LOCAL BEER ONLY! (a beer experiment)

I go through phases where I drink more local which I define as places I can bike to but then the weather turns and I end up at the beer store like a puppy chasing after the latest new biscuit.

 

Yeah no way I ever do this in DC proper. I'd pretty much be stuck with DC Brau cans and hauling growlers everywhere without a car. For a city with so much money in it, beer produced in and around DC is pretty mediocre. Especially since the best don't distro/hardly get kegs into local bars. Instead, we get Jailbreak, The Ox and other crappy breweires cans/kegs everywhere while Aslin doesn't have enough beer to last a weekend and Ocelot stuff is few and far between

 

Palmetto, Holy City, and Westbrook are the only ones that I've had from back home. Which ones do you recommend trying, and which ones are below board? Easy to support the area here, and I try to do the same when back home; proud Charlestonian. Still have a little Striped Pig Whisky that I brought back with me, but only about a glass left.

 

Nice. I haven't seen this up my way yet but I would definitely purchase a Flying Fish session IPA for the summer. I know I've mentioned similar thoughts above, I'll repeat that I've moved to about 90% NJ beer in the past year. I've been drinking a lot of Magnify and Conclave recently, and both are 30 minutes or less from me. Honestly I could get by on beer from just those two for quite awhile if I had to.

 

I could sustain myself for quite awhile depending on my definition of local. I've got Logboat in town. Boulevard, Crane, Schlafly, 4 Hands, Urban Chestnut, Perennial, etc are just 2 hours away. Then there's Mother's, which is about 3 hours away.

 

Good thread Erik, very thought provoking.

 

Florida would be pretty easy, unfortunately St. Augustine only has Ancient City and Bog and neither bottle/can or distribute yet, but they are pretty solid. Jacksonville has nice options, Intuition distributes, Aardwolf is supposedly really good stuff, Bold City distributes, Veteran's United makes good stuff, Engine 15. State wide we get distro from Cigar City, Swamp Head, Funky Buddha, Green Bench, Barley Mow, Darwin, Due South, First Magnitude, and can travel to go to places like J Wakefield, Cycle, 7venth Sun, Angry Chair, Civil Society. Craft beer life is pretty good in Florida, my little town is just starting to discover it but there are still plenty of options around the state to keep me satisfied and many I still have yet to try.

 

Well said, Erik! I've gone through phases before where I have drank local exclusively and it has been great. But it's hard to do it all of the time. There is a lot of great beer out there and we're fortunate (especially in NJ) to have access to a decent amount of it. Drinking local is fun, but so is drinking a Bavarian Weissbier, or that hopped-up Saison from Missouri, or that beer brewed by monks in Belgium. Beer is supposed to bring people enjoyment and enhance their lives, no matter where it is made.

Supporting your community by buying local is important, no doubt. But what has become more important to me is supporting brewers that focus on putting out an honest, quality product and that care about their customers. I desperately want that brewery that opened 15 mins from my house to succeed, but if they continue to put out beer that tastes like shit, I'm not going to be spending my money there. At that point, the brewery an hour away in PA that just put out that kick ass, perfectly made Vienna lager feels more "local" to me than the NJ brewery that's actually closer in distance.

Cheers to you and your experiment! May you find lots of enjoyment in local and non-local beer in the future.