Better Distribution or Better Local Breweries?

Unless you buy from the brewery, it's not always a guarantee for freshness... I often see fresher beer on shelves from breweries on the other side continent than breweries located in my area code. I know @yemenmocha complains a lot about this in his area too.

From my experience living in an area with great distribution (Philly), I think the competition from abroad forces the local brewers to stay on their toes. Local breweries have many potential tools available to them to entice customers, many of which are unavailable to out-of-state brewers, so locals should have the advantage. For example, on premise brewery sales, specializing in specific styles, special releases/events, unique ingredients, a great brew pub destination, brewery tours, community outreach, etc... but I expect my locals to use those tools and not just sit back and rely on local goodwill. Competition is good for everyone. The rising tide that raises all ships...

So put me down for great distribution.

(@GetMeAnIPA This should have been a poll! )

 

Uh, I'll take the distribution.

I mean, unless, you're telling me that my local brewery is on par with all the very best breweries out there.

 

Fresh is better, so every increase in local quality keeps more of my money in town.

 

Here in NYC and Long Island there are lots of good local breweries..but a lot of Midwestern,Southwestern,Northwestern doesn't get distributed here..so that's only reason I'd go with more distribution..I'd much rather support local breweries as long as their product is good.

 

I just want access to Firestone Walker.

 

I think you're right on the mark about freshness. Local does not automatically equal fresh when it comes to store shelves.

Put me down for great distribution too.

Of course I want both. Who doesn't?

What's happening sometimes, though, is that if you truly had an EITHER/OR situation in the past then you could avoid the local brewpubs and just hit beer bars for all the great non-local. But the trend I'm seeing is the buy local mentality creep onto the tap handles at beer bars too, so this or that top tier IPA is now being replaced by some rather mediocre IPA that happens to be local (judging by BA scores and such, not just my opinion). Again, this is the EITHER/OR metros and the like. If you're in California, Colorado, Pacific NW and other places then none of this is really an issue. They have it all.

This is another reason why this isn't some petty complaint, and why it is naive to say things along the lines of don't worry what other people drink. No... it does matter, because it can lead to changes in choices for all of us. Some staff have told me quite a few of the local ones don't sell that well compared to the better out of state breweries, but there's a vocal subset of the customer base that gets pissy and complains about the lack of locals on tap.

 

Sure enough, which is one good reason why the choice posed by the OP is not particularly desirable as an either or choice. Great distribution can still bring us older beers and might also contribute to slowing or inhibiting the development of the quality of local breweries when people insist on only drinking world class beers without some support for locals that are growing and in the process of improving their offerings.

Being in SEPA I too have seen more than one or two distributorships with old and even out of code beer on their shelves but it’s typically a pretty even mix of local and national usually. That's why I have adopted the practices of a) only buying dated beer, so if what I find is old, I go somewhere else; b) being flexible when I go shopping so when I may have one case of beer in mind when I start but then swop that off my list because its not available fresh and substitute something else that is fresh; and c) drinking lots of seasonal releases which I know are fresh (e.g., I usually have my Nugget Nectar within 5-10 days of bottling, etc). Also, I've got one local retail distributor from whom I order a lot of stuff. He knows I want fresh and he's told me more than once he wasn't able to order what I wanted because he couldn't find it fresh. Also he helps me pin down things like when certain beers are expected to be available since brewery reps sometimes have information more current than web sites.

So my preferred situation is to have the best of both good distribution (which we have) and of good local breweries (which we have).

 

Based on my personal experiences here in SE PA this is an area that can be added to your list of places where its not an issue. I'd have trouble naming a place where "local" automatically trumps "quality."

 

There's a long list of great beer areas. I was just naming a few.

It's not a strange phenomenon. The homerism terminology (I think) comes from sports teams. You see this all the time with a vocal subset of fans who are not only avid supporters, but perhaps a bit... inaccurate... about how good their team is compared to the others. Then there are extreme cases like some folks I know who are Cubs fans. Some cities have beer fans that have a lot in common with them. Sometimes it's innocent and perhaps admirable. Other times you wonder.

 

The thing I find encouraging since I began watching the beer scene more closely the last 7-8 years is that the list of places is growing, so I think there is hope for continuing growth in the long term. Once upon a time (several years back) someone asked me where I went to drink beer (they meant which local bar). Without giving it any deliberate thought I replied "England." And realized it was true. I hadn't had a beer in the US for well over 10 years when they asked me that question. However, that's not been the case the last 8 years or so (since I first discovered Troeg's and the changes that had taken place in the US beer landscape without my noticing). Now if I want to easily find something on cask I might need to wait till a trip to the UK, but even properly done beer on cask shows up around here.

 

yemenmocha said,"If you're in California, Colorado, Pacific NW and other places then none of this is really an issue. They have it all."
Not necessarily true. I live on the beach in central Oregon. If I want to get a good selection equal to Portland or the I 5 corridor I have to travel 50 miles inland to get it. Hell, we don't even get Hop Hunter out here.

 

The best of both is what we all want and yes it is far from reality now. I live in one of the best cities for distribution from both coasts and have great local breweries, but the scene is far from ideal. As much as there are exceptions in each category, I argue we (as lovers of beer) are obliged to make informed decisions that will lead to both great distribution and great local beer by our actions in product purchasing. We have a long way to get there and need some time to pave the road of accessibility, however we can create a beer market that we desire by supporting good producers. Yes to distribution and yes to local breweries, but most of all yes to developing them both.

 

Well, often local is equated with being within one's state. So yes, you're right if you take it in the way you did.

 

I want to have my cake and eat it too. Both!

 

My suspicion is that you're not native to a western state. :-)

I've known people who would think nothing of driving 400-500 miles one way to a University of Colorado football game because it was their local college team...

 

Drink local!!

 

I would take a slightly above average really local beer over an above average one made across the country. Of course it's taken me 98 trades to figure it out, or maybe just having Pizza Boy in my backyard did it.

 

Better locals. I live in NW Florida, so we -do- get CCB which is fantastic, but the only other local breweries I ever see are Pensacola Brewing Co. and Grayton Brewing, both of which are pretty mediocre IMO.

 

Somehow all I heard was

OP, for me I'll take better locals too, but yes I still want great and always improving distribution too. Especially imports. In some places you truly can have it all.

 

Distribution.

In my area, I regard drinking local as more of a draught experience than a bottled one... and I've recently decreased the amount of beer I have on draught vs from a bottle at home. The one thing that makes me second guess my choice is that greater distribution basically amounts to more product crowding up the shelves.