Finding craft beer in normal states?!

A General Discussion forum for cars and other topics, and a great place to introduce yourself if you are new to NICO!
User avatar
MinisterofDOOM
Moderator
Posts: 30928
Joined: Wed May 19, 2004 5:51 pm
Car: 1962 Corvair Monza
1961 Corvair Lakewood
1974 Unimog 404
1997 Pathfinder XE
2005 Lincoln LS8
Former:
1995 Q45t
1993 Maxima GXE
1995 Ranger XL 2.3
1984 Coupe DeVille
Location: The middle of nowhere.

Post

I'm from Utah, where grocery stores can sell <3.2% abv beer and that's it. Anything else is sold only at official state-run liquor stores. A pain in the arse, the hours suck, and prices are crap. But there's one benefit: I always know where to go to buy decent beer.

Now I'm in Idaho and they sell alcohol like a normal state. But all anyone ever stocks is crap. The best I can find in any store is Killians Irish Red, which is hardly special but is certainly better than a can of bud lite.

Particularly, I'm looking for my favorite standby:
Image

But I'm down for any doppelbock (hell, I'd settle for a nice dark bock at this point). Or anything microbrew, interesting, or delicious.

There's a gas station that doubles as a state-sanctioned liqor store down the street, but the "liquor store" part is just a tiny room in the corner full of s*** mass produced beer and liquor. The kids who run the gas station don't know anything about beer (this town's population is almost entirely made up of students attending the mormon-run college at the center, so nobody else drinks beer) and I can't find ANY useful info on the state's website about whether there might be more useful liquor stores eleswhere. Idaho Falls is a half-hour south and I'm thinking that's my best hope on this front.
(It's also a little SMALLER than the little farm town I was living in right before I left Utah, and it's the third largest city in the state!).

Where the crap do people go to buy REAL beer in states with normal alcohol laws?


User avatar
PapaSmurf2k3
Site Admin
Posts: 19003
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

Post

you MIGHT be able to contact the manufacturer of that beer to see where they are sold around you.
It's a long shot, but it might work. What's the worst that can happen, you put a smile on their face cos you really like their beer?

User avatar
Jesda
Posts: 39644
Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 1:50 pm
Location: STL, DTW
Contact:

Post

I'm in St Louis so all of our grocery and gas station shelves are PACKED with the most popular A-B products. A-B pays for the shelf space but the stores also benefit from brisk sales, so I can't hold it against them.

As a result, privately run wine and liquor stores have sprung up all over the state. Imagine a store the size of Kroger that sells nothing but booze. It's paradise for the drinker's palette and it's unlikely we'd have these wonderful stores if our grocers weren't so heavily stocked with Budweiser.

Image

A-B also deserves a great deal of credit for Missouri having the loosest liquor laws in the country.

User avatar
RicerX
Moderator
Posts: 2703
Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:36 am
Car: '20 Titan Pro4X
Location: Southeastern US

Post

dang man. that is painful. our Publix carries 12% beers here... even many local brews such as Straight To Ale's Monkeynaut (VERY tasty).

We just passed a legalization for homebrewing and recently established a zone downtown where it's lawful for open container. Ol Alabama is moving on up. More and more craft beer bars are opening up and stores like Target, Publix, and Kroger are starting to stock up. Other specialty liquor stores are opening up as well.

User avatar
yodawill2000
Posts: 3888
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:10 pm
Car: 94 Infiniti J30
Location: Grand Prairie TEXAS

Post

Brew your own !! :biggrin:
There's a recipe for about all well known beers on the interwebs.
IPA's are a snap to brew.

User avatar
Dattebayo
Posts: 33288
Joined: Sun Aug 25, 2002 10:04 am
Car: 2004 Nissan Frontier Desert Runner
Location: NE DC

Post

In this thread, Jesda rubs it in. :chuckle:

I second brewing your own. I have a summer mead on it's way, and if the last two batches were any hint of what's to come, it can only get more awesome.
America likes to lie about it's ABV anyway, so anything you get is actually less than they say, in my experience.

User avatar
MinisterofDOOM
Moderator
Posts: 30928
Joined: Wed May 19, 2004 5:51 pm
Car: 1962 Corvair Monza
1961 Corvair Lakewood
1974 Unimog 404
1997 Pathfinder XE
2005 Lincoln LS8
Former:
1995 Q45t
1993 Maxima GXE
1995 Ranger XL 2.3
1984 Coupe DeVille
Location: The middle of nowhere.

Post

I've actually been looking into homebrewing a lot lately. NICO is largely responsible for pushing me closer and closer to actually giving it a try.


Return to “General Chat”