Finally a good Top 10 Cities list

Um. I guess if I'd posted this thread I would be.

 

Step 4: Patchouli poisoning.

I'm a big fan of beers brewed in and around Boston, but I certainly wouldn't put Boston Metro among the nation's top ten brewing cities. It's hardy worth commenting, though, because these kinds of lists are always nutty.

 

It has been quite funny, actually. That was kind of just a gut reaction thing I posted when I got home from work (although I still stand by everything I said in the post). And I totally agree, PA has some seriously effed up liquor laws. The case thing is definitely one of the worst offenders. We are making progress, though...beer finally began selling in supermarkets a while ago (maybe a year or so ago?), so that's a plus.

 

I agree with most of the list but not particularly the order. Even living close to SD I prefer to be in Bend, OR for craft brew.

 

Our beer laws are confusing no doubt, but more often than not you do NOT have to buy a case a beer at a time. I'd say less than 10% of what I buy is by the case. It's a common misconception (though it can be true in some parts of the state with limited access to bottle shops and grocery stores). I'd get into it, but it's hashed over and over again in the midatlantic forums and is a separate topic altogether.

 

Go to Market Garden. Go to the Bier Market. Trust me, OUTSTANDING.

 

This list is full of outstanding choices, but sadly misses way to many great craft Cities for me to take this seriously.

It is subjective and opinionated, and like everyone else, agree with a few but can easily replace several on this list with better.

 

You don't HAVE to buy a case, although you will pay exorbitant prices if you don't.

It's actually not that bad of a list, but while you can argue whether Philly should take its place, Boston simply doesn't belong. I'd choose Portland, Maine WAY before I ever said Boston. Portland would be a cornerstone destination in just about any New England beer adventure, while I wouldn't even stop in Boston. I'd also choose Portland, Maine over Seattle, San Francisco, or anywhere in Colorado on that list.

It's also a bit dodgy to amalgamate metro areas or smaller towns the way he did. I mean, Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo? Really? I like Bell's and Founders too, but this is stretching things a bit too far to include them. Hell, going by that logic, Harrisburg/York/Lancaster deserves a spot solely for Troegs, along with the host of other smaller breweries and brewpubs of varying quality that one finds out there.

 

I stand corrected, then. I can admit I was wrong! Haha, never seen anything like that before. Will def have to make my way out there once I'm out of the service and got some time to myself.

 

Minneapolis!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The problem with lists like this is they are always written by people who clearly haven't been to every city on their list (or even half of them).

Leaving Philly off any Top 5 beer city list is criminal, and putting Boston above Philly is a clear illustration of never having visited at least one of the two cities. Boston is a craft beer friendly city, but it is also still largely dominated by faux-Irish pubs serving up a healthy dose of BMC and Guinness. In fact, you have to go to the city outskirts/subburbs just to get to any of the high end craft bars. Contrast that with Philly, on the other hand, where you can't walk two blocks downtown without running into an awesome little corner bar chock full of craft beer.

 

Been drinking in every city on list (including Philly) with the exception of Grand Rapids. Philadelphia is definitely #3 and NYC belongs on the list as well. Portland also gets the nod ahead of San Diego in my book. Embarrassingly bad list.

 

Thanks for that. But still, (as a former OTR commercial driver) I know that the feds are very strict about transporting across state lines. It seems that they're home free once they're back in DC, but crossing from Indiana-Ohio-West Virginia-Maryland into into DC would cause problems were they ever to pulled over. Maybe they've got a loophole, otherwise it seems they wouldn't want to get a lot of press about it. Oh well, yet one more mystery in the beer world.

 

Did you read the link I sent in its entirety?

 

Yeah, unless I missed something, it seems to say that once they have it, they're good to sell it. It doesn't seem to address how they get it into they city, other than dude takes rent a truck and goes and get it. As long as you're under 18,000lbs gross weight, you don't have to stop at scales or for inspections, so the odds of them getting randomly pulled over are slim.

For example, a commercial driver cannot have any alcohol in their vehicle that is not on their BoL. Which means we couldn't even have mouthwash in the sleeper berth. Now, I've never heard of a driver actually getting that ticket, but the company I drove for back East was vehement about us drivers not even taking that chance. Another example, in Pennsylvania there was (maybe still is, IDK) a law that says to even transport alcohol through the state, each specific truck had to have a certain permit. My company had about 300 trucks, and about 120 or so of our trucks had that permit. So when we took Budweiser from Syracuse to the docks in Newark, only the trucks with that permit could carry the beer through PA. There's a metric shit-ton of obscure shit dealing with the transportation industry, and when you add alcohol it gets even more intricate. I'm just curious is all, I'm all for everyone having all the beer they can get!

 

This point is very often overlooked.

 

Beer culture is one thing, but I can't think of one Seattle brewery that wowed me during my visits. I love Chuckanut and Boundry Bay... but that's far from Seattle.

And this post isn't to bash Seattle, I absolutely love the place, but Cleveland is a great city to get great local beer.

 

Believeland!!! (OH-.................IO!!!!)

If Cleveland isn't on the list, then it's a bogus list.

 

Cool man. Yeah, in terms of distro, we have it pretty good. The kind of "bootlegging" I'm talking about is not even on the radar in terms of truck weight, alcohol content, etc.. The stores in DC who really know the system often load up their SUV and head to places out in New England or the far Midwest. They basically load up their vehicle(s), stay in a cheap motel or with family, then head back. They pay the $5, add a tax to it, then the beer magically appears in a store in DC. Please understand that this is ABSOLUTELY commonplace out here. The DC motto is "Taxation Without Representation" and it works like a charm in the beer world.

Hope all is well bro!