Style Availability?

Thanks, I questioned the available when I realized how far west Oxford is located.

Maybe a Fox Farm/OEM road trip next spring. Connecticut Beers in general are not common in RI. The reason sucks I'd wager. Cheers.

 

You can't go wrong with any OEC beer you'll see out there in the wild, but yeah a trip to the brewery is definitely worth it at some point

 

I found this video on YouTube.
It is about the Abbey Beers that are available in France.
Apparently many Abbey Beers like Leffe, Grimbergen, Paulaner, etc, are not brewed in an Abbey, they are industrial beers even if the recipe comes from an Abbey.
On the contrary Chimay is an authentic Abbey Beer.
The report also talks about beers brewed in the Abbey Saint-Wandrille (Saint-Wandrille is in Normandy).
Sorry because it is in French. :

 

The term “industrial beers” may have negative connotations for some folks.

“An Abbey brewery is not part of the Trappist order but they must meet certain conditions:

“What are the conditions for a beer to be an Abbey beer?

1. The brewery must have a link with the abbey, whether it is the location, the taking over of ancestral monastic recipes or even a license issued by the monks to a brewer in the past.

2. The brewery must pay royalties to the Abbey whose name it bears.

3. The brewery must give the Abbey a right of inspection in several areas concerning beer, but especially communication.”

https://www.beermyguest.ch/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-an-abbey-beer-and-a-trappist-beer/

The Abbey Brewers in 1998 created a trademark of Certified Belgian Abbey Beer which can be found on the various beer labels.”

The above quoted material is from:

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Belgian_Quad

Cheers!

 

I know that this doesn't necessarily jive with what I said about Mikkeller and the whole "doing stuff because you can" thing in that thread, but the difference is you never felt ripped off on one of the DFH beers, and they were always drinkable at least.

 

Thanks for your answer.

 

While with a little effort I can usually find a limited selection of porters, I agree that alt, weizenbocks, ESBs, and many other styles are sorely lacking.

 

I find some of the responses surprising. I guess it really is a location thing.

Beer shops really aren’t a place you go to buy beer up here. The government ones have limited selection, often old, and often not refrigerated (that last issue is improving though). The private shops with good selection have to buy their beer at retail, so with the mark up, itis cost prohibitive (cans of IIPA from a good brewery are in the C$8-11 range per can). So, most shopping by discriminating beer drinkers is done at the breweries.

Im in a huge city with many breweries, so the selection is probably better than many places. But, that said, it has never been better than it is today. Just sitting here now, planning a shopping trip to three very good local breweries, I can buy:

Czech style pale lager
Czech style dark lager x2
Zoiglbier x2
Smoked Porter
Dark mild x2
Ungespudentes Kellerbier
Altbier
Rotbier
Smoked Helles
Barleywine
Bitter x2
English Strong Ale
English IPA
Dunkelweizen.

That doesn’t include good versions of all the more popular beer styles that are everywhere. In a couple weeks, several other interesting lagers and ales will replace some of the ones on that list. I suppose I should count myself lucky.

Ona side note, I also surprised to see so many with trouble getting a gruit to try. There was a brewery up here who made one as part of its regular rotation and it was distributed widely. They also made a couple others as one-offs every year. A quick look shows that they don’t appear to have any at the moment. I’ll keep an eye out though, and if I see any, I’d be happy to send them to those in need….
Cheers!

 

Yes, this is a topic we have discussed in past threads.

Yes, that is indeed the case. I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia and the choices of beer and varying beer styles is huge here.

This statement got me thinking. I personally very rarely purchase packaged (e.g., canned) beers at breweries. I just got to my local Retail Beer Distributor or my local supermarket (Wegman's Supermarket) to purchase my beers. I suppose this is another aspect of the "location thing" you mentioned - how local craft beer is retailed will vary with location.

Cheers!

 

Yes. The selection at the government retailers here is often large, but filled mainly with middling offerings from middling breweries. They also never seem to have anything very fresh. The last time I was there was in mid-February to grab some wine for my wife. I checked all the IPAs available for dates. Leaving aside the ones without date stamps, the most recent canning date was November 11th or 12th if memory serves. There was only one beer with that date though. Most were August or September and some went back as far as June.

The other issue is that the best breweries around here either don’t have any beer in the LCBO, or only have a couple of SKUs.

The only downside to buying at breweries is the traffic. Three breweries that are each about 12-20KM from my home and about 10KM from each other will take 3-3.5 hours or so to navigate.

 

That is something that would be a big negative for me (since I am spoiled?).

I can walk (but I drive) to my local Retail Beer Distributor (which is a BIG warehouse type building, see photos below). And I stroll through the aisles to see what piques my interest. If I am in the mood for an IPA I will have a half-dozen or so brands in mind and I will buy the brand that is the freshest (e.g., less than a month from canning).

Expending hours to purchase beer is something I would have a hard time 'swallowing'.

Cheers!

 

The saving grace for me is that most breweries that I like to buy from will deliver to me free of charge. I like to get out and drive around from time to time though, so do both.

That kind of beer store would be like Shangri-La around here. The government has said they are changing the retail arrangements and restrictions though, so I’m hopeful some kind of bottle shop, with reasonable pricing, will open up in the next few years.

 

I will keep my fingers crossed for you here.

Pennsylvania has the PLCB which is very similar to the LCBO. Over the past decade+ there has been lots of reforms adopted by the PA legislature.

As regards beer the typical beer retailer was a Beer Distributor (pictured above) and you had the purchase beer by the case (24 bottles/cans). But then they changed it to where you could buy 12 -packs and then later on six-packs and single bottles. And the PLCB started issuing licenses to retailers like supermarkets so you could purchase six-packs and single bottles there (with a limitation of 192 ounces per single purchase).

The only place you can purchase liquor is at the state owned stores now branded as Fine Wine & Spirits shops. But you can now purchase some wine brands at places like supermarkets.

It has been an incremental approach but it did happen. Hopefully Ontario will make similar reforms.

Cheers!

 

I've seen Landmade cans in retail at Frederick Wine next to the Costco. They make solid German lagers, but fresh hazy/NE pale ales are some of the best I've had in MD. I've been to the brewery several times now as well.

 

Too bad I don't like those, otherwise I'd try them.

 

Here in SoCal, I find the availability of several styles ok at Total Wines& More, and to a much lesser degree at BevMo. However, unlike Trader Joes, which is happy to sell a single can of anything at zero markup from the per can price in a 4-pk or 6-pk, I find the singles selection at Total Wines to not be great, plus they have a mark-up for a single. I don't think BevMo near me sells anything as a single serving except for highly priced bombers or something they want far too many $$$ per 12 or 16 oz for. I'm not going to invest in a 6 pk or 4 pk of some style I have never tried when there are sooo many that I already know I like and which are widely available. Oh, and the last two different IPAs I got at Trader Joes were each just 10 days old.