How does Houston distribution rate in your opinion?

Discussion in 'Southwest' started by jtk, Jan 29, 2016.

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  1. jtk

    jtk Crusader (477) May 19, 2007 Texas

    How does Houston distribution rate, in your opinion, compared to other cities and/or states you have either visited or lived in? Or even Texas distribution in general?

    I grew up in Houston, then left for a couple decades, and now I am back since last summer. Most of the last two decades I spent in Southern California, and I've been into craft beer even longer than that. Although when I left Texas around '96, it was mostly foreign beer, with a handful of craft type beers around.

    While I am getting familiar with Texas' beers and also some beers (midwest/east coast) that weren't distributed to SoCal but are distributed here, I am still trying to figure out how distro stacks up in Houston against other areas of the country. I haven't checked around very much at all over the years in Midwest or East Coast, so I don't know what all they get.

    There are actually quite a few quality West Coast beers available here, and that is great to see. It seems to me that there may be less available here from the Midwest and East Coast. Am I wrong there? Maybe I haven't shopped around enough?

    For the most part I have managed to visit about 4 different Spec's, and the Smith St. location is not one of them. Saving that for when I have some extra cash and an hour or two to kill. The HEB near me also has a pretty good selection.

    Overall I think the distribution/selection here in Houston is pretty good. Great beer is being made all over the country, and I'm seeing quite a bit of it on the shelves here.

    Any thoughts?
     
    #1 jtk, Jan 29, 2016
  2. ChrisYarborough

    ChrisYarborough Initiate (0) Oct 16, 2012 Texas

    IMO and take this with a grain of salt please and I bet other people will chime in and have better opinions than me..

    I travel frequently to North California (Napa area) for work and just walking into any beer store (or even whole foods) you see everything just sitting on shelves. You can find the Firestone specials (Sucaba, Anniv, etc), Logsdon, Crooked Stave, Bruery, Alesmith, etc.. sitting on every shelf at every store no limit..

    But to be fair thats California and they get everything and are spoiled to the nines with great craft beer..

    I have also travel to Mississippi and the craft beer scene and distro sucks hardcore..

    Here IMO it seems that the majority of most of the really special stuff goes to Specs Downtown. They do a special release on weekdays which really means most of us that are not Downtown during the week miss out. Yes you can find these specials at other places but its like fishing in a big lake and only a few fish in it.. unless you are Matt Chow! :slight_smile:

    It has gotten alot better though in the last year.. I seem to be able to find stuff easier.. to me it seems the Houston hoarders have slowed down some..

    My go to store if I can get down there after work is D&Q. It takes me about an hour from my office but is worth the drive.

    Whole Foods and Central Market are probably the next best place to find the harder to get stuff. Then I would say some of the nicer HEB's (Buffalo Speedway, One on I-10 West out near Katy, etc..).

    On the Southside the Nobi Gas Station store and Specs Baytown but they go super fast. I see stuff be posted on twitter and within 20 minutes of hitting the store they are already gone..

    Within the last few years our craft beer scene has exploded. Not just Texas breweries but with outside breweries coming into the State. Yes the laws are prohibitive for entry we still have alot of great breweries already coming and more in the pipeline.

    We have a few really good smaller distributors that really focus on the craft niche like Flood
     
    #2 ChrisYarborough, Jan 29, 2016
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  3. aschwab

    aschwab Initiate (0) Mar 3, 2009 Texas

    http://www.craftbeeraustin.com/a-look-at-out-of-state-brewery-distribution-to-texas/

    If you are curious who can distribute here and some laws behind it.
     
    #3 aschwab, Jan 30, 2016
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  4. jtk

    jtk Crusader (477) May 19, 2007 Texas

    That's not a horrible list I guess, but I wish it was a little fatter than that.

    I got pretty spoiled myself in SoCal/San Diego. San Diego itself has some of the best breweries in the country imo. But even down there it was getting harder to find some beers, such as almost anything by Russian River, one of my favorite breweries.
     
    #4 jtk, Jan 30, 2016
  5. greenspointexas

    greenspointexas Pooh-Bah (2,075) Jan 16, 2011 Texas
    Pooh-Bah

    Houston is the 4th largest (soon to be 3rd largest) city in america and almost the entire city's limited beer supply goes through one store. Not that that is a bad thing, but that is just how it is. Specs dominates a large chunk of the Texas' beer/wine/liquor sales, so i can see why the majority of beers go through them first


    However, Houston is also the only city ive ever seen that has this type of "distribution."


    Lack of mom and pop stores/other decent liquor or bottle shops/high volume of beer sold through HEB and krogers here also give distributors very little incentive to spread the wealth around


    As far as the overall beer distribution, id say simply that it is satisfactory
     
    #5 greenspointexas, Jan 30, 2016
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  6. jtk

    jtk Crusader (477) May 19, 2007 Texas

    Have yet to visit the Spec's on Smith street. So far Ive been to the two on Westheimer, the one just east of the 8 and the one just west of it, the one off I-10 near Wirt, and the one closest to me in Kingwood. The I-10 store and the one west of 8 both have pretty good selections. I'm saving my first downtown Spec's visit for when I have the extra hour or two and the extra $100 minimum.
     
    #6 jtk, Jan 30, 2016
  7. Texasfan549

    Texasfan549 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Feb 26, 2011 Texas
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    It has improved dramatically within the last couple of years.

    When I used to travel out of town I would stare in awe at shelf beer in other bottle shops. Now, it's about the same, minus extremely local breweries.

    It's a great time to be a beer geek in Houston.
     
    #7 Texasfan549, Jan 31, 2016
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  8. tx_beer_man

    tx_beer_man Pundit (902) Jan 22, 2013 Texas
    Trader

    Not bad but too many old IPA's on the shelf and the big boy b!t$h SED likes to throw out old product (like Hop Delusion) a year from the sale date...
     
    #8 tx_beer_man, Feb 1, 2016
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  9. donspublic

    donspublic Grand Pooh-Bah (3,552) Aug 4, 2014 Texas
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I live out in Cypress, and that is my go to store. They seem to have a really good selection and I have often called them when looking for things and they will set it back for me so I can drive over. I don't make it much to the one downtown, but it seems that this store has the beer I am always looking for :slight_smile:
     
    #9 donspublic, Feb 1, 2016
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  10. tx_beer_man

    tx_beer_man Pundit (902) Jan 22, 2013 Texas
    Trader

    Solid store!
     
    #10 tx_beer_man, Feb 1, 2016
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  11. nathanmiller

    nathanmiller Initiate (0) Oct 7, 2009 New York

    #11 nathanmiller, Feb 1, 2016
  12. fl_beer_fan

    fl_beer_fan Initiate (0) Jun 9, 2015 Texas
    Trader

    Going to Spec's Smith St was always a chore for me, much preferred D&Q. I know that deciding on things like bottle limits is not an exact science, but I always found myself cursing whoever decided on how much to give per person at that location. I'd see people walking out with three bottles, knowing I'd get none because I wasn't in line early enough.

    Sob story aside, I wish there were more places that had access to "limited" beer releases. Places like D&Q aren't able to grab enough attention from distributors and get left behind. Just ask Brandon how many false promises distribution has made him and not delivered, while Specs rolls in the product
     
    #12 fl_beer_fan, Feb 1, 2016
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  13. icetrauma

    icetrauma Pooh-Bah (1,657) Sep 7, 2004 Texas
    Pooh-Bah

    Imagine how jacked up it would be if HEB and other grocery chains didn't sell a lot of craft.
     
    #13 icetrauma, Feb 2, 2016
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