The "grass is greener" mentality

Did someone say grass?

 

Can you please educate all of us BAs in detail how San Diego is 15 years ahead of the Bay Area?

 

my epiphany was in san juan... No Bells in ny, so I just concentrated on drinking all the bells I could...

ya know what, I got bored of it after only 2 days. the beers were nice, but honestly, I'd rather drink 6 point or goose island... both in abundance over here.

 

Seriously, I hate not being able to get Yuengling in Boston... I'm moving back to Jersey.

 

Philly has great access to many beers from around the country. Unfortunately most of them are expensive and tend to be old. I am pretty tired of buying a full case of beer and having no variety.

For me the grass is greener in other markets. Why I pay $35 for a case of torpedo but I can buy two twelve packs across the border for $30. I read all the time about cheap six packs and twelve packs. Not here. Even the local beer that is brewed 10 miles from me is $33-35 a case.

There are no really good local IPA's. no local wild or sours. I love the fact I can go to a bar and get many great beers but they cost $7+ for 10-16oz pours.

I would give up a lot of access to gain really solid locals at lesser prices.

Enjoy

 

Thanks to Shorts Brewing killing it every two weeks or so with amazing new beers, I cant keep up with MI locals.

 

SF's best bars are Toronado and City Beer. San Diego has O'Brien's, Churchill's, Blind Lady, Hamilton's, Ritual, and a Toronado of their own.

On established breweries, we have RR and Bear Republic, but they have Alpine, Green Flash, Ballast Point, Stone (which I'd only consider notable because of Enjoy By and Ruination 10th), Pizza Port, AleSmith.

On newer breweries, we have 101 North, Strike, Altamont, Schubros, Dust Bowl; they have Societe and Rip Current.

We have some nice spots, but they excel in quality AND quantity. It's a real beer culture.

 

Thats fuckin awesome dude

 

Seriously? Puerto Rico has Bell's and we don't? That is ridiculous. Or is there another San Juan you are discussing?

 

California has shelf turds that are truly awesome. Parabola, BA rasputin, Lost Abbey seasonals. I like those beers so i trade for them.

And come on, how fun is it to get "that beer" in the mail? Wether you like it, love it, or hate it, you got it and got to decide WHAT YOU THINK OF IT. So much fun.

"Oh my God, Pliny is so over rated" said no one that never tried Pliny...


THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION, MAAAAANNNNN

 

Bear Republic is in the Bay Area as much as Alpine is in San Diego. SD is 15 years ahead due to higher volume of breweries?? OK. Here in the Bay, the only breweries I feel I'm missing out on from those you mention is Pizza Port (not Port Brewing) and Alpine. I'm quite content with only RRBC

 

O...k....? That's what I said.

Higher volume of quality breweries (and bars). Absolutely. SF has better restaurants though.

Cool.

 

Touche.

 

I live in Portland where it rains constantly. So no, I doubt the grass can get any greener than here

(Also I can literally walk to HotD, Deschutes, Cascade, Upright, Commons, Full Sail, Rogue, Bridgeport, Lompoc, Burnside, ...)

 

Part of the issue for some of us is that our local beers are just solid, not exceptional. Here in VA, I can't think of many beers that people out of state would want other than maybe Hardywood's Gingerbread Stout ( a Richmond beer that I haven't been able to get here in Charlottesville).

For me, rather than trading I like to beer travel to see that greener grass. I've been fortunate enough to visit Russian River, HOTD and Cascade Barrel House, Three Floyds and taste the GREAT beer options that we don't have locally. On the other hand, some of my beer travel has led me to cool places where I've discovered that the beer is solid but not THAT much better than I can get at home (Asheville, Philly, NYC). Like others have said, it's about the journey, not the destination.

 

I agree with "the grass is different" idea. I have access to some great beers in the northeast but RR, FFF, Deschutes and HotD (to name a few) are very intriguing and great in their own right.

 

Yeah, the grass can appear to be greener until you end up with crabgrass. /me also not hunting down brews like it I did in the past.

 

I didn't read the responses here, but the grass is green enough here for me and I don't feel like I'm missing much. The beer I've had over the years from several "top" breweries, whether through travel or trade, are rarely better than I can get locally. So, in short, I agree with the OP in every way.

 

I completely agree. I firmly believe there are beers more widely available that are just as good, if not better than the hard to find stuff. Do I like getting hard to find stuff? Yes. Will I wait in line for hours and spend gobs of money? Probably not. I'm not going to pitch a fit if I can't reel in a "whale." I'm happy with what makes me happy and that is beer I want to try despite it being hard to find or not. I will say I have my own whales but as mentioned before, I won't pitch a fit if I can't get one.