How's your local beer culture?

Fresno is trying lately, but it's way behind most of California. Distribution is slowly getting better (we just got Saint Archer!). Beer bars and a couple breweries (hit or miss) are popping up. Bandwagon craft drinkers are popping up and trying to pass themselves off as beer nerds. It's better than when I lived in small town Tennessee, but worse than several other places I've lived.

 

Southern Vermont, I give a 6 out of 10.

 

If you count Keystone Light and Genny Light my hometown is booming!

For craft, it's anemic... there's is one store who's selection has gotten a little better - they have Southern Tier, Great Lakes, of course Sam Adams, and a few others. As far as taps go I can probably count on one hand the number of craft taps in the whole town.

If I cross the border into New York to where I worked up until last week it gets much better, I've actually been impressed by how much craft beer I could find in that little town, certainly not as much as other beer meccas, I'm sure, but not bad for Appalachia.

 

In terms of the city, very weird hybrid between being dominated by Fernsehbier (Bitburger to be specific) and Kölsch intruding on that territory from the North with a bunch of seasonals (e.g. for Oktoberfest) in some pubs - albeit from the bigger breweries like Erdinger and Paulaner. Apart from that we have a brewpub that has a solid year-round selection and some good seasonals. They also do beer tasting events and such. Then again, Rhineland-Palatinate is more of a wine county. Particularly up here at the Mosel.

Then again, Belgium is about an hour away.

 

I loved the 'beer scene' that's taken over in recent years in Cleveland, the city I previously called home. I was honestly a bit sad to let that go with the move to Michigan. Heinen's, a local grocery store, would fill growlers and even allow you to purchase a pint while you shopped for your weekly produce.

But the suburbs of Detroit have in no way disappointed. There are 27 breweries within 20 miles of the city I now call home, and 47 within 50. Then there are tons of taphouses, bars, etc with plenty of in-state and out of state handles and bottles. I'm actually overwhelmed with the amount of places that I haven't yet visited. The next year will be a good one.

I don't know if you can land a pint during a haircut, but the selection at the local bottle shops and even the huge chain stores is quite impressive.

 

It's getting better in Greenville, lots of transplants here, but it's still the old South in a lot of places (read: Busch Light in cans)

 

Very strong and growing. In the RVA we experienced rapid brewery growth to coincide with improved distribution. I wish that the two would have been staggered a bit more (as to enjoy both expansions on their own merit) but I'm still not complaining, as I think we've got it better than a lot of people. Once Stone gets going with their brewery by the end of the year, I can imagine another boom may take place in central VA.

 

NYC has taken some big steps forward in the last few years. Where I live (in Brooklyn) good beer is really starting to become second nature. Sure there are still instances where I want to try a specific beer or want to be guaranteed a great line-up, and I'll go to one of my go-to bars; but I can pretty much go to a restaurant or bar at random and be confident of drinking something decent - that wasn't the case when I moved here in 2008. Additionally some excellent local breweries have popped up recently, which has been awesome. They are big contributors to having a strong local culture - simply having good distribution (something else that has improved here) does not a great beer culture make (IMO).

Friends (old and new) seem less and less likely to drink BMC. Even the handful of friends I have who were NJ/LI born-and-bred BMC diehards, have seen the light. I honestly do not know anyone who is loyal to a BMC brand anymore, and only very few will even occasionally drink the stuff.

My one complaint is the stupid laws that separate beer from wine/liquor in NY, as far as stores go. If wine/liquor stores could carry beer it would make things so much better. We're still heavily reliant on specialist beer stores - and even though there are more than there were a few years ago, it's still the case that a relatively small number service a massive city. But as far as having a strong culture - the number of stores are bottom of the ladder as far as importance goes (for me). Breweries, bars and restaurants are much much more important.

 

Wait.. wine/liquor stores and beer stores are a separate thing? That sounds vastly odd, what's the reasoning for that if one may inquire? Then again, to continental Europeans putting bottles of alcohol into paper bags because drinking in public being banned also seems quite odd.

 

Agreed. I am out in Geneva and I feel like it is only getting better.

 

I'm no expert I'm afraid. I'm British but moved here from the UK in 2008.

Basically supermarkets/grocery stores etc can sell beer (and I believe wine too these days, but generally the selection is pretty limited), but hard alcohol can only be bought at liquor stores.

Basically if you want wine or spirits you go to a liquor store.

If you want beer you can go to your local supermarket/grocery store, but selection is usually fairly basic (other than Whole Foods and a handful of other places). Some bodega/corner stores are known for good selections. Otherwise you go to a specialist beer shop.

This is a state-specific thing in NY. Across the USA, different states can have all sorts of weird legislation that's unique to that particular state.

I'm guessing it was put in place to limit access to the strong stuff.

 

Having come of drinking age in the late 60s my bar is set fairly low but I am thrilled with our local beer culture. I can walk to 3 microbreweries and a Sake brewery, there are at least 3 exceptional craft bars within walking distance and I can get to dozens of decent places on a bike. Within a 20 mile radius I have an incredible selection of choices.

 

I noticed no one is posting from my area, that's probably because IT FUCKING SUCKS!!!

 

I would say virtually non-existent in my corner of the Boston suburbs. On the rare occasion that I visit a bar, there is very little conversation. Most people are there with family or small groups. Most of the beers that come out to the bar are Sam Adams or Macro. When I go to the local bottle shop it's mostly older guys carrying out cases of BMC or similar. But it's a working class family neighborhood and I didn't move there for cultural reasons. None of this surprises me.

 

Cincinnati is doing fairly well. There are well-curated bottle shops, gas stations that carry limited releases, grocery stores offering mix-a-six with Great Lakes seasonals and similar beers, and there's at least 3 giant stores within the I-275 loop area that seem dedicated to the concept of carrying every beer sold by every distributor in their respective states, tap or bottle/can (including a place that claims to be the single largest alcohol store in the country). There are very few bars that have only macros on tap. Even both major league stadia have craft-specific bars these days, in seeming defiance of all the "official beer of the Cincinnati <team>" ads everywhere.

On the down side, the local breweries aren't exactly world-beaters (apparently a couple make decent beer for the hophead crowd, but aren't consistent with anything else, and the others...well, Rivertown is experimenting with sours, so that's a plus, and Triple Digit is good if pricey), and the primary craft beer district doubles as the most crowded part of town during weekends and evenings, including three-hour waits to get in to some places. So if you're a fan of enjoying your beer in a more relaxed atmosphere where you can actually have a conversation without shouting, you're pretty much relegated to bringing beer home or going out on Wednesday evening before 9 pm. You know, first world problems.

Now, if they'd get rid of the 12% ABV law in Ohio, we'd be less inconvenienced by having to drive an extra 10-15 minutes to get to Kentucky for huge beers.

 

Haha you def need to get out more.

Regarding OP: The governor of our state has made NY breweries a priority and has fashioned an alliance with the industry to help it to succeed. My area, Mid Hudson Valley, New York, is on its way to being like Northern Vermont with great scenery and fine breweries aplenty. Even dive bars have a couple craft taps, even supermarkets are selling fine beer, and even gas stations are filling growlers now around here. Life has never been better for the fine beer lover here, and it is just improving. The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.

 

I would also question that. My SO is going to school in St. Louis right now so have her get all of the perennial and side project releases has been great. But other than the two already mentioned and Boulevard in KC ( all good breweries). But certinatly not the best in the nation. Asheville, The PNW, California, CO, I would all consider to be better. Of course thats just my opinion.

 

I love it. While there is a lot of old drinkers who have been in the "scene" for a long time, our culture is still relatively new. In Dallas our oldest brewery is only 4 years old. After a year many more continued to pop up and its amazing to see the rapid growth right before my eyes (whether good or bad). It's awesome to the see the innovation and routes all these different breweries have been taking all under 4 years old and establish a name for themselves in the scene.
As for the actual culture, its fresh and exciting. Everybody just has this giddy excitement about them when beer events are in our city. Everybody helps each other out whether it be educating or finding a beer on their wish list. It's also been a bit entertaining when you see how far the industry has reached. You get these suburban soccer moms geeking out about grapefruit sculpin next to a bearded 25 year old blogger.

 

Alcohol laws across the US are so wickedly painful to comprehend with all the inconsistencies between beer/liquor/wine sales, distribution and enforcement. The only thing more amazing in head shaking material are the wildly different laws between states. It's a freaking Greek tragedy.

 

Oh yeah, I'm aware of the differences between states. I've actually talked to U.S. friends quite a bit about this, they mostly have educated guesses as to the reasoning behind it and are sometimes baffled themselves at statutes regarding alcohol. That's why I was wondering, I've heard quite often from people in Chicago and FL that they can just hit up their Total Wine and similar stores to get their beer fix.

Either way, thanks for the attempt of clarification.

Edit:

Haha, yeah. See above, even most of my U.S. friends don't seem to comprehend that mess most of the time. I was already quite baffled when I offered a friend of mine to send him some mead via UPS/DHL and he informed that this would be illegal.