How close is local?

I consider "local" to be anything from New England. Combined New England is no bigger than a state like Wisconsin or Minnesota, so it strikes me as reasonable. Culturally we also share an awful lot.

 

IIRC, for produce and the like it's around 200 miles from any given point. Depending on where you're at, that could include 2 or 3 states. Unless you're in Texas, of course. Then you're likely to be in the same county.

 

Same with me. Living in the Boston area, anything within the New England I consider local to me. However, breweries within and hour driving distance like Jack's Abby and Mayflower Brewing Co. I consider even more local because of their easy accessibility and close proximity.

 

For me local is a mental or emotional thing. I look to places from near where I grew up which is about fifty miles from where I live now. Also its cultural - I am currently drinking a Mayflower in part because I considers the theme of the brewery part of my heritage in a way that I don't consider, say, Harpoon or Blue Hills. The brewers mentality is important.

Of course, there aresome things are seemingly undeniably local. JacksAbbey istwo miles away so even if it wasn't the best new brewery of the year I would think of it as local.

Another consideration is whether the beer and the brewery mean something to the community. I love Ipswich ales and I think part of it is because they are very connected totbe local community and they use tons of local producers for their ingredients and tons of other breweries by contract brewing (clownshoes, cisco and others).

 

I think it also has to do with the amount of breweries are in the state/area to begin with. Since Florida breweries are scarce, I consider Cigar City to be local even though they're a four hour drive away from me.

 

I have three levels of local.

Micro-local, which would be the Pittsburgh area.
Mezzo-local, which would be Pennsylvania.
Macro-local, which would be Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, and to a certain extent, Virgina.

But usually when I say local, I mean Pennsylvania.

Edit : Also, if I can't get it regularly, it's obviously not local to me.

 

To me, local is anything within San Diego county.

 

If I can be there and back w/out getting arrested. It's local..

 

Within your state.

 

As others have said, I guess there's different levels of "local". For me in Cleveland, I consider Great Lakes, Fat Head's, The Brew Kettle, and Willoughby Brewing Company true local breweries because I can drive to all of them in 30 minutes or less. Then there's Akron breweries like Hoppin' Frog and Thirsty Dog which I consider "local" (NE Ohio), but on a different scale. And for me, all Ohio breweries in general have a "local" taste to it. For example Columbus Brewing feels local, even though we're 4hrs apart, which would be on the lowest scale of "local" for me.

 

Within an hour and a half of my house, if I wouldn't drive there and back on a Saturday it's not local.

 

Brewed in USA. USA owned

 

Within an hour to hour and half drive sounds about right.

 

I would say local is a brewery that you don't have to plan your entire day around to visit. So I guess that would be what? Hour? Hour and a half?

 

I consider local to be the city you are in but obviously it's a matter of opinion and if you think something is local who can tell you you're wrong?

 

I like this answer. Having good beer brewed close to you should create a sense of pride. If you can brag about the brewery being close to you, whether it is down the street in somewhere in your state, it is a local brewery.

 

Hangar 24 is about 10 minutes away; The Bruery (which I visit more often) is about 50 minutes away, and Bootlegger's about 5 minutes from that.

 

around here a few bars that serve only local define local as 100 miles. Most times the beers are from in Philly or just outside. Althogh PBR is the cheap "crap on tap" at one of them.

Enjoy