Shifting to Shelfies

I'll still go to two breweries for their special releases, one because it is a soon to be local to me and the other because of the shares. The closest brewery to me now is 45 minutes away. However, I'm moving at the end of the month and going to an area with five breweries that are within 20-30 minutes. I plan to become somewhat of a regular at several.

I've got to the point where I just don't care about harder to find beers anymore. I'll let the next guy chase them. I've also been avoiding bombers. I leave for work most mornings at 5:15 and don't get back home until 6-7pm. It's a real chore to drink a bomber after fixing dinner and going to bed at 9-10pm. I've found that a lot of the harder to find beers are in bombers, so that'll make it easier.

 

in that timeframe you could have brewed a high quality batch of homebrew.

Cheers!

 

Yeah I can understand why the lines and planning get tiresome. I've done the 1.5 hour drive to Veil and taken off work for several releases, and while I like Veil beer and how much different stuff comes out there're definitely fewer and fewer things I'll go down for. Same goes for Tired Hands which is a 3 hour drive each way.

Everything that's not a NE IPA does reatively well on a shelf here. Nothing crazy but still some goodies lying around. I like how easy it is to find decent beer in most parts of the country.

 

I am hoping that could be true in my area as well. While we are rural-ish (about 2400 people) in the home town, there are some substantial neighboring cities that certainly COULD support a great local scene if it were to develop. I think we are "in between" - there's some people who dig the "local scene" where they can go to a brewery, hang out a while, and the beer is essentially secondary to the social aspects. Therefore the beer quality isn't the main driver. Average is good enough - for now, but hopefully that changes for the better.

Absolutely - or I could do a whole bunch of things to cut down the "honey do" list and still have time to get back in the swing of brewing. That certainly makes the point!

 

For me it really depends on the style - for hoppy beers it's growlers (or maybe cans if there are still some left after the lines die down) from a couple of local breweries. Other styles I get from my go-to stores.

I need to live in this town.

"Is that a BMW 340i?"

"Yeah man"

"Sweet dude - what you got on tap right now?"

 

I'm so put off by the current trends of the craft beer scene ("hazy" IPAs and massive adjunct-laden stouts) that I've gone in the extreme other direction of just purchasing my old nostalgic favorites that I hope never get discontinued, e.g., Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Sierra Nevada Summerfest, Old Rasputin, Stone IPA, Pizza Port Swami's, Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale, Modern Times Blazing World, etc.
I feel like now more than ever I need to support my tried-and-true favorite breweries that got me into the craft stuff in the first place.

 

Sounds like now is a good time for the OP, and everyone else, to go grab a Saison DuPont and bask in its radiance

 

MA guy here too. Where abouts do you live? MA has an excess of riches of great beer.

 

Way down south near Fall River, so even Trillium in Canton takes me 40-45 minutes, Jacks Abby is an hour and a half. Mystic and Nightshift... But yes...there is certainly a bounty and distribution is pretty good. Proclamation will be moving to within 20 minutes or so when their new facility is up and running. I'm not complaining, just saying that the truly local idea doesn't work for everybody just yet. I can drive 15 minutes and get great beers from New England. To get the equivalent really fresh would take a while.

Cheers!

 

I totally thought this thread was Shifting to Selfies. I was interested in how that related to beer. This is interesting, I guess, but it's no selfie thread. Which reminds me, maybe we need to revive the Show Yourself BAs thread.

 

I've never been to a brewery only release and never stood in line for hours but I do enjoy special release beers such as Parabola and KBS. I've come to realize that there are many good beers that are available year round.

 

So an '85 Ford Econoline Van would be Budweiser?
(working on others...)


For the topic at hand...
As much as I like the hunt (and not as much as I once did.) I'll occasionally go to beer releases. I have my places to get the limited release stuff, but besides homebrew, most of my drinking is shelf stuff. I keep something like SN All-Day IPA as a daily drinker type, I'll stroll the my bottle shops and see what is interesting.

 

I totally agree with you on the bombers! I find myself passing over bombers more and more because I don't have time to drink 22 ounces of a 10% stout at 10 pm anymore

 

A few months back, I too got into picking up whatever I could find in shelf singles of the styles I like, and hadn't had before. With the limited distribution we have here, it has gotten tougher to find something - lucky to find two or three a week anymore.

 

Ditto - while I avoid buying bombers, sometimes it is the only way to get beers I want/need to try. For instance, Abyss. I picked up a decent stopper so I can drink high ABV bombers in two portions.

 

Not just that, but the classics are still classic, outstanding, and within reach. Mostly .

 

Like OP, I've spent plenty of time whaling, and still do when I don't have to go too far out of the way, but the more I drink the classics or the lesser-known shelfies, the less interest I have in paying big bucks and being late for work for a $15+ bomber of a barrel-aged stout that tastes only marginally different from all the others.

I mean, pick any Belgian beer off the shelf and there is a 99% chance that it's just as enjoyable as many whales and more importantly, it will still be there any time you want another!

 

That's a big drawback of whale hunting that people seldom consider. You land your whale or stand in line for that one-off speciality beer, it's amazing! ...and you never drink it again...well, shit... Finding a very good beer that I can easily go back to has more value to me than a one and done whale.

 

Your thread title just reminded me about New Belgium Shift....I'm still not over that they stopped making that delicious lager

 

Outside of occasionally bringing back bottles while on vacation I pretty much only buy shelfies. There's a TON of full-on world class stuff on the shelf that people just forget about. From cheap but wonderful lambics like Boon Gueze and Cuvee Rene to hop bombs from La Cumbre, Cigar City, and Odell. Hell, even BA items aren't that uncommon anymore.
This doesn't mean that special releases suck or aren't worthwhile, but they simply aren't necessary.