I live in Illinois. My neighbor has friends coming to visit soon from the NYC and Washington DC areas. It sounded like they would be willing to do a little beer shopping for us but I am guessing nothing too difficult. We are looking for ideas for local beers (probably IPA's) that would be easy enough for a novice to find. I would prefer to buy a variety of 12 oz cans/bottles instead of a few bombers. Is Other Half difficult to find? Thanks for any suggestions.
Good IPAs from the DC area that are available in cans/bottles are more or less non-existent sans a couple options from DC Brau (On the Wings of Armageddon, for instance), compared to what you can get in IL. When I was living in the area the only sure fire way to score cans of Wings was by going to the brewery, which is only open on Saturdays, is not public trans accessible, and at least in years past, only had it available occasionally. You can check their website or call re: availability. If your connection has a car, it's not too bad getting up there. If you're in Chicagoland, there's not much quality stuff available in DC/NoVA that you don't already have access to.
Cans are, yes. They're only for sale at the brewery once every two or three weeks. However, if your friends are willing to go to Good Beer in the East Village they could get a growler of OH IPA for you. According to Beer Menus, they have it.
Growlers of OH are always on tap at the Brewery for sale, but I don't think your friends want to carry/ship growlers. Cans might be available at the brewery depending on what week-end your friends are here. As for other NY stuff that can be found in stores look for: SingleCut, Transmitter, Kelso, Sixpoint, Thirdrail, Bronx, Barrier, Brooklyn, Ithaca, Keegan, Southern Tier, Captain Lawrence, Ommegang...
