How often do you purchase packaged beer at retailers?

I think you'll find this to be the determining factor for responses.
Folks in metro areas with several conveniently located canning/bottling breweries vs suburban/rural consumers with few, if any, local choices.
Growlers don't work for me, but only one of the four breweries within 1/2 hour of my house has a canner and they specialize in styles I don't drink. So, for me, at home beers come from retail stores.

 

Definitely location plays a huge role for me. I live in a rural area. There are a couple craft beer stores within an hour of me. The grocery store is about 40 minutes away, they carry a very good craft beer selection. Recently the gas stations have Heady, Focal, and Lawson's etc. too. It is usually just as easy for me to stop at a brewery as it is to go to a retail beer location.
I'd say probably 80% of the beer I buy is brewery only (River Roost and Hill Farmstead).

 

Words cannot express my envy at this statement....

 

Exact same situation for me, resulting in opposite buying habits. Two kids and a job, which makes is nearly impossible for me to get to local breweries during their limited hours. There is a store 5 mins from my office with a great selection and prices, so it's more convenient for me to make beer runs on my lunch break once or twice a week.

 

It is definitely convenient, but sometimes I miss the good old days when Heady could trade for anything!

 

Breweries aren't selling 6 packs of beer at 9.99 or 4 pack cans of pilsners at 5.99 so yeah retailers aren't going anywhere. You get more of a better selection at a retailer than any brewery

 

Those two breweries are 1 1/2 hours apart. Are you saying that you drive at least 45 minutes, one way, to buy 80% of your beer?

 

I live 30 minutes from WRJ but am in that area weekly. I work about 40 minutes from HF and go there for almost all limited releases.

45 minutes isn't much up here, nearest store of any kind is a gas station across the border in VT is about 15 minutes. Grocery store is about 40 minutes from home (unless I wanted to shop at WalMart in the town where I work which is 35 minutes from home).

This is why location is a big factor for the OPs question. If I wanted to drive to a beer store, the closest is in WRJ in the same parking lot as River Roost. The next closest is 70 minutes away (Waterbury VT) and I only stop in there if I am already in town for some reason.

 

I'm fortunate to have some really good beer retailers in my area so nearly all of my purchases are made with them. I do like a growler or crowler fill on occasion, however, $20 or more for a growler fill or $15 for a crowler is a bit hard to justify any more and that seems to be the going rate in town. It has to be a very special beer only available at the brewery.

 

I used to buy most of my beer from dedicated beer shops, but after a while, I got tired of paying $16+ for a 4 pack of beer. So now, I purchase most of my beer from the grocery store, which has a decent selection.

I'm sure many people here will defend the $16+ 4 pack, but the relative quality just doesn't justify the high prices for me.

 

So this is a tricky question because I don't buy from a grocery store or place like that almost ever. But I rarely go direct to breweries either. I buy from a local bottle shop. Love the owner and I can get singles of almost every new release in my area.

 

@JackHorzempa Sorry in advance if this comes off as picking on your poll choices... but I think the "mostly" and "All of the time" categories could use additional breakdown or clarifications. For me I'm guessing my beer purchases are retail 95% or more, but since it's not technically all the time I answered "mostly," but understand how others are debating the line....

The discussion is still fine to have, I'm just not sure how much insight the poll will give.

 

Sounds like my grandparents' place in Alabama. Closest place to buy any beer is a convenience store almost 1/2 hour away. The closest stores with anything approaching a decent craft/import selection are better than an hour drive.

 

Most of the time, I buy my beer at retail out of convenience. So many bottle shops around here. The good stuff never lasts more than a few days anyways, so freshness is never an issue.

But luckily in the Bay Area, there are many great breweries within distance, and some others are a bit of a hike, but doable. Nice to visit them to try different beers on tap, and grab some favorites to take home.

 

Mostly but realize most of my beer is bought at a bar, rest is brewery tap room (rare) and homebrew.

When I think of total beer consumption.

Usually out at craft bars, 2 cases a year from a package store and then a case or 2 at a brewery and several gallons homebrew. As annual totals.

 

I think I might have an interesting personal spin on this.

I am, for whatever reason, constantly looking to try new and different beers, even if they're bad. You can't rate a good beer unless you've had bad beers right? And truth be told, you can still learn a lot from a bad beer, and perhaps even more than you can from a good beer.

I'll more than willing to try what I assume will be a bad to very bad beer from Costa Rica or Latvia, but I don't want to try a bad beer from a local brewery. That leads me to buy most of my beer from a retailer.

Part of not wanting to just try a new beer from a local brewery is due to the cost, but part of it is that when I do get a bad beer I'm disappointed that the local brewer hasn't done better.

THEREFORE, I tend to stick with local brewers that have proven themselves. I'll give anyone a first spin, but after that even if I visit again I'm probably not going to buy a 4-pk or crowler unless I've tasted it and liked it.

Is it wrong of me to be tougher on local breweries than oddball breweries from around the globe?

More importantly, why do most breweries not sell their canned beers as singles? That makes no sense to me. I'll gladly buy one to try for $4 but I don't want to spend $16 and find out I've got 3 beers to fridge-bomb someone with.

 

I work in beer retail, thus I buy a lot of retail packages. Not exclusively though, thus I voted mostly.

 

About half the time for me. The other half is a mix of random drafts from restaurants or at the breweries themselves. Mainly the ones close to me (Dry Dock, Comrade, Bull & Bush, Station 26), but I'll occasionally trek to the other side of town, too.

My retail purchases are very different from draft purchases, though. Usually at tasting rooms I go with whatever is new and unusual. At the store I stick to known quantities when possible. It's a lot easier and cheaper not to finish a pint vs. dumping a 6-pack.

 

Thanks Jack, good forum conversation topic.

Most of my beer consumption comes from stores and drank at home or bottle shares...probably 90%+ of the time.

Mostly when I visit breweries it fits into 3 criteria:
1) its for entertainment purposes...something to do on the weekend that I enjoy
2) sometimes I'll check my local brewery taps and see something really interesting and stop by to sample some one-off brewery only beer
3) When I'm traveling out of my area, if there is a very reputable brewer and the only option is a brewery only purchase, then I'll buy some world class beer to mule home.

If breweries sold on-site individual 12oz or 16oz bottles/cans across most of their on tap options in the range of $2-$5 each where the pricing was dependent on beer style...I'd frequently stop by brewers to pick up 6 individual different 12oz or 16oz beers of theirs for $10-$20 for at home consumption. I have yet found a brewery that offers the variety and pricing that I can get from retail stores purchases.