September 28, 2009
Beer selection in Santa Barbara sucks, and KnB is probably the only place to find Alesmith, Russian River, and Stone brews (besides the IPA and Ruination). They’ve got a real good liquor selection too. Some stuff is good price, and other stuff is overpriced. The staff is mostly incompetent, but it’s still the best place around to buy craft brew or Belgians.

June 14, 2009
Keg N Bottle is a liquor/grocery store located in the college town of Isla Vista, just a couple blocks from the UCSB campus. It is by far the best beer store in Isla Vista, and is about on par with San Roque over in Santa Barbara. I like the ambiance because they have a huge wall of liquor that has about the biggest selection that I have ever seen. the beer selection is pretty good, with a good mix of west coast crafts, Belgians, and other imports. Most of the German beers are quite old, so be careful there. Pricing can be good on some things, but many beers are more expensive than you will see just about anywhere else, especially any sort of special release. Service-wise, there is only one guy that knows anything about beer, and he isn’t around very often so you are on your own for the most part. They do have Port Brewing/Lost Abbey stuff as well as Alesmith, which are not to be found elsewhere in the SB area. I think that they have a deal with there sister store down in San Diego where they drive stuff up that is normally not distributed here. Honestly, for how good there selection is sometimes, they are about as mediocre as possible, but they are the best of a bad lot when it comes to stores in the area.