Shifting to Shelfies

Congrats. For me trying as many new beers as possible is part of the fun and there is a lot of great beers sitting on the shelves waiting to be tried

 

Guess I am in sort of agreement as I have been uninterested in waiting on line for the hyped beers/ special releases for a while, but my buying habits definitely have moved away from shelf beers. More than 50% of my beer purchases now are at the brewery for their regular stuff, or at local pubs for local beers. Fresher and local works around here due to the many high quality breweries, but I think this wonderful change is coming to all of us.

 

I agree Dave. My small town has two breweries (3rd coming)where most craft drinkers hang out on the days the breweries are open. Even the BMC crowd will throw down some pilsneners if that's where people are hanging out. All the local cars have their beers on tap. People definitely support local business here. It's gonna swept the nation.

 

I think most people need some experience chasing/tasting whales to realize that some readily available shelf beer is nearly as good, equivalent, or in some cases better than the hard to get stuff.

 

I walk by whales all the time. People in my town aren't gonna spend the money for a single beer. There is still KBS, SMS, and the parabola finally left shelves this week. I feel like this is even more apparent in the summer when people want to crush more sessionable beers

 

For sure.

But in the case of SE PA our distribution is so good that finding some of those that some think of as "whales" on the shelf or on tap isn't a huge challenge so we can gain that experience without chasing. So I'd totally agree that lots of what some see as a "shelf beer" is just as good as many that get chased as "whales."

 

When shelfies are as good as what Craft Beer Cellar in Waterbury offers, I rarely go out of my way for whales.

 

This. I think it all depends on where you're located. If I lived in VT, I think I'd be drinking a lot of shelf beer. In CT, I can find many good stouts, porters, wild ales, Belgians, etc., but I find that most of the hop offerings are sub par. Thus, I get my hops at Tree House, Trillium, etc.

 

I don't wait in lines for releases, nor do I chase beers throughout the city. I trade, and can get some good stuff through that, but really I find enough variety in the shelves of my local bottle shops. I love how much beer is being made right now. I can nab a mix-six with six unique beers easy and just check out what else is going on in the beer world. It's awesome.

 

Mixed sixes suck up here, but man are they awesome in Florida. Harris Teeter Amelia Island had Sculpin Variants, Cigar City, a Funky Buddha DIPA, and an RIS (I forget which). I'm talking like $15 6 pack/4pack quality beer at $9.99 a mixed six. They have to be losing money on that.

 

We don't get anything quite like that. Every now and then I'll get some Expedition Stout. I don't try to get too much out of the mixed six, just six new-to-me beers. I also try and get beers out of variety 12-pks so I don't have to buy the whole case to try a beer.

There are a few shops around here that price out each bottle. So you could fill up a 6 pack with some really good stuff, but it wouldn't be close to the $9.99 flat rate.

 

So many good local breweries here that I get my IPAs straight from the brewery. Would consider some of my old favorites shelfies,Sculpin for example, but can't ever find it fresh enough.

 

If I had my druthers I would chase some whales and travel too to do it. Waiting in lines is ok as long as people are having a good time. What I wanted to say though is as far as tasting beer goes you can find excellent examples of styles on the shelves and buying them is what will keep them coming. Shelf beer can be world class. Look at the German imports.

 

Don't pass by Maudite if you see it.

 

I do hope that change (high quality local) comes through for more of us - it hasn't happened in my immediate vicinity yet, but thanks to reasonably solid distribution we get amazing stuff from the region as you know. On the other hand, you get amazing stuff that happens to be local, as I well know!

I think it is a little tougher in rural areas, especially one where mass-produced rules the roost. I'd like nothing better than to see an outstanding "home town" brewer less than 45 minutes to an hour from my door. For now, will have to be content roaming the packies I'm just not sure I see the support needed to support an outstanding local brewery - I could be wrong. Maybe it is a build it and they will come kind of thing, but I see an awful lot of big beer boxes being purchased.

The few times I have actually waited in line I have found myself let down at least a little - not that I haven't enjoyed some outstanding beverages, just that the whole driving/waiting thing seems like a poor use of my time. Basically anywhere where it is "worth" waiting in line ends up being at least a half-day excursion for me and it gets tough to justify. If the equivalent was in my back yard and I could by great quality regular releases it would certainly change my opinion on locally available beer. I realize every place (and every palate) is different, but in my area and in my opinion the "true locals" are middle of the road or lower.

 

If you would have told me ten years ago my area could support more than 10 quality breweries I might have doubted it. We are going on 15 right now.

 

Most of my favorite beers are shelf beers, but I'm also a lager lover and I live right across the border from SE PA, so I have it pretty good on that front. Increasingly though, I can even get a pretty good local IPA fix at the store with Carton 077XX and Magnify Vine Shine around almost all the time.

I've never waited in line for a packaged beer release and don't ever intend to do so. I traded when I first got into beer, but it was stuff like monthly growler swaps and such, not a dedicated attempt to get "whales."

I have the opportunity to travel a bunch for work, so I do get to broaden my beer horizons that way. There's something satisfying about having Heady Topper in Vermont or Zombie Dust in Indiana that's hard to define. It's like drinking "in context."