We have 3 larger stores that have beer caves in Casper. (Not the biggest one, Liquor Shed) How popular are they? Do you have access to any? If you do, any special finds? I found newer batches of beers that I favour but not on a regular basis. Prost!
In my experience, "beer caves" are where the backups of the front facing stuff are held. Maybe some other stuff that is high selling, but not front facing in a fancy gas station (ie. Sheetz). Not really a big deal on the east coast or in the midwest, from my experience. Just a grocery store/gas station thing in the states that allow it.
Casanova Liquor in Hudson, WI has an indoor beer cave, plus a real cave behind the building, where they host release parties and other gatherings. They have an incredible craft selection.
Below are the sorts of beer caves I am interested in visiting: I just gotta remember to bring my mallet, spigot and BIG beer mug. Cheers!
Not really any beer caves at my go-to stores in Nevada. There is one with a walk behind area but they don’t keep anything special back there, mostly used for diary storage as they sell milk and beer from the same refrigerator. However, there are a couple of nice ones at my beer stores in Alaska. Brown Jug has an excellent one where I can pick up some great bombers. They have the best selection in Fairbanks, but dates can sometimes be a little iffy. Also, Fred Meyers has a pretty nice one too. They shoved all the microbrews back there since the fridge they were previously stored in has now been taken over by hard seltzers
And here I was hoping to go beer spelunking... A lot of stores here in Minnesota have walk-in coolers, varying sizes. Some are large, some are small, but I try to browse them all.
The last time I was in a beer cave was a couple of years ago in a "beverage store" on Long Island. It was cold and dimly lit, and the products were not well organized. I brought out a half case of IPA. I couldn't easily find or read the date until I got to the counter, where I saw the beer was two years old. Thumbs down for me.
What sorts of beers are in those Minnesota beer caves? While traveling out of my home state of Pennsylvania I have peeked into a few beer caves (mostly associated with convenience stores I seem to recall) and I mostly saw macro-type beers in those caves. No beers of interest to me. Cheers!
Now that I know what the heck it is, I can comment. I don’t like them. So darnn cold, I can only browse for 5 min max before I need to get out, especially in the summer when I’m wearing shorts and t-shirt. As mentioned, most are just the storage area for the front facing cooler area but some have random stuff hidden back there. I know it keeps hoppy beer fresher, but IMO as a craft beer browser type of shopper, not my thing at all as a customer.
In 2014, my wife and I visited the cavern restaurant of Carlsberg's Lvivsky brewery Ukraine for lunch and a bottle of Lvivsky Porter. They weren't aging beer there any more, but the room was still chilly on a warm August day. (Possibly used these days as a shelter.)
Not a beer store but Bube's Brewery in Mt Joy PA is located in a 19th century building that has catacombs where you can eat and drink
There are two I visit in Colorado Springs. The one, at Coaltrain, mainly keeps things like Russian River, The Alchemist, and Maine Beer Co. beers along with the gluten-free and NA beers. The second, at Lots A Liquor, is more of a respectable selection of single cans and bottles. I know there a few others around, but I seldom visit those locations (e.g., Peterson Space Force Base).
Basically your macros but in bulk sizes, plus overstock, and in some cases, crafts/macros there wasn't room on the floor for. A good example are Canadian beers and other foreign.
Is this similar to walk in coolers? If yes, then yeah, they’re pretty standard in RI. That’s where folks go to get cold thirty packs, as those aren’t usually taking up any space in the cooler shelves. Sometimes there will be stuff back there that’s not on the cooler shelves, but that’s rare. It’s typically just back up stock to replenish the stuff that that is visible in the cooler doors. My first job was actually at a liquor store. One of my main tasks was stocking the walk in before closing every night. I remember having to do extra stacks of Bud heavy 30s the night before holidays like Fourth of July or Memorial Day. Customers would walk right in to the cooler and grab what they needed.
So if you're asking do beer caves (aka walk in coolers) have things that you dont see the store put on the shelves I would say yes they do but more often than not I dont notice much of a difference. Off the top of my head I couldnt tell you about some hidden gem I found in the beer cave that wasnt on the shelf. A long time ago I found a Victory V-Twelve Belgian Quad in a beer cave that was discounted and it wasnt on the shelves but that was a long time ago when bombers were a thing so if that counts thats the only one I can remember. Nothing recent though.
