Gaithersburg Bottle Shops

They're none in Gaithersburg or Moco for that matter. Depending on where you live, Gaithersburg I'm assuming, go north to franklins in Urbana, ye olde spirts in Fred, or mt airy liquors in my airy. The best bottle shops are in nw dc.

 

Gillys is a rip off in my opinion

 

If you own a car, please, please don't support anywhere in MoCo and drive to Magruders (talk to Joel), Total Wine McLean, or Arrowine. If you have to buy easy stuff that's easy to get, just go to a DLC store. Any where else and you're going to spend too much money.

 

A few places where you can find some options are Belby on 355 close to Gilly's, The Wine Harvest (Kentlands and Rockville), and Grape Escape (Kentlands). They will most likely be overpriced and nothing there will blow you away, but it's better than 90% of the other beer stores in the county.

 

which, as you allude to, ain't saying much unfortunately.

 

I think this closer to a fact than an opinion. The only thing reasonable there, for some odd reason, are Stone beers.

 

This...the only alternative I can think of is maybe Shoppers in Germantown might have okay prices, but no singles. Distribution isn't the same as what you are used to, with no Founders or Bells among others.

MoCo - the beer is pricey, the liquor is cheap! Go figure.

 

I stopped into Beers & Cheers in Germantown and it had ok beer. Some really old stuff though. Can be a pain to find if you don't know that area. Might be closed now tho, stuff in that shopping center tended to turn over a lot when I lived in the area.

Grape Escape seemed a little over priced, but at least had beer that was somewhat fresh.

 

Wine Harvest
http://thewineharvest.com/locations
I've only been to one in Potomac, MD right off I-270 close to Gaithersburg.

Get out of Montgomery County and MD if possible. Try shops in Northwest DC or Total Wine in VA. All Whole Foods in DC/VA have decent selections as well.

 

As others have said, you'll need to make regular runs out of MoCo for both selection and price reasons. The best options I have found are Ye Olde Spirit Shop in Frederick and Total Wine in McLean. Gilly's is a cool little spot and worth stopping in for a draft beer or two and a sandwich, but their "to go" beer is ridiculously overpriced. Recent example: Caldera IPA at Gilly's was $18.99 for a six pack. I found it at Ye Olde Spirit Shop for $12.99.

 

No founders or bells is a facepalm for all of MD...

 

Well..that is on Bells and Founders working with MD distributors. But I live in MoCo, so it's hard to really care.

 

I would add Great Lakes to that list as well. Or are they just not available in MoCo?

 

None of the three distribute to MD.

 

Some sunlight is starting to shine on MoCo beer stores recently. I've seen Stone 22oz products (Enjoy By, RIS, etc) for less than $10. Heavy Seas (Siren Noir) and Dogfish Head (WWS, Olde School) botles can be purchased for somewhat reasonable prices (i.e. not worth driving to VA for). However, for just about every other beer available in MoCo and distributed in VA or DC, the price differences are insane.

 

Definitely a decent shop. I asked about Parabola a few months back right when they were just opening the shop. Dude was nice enough to grab a bottle from his other shop in Bethesda and call me when he brought it to the the Gaithersburg location. The tap handles are always decent as well. Was really surprised to see they are putting in a Ruth' Chris in that little town center they are building.

 

Out of curiosity, what did they charge for the Parabola?