Do you "drink local"?

Some folks are posting that they don't buy local because their locals aren't as good as the Visiting Teams. What if that were reversed? What if your locals made better beer than the away teams?

 

That seems like a strange question which has an obvious answer. What's your thought process to word it the way you did? You expecting people to support the 'away' breweries anyway, just because....?

 

Yes. Some folks seem to have a view that anything from where they're from can't possibly be as good as something from away. Call it the "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" effect. I wonder if, what ever they think is the best beer in the world is, if it was brewed 3 blocks away, they would find more flaws with it.

 

I've revisited breweries where I initially found average beers, only to return and find things much improved. Every brewery (local or not) needs a second chance if it was originally visited when it was too young.

EDIT: Related thought #1: Every new brewery should have independent tastings of their beers before opening. Tasting results from among family and friends are probably going to be too biased, and it's risky to make a decision to open based on that info.

Related thought #2: All breweries have one or two beers that you're going to like, so if it's a local brewery, go there and drink only those beers just to support them. You don't need a smorgasbord of beers to enjoy your visit.

 

I've been buying locally-brewed beer since roughly the mid 1990s, to the degree that there are a lot of top-rated beers here that I've never tried. I've been shifting my buying habits a bit over the last year, partly due to wanting to try some of those highly rated beers, partly because too many locals are crowding their draft lists with beer that doesn't interest me. (Anyone ever hear of something called "hazy IPA"?)

It occurs to me that even by purchasing un-local beer at the many small beer stores in my area, I'm still supporting a local business. And that makes me happy.

 

90% of the beers I buy are at the local Trader Joes. They carry a lot of local beers that are always changing. Most are quite good, so ya, I drink a lot of local beers. I don't give a hoot where they are from, though. I do tend to prefer trying beers from breweries I have previously had good beers from, but I have no preference re: location

 

I attempt to drink beer from brewers that really care about perfecting their product. Luckily, local breweries are doing that. If they werent, I’d be drinking more beer from Firestone walker and Sierra Nevada. I still drink beer from those two breweries, but I don’t need to rely on them as much as I would have 10 years ago

 

I love the vibe of the breweries near me in VA. Blue Mountain Brewery is a bit of a drive, but the beer is delicious, the food is tasty, and the view on the mountain, with all the fresh air and hops growing nearby... paradise. That said, while I frequent local taprooms, well, frequently, when I'm at the beer shop, I grab the prettiest cans and a few imports. It's a good balance.

 

The amount of local beer we get here in the NOLA area probably outnumbers the others by 100 to 1, it's actually harder for me to find new beers these days because I've tried most of the locals. CHEERS ALL !!!

 

I have yet to live in a 'good beer' town. I don't think I've ever really bought local beer - at least not more than once a year or once every 2 years. Yea, really.

Give me good beer, I don't care where it comes from.

 

Almost all the time. By local I mean North west Oregon.
Rarely get very good beers from out of that area..and 99% of those are from WA or CA

 

Have you ever thought that your standards are set too high? That's a remarkable statement that you're making.

 

Perhaps, but I think it is also (primarily) related to where I lived and the type of beer I typically drink (or did at the time where I lived).

For the last decade I have lived in these locations:
1) Columbia, MO. Only very small local places a decade ago. There was a local taproom/pub that we visited, and their beer was 'fine', but nothing to go. I'm not sure if they still exist. If they do, to the best of my knowledge they still don't package. The food was always better than the beer. Mostly what I drank at this time were dubbels, tripels and hefe's.
2) Rural NW Indiana. No breweries. Only 1 beer store, and the only thing 'local' was 3-floyds, but I'm not a hop head, so I don't really drink much from 3 floyds. Mostly what I drank at this time were dubbels, tripels and hefe's, but got into BA stouts and BWs.
3) Worked in Lafayette, IN (but did not live there). Very similar to #2, but with some Indianapolis breweries mixed in. At the time, primarily sours and IPAs. Same as #2.
4) Bloomington Indiana (only about 1 year there). Upland is here, but their sours will dissolve your teethe, and I'm not a sour guy. I haven't tried anything else from them that I cared for except for a hazy many years ago, which I bought about half a case of. My father really likes Coast Buster (a WCIPA). Mostly BA Stouts and BA BWs, but some NE IPAs as well.
5) Finally, I now live in Cincinnati. There are a ton of breweries here, but there are only 3 that anyone really gives much press to: Rheingheist, Urban Artifact and Listerman. The former is IPA heavy, UA produces sours, and the latter is pastry stouts. All of these are 'good' breweries, but they don't fit my style preferences. Other breweries in the state that distribute here make beer that I drink, but I wouldn't consider that local and there's only 3ish on my list (Great Lakes, Jackie Os, and I'm missing something else). I'm starting to broaden my tastes and explore more lagers, which I *hear* there are plenty of good ones in Cincinnati. We'll see. No place around here produces good BA stouts or BWs. Not aware of anyone producing quality NE IPAs. There are supposedly good bocks and such, but I'm having a hard time tracking any of these down at any of the beer stores.

 

Columbia, MO is a little problematic for 'good' beer. The popular brewpub/restaurant is pretty meh in terms of beer, and yet the restaurant is always busy. That city also failed to support a Craft Beer Cellar location. Anymore, I tend to skip over Columbia, MO for beers. I'll stop and play Harmony Bends disc golf course, but if I'm drinking beer on the course, I'll bring it from either the KC or St. Louis metro areas.

That said, I've spent less time in Columbia, MO as of late, so perhaps things have changed for the better since ~2020.

 

Rather disappointing that nothing changed from the better part of a decade ago to 2020. The one thing the city does have - I think - is an iTAP, which I think I read someplace had good rotating taps. I may be confusing that with yet another place I lived with poor local choices.

I guess I should qualify what “good beer” means as well. To me, good means something that I would actually seek out and buy again. It doesn’t mean, “Hey, I am at the store and I want or need to buy something, so I end up Buying X”. You used to be able to count on most small breweries to produce a solid wheat beer, but that seems to have gone away. I don’t think my standards are that high for things like wheat beer, I mean I have drank a ton of boulevard’s wheat, Leinenkugels Sunseat wheat, Goose Island 312, blue moon and so on. Those are all very enjoyable, easy to find beers.

 

I am no hop head - the bitter kills me - but I love a good NE style IPA. I know that bitter is normally something people look for in IPAs, so I understand why they are polarizing. But for me, someone with a bitter sensitivity, I just can't do the bitter. -But, all the flavors in a NE IPA with low bitterness and no hop burn or strange onion flavors and so on...Man! I love it. I just wish more people produced them (locally). The 'problems' I see with locally produced versions is:

1. Trying to blue the line between what is and what isn't an NE style IPA - basically a 'catch all' to make everyone happy.
2. Hazy = NE IPA? Nope. Hence 'murk bomb' nomenclature.
3. Apparently people love IPAs in 16oz cans that range from 8-10% ABV? I think 5.5-7.5% is my sweet spot.
4. Everything has to be dry hopped or double dry hopped. Unless the beer has a proven track record, these words now cue me to hear them as buzz words with no teethe, and an effort to make (or describe) a beer as more bitter (regardless of whether it succeeds at being 'more hoppy').

 

I am buying much more local the last few months. It’s expensive. It’s good but I will be cutting back as $14-18 packs are too big for me. Need to get back to the $30 bargain cases from the big guys, DFH, Victory etc. I will be working down the road from a distributor that has pallet sales all the time and great fresh beer for $25-35 a case, some is local too.

Enjoy

 

All this discussion is reminding me of the parallel/analogous discussion discussion with Bourbon. Whenever newer bourbon comes up (or specialty releases that have no track record, but are more expensive), the 'argument' that comes up time and time again is "There is so much great shelf bourbon out there by the big producers. And for cheap. Why would I pay more?" For me, this is actually a perfect argument for why I don't buy local. If I can't find something to my palate that is better than those national distributors that I mentioned previously, why would I spend more to buy something local that I consider inferior?