When "buy local" movement is going too far...

I don't take local into consideration for much of anything. With beer, I pick what styles I like best, etc. I am lucky to live in IL where local is Goose Island, Two Brothers, 3 Floyds, etc but I also try and get others not locally available if they are worth searching out like The Bruery, Russian River, etc. I am a firm believer that you always vote with ur dollar so buy what u like!

 

Count me in as one who is becoming slightly annoyed at the push to "drink local." There have been 3 new breweries started near me (within 20 miles) in the last few years. 2 brew some tasty stuff and one, well, everything I have tried from them has been "meh" at best. I will patronize the two establishments that do a good job, but I refuse to buy a substandard product from a local brewery. As such, the "meh" brewery doesn't get any support from me because they just don't brew good beer.

Bottom line, if locals brew good beer, I am happy to support them but I will by no means drink them exclusively. But I refuse to drink a substandard beer just because its local.

 

I would think that would be more the responsibility of the brewery and marketing team for developing the marketing slogan than the retailer for hanging their sign. I suppose you could cynically put some blame on a retailer for not thinking through another business' propoganda and posting it, but ultimately, who developed it?

 

The whole 'drink local' push started when few if any craft beers were distributed nationally so you could get either a national BMC product or a local craft beer. With that frame of reference, drink local makes sense. Years later with more craft being available to everyone and not just local brews, to the BA, it makes less sense.

Local beers can have the advantage of being fresher and having less transportation to worry about. Plus they can help the local beer scene. But these items may not always be true depending on the situation. So drink good beer and if your local beers are not good enough, then don't buy them.

Drink local, meaning someone's local beer and avoid the national beers, the original intent of this push.

 

If you can get a 6-pack of La Cumbre Elevated & Santa Fe Imperial Java Stout for $8.99, that aint bad.

 

I just wonder how the folks who have the"buy best, no matter where it's from" make their livings? Do their paychecks come from Bangladesh or China? Even if someone is employed buy a large national/international company, a significant portion that company's income comes from people buying local. You might sweep floors at Walmart, where the majority of product are made overseas, but your neighbors are buying local, giving you a paycheck. Fortunately, I live in an area with lots of good breweries, so buying excellent and local is almost a default setting for me.

 

This kinda reminds me of "eat local". Here, a farmers' market is a gathering place for the tree huggers and prices are ridiculously inflated because it is the hip thing to do. Talking to a friend in Florida, it is totally opposite where the FM's are a place where you can get reasonably priced, fresh locally grown produce. Why do they charge more - because the yahoos pay it and say thank you may I have another. I can go to my local farmer, pay less for a bushel of tomatoes than the FM charges per pound - makes no sense to me.

I live in MA, but really have it pretty good brewery-wise if I consider the New England states and surrounding area as a whole region. Lots of good local-ish choices. Jack's Abby, Mayflower, Smuttynose, Hillstead, Victory, DFH, etc. Heck, I even like Peak Organic (I know they score low, but I like some of their stuff).

I do look at the brewery, but that is the food process engineer in me. I like to understand some other things - sustainability, community involvement, using locally sourced ingredients, but first of all do they make good beer. If a brewer makes a good product and I like their philosophy, so much the better. Opposite is true too - if I learn a place has wretched business practices, I probably won't support them. Honestly it does influence my opinion of a place like Peak - not the organic hooey, but the local sourcing. Jack's Abby does this too and they make better beer, so it can be done. I like where that concept is heading - ties the local concept together start to finish.

The sign is just a ploy to get bodies to walk into the "store" at the gas station and buy that 128 oz. Slurpee and a week old hot dog...doesn't truly have a thing to do with beer. Local convenience store here proudly advertises craft beers and they do have Troegs and a couple others in the cooler - hardly a mecca, but since it is only a mile or two from the house, I looked - mission semi-accomplished for them, I reckon - they do have pretty good coffee. And I could do worse than picking up Troeg's within long walking distance if the cellar was empty, right?

 

Is your problem with the sign? The price? Lousy selection?
I don't understand! Was there a bum out there hassling you to buy a pick six pack? A simple giant sign doesn't disrupt the peace for me....
While typing this I figured it out. People like us see that sign and can't help but to go inside. Normally at a gas station you slide your card in the pump, fill up and leave. But this forces us to go in...

Still, it beats the beer signs I see at gas stations around here. BUY BUDLIGHT ULTRA 44 SUPERMAX WATER LIGHT ULTRA MAX SUPERHOT CHICK MAGNET WONDERBEER!!!


TITTIES!!!

 

ISO: Superhotchickmagnettittiebeer. FT: My soul (after I get it back from the devil).

 

I have a case ill trade for that p47 thunderbolt!

 

Then why not ask "Who developed it?" for this sign, which is obviously from the local MillerCoors house which is also the wholesaler for a number of local Arizona breweries and apparently created the "DRINK LOCAL" logo with the AZ state outline - Crescent Crown Distributing?

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Bacher for the win.

 

3 Floyds should be local to everyone. Maybe someday. Until than, I have Full Pint, Church Brew Works, Victory, Troegs, and Rivertowne to keep me going in Pittsburgh!!!!

 

The people who actually do drink local (or otherwise emphasize consumption of locally produced goods) represent such a dinky demographic among consumers of beer (or anything) that complaints about them seem petty.

Next up: "Damn that hipster, he's co-opted my grandfather's headwear!"

 

A few more examples:

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Great NJ beers?? That'll be up to you to decide. But here are examples of offerings from some of the "many quality local brewers" that I was referring to: Flying Fish ( Exit series, Farmhouse summer ale, Red Fish Ale, Octoberfish), Carton (Boat, a sessionable low abv IPA; I like it over Lags Daytime, which is very good also.)
Kane (Headhigh, to me, compares to Heady. Yup, I said it!). There are more, too! Kane and Carton are not bottled but are available on tap around the state! Enjoy!

 

Methinks it's a bit of a double standard to say that it's okay to buy local food for buying local's sake, but not beer.

 

If you live in Easton, you can: Interstate Exxon, on I-78 (about a mile from Weyerbacher!) fills growlers and sells six-packs. There are some odd exceptions to PA's stupid booze laws...which is a big part of why they're stupid.

 

I don't think anyone who's saying "drink local" is saying "You should drink this boring crap beer because it's made closer to you than other beers, and you should ONLY drink this local beer." It's more a consideration of buying the local beer over the beer "from away" if both are of similar quality/interest/freshness...because the local beer supports your local community. I buy local a lot, on as many things as I can, but that doesn't mean I ONLY buy local.

If you don't have what you consider to be good/great/acceptable local options in beer/cheese/bread/whatever, by all means, don't buy local in that category. But don't freak out about the whole idea, and don't freak out that people in areas where there are great local options encourage each other to buy local. I'm lucky to have Victory, Weyerbacher, Dogfish Head, Tröegs, Flying Fish, Stoudt's, Spring House, Yards, Brooklyn and more all within two hours' drive from my house, and I'm very happy to be able to buy local...and I do. But it's not something I feel I have to do every time I buy a beer.