My old lady is staying somewhere near here I believe. If I send her to a liquor store which ones should she go to and what should I have her seek out? are there any decent breweries that gets distro here that I may not up here in NH? thanks for your time! cheers Justin
NN has a Total Wine... unsure about any standalone bottle shops. As far as "Virginia beers", I'd recommend grabbing something from Devils Backbone, assuming you can't get it in NH. And just from being from Norfolk, I'd recommend O'Connors (Great Dismal, El Guapo, Dry Irish Stout) and Smartmouth (Rule G, Alter Ego) as well.
I'll second the alter ego and el guapo from Norfolk. Other favorites in Va are Alewerks (jubilee, bourbon barrel porter and cafe royale) Blue Mountain (their barrel house stuff - dark hollow and local species specifically) and Hardywood (yet to have a bad beer from them but their barrel program is practically flawless imo). Those are just Va breweires and some of my favorite things if she sees them.
Hit post before I meant to. In terms of national breweries, quick check at http://www.seekabrew.com/distro/index.html looks like we get Bells, Ballast Point, and Perennial as a few you don't. More of the Ballast Point stuff has popped up more recently too - I love the Grapefruit Sculpin. In NN I agree total wine is probably the best bet, liquor stores don't carry beer in VA. Hope that helps some!
I definitely recommend Hardywood. I think they're the best brewery in VA right now and their barrel aged beers are both awesome and easy to find. Total Wine will likely have their bourbon barrel Sidamo coffee stout and bourbon barrel barleywine in stock. Hoplar IPA also recently came out.
Any idea which Total Wine still has BB Barleywine? I was only able to find 1 bottle around the end of January. If there's one close enough I could drive to get it I damn sure would. That is a fantastic beer!
I'm up in Nova and saw it not too long ago at TW Alexandria and Whole Foods Clarendon. If you're further south, TW Newport News says it's in stock on their website (doesn't look like they have Bourbon Sidamo, like I thought they would). You can check all the locations at totalwine.com and place an order to pick it up in the store, so they'll save it for you.
Thanks dude, much appreciated! I usually have zero luck getting harder to find things at TW and I don't really live close to any - over an hour round trip. But I think I can justify that for that beer. Thanks again!
No problem man! If you do order online for in-store pick up, take some time to search the site. They will usually allow you to order ahead on anything that doesn't currently have a bottle limit in the store, like Ballast Point Victory at Sea!
The TW is probably your best bet . I haven't been to the NN store but the Va. Beach one gets some good stuff . They keep the limited stuff at the service desk so have her ask what they have . You can only get one each of the limited beers so they usually last at least a few days here . Picked up Sucaba and Bitter Valentine there a while back . Last night they had Avery Uncle Jacobs stout and GF Silva Stout among others like the Bell's Planet beers . Didn't see BB Sidamo there but Whole Foods down the street had bottles on the shelf .
Thanks guys - I'd been on the TW site and looked for things before but never had any luck. Just ordered that BB Barleywine (and FW Opal) to pick up. Worth the trip I think.
