In the Sierra Nevada Pils thread, @John_M posted: “I prefer to buy local products, and there's simply nothing SN makes that isn't made just as well (if not better) by local breweries.” That got me thinking: are the majority of the craft beers I purchase locally brewed? And the answer for me is yes. I should provide the caveat that I am quite spoiled living in the Philly area that there are many local craft breweries producing high quality beers (including lagers). To borrow from John those local beers are “just as well (if not better)” as compared to the beers produced by a brewery such as Sierra Nevada (or other widely distributed craft breweries). Please share your thoughts on this topic and provide details about your local craft beer scene. Cheers!
If locally means roughly within a 50 miles radius from my home, then almost never. Some good, locally crafted beers here and there but not worth the extra euros I need to spend for them. Belgium all the way as far as I’m concerned. Things would drastically change if I lived in San Diego, Boston or Miami (would be happy with either considering their local beers) but having most well known Belgian classics for often under 2€ a single is a no-brainer.
I drink at breweries within 25 miles of me and purchase beers for home consumption that are mostly Michigan brewed. I'll estimate that all of this accounts for 85-90 percent of my consumption.
Now that I'm back in Richmond, yes, with the caveat that this is mainly because my go-to is Stone IPA, and the Stone here is from the Richmond facility. So far as my change-up beers, they are probably 95% local.
Easily 95+% of the beers I drink come from the I-5 corridor from the Canadian border to PDX (when it's not bust being invaded by an occupying army). The vast majority of that comes from Whatcom and Skagit counties in Washington. Most of the remaining 4+% comes from places like Yakima, Bend, and Spokane. There's some SN (Bigfoot and Celebration) and RR (Blind Pig and Pliny), and then the occasional beer from away. Almost no imports (except Canada and Cantillon) because there aren't many available around here anymore.
Local is subjective. I call local anything from a VA brewery. I'd say I get way more outside of VA now,. There's still quite a few VA breweries NOT distro-ing to bottle shops, and those VA breweries that do will put out the same-old same-old majority of the time. I like new beer... so usually its breweries out of the state that can fill the need.
On a somewhat related note: There is a TV show filmed in Philadelphia called What’s Brewing and they will soon be starting their 11th year/season. For the majority of the seasons the two hosts were Glen Macnow (he is still on the show) and Don Russell (aka Joe Sixpack). Don moved to France (Rennes) a couple/few years ago and for a while supported the show remotely. Don has always been a BIG fan of Belgian Ale styles! A couple of years ago, Glen traveled to France to visit with his buddy Don and they filmed a discussion of the French beer scene. In the below embedded video that discussion starts around the 15:30 mark. A few minutes into the discussion, when the topic shifted to Belgian Ales (around the 18:50 mark), to my utter surprise, Don mentioned that he was “almost getting tired” of the inexpensive Belgian Ales (e.g., Chimay) that he can buy there. After hearing this discussion, you could have ‘knocked me over with a feather’. A situation of too much of a good thing!?! As a lover of Belgian beer style, I bottled a batch of Saison a month ago. This upcoming weekend I will once again be brewing my bi-annual batch of Dubbel. For completeness I should make mention that I also recently bottled a batch of a Ekuanot IPA and I have my annual batch of Wet (Fresh) hopped APA fermenting right now. I suppose variety is indeed the spice of like. Cheers!
When I am at a restaurant or bar, I always drink a local beer. I travel quite a bit so I love tasting different beers from around the country. At home, it's a mix of local and not-so-local. Usually, it is whatever craft beer is on sale at my local store.
Most of what I drink has been brewed in my downstairs kitchen, so, yeah I guess that's about as local as it gets, lol. As far as purchased beer goes, I mostly drink Yuengling Black and Tan, which is about a 45 minute drive away. How close is "local?" Other than that, it's whatever I find that interests me at the moment. My closest brewery, Appalachian Brewing Company went belly up, which is no big loss, as their beer wasn't very good anyway. Tröegs would be the second closest, but I don't like most of their many, many IPAs. I'm wore out on their Tröegenator DB too. I do try to seek out local offerings when traveling though.
Not sure how we're defining local (please, for my sake, don't define it as "brewed within your state," as we're only 1,500 square miles here), but I wager 85% of what I drink is brewed within 60 miles of me.
I wouldn’t even define “local” as being within your state. I’m 410 miles away from Las Vegas and very seldom see any Southern NV brews up here. I count “local” for me as being Northern Nevada and Eastern California.
I sense that most of us lean local, so maybe a 75/25 category would have been more fitting than 50/50. I would say this is about where I am at if you consider local to be beers brewed in New England. Occasionally, something interesting from away will show up and I will sometimes grab those. I also enjoy SN beers like Torpedo and drink a bunch of Celebration when that rolls around. The price comes into play here as sometimes it is just more cost efficient to grab a twelve of SN ( or another nationally distributed brand) for roughly the price of a local 4 pack
Seems like there are phases where I'll get hot on one beer or another, local or not, and hang with it until the thrill or supply is gone. Or I just want somthing different. 50/50
Really surprised to see that the yes vote total is so low. I thought for sure it would be 90% or higher. My wife and I travel quite a bit, otherwise my answer would be similar to @BBThunderbolt's. Even so, I'd say at least 75% of my beer consumption is local. By that I mean beers brewed in the PNW.
This thread is still very young so let's see what the results are a couple/few days from now. John, I suspect that you are 'biased' based upon where you are living now (and in the past). There are likely lots of areas in the US (and Europe like France) where the local beer scene is quite different from the PNW, Philly area, etc. For BAs living in those differing areas the local choices may be a very different beer scene that what you and I are experienced with. Cheers!
Defining local as South Dakota breweries, only about 5% of what I drink is local. If local is regional (ND, SD, MN, WI, IA, NE, IL, MO, KS) then that's well over 75%. of what I drink.
Yes, in general. There are lots of good breweries nearby which I like to support - Fiddlehead (2.5 miles away), Frost (7 miles), Lawson’s… But I’m also a skinflint. I object to paying $18.00 dollars for a 4 pack of 16oz. DIPÁs. I drink a lot of beer from California and other bigger craft beer producers (Sierra, Lagunitas Dogfish), since I can get a great beer for a lower price. I know I may not be helping prevent some local brewpubs from going out of business, but many were started without a solid business plan and many make a mediocre product.
Some of us live in "quality beer deserts," so to speak. So yeah if that includes places 2 hours from me, then I can include TRVE, ORB, Cerebral, and the like. But here in COS? not... much... that I will buy in a retail setting. EEK.
