Living in central Jersey

OP, I'm sorry if you already said this but where exactly are you? I live between Princeton and New Brunswick. There are plenty of places with in a 30 min drive. I'm assuming you're on the border of South Brunswick and monmouth junction. Have you looked into Tavern on the Lake? Rocky Hill In? Any of the great shops or bars in Princeton? Uno's Hamilton? I just had a full pour Lost Abbey awesomeness the other day without any lines.

Kane and Carton are also everywhere. Most local spots carry a fresh keg of something. Even La Taverna a small italian restaurant has Carton dedicated Taps.

Btw, Cranburry buyrite is back and they are a solid go to.

As for local breweries, the options are limited. Either Harvestmoon or Triumph. HM is doing great things, Kyle is the man. Triumph on the other hand needs to wake up and become interesting ( never buy their bottles imp stout)

OP, stay optimistic and realize you're in a sweet spot. Everything is literally an hour away. Philly, NYC and all the big NJ breweries.

 

I'm hoping that Demented Brewing is good, since their location is only 10 minutes from me. I only visit Kane/Carton on weekends fall through spring. No parkway traffic. Summer is a no go for sure. But I disagree about what you said regarding the availability of getting different growler options for Kane/Carton. You just gotta check sites like beermenus. I've gotten plenty of different stuff than the core lineups. Lastly, our craft beer scene could be a lot better, but I for one am happy that we at least have some quality breweries in our area now. It can only get better!

 

Beermenus doesn't have anything to do with the growler offerings at Kane and Carton. Kane's growler selection is the same 95% of the time. Carton at least offers waxed growlers of the limited stuff. that's my point -- that it's not always worth driving 2 hours for a growler of something I've had many many times. I LOVE both breweries but I don't think Kane has offered anything in growlers other than Overhead-Head High-Single Fin-Port Omna in many many months apart from Port Omna day. Vengeful Heart sometimes, but that's about it. now if they offered a differently hopped version of an IPA or some stout variant in growlers, then driving a few hours would totally be worth it, since I could take something home and don't have to worry about driving home after a few. but I don't want to drive 2 hours just to have an 8oz sample of it.

if you're referring to craft bars, where I'm at the closest decent one is 25-30min away (Stirling Hotel and Cloverleaf Tavern). they're both on Beermenus but, again, it's quite a drive -- especially when you plan on having a few. I just think that great craft bars in central NJ are spread ridiculously far out considering the craft beer passion around. whoever mentioned that it's a business opportunity is right! I wish I had the capital to open something up. there are lots of bars around here, but - as I mentioned - the best craft thing you'll find on tap is Flying Fish Pale Ale (yuck) or Brooklyn Lager. craft beer is truly an untapped niche in Central New Jersey, definitely due to the high rent prices to some extent.

 

Beermenus will help you find Kane and carton beers at growler fills type liquor stores and yes, bars. If you're in Morris County then there are some good craft beer bars in Morristown. I agree with you up to a point, but I guess I don't think things are quite as bad/inconvenient as you do.

 

You've got some good suggestions from members here, Triumph, Harvest Moon, Olds Bay in Brunswick, as well as road trips to Kane and Carton. But you're also not very far from Philly! Worth driving there, I drive over an hour to get there. My close local scene is pretty poor, beer-wise, but usually a half hour trip is all it takes to get somewhere good. By me, in Jackson, the Surf Taco has a few good selections, but not a lot of other places have much.
Like a huge selection, try Maloney's in Aberdeen, or Firewaters in Atlantic City. Bit of a trip for you, but they are there.

 

As you wrote, Vengeful Heart has been available for growler the last three weeks. I filled a growler two weeks ago with Silent Nights. I filled a growler in January with Solitude. Would think the four or five Port Omna variants they've had last three weeks for growler would interest some people enough to make a drive.

Since the drive to Kane is so far you've possibly only done it a limited amount of times. As a result, I'll venture to guess that those limited amount of times have unluckily hit Kane in the brewing shoulder seasons when they only have their main styles on offer. I'm in Kane three times a month and haven't heard too often that growler fill options are limited.

Now, regarding Carton, those are some limited growler fill options. And even though the waxed growlers are a great idea, I don't need 13 gremlins from Carton sitting in my basement. But their packaged goods are enough to entice people since it's a pain for many to find those at a store near their abode.

Everyone does it differently and no one has found the best way of doing it right for everyone.

 

I don't understand your Carton comment. Carton will fill a growler of anything, 8 beers at a time. They do those capped ones as extras for people that want to store beer longer than a growler will last. I bring in my Shipwreck growler all the time. I filled it with GORP this weekend.

 

I think what he is referring to is the limited stuff. They wont do growlers of SS Kentucky now. Its pretty much just the one offs/small batches that they wont. I have never had an issue with what they fill there.

 

For Kentucky they told me the only made 1 tank and it's the minimum for canning so it was all in cans with not enough kegs for growlers left over. What confused me is buying multiple capped growlers if @JosephThompson is going to drink them right away. Carton fills growlers of anything they cap. The capped ones are just for cellaring. @augiecarton told me they didn't cap the Gilded Lily beer because he didn't think it would last in glass and when they make it again it will be in cans.

 

Other then Boat, Carton typically has five taps. Six if a keg is nearing the end. Of those five, ODub and Milk are always on. Red Rye is usually on. And BDG is mostly on. That leaves one, perhaps two beers a person can't regularly get or a seasonal which was the complaint of others regarding Kane, Carton, et al. not being worth a drive since most everything available is beer already consumed many times, thus, they feel limited in their growler potential.

Regarding the wax growlers, Scobeyville wasn't on tap long. Shipwreck isn't on much but seems available once a month in wax gremlin. Irish coffee was a wax gremlin only purchase, no fills upstairs. There are more, I'm just too lazy at the moment to search around. Sure, in theory, you can fill a gremlin with Scobeyville or Shipwreck but if you miss the two weeks it's on tap your only bet is a waxed one. Do that three, five, seven times and that's a lot of glass sitting on its ass.

 

Tapastre in Somerville has a great rotating tap selection but their hours are the worst. You never know if they're open or when they close.

 

They have 8 taps plus a cask engine. They release like 1 new beer a month and Augie is insane about limits so they last a couple weeks. This month I think they did 4? SS Kentucky, GORP, Wayne's Way and Irish Coffee. I have waxed growlers of GORP and Irish Coffee. I have already finished a 64 oz GORP growler, and have a 4 pack of SS. I'm going back this weekend for more Kentucky and GORP and hoping Boat and 077XX cans are back. Not sure where you're getting your info but Shipwreck was a seasonal and has been gone for a long time, they say it'll be back at the end of the year.

 

Shipwreck was available in waxed growlers for like almost 5 months. If you didn't get any it's because you were lazy.

 

I came into this thread thinking it was a beef with our overall distro. Never complain about our overall distro.

If you're living in the Middlesex/Somerset/Mercer county area you're not too far off from good stuff, maybe an hour tops. I wish Kane and Carton would stop getting crap for not distributing broadly, because they usually max out capacity just to fulfill their current demand.

 

I'm in the same boat dude. I live in Princeton, and apart from the Joe Canal's in Lawrenceville (and Cranbury buyrite) there is not a lot going on around here. All the awesome New Jersey posts I see on here and Facebook are all from northern Jersey. The limits down here on special releases are pretty crazy too, if we even get anything special. We get lots of year round stuff, and seasonal stuff, but rarely anything special.

I agree about Kane and Carton. Carton is just funny to me, with a decent beer released every once and a while. Kane is actually very good; I went to a tap takeover a few months ago. Boy do they know stouts/porters. Never been super impressed by their hoppy beers. I wish they would bottle/can more often.

 

I wrote they have up to seven taps available. I'm sorry I was off by one tap handle.

Today, for example, there are seven beers on tap with one of those unavailable for a growler fill. That leaves six. Of those six, I'm guessing most any "serious" beer drinker in Jersey has had Boat, BDG, ODub, and Milk many times over. That leaves two beers that aren't "typically" on tap. People above were discussing the merits of driving a far distance (for them) to a brewery that mostly offers their core styles. This was a complaint along with the distribution of packaged goods in their home locales. Thus, the reason why I wrote Carton can have limited growler fill opportunities for some.

Regarding Carton's Shipwreck, I'm not sure what was wrong about me writing that it's not on much and if you miss it the two weeks it is on then you need to buy a waxed gremlin of it.