Growler Shops
I’m visiting my good friend Aaron in Atlanta, Georgia, this week, with my youngest son. So far we’ve gone swimming twice in an incredibly large pool (100 meter lanes), had ridiculously delicious barbeque (Daddy D’z), and checked out the local “growler shop” to prepare for last night’s NBA finals game.
Don’t know what a growler shop is? Neither did I, but if you like beer, you’re going to want to learn. It’s basically a take-away bar, with an enormous number of beers that you can sample and of course purchase, at great prices. The growler shop we went to is called My Friend’s Growler Shop, and two very adorable and friendly sommeliers named Camric and John:
We ended up tasting a bunch of beers but taking home Eventide Kölsh, which comes from a local brewery and is a variation of Grolsh, and Left Hand Milk Stout, which is as close to a meal in a drink as you can get if you’ve been weaned.
Why doesn’t New York have growler shops? As Camric and John explained to me, each state has different interpretations of a federal law that prohibits reselling of beers in anything other than their original containers. Law is weird, but what it means is that New York State laws would only allow a shop to sell beer from a single brewery, which is super disappointing.
Also, if you don’t love beer, there are also such things as growler wine shops, but also in Georgia and not New York.
It also seems to me that I’ve seen a growler shop in a really odd place, maybe a Duane Reade somewhere in NYC?
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Yep, there’s one in a Duane Reade on Bedford. It’s almost like giant chains are desperate to sell to rich hipsters but aren’t quite clear on the concept…
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Cathy, there are tons of growler shops in NYC. Whole Foods on the Bowery has a great one, as do Good Beer in the East Village, Top Hops in the LES, and a bunch more that I can’t recall offhand. NY may have some weird beer laws, but fortunately that’s not among them.
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I am do glad to be wrong about this!
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That sounds awesome! I am going to see if there is a growler shop in Charlotte. Great post!
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Immediately makes me think of this: XKCD reveals secret of beer.
Apologies if most readers of this blog have already seen this and/or don’t agree.
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Joshua, my fondness for beer is almost all gone, except for Hoegaarden, which tastes almost like wine.
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I can’t decide whether that comic makes fun of people who like beer or if it makes fun of people who pretend to like beer.
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Ithaca definitely has Growlers. But most sadly … our best bar which would fill your growler burned down a couple months ago. 😦
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We are lucky enough in NE Ohio to have good breweries and growlers for fill and purchase at many local grocery stores.
It’s needed when dealing with Cavs-induced stress.
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had not seen that XKCD – I never liked the taste of beer until about age 25 or so, but now I genuinely love it. Maybe that XKCD is a case of generalizing from one example..
http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/
we used to get growlers from a local brewery in Palisade CO, but it changed ownership and the Red Truck Ale, Farmer’s Friend etc all went away. It was very sad..
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At the risk of generalizing from one (or two) I acquired a taste for beer at about age 23, and lost that taste about twenty years later.
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Yes, I think that’s what makes it funny for those of us who aren’t subject to this fallacy, in at least this one case.
Incidentally, on generalizing from one example, it is amazing how we are capable of fallaciously assuming everyone else is like us and assuming ourselves to be utterly unique at nearly the same time.
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I’ve been a reader and a fan of your blog for awhile. I never knew you were into beer. If you want to learn to brew, I homebrew about once a month at my place near Penn station , I’ll happily cobrew one with you and show you the ropes.
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What a kind offer! How about I drink while you brew? 🙂
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A growler is 64 oz and a six pack is 72 oz and where I live, the growler often costs more.
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