Do you "drink local"?

Yea, I thought about it, but I think I'll let this post play out and do it in a month or so (probably won't remember). People might be bored with this topic soon.

 

I drink what I prefer and the locality of the brewery means nothing to me. Tons of local options that are either bad, inconsistent, or both. Plenty of regional or nationally distributed brands that deliver consistently on a high scale. Not to mention they are more readily available at larger stores. I'm not driving to a "local" brewery when I might only be interested in one of their options (everything is hazy or sugary nonsense these days) when I can go to a package store and have a wider, at least in theory, set of options.

 

When I voted "I mostly buy local," I was referring to my area, which is New England. The six states of New Hampshire (where I am), Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island offer an array of choices.

We have some nationally distributed brands like Samuel Adams, Harpoon, Shipyard, Smuttynose, Budweiser & Michelob (A/B brewery in NH), and Narragansett. But we also have a lot of microbrews that distribute within their states. And for me, it is an hour drive to Maine, an hour drive to Vermont, and a 45 minute drive to Massachusetts. Rhode Island and Connecticut are about 90 mins to 2 hours but on any day I have access to hundreds of interesting local brews if I plan it right.

 

Yes! At least once a week and sometimes up to 3 times a week.

 

When I was living in SoCal it was easy to buy local. Plenty of options, high caliber quality. Ideal situation.

It’s much more challenging here in Texas. There’s much fewer options and many of them…..aren’t good. It feels like I’m back in 1998 am actually home brewing again as a result.

That be said, yes, I do drink local. 90% of what I buy is made in Texas.

 

I like local beer but I do not like the price. When I can get a full case of 60 minute for $32 or 16x24 Two hearted for $46 I can’t see paying $14 plus for four beers to go. I do buy a few four packs a month from Human Robot but at $14-16 that is not something I can do regularly.


Enjoy

 

There’s a lot of breweries in Houston and the surrounding area. There is only 1 that if it closed up I’d be sad and I support them, aka buy their beer all the time kinda like my dad would do with Miller Light 30+ years ago, even tho they don’t distribute.
Great Heights is the brewery and it’s right in my neighborhood and all their beers for the most part crush it.

 

Mostly, yeah. Not a hard decision in the Asheville area