Variety Packs - 2019 edition

Yep, $24-$25 here in the 'burbs of NYC. And there's more than one Van Steenberge sampler pack out there, with different beers in each one (Gulden Draak and Piraat being the only beers in common). The one @officerbill detailed doesn't seem to be available in my area according to BeerMenus.

 

I got mine at Wegman's. They're in the city now, but I don't know if they do beermenus.

 

The only variety packs we really enjoyed and sought out were the SN "Beer Camp" line -- which seem to have gone away. We do get a mixed pack on occasion. We stay away from those which are mostly the brewer's standard run with one or two less common mixed in. A variety of styles is better than the 'all-IPA' types.

Since my wife and I rate beers together, the ones with a 6x2 mix are preferred to the ones with the more common 4x3 mix. When one of varities in the 4x3 comes up a real winner, we then have a 'discussion' of who gets the orphan. I usually lose.

 

I like a variety packs if it contains stuff I either like a lot or haven't tried and intrigues me. You can never go wrong with the Stone IPA variety packs. Catered a party in Atlanta and 90% of the beer was from a SweetWater pack. Had a good mix of IPA/Fruit/Pilsner. That is a killer variety pack if you are throwing a party and don't know what to expect, and most of the beers in the pack were solid (the fruit and one of the IPA's were with the G13 hop that reeks of weed). I truly miss the Sierra Nevada hop samplers, but I think I need to quit bitching about that. Back to SweetWater, they have dropped a couple of good ones this year. I think I am about 5 cases into them this year.

 

I tend to like the variety packs that aren't heavy on IPAs. A pack with a good mix of other styles usually is one that catches my interest.

 

I have seen this (albeit with Bodem instead of Augustijn) at the Wegmans of Cherry Hill, several times. Not sure if they will bring this new one as the old one was not popular with consumers given the dust it was accumulating

 

I always look forward to the Short's Super Hoppy Holidays pack. This year it includes (2 of each):
Magic Eye (6% NEIPA)
Good Humans (8.3% Dry Hopped Double Brown Ale)
Spruce Pilsner (10% Hop forward Imperial Pilsner fermented with blue spruce tips)
$plurge (9.1% DIPA)
Bourbon Barrel Aged Huma (10% BBA DIPA)
Yoda's Blend (8% special blend of all the beers in the pack)

 

I paid 27.99 for the pack.

 

I found last fall a 6pack of dark beers from one of our local breweries Lazy Magnolia called Dark of Winter. It had a porter,coffee stout and Russian imperial stout, all great drinks. Now of course it's discontinued now.

 

It was around in NC last year. It was a single 12oz bottle of each and a glass. The glass is very thin though and if I didn't use it so rarely it would probably be broken by now. I think the price was somewhere in the $20-$25 range, but my memory isn't what it never was.

 

I've only found two decent dark/BA beer variety packs. One was from Boulevard and one from Fulton.

 

I just split the third one with whoever I’m splitting the pack with.

 

That's always an option, of course.

 

It was more a gift pack, just the three beers and a nice glass. I bought it after xMas, it was a clearance item. If memory serves, it was under $10, I bought the last 4 on the shelf.