Local is always better

If you aren't fortunate to live in a town that either has its own or is located nearby to a brewery, I'm sorry.  It's a fact that beer tastes it best when it is right from the brewery.  With the spread of good beer in the recent decade, it's becoming more and more likely that you at least live in driving distance of a quality beer producing establishment. 


But why is local so good?


1. Convenience: Sure it may always be more convenient to pick up some BMC than anything else, but it is also likely that your local brewery's beers can be found at your local bars and stores.  Many breweries offer 'beer finder' services on their websites so you can track down the closest location where you find their brews.  The smaller breweries are using sites like facebook and twitter more and more to also keep track of where their beers are being sold and served.  For those of us in the Buffalo region, there is even a site dedicated to keeping track of what's on tap around town.  Bottom line: it's easy to find and drink local beer.

2. Price: Yes I am aware that BMC will be your cheapest option.  But local beer can be significantly cheaper (without sacrificing quality in taste) than buying beers produced around the country and the world.  At Flying Bison Brewing Company you can stop by and fill up growlers (c. 6-10 bucks, depending on beer) or kegs (great prices at the brewery), or just have a few samples.

3. Community: Buying and supporting local beer also means supporting your local community.  Quite often the breweries embrace and foster the local culture and economy, whether it be in the form of hosting events (Brews and BBQ) or donating all spent grain to local farmers to be used as feed.

I recently attended two events (one at Flying Bison, the other a Community Beer Works event hosted at Blue Monk) which I think illustrate perfectly how awesome local can be.

A couple weeks ago, the Graduate Student Association of the University at Buffalo put on an event at Flying Bison's brewery.  The brewery opens up their doors to groups looking to host events, including providing unlimited samples of their beers and a guided tour of the brewery with detailed explanation of the brewing process.  Not only was the event ridiculously affordable (tickets were 8 bucks, including the catered BBQ) but the event was extremely fun and the staff were very happy to have us and eager to answer our questions.  Our tour was guided by Flying Bison's owner, Tim Herzog, and was so extremely informative (even for someone who has been to a number of breweries) that you could not help being impressed.  This type of event would only be possible through the combination of a great local brewery with people who actually care about the community.  Big thanks to the guys at Flying Bison, looking forward to next year's event!

Tim Herzog and me - 'The Presidential'

This past Monday, Community Beer Works, the new nano-brewery that is on its way to opening up, put on a tasting event at super hip bar Blue Monk.  This event was highly anticipated (by me) as CBW can not yet produce their beers commercially, so for the moment these tasting-type events are the only chance to try their brews.  And even though the guys at CBW seem really cool and are getting into the business for all the right reasons, at some point, it all comes down to the beer.  

There was a great turnout for the event.  Not only were the CBW crew serving up samples of their American pale ale and their saison, but Blue Monk was donating a dollar from every pint sold towards CBW.  Both the pale ale and the saison were extremely well executed, and I personally really enjoyed the pale ale as it really highlighted Citra hops without being like a hop-bazooka.  The atmosphere was great and you could feel that everyone was enjoying the event.  I even picked up a (super cool) CBW t-shirt!

While my recent beer experiences in Buffalo have been great, this is not an isolated occurrence.  Tell us what you think about your local breweries.  Is there any reason to NOT buy/support local beer?

-Aaron