Being in the central part of the state poses a few limitations, but I am only a couple hours from Madison and MN and frequently travel to both, so I really can't complain about the variety available to me on a regular basis.

 

Glad to see founders there. Will have to look for it when I go back next.

 

You must live in the East. Try Keene...arggg. At least we are closer to VT I guess...

 

I have to vouch for NM as a state being relatively bad.
Living between AZ, CO, and TX, you would expect a decent selection. A trickle of something. Even the relative closeness to CA.. I have to travel to El Paso or Flagstaff (4 hrs each way) to get my fill of Founders, Ballast Point, Bell's, Avery, Victory, Great Divide, FW, and DFH. Many seems to take those for granted.

We have Odell, Stone, Lagunitas, Deschutes, and Oskar Blues.. But who doesn't?

The only positive out of the lack of outside distribution are the local breweries. Elevated IPA has become a staple in almost eveyr restaurant I visit, or gas station I stop at. Marble and Santa Fe are solid. But those are also available in AZ.. AZ has that SW footprint down solid for disitribution

 

Can't complain living in Chicagoland with easy trips to Wisconsin and Indiana.

 

I am at about 75% Michigan brewed, maybe higher...buy local!

 

that's right, you stay out of Michigan!

 

Nobody mentions good ol' CT. This state sucks. While we have a good amount of breweries available to us the selections that we get are rather limited. Like bcbs,bccs but no variants or off color but no Dino. Atg but no bo&luke. But wait we're getting YUENGLING back YEAH on the good side jacks Abby and new holland Are coming in the next month or two.

 

Chicagoland! Micros Macros and everything in between!

 

Minneapolis is a close second.

 

I'm obviously biased, but I've done a lot of beer shopping in a lot of places, and have yet to see anywhere that tops Wisconsin, if you consider both selection and price. Chicagoland offers a better selection (though the gap is closing fast), but you pay markedly more per bottle. The big downside to Wisconsin and Chicagoland is that both have a relatively high beer geek density, which means the better limited releases get snapped up fast.

 

Wv is a barren wasteland for craft...korintus up in pa tho does the job... although we do have bridge brew works and chestnut brew works in morgantown helps fill (the very wide) gap between bmc and craft

 

Knoxville area and east Tennessee is pretty bad

 

I would have to go with the Big 3 in Florida with how they're paying off politicians to try and place laws to not allow for breweries to distribute their own beer.

 

Don't have to what I want comes to me in Founders and Bells