I moved to BEER HELL :(

After moving back to Illinois from Asheville, NC last week, I have gotten all settled in and went out to find some good beer today. Last week I found Fat Tire at Wal-Mart. I went to the Liquor Store, since there are no beers stores here and they did have a decent selection of Sierra Nevada, Rouge, Flying Dog, Avery, Left Hand, and Bells. They do have a good Belgium section.

It gets bad tho, the closest homebrew store over an hour away and I have not heard good things about it. I guess I could go through Northern Brewer but I am not going to be home during the days for the delivery. I will find a way to make it work.

Sounds like somebody needs to start a yeast bank and ordering in bulk.

Fat Tire at WalMart + all of those micros and imports at a nearby liquor store...WTF are you complaining about?!?! The WalMart here sells BMC and Shiner (bleck!) products nearly exclusively. I'm not a huge New Belgium fan, but I'd be thrilled to see one of their brews for sale at a mega mart here. There's a little store in town that very occasionally has a limited supply of Rogue or Paulaner beers. There is NO liquor store with a good selection within 150 miles.

I've NEVER lived in a place with local homebrew store worth using. Mail order works very well. None of my orders have ever required a signature.

histo320 said:

After moving back to Illinois from Asheville, NC last week, I have gotten all settled in and went out to find some good beer today.

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That's the problem with moving away from Asheville Looks like you don't have it that bad, but you got used to Asheville: which has an unusual number of breweries and beer selection given its size. Wish Atlanta had the same number of breweries

Sorry, but SC is not even close to beer Hell. Beer Purgatory maybe, but beer Hell is in Provo, Utah.

I miss Bells so much! We can't get it here in Oregon, although I think they could easily compete with many of the breweries here. Go drink some Oberon/Two Hearted and you'll feel better. Welcome to the Midwest!

EdWort said:

Sorry, but SC is not even close to beer Hell. Beer Purgatory maybe, but beer Hell is in Provo, Utah.

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not to be argumentative but move to mississippi and come back and talk to me....

archaic nothing over 5% for sale beer wise, no LHBS to be found and a state legislature FULL of idiots that won't allow a higher alcohol content (and/or breweries to distribute by default) yet receive checks from budweiser.....rent seeking basturds.

rant over, gator

Check out brewmasters warehouse, 2nd day delivery to indianapolis, great prices, and no sig required FTW

I am not in beer hell, i'm in a place where satan sends demons that are too uncooperaive for hell. I live in east central KY. Closest homebrew shop is louisville(1.25 hrs) and its ok but pricey. I can get some stuff in liquor barn (lexington) but big ticket items are a no-. I'm going AG so if it werent for HBT i'd be forcked!

From the title I though you moved here, but Ed is right, Utah County is hell.

You think that's bad...move to OK where (TX) Shiner's is an import...

MurderMittenBrewing said:

I miss Bells so much! We can't get it here in Oregon, although I think they could easily compete with many of the breweries here. Go drink some Oberon/Two Hearted and you'll feel better. Welcome to the Midwest!

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Oh, BOO HOO, It's SO rough for me here in Portland! No craft brewing to speak of there!!!

Man, i feel for all you guys, I live in Portland OR. About 1/2 a mile away from my house is a place called Johns market. Last year it made the news paper for having the largest beer and wine selection in the U.S. There are also three home brew shops within a 15 mile radius of me... I couldnt imagine how tough it would be to have to plan so far ahead, when i need something I just drive to the brew store.

In my eyes most of you are in beer hell, +1 to you all for keeping with brewing even though its not so convenient.

MurderMittenBrewing said:

I miss Bells so much! We can't get it here in Oregon, although I think they could easily compete with many of the breweries here. Go drink some Oberon/Two Hearted and you'll feel better. Welcome to the Midwest!

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Dude, check out Johns Market in SW Portland, I bet you money it has it!

I just get stuff delivered to work. Makes it a lot easier to sign for. Is that an option for you?

Beer hell is Puerto Rico. Don't play until you've had Medalla Light..

While it's not hell here, it's much worse than many places. No homebrew shops in this country. Or even any neighboring country that I can tell. Maybe Hungary? But not speaking Hungarian hinders this a bit.

No American or English beers at all.

Luckily there are a few Belgian, German and Czech beers here. But I'm MUCH more in ale than lager. So mostly I drink Belgian and German ales.

you all make me sick !

Beer Hell is a place where you are given all the access to Beer info that you could ever want Look at beer ads on TV and movies, but you are only allowed skunked warm N/A Beer from some failed factory that InBev bought out 15 years ago, only to produce this swill for Halal (sp) and recovering alcoholics,

those of you that live along the west coast..... I hope you choke on a bottle cap for complaining !

Now for those of you in the "Bible Belt" I really do feel for ya, 3.2% swill and if you wanted good brew you had to find an open liquor store and buy it warm.

and some of you that live in Dry Counties......the best I can say is a MOVE. if after all this time they have not recinded those laws they may never......

-Jason

What are you complaining about? All we have here in North San Diego county is Stone, Pizza Port, Lost Abbey, Carl Strauss, Green Flash, Oceanside Ale works, San Marcos Brewery, Oggi's Pizza, Breakwater. It's horrible! (did I miss any?)

Oh, and Hydrobrew, a great LHBS 10 minutes from my house.

It must suck to be in beer hell. I wouldn't know. I can be at Victory Brewing Co. in ten minutes, Iron Hill Brewery in 20, and the Wegman's by me just allowed beer sales. Wegman's selection is great, but you can only buy a 12pack at a time. Although you can put your beer in the car and go right back in to buy more. Seems silly, but there's a loophole in every rule.

MattHollingsworth said:

While it's not hell here, it's much worse than many places. No homebrew shops in this country. Or even any neighboring country that I can tell. Maybe Hungary? But not speaking Hungarian hinders this a bit.

No American or English beers at all.

Luckily there are a few Belgian, German and Czech beers here. But I'm MUCH more in ale than lager. So mostly I drink Belgian and German ales.

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Ok, you got me there. I'd be brewing my ass off in Coratia!!!!!!!

histo320 said:

After moving back to Illinois from Asheville, NC last week, I have gotten all settled in and went out to find some good beer today. Last week I found Fat Tire at Wal-Mart. I went to the Liquor Store, since there are no beers stores here and they did have a decent selection of Sierra Nevada, Rouge, Flying Dog, Avery, Left Hand, and Bells. They do have a good Belgium section.

It gets bad tho, the closest homebrew store over an hour away and I have not heard good things about it. I guess I could go through Northern Brewer but I am not going to be home during the days for the delivery. I will find a way to make it work.

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This is exactly why I started brewing my own. Getting good beer locally is just a giant PITA. We have a couple of stores that get some decent things locally, but the selection is very limited and doesn't change all that often. I'm not interested in driving 2.5 hrs to Dallas to buy beer.

No LHBS option for me, either. Brewmaster's Warehouse is awesome, though-- fair prices and fantastic, enthusiastic service.

does that mean you live an hour from chicago? chicago has tones of good beer and brewpubs.
3 floyds brewpub in indiana has got to be close and goose island is in chicago.

i cant complain here in ohio. the drive thru's here stock sierra nevada, great lakes, and dogfishhead.

i went on vacation in kentuky/tennessee once and got stuck in a dry county. some of the silliest s#%$ ive ever encountered. 10 min down the road and you can buy beer again in another county. you would think that these countys would loose alot of much needed tax dollars.

eschatz said:

Ok, you got me there. I'd be brewing my ass off in Coratia!!!!!!!

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That's the plan.

does that mean you live an hour from chicago? chicago has tones of good beer and brewpubs.

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I seriously doubt they are close to Chicago. If I had to guess, I'd say they are in southern IL. Somewhere like Carbondale or Metropolis, and the nearest LHBS is probably Champaign-Urbana or maybe in St. Louis.

Madison has a buttload of good liquor stores and bars. It's what we do.

Clovis, NM 5 hours from the nearest LHBS in Santa Fe. Its pretty much all around hell. Plus the whole place smells like cow crap from the plethora of dairies. At least Walgreens has a decent beer selection.

no my friend Batesville, MS is beer drinkers hell. Unless, you enjoy bud or bud light or the like. Occasionally, you'll catch blue moon or sam adams at the Tobacco Superstore but that is only when they have their seasonals available.

Thank god I live in beer heaven. 3 very good breweries, 2 good brewpubs, one decent LHBS all within 3 miles of eachother.

Man some of you have it rough. Tempted to start growing and malting your own grains, growing hops and washing yeast yet?

I live 5 miles from Michigan Brewing Company. They also sell a really amazing variety of home brewing equipment and ingredients so it works out GREAT. Plus, they have very knowledgeable staff on hand (i.e. brewers).

MacBruver said:

I just get stuff delivered to work. Makes it a lot easier to sign for. Is that an option for you?

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One thing that worked well for me when I lived in Texas was to rent a mailbox at a pack and ship store (not a PO box at a post office). They would receive and hold any packages until I swung by on my way home from work. Never had to worry about signature requirements, packages getting stolen, left out in the rain, heat, etc.

I think Croatia dude has it worse than any of us. Utah would be a close second, due to their alcohol laws. The Southeast varies by state, but I think they will soon come around. I have no complaints about living in Southern California. My LHBS is not down the street, but only a 20 min drive from me and they have everything I would ever need. I might start ordering in bulk once I settle on a particular flavor.

beer hell is being in beer heaven with your lips welded shut. you can see it and smell it, but even if you pour it in your nose, it triggers a huge stereo which blasts the theme song to "the Facts of Life" and mike tyson punches you in the face.

blackwaterbrewer said:

beer hell is being in beer heaven with your lips welded shut. you can see it and smell it, but even if you pour it in your nose, it triggers a huge stereo which blasts the theme song to "the Facts of Life" and mike tyson punches you in the face.

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OK. Now I have that stupid theme song stuck in my head.

I live in the sinkhole of beervana. I think I'm as far away from a brewery, LHBS, or good beer store as a person can get while living in western Oregon. On the other hand, OBC meets at Widmer's Thursday and there's a Trader Joe's on the way there. Down to the last bag of dogfood.

30 minutes to get to anything and 60 to get to everything!

"Learnin' the facts of life!!!!!!"

blackwaterbrewer said:

"Learnin' the facts of life!!!!!!"

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I'll +2 or +3 or whatever the vote count is for Utah. I feel sorry for beer lovers there. I had to go there for my company for two weeks a year or two back (Draper). Doesn't seem to be anything over 3.2 on tap anywhere in the state. You can get over 3.2 in bottles, but you have to specify you want the strong stuff and then it has a special label on it. Very few state stores to buy good beer, and they have unfavorable hours. Can't order or hold more than one wine or mixed drink at a time in the bars. We were there on an election night and they couldn't serve booze till the polls closed at 8PM.

I got back and told my boss never to send me there again cuz I didn't want any of my tax dollars going to that state government.

MacBruver said:

I just get stuff delivered to work. Makes it a lot easier to sign for. Is that an option for you?

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I wish it was but I am a teacher.

histo320 said:

I wish it was but I am a teacher.

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Whats your point? Its not like its actual beer.