Recently I went to my beer store and they had Jai Alai for growlers on tap and cases of it here in NJ! Hadn't seen Ja Alai ever in Jersey. They also had bombers of KBS! Hiding in the back, of course! Great day! Your LWBSE?!
Probably red, wine, and brew in mentor ohio a few months back. Selection was very good but the organization and neatness of everything was what really impressed me. That and they had a mini keg of schlenkerla.
First time I walked into Plaza Liquors in KC. It's still an amazing store, but that first time I found about a dozen bottles of beers I really wanted to try. I don't know that I've ever left there with less then half a box full of stuff. Most of the time, it's a struggle to cut myself off after one box. Craft Beer Cellar in Clayton, MO is pretty darn awesome as well. I remember visiting the one in Columbia, MO when it was new, and being amazed. I feel that it's gone down hill a little, with the selection being a little more limited. I found some stellar things that I was digging around for back home for a while at the Clayton location. Do you have a name for the Jai Alai store? @19etz55
Went into the beer store on Friday and there's Buriel Surf Wax and Westbrook Two Claw on the shelf. A winning ticket, both IMO are great beers and only occasionally available.
That Westbrook is freakin' fantastic. Absolutely magnificent. The bee's knees. The cat's meow. While I really enjoy Trillium's Melcher Street, if I was offered a case of any NE IPA, that Two Claw would be in my top two choices. Easy.
I can think of two but "recent" was not in the last year or so. I can recall ordering a case of Dogfish Head 90 min. and being called two days later to let me know I could pick up the case and found that was bottled just about 1 week before. The other, more recent experience was walking into the same beer retailer where I have ordered/purchased most of my cases of beer and being told that he had a case of BCBS if I wanted to have it.
IMO it's the best hopy beer they make, the One Claw is really good to. Funny their IPA kinda sucks, not sure how that's possible. My most used beer glass compliments of Twizzard.
My grocery store about two months ago when Bell's invaded Texas. I hadn't been paying attention and didn't realize they were coming, so it was quite the surprise.
I found it at Joe Canals in Woodbridge NJ. But they went out quick. Its all gone. Other place I found it was at Dittricks in Garwood NJ. But may be in other places in NJ, just haven't seen it yet anywhere else. But ill keep on lookin'.
Finding two 15 packs of Founders (PC Pils and All Day IPA) on the shelf so new they hadn't been priced then finding the price was $10.99 each.
Walked into grocery store and beer manager told me he just got in 6 cases of Columbus Creeper and a case of Hoptopium. And picked up a 4 pack of Finally Legal and filled my growler up with White Pony Teppistenbier quad for $20
Two days before the recent KBS release, I figured I'd check local stores to see if I could reserve anything. The first place I stopped at was the huge liquor store attached to one of several local Hy-vees, a regional grocery store. Figuring I'd be lucky to reserve a bottle or two as in the past, I was blown away when the clerk asked how many 4-packs I wanted to reserve, and I said four. He explained that they had earned the largest KBS allocation in the state by selling a truckload of overstock FBS at $20 a case. When I picked my KBS up, they offered to sell me a case, and I think I could have had more. I showed restraint and stuck with four. Later, I did buy another two - so did end up with a case.
At my shop they have all kinds of beer most recently they got a popcorn machine. Now if I can only get that fellow to pop the corn for 9 am when I shop =)
I went into one of the local HyVee stores a few weeks ago and discovered three bottles of TG King Sue in the cooler, über fresh. I was very surprised to find these, since this particular store does not have a large W&S section and the beer selection is pretty much hit-and-miss. (Unless you want macro swill, hard soda, and/or cider, that is. They've got that stuff up the wazoo.)
I just returned from two weeks in Germany, and I walked into a beer store in Regensburg looking for a bottle of a local Maibock (which I found), but I noticed 6-7 bottles of Founders KBS on the shelf. (I think they were priced at 9.8 euro, which would be around $10.50 per bottle.) Plus 8 cases of other Founders beers had just been delivered that morning and were still stacked on the floor just inside the front door.
Walked into local bottle shop Friday night and found bottles of KBS in their 'recent' beer display. Also had bottles of World Wide Stout, cans of London Balling and got another bottle of No Rules.
Just have to give another shout-out for my local beer store-Superior Discount Liquor Manitowoc. Once again this morning I got a email from the mgr informing me of new beer arrivals. Awesome !
Only real WOW experience was Hopduvel in Gent. Partly because of the immense selection of Belgian beers, including some very reasonably priced Fou Foune, and some outrageously priced grey market American beers including Grey Monday and Chocolate Rain, and partly because the head beer geek is an awesome dude who gave me and my wife hefty tastes of Malvasia Rosso and Bourbon Barrel Abraxas, in exchange for a couple American crafts he had never tried.
My wife's experience, not mine. She went to a local bottle shop and asked for Sip of Sunshine, which is strictly rationed in Massachusetts and kept in a cold room. The guy asked "how many?". The limit is always, always 1 four pack per customer. She was so surprised she became flustered and asked for only two. Now she's really sweet, kind of tiny and very attractive and very often unknowingly has her way with unsuspecting male salespeople. (She gets cases!! of Heady Topper when we're in Vermont.) I was gobsmacked. Got right in the car, drove for 20 minutes to that very same bottle shop to be told I could only have 1 four pack. "It's always been a 1 four pack limit buddyy"
