Beer "localism"?

I'll be honest. There's a small shop in the town I live in that under-prices NEBCO's stuff. seahag is $7.99 and Gandhi Bot and 668 are $9.99 respectively. I just stumbled across this place and it will be a cold day in hell I tell anybody exactly who and where.

Most of their beer selection is in their cooler. so, when you walk in all you see are warm 30-packs of Bud. but if you read the sign that says "come right in and check out of selection in the fridge!" you'll see a carriage of sale priced sam adams offerings at 75 cents a bottle. their NEBCO shelf, and just a good amount of craft all kept cold and relatively cheap. mums the word.

 

Hmmm. More traffic for certain brews often means higher distribution volume of the specialty releases to that place, right? Encourage people to buy up all the 312 and GI IPA so you can swoop in and snatch all the BCBS and BCBW.

 

It's pretty effing selfish and pathetic to deny the owner of your favorite store potential extra sales volume because you're afraid someone might buy all the beer that you want for yourself.

 

beer advocates are just people at the end of the day....and a lot of people are assholes

i for one love spreading the word and letting people know the deal...to me thats what makes it a community

 

That's shitty...my first thread here happened to be about me traveling to NYC with my gf and I got tons of help and great responses with a lot of great suggestions. @Ilovelampandbeer said it best, we are people at the end of the day, and people are assholes, unfortunate but true.

 

I don't think it is possible any longer in cities of reasonable size (to try and keep one's places as one's own, and rather unknown). Too many people are on various review sites and such and share info, and the public knows. Maybe if you live in a remote area you could find this sort of localism.

 

I live in Atlanta and anyone who knows me knows I'm a Burnt Hickory Brewery groupee and I want everyone on the planet to try their beer. I tend to steer people to the best spots because I love spreading the word about great beer. Especially turning someone on to craft (cant stand that term) beer who had never had one and are stuck in their ways.

 

I've been part of several communities that match this in some way. Don't blow a spot, don't take someone who will be in over their head and might even get hurt, etc. I think beer is something different though, as spots don't get "blown", unless a bar was to get an influx of college kids or something, and change their identity to cater to a different crowd. Ultimately, I think half the fun of beer is getting to share it with and show it to others, and I'd be sad to hear that some people treat bars/shops like surf spots that will be blown by kooks.

 

This is a local beer shop for local people. What's going on, what's this shouting, we'll have no trouble here! Cheers to whomever gets that reference.

Anyways, telling one of two people about your beer spot isn't a bad thing. If it's already popular then it's no big deal. I will say, I prefer a sparce crowd where ever I get my beer from, bar or bottle shop so unless someone asks, I don't tell.

 

I keep all my beer info secret which is why I don't post on BA forums.

 

Or do you?

 

I personally have no problem steering people to the good places when they're on beer-cations, or getting into the scene.
I think the problem is, when there are a dozen threads already in the first couple pages of a regional forum here, or on any of the other beer-centric sites I visit, asking for the best places to go, breweries, bars and bottle shops.
A couple seconds looking down the thread list will find exactly the same question being asked a couple days ago max. When I hear the same question asked over and over, it's very hard for me to not get sarcastic with the questioner.
Also, when the question is posed, there is rarely enough information to give an exact answer. What are you looking for, when are you coming, do you have a car, are you looking to drink here or take home, how long are you going to be here, how much free time will you have for beer-hunting, and so forth.

 

The only time I don't like locals knowing about my beer spot is when my beer spot gets listed in an article calling it a great beer spot. Just means more crowds on the week-ends.

 

I saw your thread in the Mid-Atlantic forum. I'd like to think that I am generous with my time in trying to help people in that forum. Honestly, I think the wording of your thread accounted for the lack of responses. Asking for places to get "local" bottled product in Manhattan left me scratching my head. Perhaps the choice of words was a poor fit for the particulars of the location. If you asked for the best bottle shop in a particular neighborhood, people would have thrown in their 2 cents. I'm assuming a connection between these two threads. I hope I helped some.

 

"Me go 2 Philly next month. I can haz Russian River?"

^ That post?

 

That's good of you.

But if you come to Boston and want to know where the beer is, surprise surprise: you're not the first. So please do a thread search.

 

Agreed. I visited Vermont a few months ago and found a bunch of threads relating to that. I ended up bumping an old VT thread just to make sure the info was still valid.

 

its just beer give up the spot...never give up the surf spot

 

Yeah, pretty much, but for here, it's "I'm coming to Boston this weekend, Where can I find Heady Topper, Hill Farmstead and Lawson's?"

 

I enjoy sharing information anytime I get to. I like expanding peoples field to find new beers to try, and fall in love with. That being said, my secret watering hole is in my apartment, only a few have been able to sip from the glorious stream here. Though in hindsight, it is running dry as of recent.