How's your local beer culture?

I'd say NC as a whole is pretty solid but the Raleigh area specifically doesn't have any standouts to the point where I can't think of 1 beer I'd want to drink right now from a local brewery...other than maybe a Hubris. There's a shit load of bottle shops though, maybe 15+ in the "triangle" and some get quality stuff on tap.

 

Eh, it's OK. Bend's not known as much of a beer town.

 

Agree with this. In Monmouth county aside from Jack's in Long Branch and Maloney's in Matawan, not too many destination places for taps.

 

NYC has had an explosion of great breweries opening up in the past few years.

And I say we have plenty of places to drink great craft beer:

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/viewer?mid=zwC6ezBHVgzI.kyMuRsydhsSU

 

New breweries seem to be popping up in Pittsburgh all the time. Some will inevitably fail, but I think a few have tremendous promise.

 

Pennsylvania makes it pretty difficult to get a liquor license, so the only place you can really get a pint is at a bar or restaurant. You don't see beer available at book shops or bike shops like you mentioned.

That said, there are good craft bars in my area. I just wish getting bottles and cans for home consumption was more convenient. Again, the liquor laws here are a pain in the ass.

 

Oh we're spoiled here, even plaid pantry carries wide selection of micro ales

https://www.google.com/maps/search/portland+breweries/@45.5424364,-122.654422,11z/data=!3m1!4b1

 

Florida is definitely looking better than they were about 5 years ago. Cigar City is a juggernaut, and Funky Buddha and Cycle/Peg's are very much on the rise. Up in Jacksonville where I am, we have Aardwolf (which I've enjoyed seeing on the trading block with BA Early Bird Special) and Intuition throwing out all kinds of crazy sours and stouts at us.

 

Don't forget about Green Room! Best brewery in Jax in my opinion.

 

Green Room has gotten so much better. Peanut Butter Shakula is probably in my top 10 stouts.

 

Central MD/Frederick is growing and improving in the craft beer scene. A few nice craft stores opened, farm breweries booming and just last week a law was passed so our breweries that don't have a restaurant (so Monocacy and Flying Dog), can now serve pints in their taproom. Old laws forced breweries to only allow tours on premise with samplings at the end of the tour (and growler fills). Its a nice improvement so now I can swing by either local to try a new pint. Especially cool for Flying Dog to get some of their rare stuff easily/fresh if they offer out of the taproom.

Only negative is much of the nano-local stuff I've sampled is mediocre and overpriced. Also like OH, PA etc. many small brewers in MD tend to stick to more authentic German and UK style recipes and not quite so much into citrus hop bombs, big beers or sours etc. Perhaps that is why I usually see a larger percent of the over 40 crowd at alot of these places and only scattered 20-30 somethings.

 

The hipsters are moving into Raleigh. So its very strong.

 

Love San Diego. Not too be a stickler but given the breweries you mentioned, it is literally impossible that you live 5 minutes away from every one - unless you own a very personal helicopter. I'll spot you 10 minutes if you live in a tree house in Torey Pines.

 

Depends where you look I guess. There are many great bottle shops in Metro Detroit. They have most limited offerings as long as you are timely in purchasing it.
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The only gripe, if one at all, would be the limited distribution of beer from breweries outside of Michigan. Yes, I know there's reasons, etc. for this, but I'd like to see some new offerings from around the country instead of mostly Michigan brands.

 

Totally agree on this, just over the Ohio border are tons of things we do not see in Michigan.

 

What bar?

 

Niche is legit

 

PROS:
Boston has a very good scene overall. Most restaurants carry some interesting stuff and there are several excellent beer bars. There's countless great breweries in MA and New England.
Also, we probably have one of the best cider scenes in the country. The BA Craft Beerfest is in Boston every year so bonus points for that. Vermont makes a great day trip or weekend getaway.

Cons:
We need more brew pubs.
MA has shitty growler fill laws, (you can only fill a breweries growler at said brewery), I'm not going to keep like 5+ growlers in my house. For this reason I get almost no growlers or fills. Bars dont fill growlers.
No Happy Hour.
No Beer at Grocery Stores/Gas Stations (except for a very select few).

 

I'd say beertunes captured it pretty well. I would add that one of the things I love the most about our WA beer culture is how laid back folks typically are. When breweries around here do limited releases (Fremont, Black Raven, Reubens) there are rarely lines or angst on getting them. Fremont has crates or cases of the brews being released and you pay however many you want to take, and then grab 'em from there. I just love that about here.
Cheers!

 

Hah true! Five minutes is how long it feels when the DD is driving from place to place. Prob more like 10-15 mins