How would you characterize your local beer scene?

I live in a metro area of 50,000-60,000 people but it's mostly a blue-collar town that has a lot of macro drinkers. I'm guessing that there aren't enough craft beers drinkers to get us into a 'Class A' category for the distributors to favor us with some breweries' beers that you likely can find in Detroit, Lansing or Grand Rapids.

We have three breweries - one distributes some of their beers to local stores; one cans some of their beers which are sold only at the brewery; and one is a branch location of a national brewery (almost national?) but they are also a distillery, and that may be more of their focus (New Holland). Each has their core customers, but each does a lot of marketing of 'events' (trivia, Lions/Tigers watch parties, etc.) to get people in the doors. I'm guessing that each does well enough to keep the doors open, but more craft beer drinkers in the area sure would be welcome.

The two main beverage stores carry a pretty decent selection of beers. One is probably half and half beer and wine, and the other carries beer, wine and liquor, maybe with a slight emphasis on the liquor. The first store is also a 'tavern' with 45 taps, and they usually have some special beers on tap that aren't in bottles or cans on the shelf.

I'm pretty satisfied with what I have available to me, although I sometimes will drive 25 miles or so to get something special that I 'need'.

 

Important question Jack: Is there still a stinky golden retriever from the farm next door that comes over and begs to be petted?

 

I do the exact same thing you do. Probably once every 3-4 weeks I run across the border to get the better stuff (or to Sapwood as the only Md brewer I’ll travel 45min to get). Other 3 weeks I’m buying from my nearby store, mostly still getting out of state beers (SN, Von Trappe, New Trail etc) or European imports. Maryland has so many breweries and so much meh from them.

 

Wasn't his dog, it lived next door. Was the best part of my visit in '16.

 

Well, Poland is super-crafty without traditional approach.

If You will take a look at local breweries in Germany, Czech or Austria then You will see that all of them have pale lager, in some form. Polish local breweries - don't. They focus on IPAs or craft beers, and 95% of "pale lager" market is dominated by Asahi, Heineken and Carlsberg.

 

I want to make a light bulb joke so bad... Must resist...

In all honesty, I loved living amongst Polish-Americans when I lived in Pittsburgh and Grand Rapids, and made it a point to go to a certain Polish deli regularly when I only lived 20mins away in another part of the DMV. Salt of the earth people.

 

It does, but very limited. Like I said - over 90% of market belongs to Carlsber, Heineken and Asahi, so for average "beer user" in Poland, beer is pale lager and nothing else.

Espiecially in rural areas, where it is almost impossible to find anything else than most commercial beers.

The one below, is "Grodziskie" with widest distribution network. It is about 1,5$ what makes is almost same price range like commercial beers.

https://milopiwo.pl/piwo-z-grodziska/3-7-35

If there would be more than 2, then lighbult wouldn't be changed
3 polish people = at least 4 political parties .

 

We do have a new distributor in the area who actually cares, so you can find good stuff on shelves.

But just a few months ago, the large area retail store finally released the previous 2-3 years of Bourbon County variants that they refused to sell on the appropriate release dates.

Needless to say, the new distributor doesn't do much business with the large retailer when it comes to the beers nerds seek out.

 

France has to pop in here too.,.
The craft beer scene is jumping - I see local brews of many styles readily available on tap and in markets. My wallet can barely keep up.,

 

My beer scene is hazy, with a chance of haze. I live between Albany and Saratoga, Fidens is in Albany and Treehouse is being built in Saratoga. Singlecut is in my town and they aren’t that great. In fairness Fidens brews some fine lagers, stouts and West Coast styles. Next door to Fidens is Wolff’s Biergarten which always a good selection of German brews. Most bars I go to have a decent rotation of beers and everyone of them have Fiddlehead IPA on tap. I have two beverage centers in my town and they’re both pretty good

 

I’m fine with my local scene. The idea that “the shelves at stores are loaded with a lot of mediocre local beer that has pushed out superior imports and beers from other states” suggests that if that space were somehow available, these superior breweries would have capacity to put their beers on every shelf in America, which is an illusion. I do wish more European imports were more conveniently available but most of them can be found with some effort—and I generally have my favorite local/regional breweries, avoid products from more mediocre ones, and generally don’t feel like I’m missing out on much.

 

Denver is all about having 8000 IPA's on the shelf when only a handful of them actually sell. The rest are just gathering dust. I'm convinced that the distributors in town are convincing people that "IPA = the best selling SKU so you need MORE!" Yet when you actually look at what's going on, people are buying shitloads of a few and ignoring the rest. It's a shame because they're mostly pretty good, but there's 0 motivation to buy them when there are a zillion other choices and you aren't sure who the hell most of those smaller places even are.
Beyond IPA (luckily they are slowly dying down), there are the typical kettle sours, 3-4 lager styles, and the occasional barrel-aged/adjunct stout. You also have the various typical seasonal varieties, too. They same beers that are on shelves most everywhere.
At one time we had a boatload of amber ales, but most of those are long gone. I totally get why, but I miss at least having 1 guaranteed option at most places. That's a "comfort beer" for me.
On the plus side, our quality is rather high. It's rare to get a truly bad beer brewed on the front range of CO. Yeah, many of them might be old or not aligned to your personal tastes, but very few are poorly made. I feel pretty safe buying almost anything fresh. I default to to my favorite places more often than not, but when I deviate I'm typically happy, too.

 

I'm ok with the local scene here. Pittsburgh is a city of 95 plus neighborhoods and they all seem to have at least one distributor that has all the craft beers that are sent to PA. Some have a large selection of local beers that are brewed and canned here. The bar scene varies with some that have multiple taps of craft to my favorite type the smaller neighborhood taverns that always have Headhunter and Lagunitas IPA on tap. Life is good.

 

Very below average D-

 

I'm about five minutes from a local brewer, Wallenpaupack Brewing Co., that does a really great line-up of lagers and German styles. I can get relatively fresh Two Hearted, SoS, and even Heady (once every six weeks or so) within a 30 min. drive. Fidens is close enough for a day trip, as are all the great Philly breweries. What I can't find are any relatively fresh West Coast standards, like Stone or Sierra Nevada, although we did get Celebration recently.

 

Could be better, could be worse...