I live just down the street from Tipple's Brews, and it is definitely one of my favorite places to visit. As you enter the store, you'll find it's about equally divided up with the beer on the left hand side of the store, while the wine is on the right. There is also a small selection of cigars, cheese, chocolate, and their own house brands of hot sauces available.
In the far corner, there are two rotating taps so you can enjoy a nice draft beer as you do your shopping. This is one of my favorite things about the store as there is oftentimes something nice on tap, and I'll hang out there with a buddy or two drinking as we peruse the selection. They will usually have at least one local selection from Swamphead Brewery of Gainesville or from nationally acclaimed Cigar City Brewery of Tampa. The Swamphead 10-10-10 Imperial IPA is one of the best when it's on tap fresh! If what's on tap doesn't thrill you, then they are happy to open up any of the bottles for you to enjoy in the store as well. There's a marble countertop at the checkout, but no stools for you to sit and linger there -- you just have to stand or lean as you enjoy your beer!
Another thing I like is that all the beer selections are available as singles (except for the ones in sealed variety cases), so I'm not stuck buying a whole six pack of a beer that I just want to try out. You pay a bit of a premium for singles, but it is a great option in my opinion. They have a nice selection from US craft breweries available around here, most notably Cigar City, but also carry Georgia breweries like Sweetwater and Terrapin.
There are about 8 cooler sections with refrigerated brews along with a growing number of shelves stocked with packs, singles, and bombers of all types. There is also a nice selection of imports from Belgium, Germany, the UK, Italy, and other parts of the world. This is the only place in town that I've found Italian brewery Le Baladin's rare Xyauyu. There is a very nice selection and variety of brews from all types of American craft breweries to all the imported Trappist beers (brewed by/for Trappist monks) and everything inbetween from British best bitters to German weizenbocks to Belgian Lambics. And if you need some horse pee for your pee swilling friends, they even have Bud Light and PBR available! :-)
The shelf space and selection has exploded here in the last couple of months with a ton of new shelves having been built, so if you haven't been by recently, you may be surprised by how much the selection has grown. The prices are usually pretty good, and they typically charge less here for beers you might find in the local supermarket (Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Dogfish Head). For example, the SA and SN 6 packs are usually $1 to $1.20 less than what they are at the supermarkets down the street from here.
I enjoy the occassional glass of wine with friends, but don't know enough to comment on their wine selection, though it appears to be fairly good. The variety runs from the inexpensive to the pricey with bottles running from under $10 to over $100. They give a 5% discount off mix-and-match 6 bottles of wine and 10% off 12 bottles. There are also some nice local, artisanal, and imported cheeses available; I quite enjoyed the local Wainwright dairy's sharp cheddar.
There is a small selection of branded beer glassware, probably most notable being the famous Duvel tulip. Most tend to be of the stemmed tulip or stemmed chalice variety. Additionally, they've gotten in a number of gift packs recently probably in preparation for the Christmas gift giving season.
Every now and then they host a beer or wine tasting that always sells out. They've also randomly had free beer samples sometimes, usually announced through Facebook. The owners are pretty nice guys and I've been the recipient of a number of free tastings, the most recent a vertical of Gale's Prize Old Ale 1996, 1998, and 2000 vintages! If you have a question or need a suggestion, they are always willing to help the best they can.
The owners are friendly and always happy to help. I think I've lost count of how many free beers I've gotten from these guys, and I'm sure I'm not even close to being their best customer. This is by far the best store in the Gainesville area to do some beer shopping at. Hmm... after writing up this review, I'm jonesing to head over there and do some shopping... read more