Beer shops in Cape Cod?

Depending if you take 495 or Route 3 will play a factor.

the store I manage, Empire Wine and Spirits, is off Route 3 in Kingston, about 35 mins from Bourne but I’d say still doable. I have Tilted Barn currently.

Sadly don’t get any cool notch cans this way, fox farm seems to be draft only in places, alchemist stopped distributing down this way and proclamation is definitely around. there are a ton more local options putting out great stuff like Widowmaker, Second Wind, Stellwagen and Untold. Majority of my new stuff comes in Thursday’s so should be available on our website by Friday. Empirewineandspirits.com

 

How are you getting to the Cape? Driving up from VA? Flying into Boston and driving down?

 

Go to Tree House in Sandwich!

 

I’ll give my thoughts:

OP, in case you did not know, Tree House Brewing has opened a pick up location in Sandwich so that will be right around you.

Tilted Barn - showing up pretty regularly but goes quickly, maybe check out Empire as suggested.

Notch - thinking you would not be likely to find a wide variety of Notch on the cape. Other than the 12 packs most of the rotating brands don’t get to far from the North Shore.

Proclamation - should not be very difficult to find.

Fox Farm - do not believe cans are distributed to MA or even in CT, have to get at the farm

Alchemist - shows up very infrequently, so likely not around when you are here

 

I know Empire has a relationship with Cotuit Liquors - should most of the stock be similar?

 

We definitely have more of a selection at Empire

 

I’m gonna piggyback this thread, but I’ll be in Hyannis in 2 weeks (for my kids dance competition, so I don’t have all the time in the world to traipse around) and noticed there is a Whole Foods pretty much walking distance from where we’re staying. Cape Cod brewery for that matter. We’re coming in on a Wednesday and the wife wants to see Plymouth Rock so I’m gonna do a TH Sandwich order on that day and hit Fox Farm on the way home on Sunday.

Have any of you been to that Whole Foods in Hyannis? There’s usually a pretty good beer selection in WH and, not a lot of time for me to look for beer, so if I could go in there and find decent MA beer that would be awesome.

 

Honestly, if you can put your Treehouse and Fox Farm plans into action ... you’re good. They both will have solid variety across styles and generally better than any shelf on the Cape (save for Moonshine over on the Dennis/Harwich line).

 

Not all Whole Foods sell beer, pretty sure that one doesn’t have it.

 

If you are going to Plymouth, there is a Craft Beer Cellar in the center of town. And a friend of mine who lives in Plymouth swears up and down that Second Wind Brewing Company, located in Plymouth, is amazing. I have never had it, so I can't vouch for it. I've heard good things from a couple of other people too.

 

Second Wind is definitely putting out top notch beers. Their new one Committee of Five is a citra bomb, so good!

 

Yup. A retail chain like Whole Foods or Trader Joes can only have 3 total beer/wine sales locations within the state of Massachusetts. Hyannis being a smaller Whole Foods location doesn't carry alcohol. They will use one of those licenses at a larger more high volume location.


Depending on where you are coming from, I would hit Yankee Spirits in Attleboro, first exit off 95 N in Mass. I usually find Notch, Odd13, Finback, Grimm, Idle Hands..etc there.

 

I noticed that Sandwich is pretty strict about pickup times. What would happen if I selected a pick up time like between 3 and 4 (hypothetically, I don’t know how big the window is) and I couldn’t get there until 4:30 or 5 due to whatever. They would still hold my order until the end of that day or would they relinquish it at 4?

 

When I go to Hyannis I usually like to hit Cape Cod Brewery. About five minutes down the road Kappys has an excellent selection--lots of local stuff, although I will agree with previous posters that Moonshine has the best selection on the Cape.

 

I would love to be able to look for all the beer, but I’m probably already pissing my wife off enough just hitting TH so if it comes between the two I have to hit TH. Thank you for the suggestion though. If I get a chance to go out into the wild I’ll check it out. I would love to find some Notch.

 

My suggestion, really, is to skip Plymouth entirely if you have to keep things simple. Plymouth Rock is a joke. It’s not even historically accurate. Trust me: your wife will be disappointed. As far as Notch goes, you aren’t going to find much of it. You might find 12 packs of Session Pils, Left of the Dial IPA or Raw Power IPA, and as decent as these are, they are nothing compared to what is served at the Notch Brewery. Notch isn’t sending out much of anything into distribution from the Salem brewery. If you want the real deal Notch lagers in cans, you aren’t going to get them. Even up in Salem, there are currently ZERO canned offerings available directly from the source. The great Notch lagers in cans only existed because the brewery closed for on-site consumption during the pandemic. They were clear that they had to shift to cans for takeaway in order to stay viable. With the pandemic now mostly under control, they have shifted back to almost all on-site consumption, other than the beers I mentioned above. If you really want Notch, you should call Yankee Spirits in Attleboro. They might have something, but it ain’t gonna be the good stuff. MAYBE they’ll have four packs of Zwickel.

 

A took this as a challenge and walked into Empire today . Minding my own damn business looking at the beers out front and a store employee strikes up a conversation

“ what are you looking for? May I help you?”

Help me? Heck I’ve been in Empire tons of times , some good stuff on occasion .

“yeah , I was looking for Nathan”

“that’s me!”

we get to talking on styles , Beer Advocate , Untappd, etc

then he sez to me , “ have you checked out what I have in the cooler?”

heck no! But I will from now on . The scoundrel took my money

Be sure to ask for Nathan and check out his back cooler : aslin , tilted barn. Kc can, burley oak, great notion



And more! who knew?!!

 

Was at Yankee about 4 weeks ago, midweek, mid day, and I found the last 4 pack of Salem Lager in the cooler (which was pretty amazing-reminded me of the original Victory Helles Lager from 10 years ago). Maybe I got lucky? One of the best lagers I've had in a long time.