Hard to say anything bad about a place with the selection (probably the best, of the best beers, within at least an hour radius that I've found) of this one. The bartenders and the gentleman at the register were very personable. That reminds me...since you pay for everything, including your bar tab, at the front, it is very easy to forget to tip your bartender directly, a mistake which I won't soon be repeating. My one knock on The Beer Store has to do with inventory management, which is perhaps expecting too much, and perhaps even not their responsibility at all.
You see, along with the other 200 million "beer enthusiasts" in America, I enjoy IPA's. So this past Saturday, I treated myself to a four pack of Firestone Walker's Double Jack after enjoying some other excellent beers of similar style at their bar. But alas hops, and the IPA's they embitter, are a fickle friend, and one whose staying power is notably weak, which is to say that an IPA enjoyed after about the six-month mark is but a shadow of its true self, and some would even put that figure at 90 days. It even says as much on the Double Jack packaging.
So when I took my first swig at home the next day and noticed a lot more of the booziness, and a lot less of the bite, than I expected, my suspicions were aroused. Perusing the label, I was aghast to find that this particular bottle, as well as its three sleeve-mates, were produced on February 22nd of the year of our Lord 2014, making them on January 25th of 2015 almost a full year old.
Should I have checked on this prior to purchasing, given that this particular brewery is over 3000 miles away from my point of purchase? Most likely. Would it have been nice if The Beer Store had done this for me, instead of doing the beer-store-equivalent of a grocery store selling me moldy cheese? Sure. But you don't stop shopping at Trader Joe's, an otherwise excellent grocery store, just because they sold you that moldy cheese that one time, and I won't dock The Beer Store more than one star for this offense, their multiple other redeeming qualities considered. I'm not above drinking year-old beer, and truth be told, neither are you. But if we can avoid it, we'll both have a better time. I'll be back, repeatedly. I'll just check the label next time. read more