I am getting a little fed up here in Houston and need some help! Does anyone have any suggestions on where to get new releases that are fresh from brewery's like Stone, etc.in Houston? I love some of our local brewery's and support them all the time as you can find them all around town. But, when a brewery like Stone releases Frutallica like it did earlier this month it is no where to be found. I would like to buy bombers or fill up growlers. Even some of the Enjoy By series is MIA! HEB has been a lot better over the last year or so but still carries expired old beer. I use Tap Hunter, I call around to Specs across the city but still nothing. Is there a new release haven out there? Any help would be awesome! Just looking for a place the is consistent with their selection and get the special releases quickly. Thanks for helping the new guy, John
Check out the brewery's website. Most of them have a find our beer tab, it will list which stores carries their beers. Some websites like dogfish head head allows you to see which beers are at the stores, so you can easily track down a hard to find beer using their dogfish head fish-finder. And also gives you the store contact info, so you can call ahead.
You may not be aware, but due to the arcane Texas TABC, most beers released in other states are usually a month or two behind for TX.
Follow @TheBeerStation and @Specs_Beer_Dept on Twitter. They are the first to get the new stuff and they post their new arrivals. I don't think I've seen the Fruitallica yet.
TABC can be a pain, but distribution timing is a much bigger factor for when beers get put on shelves in Texas. Using Fruitallica as an example - it was released by Stone August 28th, but had TABC approval in mid June. Not sure how TABC would be responsible for delaying that release. All of the recent Enjoy By's have also been approved with plenty of time for them to be released in Texas within Stone's 40 (?) day "freshness" marketing thing.
TABC has been taking less than a week for approvals lately. It is not the approval process, it is likely the distributor.
Why does it seem like all beers then get released late? Is it me? Or are ALL of the distributors doing a poor job?
Yes, it's a combination of the beer getting to the distributor and them getting it to the shelves. It seams l like Tx is always running behind.
