The Locals HINTS AND HAULS THREAD

Yeah, sort of how the guys in that area of the country probably think of everything from Maine to Maryland as one big "Northeast" state. I still think "locals" can be loosely defined as "close to me geographically, but my target doesn't get distro" -- if I can send stuff from Maine, they can certainly send stuff from Oklahoma.

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/lists/state/tx/

Just as most of the other state list, the rankings are certainly skewed towards limited releases, but the breweries listed are a great start and I can vouch for every single one of them. I'm in DFW specially, and our craft scene has exploded in the past three years. As of five years ago we really only had TWO "craft" breweries for almost 7 million people. New ones are opening up at what seems like every week around here. We've got good stuff, still unheard of for the most part though.

http://www.dallasbrewscene.com/#!ntx-breweries/cjht

@rspauldi , @cultclassic89 @EA728 are all down Houston way, a good 4 hours away from me, and can chime in on the 2nd best Texas city

 

It looks like there are only 2 individuals with a shot at free beer. They are listed below with the necessary results.

@henshawb Atlanta +13 or push
@Lehighace06 GB must win by 14+ points (owns first tie-breaker outright picking Pats to score 24 missing the total by 1 pt)

 

@Ncpogs

Thanks for the chance! 714 or 690

 

I actually live closer to Oklahoma than I do the rest of the Locals Texans....

 

I'm finding that comparing these state lists is a really cool way of objectively (sort of) comparing states. I've had quite a few conversations about the "best beer states" and I like the idea of having a way of somewhat objectively looking at the comparison.

I've been looking at various states with two criteria: how many 4.00+ rated beers the state has, and the rating of the 100th beer on the list (or the lowest ranked that made it to the list, for short lists). I see this as being two ways of measuring "which state produces the most exceptional beer", obviously by variety not by volume (which is also an important factor, but I don't have data besides my own gut feel for how big breweries' output is).

I think "the most exceptional beer" has to be the main consideration when comparing the output of an entire state; to say that VT > CA because Heady > PtY (for example) I think is taking too narrow a view. I think it has to be assumed that there is a certain level of quality above which all beer can be considered equal in a conversation comparing not just individual breweries (let alone individual beers) but an entire state.

 

This is cool, I didn't know you could break it down by state. For IL I've had 68 of our top 100, I guess I've got some work to do... also love the Pipeworks has a beer in the top 5 for IL with Square Grouper, that is awesome!

*Edited based on further review

 

Sounds like we need a graphic artist to make us some new avatars...

 

@jdhowe Seek out Lone Pint's Yellow Rose and Live Oak's Hefeweizen. Two of the best Texas beers made that you can find year round at nearly every good bar/growler shop in Houston. I enjoy some of Karbach's offerings, their Weisse Versa Wheat is good and they have some good seasonal/one time releases. To be honest, the breweries here in Houston aren't terribly exciting to me and we really don't have that many outstanding offerings yet. As opposed to stopping by a brewery, I would recommend visiting the Hay Merchant. It's the best craft bar in Houston with a huge selection. Everything is on tap and there's always a couple nice offerings at any given time.

http://www.haymerchant.com/menu/

If those Prairie variants are still on cask, I need to get over there myself. I figured they would have been long gone since the event was five days ago.

 

Awesome! I'll be rooting for a close game then, as it's pretty well known that I've won some LIFs whereas apparently @henshawb has won none... sadly, I have a hunch that given how they've been playing a 13 point spread is far too narrow.

 

You can break it down by style too. I wish there was even deeper analytics available on this site, but I have to admit that what they offer is pretty impressive.

And by the way, I haven't looked at all 50 states, but based on my above criteria among those I looked at, CA is the clear winner with OR and IL damn near tied for 2nd place. These were the only 3 that got out of the top 100 without a single beer below 4.00. VT was next going all the way to 89 before hitting a sub-4.00 beer. I was surprised to see that Michigan really did no better than a number of other states (FL, PA, NY, others); though the omission of many "m word" beverages likely hurt them in a big way with Kuhnhenn and Schramm's both being in MI.

 

Out of curiousity, was I one of the people with 9? If that stupid Jets/Vikings game didn't push...

 

If a Texas person has my name this round, you can just send me a six-pack of Yellow Rose. I'm normally a stout guy, but it's that good. Also, I updated my Texas wants. If I need to update for another state, someone let me know without letting me know the identity of my sender. However that might work.

 

Yep you have 9 and would finish in a tie if UTD and GB are correct choices but lose on the 1st tiebreaker.

 

Updating your Texas wants was a good idea because there are great BA's in this group from Texas in-regards to the 6er I might consider updating wants in other states outside of your time zone though

 

I think I added a ton of Texas wants back in round 1 when I thought my sender might be from there, and I am at the point now where the "surprises" selected by my sender are typically as good or better than any wants I added myself. That being said, once I narrow down my sender to 3 or 4 states I'll probably add wants.

 

All this Texas talk made me thirsty

 

Hint 1 - I'm not shipping to Texas.

 

For me getting a box of Texas Sours would like winning lottery. Ill be in San Antonio (I think) for a work conference in Jan. Not sure what my ability to get out and shop will be.

 

Looks like it's 3 hours round trip to Austin from San Antonio. You should seriously consider a trip to Jester King.