Do you "drink local"?

As others have said, local is relative. For me freshness and supporting/fostering community is important. Quality, however, is the critical prerequisite.

Local, defined as, “where I am at any given time,” is my default. I also value diversity and cross pollination. These drive quality and innovation and therefore are more valuable.

As for ratio of local, that is a curious metric, which I might be able to retroactively track; for me local is not an objective in its own right. Local is more of a good practice that resolves itself within my other criteria.

Edit: Oh and BTW, diversity also helps one judge quality. As long as we are vigilant to ward off homogeneity.

 

I'm not stuck on "local", but freshness generally makes a difference (eg IPAs). So many times local because they're fresher.
I guess answer #s 1 and 5?
I'm super thankful we have such a variety though.

 

When I've got a keg of my homebrew carbonated, then it's almost only local.

 

There is a small brewpub with a very limited and never-changing beer menu in the town I live near. Not the best beer, but if I'm going out for a beer I'll go there. But when I travel, I always search out local beer not on the national radar. Some of it is good, some great, some is awful(mushroom beer from the Auvergne region of France, for instance). And remember that all beer is local to somebody

 

Before I retired I spent a fair amount of time in your are and the beer scene was getting quite exciting around 2015-2019. What happened?

 

Most of it just middling beer. There is a big local following for most brewers. Because of that, I don't think they aren't dialed in on quality that much. Oklahoma is another story. More and more quality beer there

 

I see you've moved to Arkansas, I understand your post much better. I bought some Arkansas beer once on a trip through there, I understand exactly what you're talking about.

 

I am happy with my two very local breweries and am at one or the other almost every week, mostly KinderHill in Bryan, TX. From here I must travel to Houston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio, etc. There are some excellent breweries in each of these cities which includes the world-class Jester King. There are also some excellent rural breweries within a couple hours drive. Lone Pint is about 45 minutes away. I enjoy these “local” beers when possible at the breweries, in bottles/cans, and on draft.

I supplement the locals with beers purchased while doing road trips, some Side Project beers as a recent example. As needed for day-to-day, we have a couple decent bottle shops and the grocery stores are pretty good. Picked up a six of Founders Porter yesterday.

It is still a great time to enjoy great beer!

 

I thought that might be the case

 

I went with sometimes buy local because none of the answers really apply to my situation. I am very fortunate to have a ton of really great breweries local to me. I purchase from them as well as non local options all the time. However, I don’t purchase from them solely because they are local. I do love supporting local businesses. And it is great to know the people making the beer I love. That said, quality is always at the forefront of my purchasing decisions. If my local breweries didn’t put out the consistent quality they do then odds are I wouldn’t be buying them much at all.

 

I'm local for the most part, but will go to the local distributor to pick up a few not so local brands as well as the European options. If I'm traveling, I will most certainly buy from the local breweries I visit, especially if I'm up in Maine.

 

I drink local quite often. Although I don't make it out to bars, breweries, etc. to drink stuff on-tap as much as I used to due to Corona Virus really putting a damper on that sort of thing for about a year and a half and also b/c I'm a dad to an almost 2 year old daughter, when I buy beer at the store to take home, etc. I'd say at least half the time it is beer made by a local or at least Ohio based brewery.

Eric

 

My daughter was born Late Jan 2020. I get it completely.

 

On my journey to learn more about beer, I have made a conscious decision to buy local beers when fresh. In CO. we are fortunate to have some big and small locals.

This is not to say, I do not buy non-locals, I do as long as they are fresh, lapse of due diligence aside.

 

Kind of funny -- unconscious of this thread, I bought six 4-packs last week in my bi-monthly restock. Looking back I realized: 3 imports and 3 very local brews.

As said, unconscious of this thread, and my picks were all due to looking for seasonal styles and labels new(ish) to me.

My own takeaway is that locals around here are brewing beers I want to try, but good imports always attract my personal palate.

 

I’d say about 75% of the beer I drink is local. With the advent of beer being delivered, I do buy some beer online. Other Half, Burial and Foam are some breweries I buy from that are able to ship to PA.

 

My local is now “Virginia”. When I goto a restaurant I take look at the tap handles to (1) find something local (that I am interested in ) and (2) figure out a road trip that brewery. I’m in the center of the state so I can travel anywhere for a fun two day stay.

 

As far as Cincinnati goes:
Streetside is probably producing the best NE Ipas. They also do pretty good fruited berliners. Their stouts are hit or miss for me mostly miss lately as they are excessively sweet with little to no barrel characteristic. Madtree does a lot of styles really well including BA stouts. Probably the most consistent brewery for me. 50W ba Stouts and BW are also pretty solid. They have a fantastic location with plenty of space and great smash burgers. Pretty well rounded beer lineup with ipas and pales along with some trad styles.
Third eye has some good trad styles bock, English mild and people really like their milkshake ipas(not my thing). They have a couple good neipas And a solid oatmeal stout. I have liked a couple neipas at sonder too along with a coffee kolsch however I have always found the food better than beer at sonder.
Braxton has a good ba beer called dark charge and the tropic flare is a good choice for a NE Pale.
Maybe this gives you a few more options to pursue in the city. Cheers!

 

I drink "best" not necessarily "local"

 

It would have been interesting if the pole in the thread was organized as something like "This percentage of my beer purchases are local". Even as is it is interesting data.