About a decade ago, while travelling on the West Coast of Ireland, I came across an unexpected treat in the village of Kenmare. The pubs on the West Coast had been great, but package carry out had been limited. But in Kenmare I came across a small, but robust, carry out that had continental choice not available to me in the U.S. I was in heaven. (Link below) What was a great surprise for you on your travels in the U.S. or abroad? https://maps.app.goo.gl/BFkFshFv1YF5jDMK9
Yep, one of the benefits of being in Ireland is being handy to the UK + Belgium but also a (relatively) short hop to the US. British imports have dried up since Brexit but Trappists are easily half the price in Dublin vs. the US + in much better condition. To answer the OP's question, two experiences: - full range of Odell; they still don't distrubute back home in NY - Ireland, for whatever reason, got an excess of Westvletern 12 "brick" 6-packs when they came out; you could pick them up easily for months after release
In Ecuador, where my buddy had showed me some cool spots in Quito, when we were in a small beach town called Mantenita. Walking around the first morning looking for coffee and breakfast and found Cafe Rustica that featured Ecuadorian grown and roasted coffee and fresh, fruit focused, cafe food right on the sea wall. Turns out, they also carried a semi local beer brand made by some German (? Some kind of European anyway) expats called Beerkingo! We ended up drinking tons of the stuff (we generally disturbed the locals with our consumption capacity down there) and introduced the proprietor to the glory of an imperial stout with a shot of espresso dropped in it. It was such a nice surprise and a great find. Some of the better beer i found down there.
20-some years ago, you'd randomly run into a gueze at a bait shop around the Chesapeake because they had heard that the city folks like expensive beers.
One of my most memorable beer surprises came many years ago while on vacation in San Francisco. Stopped at Toronado and ordered a Death & Taxes. I was blown away and this is the beer that really turned me on to schwarzbiers/dark lagers.
Back in the late 00's my wife got sent to the middle of nowhere in western CO for her school rotations. I was downright shocked how much good beer was out there. Little breweries in every town putting out beers that were as good (occasionally better) than what we had in the Denver area. Palisade, Smuggler's, Telluride, Revolution, Kannah Creek, Horsefly, Colorado Boy, Mr. Grumpy Pants, and a boatload more. Several great cideries, too. One of the best was literally just some dude making it in his basement. I'm not even sure it was legal, but it was amazing stuff. Some restaurants with killer taplists, too. A few are still around (Telluride is now huge and thriving) but most of them seem to have faded out or changed hands.
Back in 2017 during a trip to Germany I stopped in a beer/wine store in Regensburg hoping to find a bottled Maibock from one of the local breweries. While in the store I looked around and discovered Founders KBS on the shelf. I'd never paid much attention about whether American breweries exported beers, so I learned then that it was a real thing.
Tiny bar in Thessaloniki Greece, called The Hoppy Pub. Never seen so many bottles of rare Cantillon, plus Hill Farmstead, Cantillon on draft too, in addition to a plethora of rare Euro and Greek craft brews. I was in disbelief.
Nothing crazy surprise but a funny one that happened recently: For every "beers you wish were brough back" threads that popped up I always requested aprihop...obviously I knew it was coming this year but had no idea when it would hit my distribution footprint. I found out it did when I literally almost tripped over it turning a corner in the beer store cause it was left out by the stock person midstocking, and laughed with excitement
Drinking Maccabee Beer in a little place in Jerusalem's Old City while eating kosher hot dogs and watching "Walker, Texas Ranger" in Hebrew with English subtitles.
That pub is about two miles from the hotel where our group stayed two years ago. In retrospect, it's probably a good thing that I didn't know about it then.
On Shetland, the only available local beers available were from Orkney Brewery. I saw Skull Splitter at the store and was taken by the bottle (I was collecting bottles at the time). Anyway, I bought one and thought it was great.
Finding proper cask ale at Heathrow during a 2-hour layover last summer was the best surprise I've had beerwise in a long time. It seems almost silly to mention it b/c it's nothing compared to do *anything* on the west coast of Ireland nor Shetland (among some of these surprises), but it had me grinning ear to ear over a couple of halves.
I know what you mean. The amount of money I spent there was stupid. Despite the relatively low prices.
Around 2016, while living in The Mission in SF, the corner bodega had a respectable beer stock. But one day, my neighbor was like, "dude, they got a bunch of random stuff, you should go check it out." Their distributor had dumped 30+ cases of random bombers on them at a hefty discount. I think it was random stuff they wanted to clear out. Maybe they'd been intended for samples or something? They were selling all of them for $5 each. The majority were questionably old IPAs I obviously stayed away from. But I managed to cherry pick three cases worth of cool stuff. I know I got a seven-year vertical of The Abyss, and same for Deschutes BA Black Butte (including #22, which I later learned had never been released to the public). I've got one bottle still of Humboldt Black Xantus (which I think is just white label Parabola since Firestone contract brewed it). I didn't mean to keep it this long and assume it's gross A most pleasant beer surprise.
In 2007 on a backpacking trip across Europe, I bought this awesome can of Maximator in Paris, then drank it warm on a train to Switzerland:
In reality, this was my best beer surprise. Actually, let’s go back to 2007 real quick. While in Bruges, Belgium, me and my brother rarely left our hostel because their bar was so cool that we rarely left (I really wish I could now find out all that I drank that day. Because it was a lot and all quality stuff). That said, I tipped the hell out of the bartender (who was also the only waiter for the hostel restaurant next door - he was running back and forth all night, that we became friendly. Anyway, he told me that he had a special beer that he could only serve 2 of a day. Then he told me how he already sold 2 that day, but he’d have one ready for me the next day. Anyway, me and my brother continued to get absolutely hosed, before passing out in our room just a few steps away from the bar. Well, we were loudly awoken the next day by what I think was a hostel worker who opened up our bedroom door and then slammed it a few times while saying, “Kaput! “ So we slowly rose from our slumber, got ourselves ready for the day, then walked to the bar - in which the bartender from the night before was. He then put a beer in front of me - the special one that he told me about the night before. That said, I was so fucking hungover that I politely declined it. He looked at me like I was crazy, but that was that and we continued on our journey. Coming full circle, it wasn’t until many years later that I realized what he had for me was Westvleteren 12. You win some, you lose some! Ok, in short, coming full circle again, in 2021 when I visited the north of France with my then French wife, I think through the help of a Belgium BA member, I found out about a cafe across the street from Westvleteren that served their beers. 14 years later, I finally had my first taste of Westys (and I even met a monk who told me that he has no idea why people are so crazy about their beers). Fun times!
I was visiting Belgium (Brussels) 25+ years ago and at that time I knew little about Belgian beers. I did notice signs everywhere for Jupiler but I knew nothing about that beer. I went to a cafe close to my hotel. On a beer menu in bold Duvel was listed. I asked for a bottle of Duvel because, well it was in bold. That bottle was glorious! I really did not know at that time what beer style it was but I sure did know I liked it. So, I ordered another bottle and then another. As I paid my check and got up to leave I 'felt' those beers - I felt drunk. I thought to myself how could I be feeling this way after only three small beers? Well, I came to find out later how strong these beers were in alcohol content; I did not taste the alcohol whatsoever when I was drinking them. Cheers!
