Out of State Beer Adventures....

I was in the Ft. Lauderdale area Wednesday night and Thursday for work reasons. While I was there I figured I would try to scope out a few good beer stores and grab a few bottles of stuff I can't get here in Georgia. With the help of the directory on Beer Advocate I located 2 promising stores withing a 5 minute drive of my hotel. Keg and Case World and Total Wine. Stopped at Keg and Case World first. They had a great selection of Belgians and the guy manning the counter was very helpful. The main goal of this trip was to track down any and all Bells beers that I could find. He did tell me they have had trouble getting Bells in since the distributor changed, bummer. I did track down some Dogfish Old School Barleywine, looks very promising, and a sixer of Highland Kashmir IPA (yes I can get that here but I did want to have a few beers later and didn't really feel like hitting a 15% barleywine on a business trip). Next stop was Total wine. This place was huge and 90% wine but had a nice selection of import and craft brews. You could build your own six pack from their very nice single bottle selection. Again, tons of Belgians and American craft brews all well organized. Ended up picking up a 6er of Bells Two Heart (My new fav IPA) and a 4 pack of Sam Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner. Love the Bells, I'll have a bit more of a write up about it next week. Had never heard of the Sam Adams but I am glad I picked it up, it is rather amazing. Extremely hoppy (woohoo!) but very smooth at the same time, again a full review is coming.

I took my well bought loot back to the hotel and had 2 or 3 while watching the UNC/Clemson bball game. The next morning I packed all the beer in my suitcase using my time tested method of wrapping in newspaper and padding with clothes. I have done this several times and never had a bottle break (knock on wood) during transit. So I got to thinking, what does it say about someone who FLYS beer back from far away places he has visited? I don't know really. I think of it as expanding my brew knowledge, trying new things that I can't get at home. Sure it may be extreme to lug beer back from New York or Maine or Virginia or South Florida or Illinois or even somewhere as close as North Carolina. But the fact that I can travel to all these places and see beer brands and styles that I have never heard before says great things about the American and world wide craft brew market. More and more places and people are opening up to the huge variety of beer out there. The more the merrier I say. Let them drink a West Coast IPA, let them try a Funky Wild Yeast Belgian, try a nice dark Coffee Stout. Who knows, they may just like it.

Happy Drinking!