Hi everyone! My cousin will be visiting Tuscaloosa for a conference in about a week and said he'd pick up some beers to bring home. Not being familiar with the area (we're from Quebec), we could use a little help. Does anyone have a suggestion for a place to pick up bottles? Also, what great beers would we likely be able to acquire in that distribution area? Neither of us are huge hopheads; we lean more towards imperial stouts, wee heavy, quads and the like. Thank-you very much in advance!
Spirits off Rice Mine Rd is your best bets in Tuscaloosa. Corks and Tops near the university carries a similar selection but has higher prices, the service is not good, and usually has a lot of old stock and boxes everywhere. If he is going to be flying into Birmingham they have a much larger selection there. Check out Hop City there and they should have just about everything you can get in the area. For beers check out Founders, Bells, Terrapin, Sweetwater, Good People, Ballast Point, Oskar Blues
Excellent, thank-you very much for the info. He won't be heading into Birmingham, so I guess it'll have to be Spirits.
other locals who package: Back40 and Beer Engineers. Tuscaloosa have their first Brewery, Druid City. Draft only, but he could check them out
Ill second the others and say he should find a way to get to Birmingham (really only a 45-1hour drive) and if he cant, I would really look for what others mentioned and definitely look for Good People Brewing stuff like Snakehandler (Great DIPA).
I love Alabama beers, but you picked my two least favorites there. I'm pretty sure that Back40 contract brews for BE.
Anyone have any suggestions for specific bottles to pick up? I am definitely telling him to grab some Ballast point Victory at Sea
I can't stand IPAs, but I will always tell people about them. And yes, BE is currently contract brewed by B40, but their production brewery will be coming online later this year or early next year.
This is true. I'm all for local and I used to live in Gadsden but Back40 Honey Brown is a terrible beer IMO. My wife even hated it and said it was too watered down. Druid City is so new I will withhold judgement on them.
Hop City in Bham actually has all Ballast Point stuff $8.99 for 64oz growler right now. I have Sculpin and Victory at Sea at home and I will be refilling this week.
How I would rate Alabama breweries (note, only one mentioned are the ones I've had product from): Top Tier: 1. Good People 2. STA (virtual tie with GPBC) Above Average: 3. Avondale 4. Blue Pants 5. Cahaba Average: 6. Yellowhammer 7. Old Black Bear Below Average: 8. Back Forty 9. Beer Engineers Overall, I love Alabama beers better than my own state. Can't wait to try Fairhope and Druid City beers.
so your tastes are pretty much diametrically opposite to mine. That's fine, but don't put people off trying something merely because you don't like it.
Put out your list to show who you support the most. And when I say "average" that means I still enjoy those brews. Average in craft beer world is still a damn fine beer.
I am not going to post such a list - what are you, 12 I don't like hop bombs, but each brewery has lovely dark malt bombs - Good People Coffee Oatmeal, STA Lily Flagg, etc etc. Looking at your list it just looks to me like you love the hop bombs. That's fine - but the market decides who is successful, and B40 is just as much a raging success as GPBC. To each their own.
Success doesn't equal greatness. Btw, just happen to be drinking a STA Intimidator. Not exactly a hop bomb. No doubt I love hoppy beers but its not what drink the most of. My cellar is mostly saisons I think. www.cellarhq.com/cellar/oliverklosoff
I would never rate any brew by Yellowhammer as average. They are most definitely in a league of their own considering they do not follow your normal recipe. European Tradition, Uniquely American. Not average in my opinion.
Like I said, average isn't a bad thing. I've had several beers from them that were very good, like Tobacco Road, Frankenhammer and Miracle Worker. Hop Revival and UberAlt though... I will say that they have tons of potential, more than Blue Pants and Cahaba.
