Decisive Beer Purchases...

I definitely take my time when hitting the local shops. Hell, I've even noticed one employee at the nearest TW tends to keep his distance from me when I'm looking around. I believe that I've overloaded his brain with too many questions that he already knows to find another section when I come in.

Recently, "so when's that Stone IRS coming in?"

 

Did you buy a Nebraska Black Betty?

 

It's not at all uncommon for me to spend more time browsing the beer shelf at a store than it takes me to drink whatever I end up buying.

 

Yes I did. Well done.

Cheers!

 

I like buying beer.

 

I hear 'ya, but for a quazzi-emergency situation, good to have around. Congratulations in advance on the new addition to your family! Awesome news!

 

My bottle shop sends out an listing of all their new arrivals each week making my trip mostly pre-planned, but I grab a few standby's which can take forever to choose between. I usually try to balance my trip and not grab too many IPA's or stouts.

 

What's the fun in going into a bottle shop and only getting exactly what you came in to get and leaving?

 

I love the beer guys at Table and Vine in West Springfield. I'd go in there so much that when I walk in they now come out of the back room with some rare beer for me that they know I'll ask about anyway. And they're my new drinking buddies!

 

Yeah I understand. Plus I turn 30 next week and headed down to Toronado for drinks and then Churchills for lunch. I shouldve said no, but I never see that stout in CA anymore. SO it was a NEED purchase.

Thanks for the kind words on the baby. Appreciate it very much!

Cheers!

 

If I'm torn between two beers I just buy both. Problem solved.

 

This is exactly what I do and why I do it. It completely shifts my focus from work to something that's way more awesome.

 

This had me rolling on the floor. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. Just don't tell her what it cost!

 

Happens to me all the time.

 

Oh she'll find out when she looks at the account and I hear it from across the house when she is on the computer. Ill just give her the long winded why I HAD to buy it and shell get bored, tell me she doesnt care and walk away. Its a process. Us married guys understand.

Cheers!

 

Price, rarity and need. There are a couple of breweries (Haandbryggereit comes to mind) where if I see something new from them it will trump everything else. That being said I usually check my fridge or cellar prior to heading out and if I have a bunch of a certain style waiting to be drank I will usually avoid that style. If I am really torn I will buy the less expensive beer. However, besides the couple of breweries, rarity will trump price and need for me. If there is a beer that I don't think I will see again I will grab it.

 

Usually I pick the style I'm in the mood for and then the choice is made for me once I start looking.

beer #1 no date code
beer #2 I've had you before and I know you aren't going to satisfy
beer #3 out of code
beer #4 ridiculously expensive single
beer #5 looks like I'm taking you home.....again.

 

This is pretty much the precise process I go through.

I'd only add to it: beer #x new U.S. craft lager...98% certain to disappoint.

 

I'm getting on in years so I tend to suffer from not only Decisiveness, but Indecisiveness (and Geriatric Profanity Disorder to boot).

My usual pattern is to go into the store with something particular in mind, and then look around to see if anything new or unusual attracts my attention. On my best days I'll get something that I'm craving plus something I've never had before which will really click with me (let's say, about 20% of the time). Then that 'new' beer will get added to the growing list of favorites, and the pattern repeats. I'm rarely bored or regretful that way.

 

I go in the store wanting everything I've heard about and it's a struggle to not leave with everything. I live in nowheresville and though a liquor store near me is actually getting more and more of the more widely distributed really good breweries we talk about here, it's still way short of a properly stocked craft beer store. So when I go to the big city, I've got all this drool built up in me and I go nuts. I figure I'll go in there and spend maybe $50-60, but it always winds up being over $100. Last time it was $200 but I had a Christmas gift certificate to defray some of that. I mean the stuff just adds up. Those damn bombers are just so expensive and it takes me forever. I walk all of the aisles and read labels and check stuff online and then there's the agonizing decisions of what to put back to bring the tally back down into the merely ridiculous zone instead of the insane zone. I think I'd do that anyway but throw in some OCD and I'm that guy who can't wrap it up and get out of there. I'm always flabbergasted by the final bill and yet when I leave I don't regret it. It's my hobby now and I love it.

Every time I go to the grocery store, though, I'm like, "Do NOT buy more beer. You don't even have any room left in the fridge. Don't buy beer. Why are you heading towards the beer aisle? Stop it! You're going to do it again aren't you. You dummy. Why do you do this? You've got all those IPAs you need to get through first anyway, this can wait. Come on man, don't. Don't do it. AAGGHH." And then I do it. And then other times I'm out and I have the same conversation about making a special stop at another grocery or liquor store. Given that I typically only have one or a bomber per night maybe five or six nights per week, I'm not an alcoholic. But I'm definitely a craft-beer-exploring-and-tasting-oholic. I can't seem to stop!