Moving to Philly burbs...

Keystone Homebrew is your local store and you're in luck because it's awesome. They have a HB club called Keystone Hops.

Edit: I'm not too familiar with those hoods other than driving to or through them to get to various things, but I can tell you that Ambler is about 15 minutes to Merck and a great little town. Cute "downtown" area, several restaurants, a new brewpub, indie theater...it's a great place to live.

 

It's a pretty good area. The Blue Dog in Lansdale is a pretty unassuming beer with a half macro crowd, but a good beer list and fairly good takeout bottle selection (with very good prices). Via Marconi is a similar sort of place. Round Guys is a newer brewery down there, and they just received their brewpub license so they will be rolling out food selections fairly soon. You're not far from Capone's in Norristown, one of the best bars in the burbs. Kinda pricey but they have a ridiculous selection on draft and in their takeout shop. You'll also pass a PJ Whelihans down that way (sports bar chain, but they have around 30 craft taps and a beautiful new outdoor deck). Assuming you're near 476, you can just hop right on and head down to Plymouth Meeting for Whole Foods, and Wayne/Devon/Ardmore (Villanova exit) for Teresa's, Tired Hands, The Beer Yard (distributor) and another Whole Foods. There's also an Iron Hill in North Wales (IMO the worst Iron Hill location, unfortunately), and the Uno down that way usually has a few decent taps.

Are you already familiar with PA's zany beer laws? Might want to brush up if you aren't, as it will surely be a rude surprise.

 

Welcome! Definitely a good area to be heading to, convenient to everything mentioned above.
Only thing I'd add is Forest and Main in Ambler, and the Blue Dog Chalfont location.

 

I think he is referring to beer purchase laws: cases only at beer stores, singles/six packs only at bottle shops, some grocery stores and to go from bars.

 

In North Wales you have Iron Hill which is a great brewery/restaurant.

 

When you say NW is the worst Iron Hill, is that based on recent experience? I remember it used to be pretty boring but Vince I think does good work since he's taken over.

Anyway, great area for bottle shops! Capone's as the best in the area and also Whole Foods and Blue Dogs

 

I think I was last there about 2 months ago. I just don't find their beers to be all that interesting or well-made compared to other IH's. The service also seems to be much worse there than at the others, and I don't like the size and shape of the bar area. For the record, I have also been to the Lancaster, Phoenixville, and Maple Shade locations.

 

I don't think anyone mentioned Prism Brewery, with is literally down the street from Merck, but hard to find the first time. They have a small tap room. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/21872
As for buying cases/kegs in the area, both Beer Etc. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/19643/
and Towemencin Beverage http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23545/
have decent craft selections

 

Prism is definitely worth checking out. Hatfield Beverage has a pretty good selection.

 

Lansdale is a great area for beer. A lot of breweries popping up. Prism and round guys was already mentioned, but you can always check out Slyfox and Victory. A really good craft beer only bar I like is TJs in Paoli. The website is tjseveryday.com and they update the draft list daily.

 

You might be the first person in the history of everything to say that PA's beer laws seem "pretty reasonable"

 

He was speaking of the brewing laws.

 

Fixed that for ya. They are relentless about this. The monitor situation set up is awesome, too. Beer, brewery, style, ABV, price, glass shape...I think the state that the brewery is in, too.

 

Now THAT is funny

 

I think Steeeve gave you a good summary... I have to mention Beer Etc. in Hatfield that is pretty close by too... Nice selection for Local Distributor... We may be about 6 weeks from opening a location about 1 minute from Merck..

 

It's pretty ridiculously awesome in that area, particularly coming from NYC where there are a bunch of good bars but not much in the way of breweries. The guys above covered it pretty well....Tired Hands is my favorite in the area, Forest and Main, Prism, Round Guys, Iron Hill, Victory, Capone's, Pinocchios, Sly Fox, the list goes on and on.

 

IH NW pickin' it up recently !