East Coast vs. West Coast

Reads 4861 • Replies 53 • Started Sunday, May 15, 2005 11:35:20 PM CT

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Message jasonp beers 1581 º places 29 º 07:32 Mon 5/16/2005 Actually, the Northern VA/DC area has a pretty damn good beer selection IMO. You just have to know where to find them. You can’t really base your opinion on one visit to a shitty 7-11. Originally posted by mreeves I’m on a business trip to Northern Virginia from my Seattle home this week, and I feel sorry for you East Coasters. The only retail shop near my hotel is 7-11, and the best offering they have is Dominion Lager, which I’d say is pretty darn mediocre. In Seattle, there are at least 5-10 good beers available, including things like Mirror Pond Pale Ale, various Pyramid offerings and other quality, if unspectacular selections. How do you live in this wasteland? The East Coast is a good 10 years behind the West in getting up to speed on good beer.
Message lagermonkey beers 725 º places 1 º 08:54 Mon 5/16/2005 Originally posted by mreeves I’m on a business trip to Northern Virginia from my Seattle home this week, and I feel sorry for you East Coasters. The only retail shop near my hotel is 7-11, and the best offering they have is Dominion Lager, which I’d say is pretty darn mediocre. In Seattle, there are at least 5-10 good beers available, including things like Mirror Pond Pale Ale, various Pyramid offerings and other quality, if unspectacular selections. How do you live in this wasteland? The East Coast is a good 10 years behind the West in getting up to speed on good beer. Where are you? Plenty of good places to grab beer in NOVA. Ask and someone will recommend. There’s a Whole Foods in Vienna with a great selection, a Sweetwater Tavern in Centreville, and the Brickskeller is right in downtown DC. This only scratches the surface as I don’t even live there anymore...
Message MilkmanDan beers 1942 º places 20 º 08:59 Mon 5/16/2005 Originally posted by mreeves I’m on a business trip to Northern Virginia from my Seattle home this week, and I feel sorry for you East Coasters. The only retail shop near my hotel is 7-11, and the best offering they have is Dominion Lager, which I’d say is pretty darn mediocre. In Seattle, there are at least 5-10 good beers available, including things like Mirror Pond Pale Ale, various Pyramid offerings and other quality, if unspectacular selections. How do you live in this wasteland? The East Coast is a good 10 years behind the West in getting up to speed on good beer. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Good one. You’re kidding right? Right? Northern VA has some of the best bottled beer selection around. 7-11? Do you have any idea how many damn 7-11s there are around here? It would make absolutely no sense for them to all be carrying good beer. Wasteland? 10 minutes from my house there are two stores where I can get Victory, Dominion, DFH, Allagash, Brooklyn, Troegs, Legend, Stoudts, Stone, Bear Republic, and literally dozens of other U.S. brewers, plus hundreds of varied imports. This place has an amazing selection, but it’s nothing about being 10 years behind. The reason 7-11 doesn’t carry great beer is because there’s a damn 7-11 on every corner serving the needs of the millions and millions of people who live here, and a large number of those people can’t afford good beer. It’s called "economics".

Message JahNoth beers 1039 º 09:16 Mon 5/16/2005 I live in Rochester, NY and can purchase Smuttynose, Southern Tier, Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam and a few others at a 7-11 nearby. I do, however, agree with author’s complaint. For the most part, good beer around here has to be looked for and is not easily found in your basic places.
Message BuckNaked beers 1230 º places 28 º 09:24 Mon 5/16/2005 You could drive to vienna, VA, go to a grocery store (whole foods) and buy westy 8 & 12 today. Then there’s the shelf full of abbay des rocs and cantillon with the DFH WWS and 120min right below that...this area sure sucks! Are you anywhere near the DC area? If so you should come up and grab some beers with us.
Message SkyinBrian beers 430 º places 7 º 10:07 Mon 5/16/2005 hmm....lets see, east coast vs. west coast.......i think i will go with the midwest.
Message mwsf beers 361 º places 3 º 11:29 Mon 5/16/2005 Originally posted by boto I’ll bet that if I walked into a random convenience store around Seattle (I have) that their only choices would be basically the big three. Convenience stores (no matter where they are located) are only interested in high volume producs that appeal to a large segment of the population. This is how Apu makes his $. I’m not so sure that’s correct. The Pac NW is so steeped in beer culture that you don’t have to look for good beer, it’s just there. You don’t have to go to a specialty shop, you can go to Safeway, 7-11, or the corner market. Even in San Francisco, which is no Portland when it comes to the beer scene, just about every liquor store or corner market has a pretty damn good selection with at least 15 different micros available. Heck, I can think of eight or nine corner markets and liquor stores within a ten-block radius of my house that carry multiple beers on the RateBeer Top 50. I’m not saying the West Coast is better or that there aren’t areas like this on the East Coast, I’m just saying that in some areas you have to look for good beer and in some areas it’s just there.

Message batkins places 78 º 12:03 Mon 5/16/2005 I think some are still missing the point. It’s not the quality of the east coast beer he’s knocking. It’s the ease of availability, the overall "everywhereness" of micros out here. It’s not west coast brewery vs. east coast brewery. You have great beer out there, that we know.......hell, I trade for tons of it. It’s not the fact that your 7-11 didn’t have a decent beer, it’s the fact that even in a 7-11 out here, you’ll find a decent SELECTION of decent beer. BTW, I’m from the east coast, but then again, I left.
Message kp beers 10877 º places 12 º 12:04 Mon 5/16/2005 I was impressed when years ago I went into a small dive of a strip bar in Portland, OR. This place was so small that it only had one stage and two girls that would take turns going up on stage. It also have 4-5 local micros on tap.
Message billk beers 353 º places 60 º 12:24 Mon 5/16/2005 What can you get in the Seattle area that is really good? Deschutes, & Pyramid are pretty bad and Rogue (although some are good) is often not much to write home about. The East has Dogfish Head 60 & 90 IPAs and also Smuttynose IPA. Victory has some quality brews not to mention Sly Fox & McKenzies. Mirror Pond!!?? good god who drinks that stuff?