Micro Brew Direct Buy - Why Not?

As with most laws concerning alcoholic beverages in the US, it varies from state to state, so you'll have to inquire with your state lawmakers. I've been in several states where I've bought beer directly from the brewery- Pennsylvania and Maine come immediately to mind.

ORYGUN TOOO!11!!!

You can in California and I know you can in Mass and Vermont as well. Most here in California will sell you what is called a "growler". The growler is a large bottle which holds, I believe, about 1.5 liters or a tad more for home consumption. I found the same to be true in some of the states in New England when I visited there a couple of years ago. If they distribute the product in bottles, and not all do, they usually will sell six packs at the brewery, but I believe this all revolves around whether or not they have a retail license and the laws of that state.

robert

You can also buy direct from the brewery in New Hampshire and Massachusetts and Vermont. It depends on the brewery. But you have go to the brewery, you can't do it by mail-order.

I am talking about Internet order. I live in Wisc and can order wine directly California vintners...

Oh, well... you didn't say that.

I'm not so sure I'd want to, even if I could. Neither the brewer nor the purchaser would have any control over the shipping conditions beyond what can be put in the box.

I am exiled in Maryland where it is a felony to ship or receive direct orders of any kind of alcohol from another State - maybe unless the seller delivers it directly to the buyer.

Kal-E-forn-ya allows shipments to anywhere - primarily because they tax it. Even in the fruit and nut capital of the world, the seller may need a special license to ship out-of-state.

Dick

I have done some beer trading with some people from Beeradvocate.com as well as been given 2 months worth of shipments from a co-workers beer of the month club and have never had a problem getting bad beer. The beer of the month club shipped in very slick packaging with styrofoam inserts that held the bottles well so no worries about breakage, and if anything that same styrofoam should also help protect against temp swings.

With all that in mind though, I think the costs would make it a bit prohibitive. I shipped the equivalent of 2 cases of beer at once and it rang me up for over $40. That was shipping through my companies FedEx desk which gets a bit of a discounted rate..

It wasn't breakage or even temperature swings I was concerned about, but rather simple rough handling. I've had beer go bad for no reason other than rough handling.

(I know things can be packed against breakage and temp changes on an overnight delivery, one of my medications is delivered that way.)

How would you know that? While I agree that many of us talk about "poor handling" as a reason why some beers go bad, it's usually understood as shorthand term for exposure to extreme temperature changes and/or to light or just age. If "rough handling" is the cause of bad beer, how does all that beer get to the retailer without high speed bottling lines and racking rooms, fork lifts, trucks on bumpy roads, handtrucks and all the workers along the way just throwing cases around? And that's not even considering all those containers full of bottles and kegs on ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean. I can't imagine that a UPS/Fed Ex shipped case of beer goes through all that much more "rough handling" than the rest of the beer on retailers' shelves does.

Because I was the rough handler. Local beer, bought at the brewery, a sample from the same batch was fine at the brewery. Took a six-pack or growler home and the next day, it was no longer fine.

Yeah, but did you do anything worse to the packaged beer than is normally done in the long (brewery>bottling line.forklifts>warehouse>trucks-and-or-ships/warehouse/more truck/retailer) chain? (I mean, how *bad* are the shocks on your car and the potholes in your town? )

Sounds to me much more likely that it was a bottling and/or cleanliness issue (esp. if it was a hand-filled growler)- tho' it is surprising that it would go "bad" in one day. So, did the brewery agree with you or suggest this answer or was it your conclusion? Either way, I don't think that that example is universally true for the vast majority of beers from commercial bottling line breweries.

The only way I've ever seen growlers filled at the brewery is in such a way that O2 would be introduced. I can beleive they could "go bad" from oxidation, and possibly loss of carbonation, in one day.

You know, now that you mention it, I haven't seen a growler being filled in a long time. The few brewpubs I frequent are usually pretty empty when I there mid-day, in fact, if I'm not the only one at the bar, I'm often the only one drinking beer. I thought most of the brewpubs (at least the ones that cared) were using "guns" or at least, plastic tubing and/or purging with C02 or a seltzer rinse. (I'm being optimistic, huh?). If a brewpub is just splashing beer down the side of the growler from the tap, what sort of mess are these retail shops who are now selling growlers doing?

Yeah, I suppose- I'd be pretty p*ssed, tho'. (I guess I envision getting home from the brewery late at night, and cracking the growler around

I read about some folks shipping growlers across the country via freight companies, putting them in their checked baggage on planes or "hand filling" into 12 oz. bottles from growlers for trades and do have to wonder what sort of horrors those beers might be once poured.

First time, it was the remainder of a four pack of something from Unibrew I bought while in Montreal and then packed home to Boston in the trunk of my microcar.

Second time, it was a growler from microbrewery about 20 miles and five or six towns away, some of the streets in between were pretty bad.

In both cases, I simply tossed the stuff. In the case of the local place, I cleaned the jug, went back for more and was more careful on the way home. :)

Was there any rest time after? Unibroue's beers are bottle conditioned so transporting them stirs up the yeast sediment, sometimes with a deleterious effect. The prudent drinker will allow it to settle out for a few days before drinking.

I know. :) That was several years ago, I'm reasonably sure I let it sit at least overnight after unpacking the car before opening one.

Well, I had a properly sealed Growler sent to me in a trade for a NB La Folie. It was a Masala Mama and I can assure you, the contents of that Growler lived up to my expectations and more.