Beer Travel: GrowlerQuest 2010! (Part 1)

Back from vacation and, as I am wont to do, managed to squeeze in a bit of beer hunting during the break. Since we were going to be spending plenty of time in Pennsylvania, I decided to focus on getting some fresh growlers from some PA breweries. Georgia law prohibits growler sales and I miss my days in Maine when I could just drive down the road and get a refill from my favorite local brewery. So growlers it was!

The first stop would be at Tröegs Brewery in Harrisburg, PA. I have had my big 2-liter German-style Troegs growler for more than 6 years now and filled it often when I would pass through town but haven't had a chance to use it since this trip nearly three years ago.

I arrived during the mid-afternoon so the place was pretty empty. The first thing I noticed was the expansion of the hospitality area as there were now tables to sit and enjoy samples but an expanded store as well. But more importantly, the taps were in the same spot...so I headed over to the taps to get my growler filled.  

I perused the list of beer on draft and noticed one I did not recognize. I asked what "Mouflan" was. "That's a barleywine," said the barkeep. "I'll take it," I replied. 

$15 filled my growler with Flying Mouflan, a relatively new offering from Tröegs, hopped with Chinook, Warrior, Nugget and Simcoe and weighing in at 9.3% ABV. How on earth I will be able to finish a growler of such a beast in the appropriate time is beyond me. Obviously, I will have to share.

There were lots of barrels stacked in the brewery, obviously an expansion of earlier experiments involving adding wild yeasts to standard brews and barrel aging them. 

Tasting notes to follow...

Beer at the Ballpark: Turner Field, Atlanta, GA

I can't believe I never thought of this before. I love baseball, I love beer...but I have trouble finding the good beer at the ballpark.

Lots of times it's not available at all but a lot of time it is there...just hidden unless you're looking for it. So here's the first installment; where the best beer is at Turner Field in Atlanta, Georgia.

Most of the beer at Turner Field is as you would imagine it; Budweiser and Miller are the staples, usually in cans, sometimes on draft. Scattered in various concessions, you may find some bottles of Blue Moon, Stella Artois or Pilsner Urquell but these appear without rhyme or reason.

The place to go in the Terrace Level of the stadium, to either outlet of the Tomahawk Tavern. There is one near Section 233 on the northeast side and one near Section 222 on the northwest side. Both offer a decent selection of bottled and draft beers. In bottles, there is Abita Purple Haze, Sam Adams Summer Ale, Sam Adams Light, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Pilsner Urquell and Guinness Draught in cans. On draft is Sweetwater 420, Blue Moon, Sam Adams Lager and Tomahawk Amber Lager (a crafty-type amber brewed by Budweiser).

On this particular scorcher of a night, I opted for something lighter and went with Blue Moon. At $6 for bottles and $7 for a draft, these beers are relative bargains compared to what you have to pay for Bud or Miller Light.


The Bottom Line
Location: Terrace Level, two locations near Section 222 and Section 233
Highlights: Sweetwater 420 (draft), Sam Adams Summer Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Prices: $6 for premium bottles, $7 for 16 oz. drafts

Beer Hunting: Green's Discount Beverage in Atlanta

If you peruse this blog on a regular basis, you know that I cellar beer. Well, a second child and the economy in general has slowed down beer acquisitions for my cellar over the last couple years. But when my wife recently gave me some birthday money for beer, I knew there was only one place to take it...Green's.

Green's offers the delightful combination of the best selection and the best prices when it comes to beer in Atlanta. There are two locations but the Ponce location downtown is my store of choice. My goal was to get some new bottles for the cellar.

The only problem with Green's is that it's easy to get sidetracked. And that's what happened to me. Seemingly, for every beer that I got for the cellar (like 2007 N'Ice Chouffe) I found another that was for drinking now (like Sweetwater Wet Dream Ale). But really, it's a good problem to have.

It goes without saying that if you have to pick one place to buy beer in Atlanta, Green's is the runaway winner. Best selection, best prices and, at the Ponce location, a climate controlled beer cellar where much of the Belgian beer is housed.

The haul:

Moylan's Ryan Sullivan's Imperial Stout (2 bombers, 1 for the cellar)
Smuttynose Big Beer Series - Baltic Porter (1 bomber)
Sweetwater Dank Tank - Wet Dream Ale (1 bomber)
Smuttynose Big Beer Series - Imperial Sout (1 bomber for the cellar)
Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza (1 750ml bottle)
Unibroue Trois Pistoles (2 750ml bottles for the cellar)
Gueuze Girardin 1882 (1 375 ml bottle for the cellar)
Terrapin Side Project #8 - Pumpkinfest (1 bomber)
N'Ice Chouffe 2007 (1 750ml bottle for the cellar)
Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence (1 750ml bottle)
Houblon Chouffe (1 750ml bottle)
Stone Cali-Belgie IPA (1 bomber)
Heavy Seas The Great Pumpkin (1 bomber)
Stone Vertical Epic 09.09.09 (1 bomber)
Sierra Nevada Harvest Wet Hop Ale (1 24oz bottle)
Brew Dog Riptide Stout (1 bomber)
Samuel Adams Imperial Stout (4 12oz bottles, 3 for the cellar)
Dogfish Head Punkin Ale (4 12oz bottles)
Weyerbacher Old Heathen Imperial Stout (6 12oz bottles for the cellar)
Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale (6 12oz bottles)

Still, it was a nice addition of "new blood" for the cellar and I'll have to re-inventory the thing to reflect the additions as well as recent subtractions.

Pictures of Wallonie: Achouffe and La Roche-en-Ardenne

More pics from the Achouffe brewery and more...




Wallonie; Achouffe and La Roche-en-Ardenne

Free Beer? One Man's True Story

It's not everyday you get a chance for free beer so when it comes, you had better take advantage of it.

Thanks to a tip for a Beer Advocate buddy, I learned about a new Atlanta bar called Stout Irish Pub that is offering a free beer and lunch to announce their opening. Not one to leave free beer on the table, I took them up on the offer.

Stout (Stout's?) is not exactly a cozy bar. It's a hybrid of an Irish-themed pub and a sports bar. While the atmosphere was lacking, the service was not. The waitress was prompt and friendly and the beer menu was surprisingly good. The draft list is fair with the highlight being Rogue Chocolate Stout. The bottle list stands at 40 with highlights including Bridge Port Stout, Left Hand Imperial Stout, Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout, Sweetwater 420, Stoudts Double IPA and Duvel. Not a beer geek's dream but a very nice list. It would certainly be the best beer menu in the Buckhead neighborhood where this bar is.

I had an Old Rasputin Imperial Stout with their burger. The burger was surprisingly good and they had malt vinegar and salt to put on the fries, always a plus in my book. I also sampled their "house beer" but that turned out to be the very disappointing Anheuser Busch product, Bareknuckle Stout.

Overall, great food and great beer make for a great experience. It's hardly a special trip destination but if I find myself in Buckhead, this would be the place to stop off for a pint.

Stout Irish Pub

Beer Hunting: Southwest Florida

Southwest Florida (well, anywhere in Florida really) is not exactly what one would consider a top notch destination for beer. And it's probably not. But whenever I travel, I try to have at least one beer in mind that I want to get that I cannot get here in metro Atlanta. This time, it was the beers of Saint Somewhere Brewery.

Saint Somewhere has only been producing beer for less than a year and took the unusual strategy of brewing Belgian style beers and only releasing them in 750ml caged and corked bottles. I suppose this wouldn't be too unusual for many microbreweries but Florida breweries are notorious for being "safe" and unimaginative. That's not to say they don't make good beer in Florida, it just tends to be lagers or light ales.

I was going to be staying near Fort Myers with my sister. As this was going to be a family vacation, there wasn't going to be a lot of time for going to the pub so I targeted beer stores instead. The Total Wine in Fort Meyers looked to be my best best.

At Total Wine, I was pleased find beers from Bell's Brewery there and immediately targeted some Two Hearted Ale, one of my all-time favorites. I also picked up a six pack of Penn Pilsner, a tasty but unassuming pilsner from Pennsylvania, as my "utility" beer while in Florida. It was a beer you can enjoy without having to think too much about it.

Other finds included offering from Hawaii's Kona Brewing Company, Oregon's Full Sail, New England Brewing and Lost Coast among others. Various mixed sixers covered it.

That was pretty much it for the beer hunting until we started for home. We were making various stops on the Gulf Coast and had reservations at a hotel in Spring Hill, FL. Imagine my surprise when pulling into the hotel to see a Belgian brewpub across the parking lot from our hotel! Imagine my disappointment when I realized it was out of business!

The St. Sebastiaan Belgian Microbrewery looks to have been closed for about a year now. After some research, I found that it was created by a daughter company of the Sterkens Brewery based in Meer, Belgium. How great would it have been to put the family to bed and go have a couple pints? But now, the grass is overgrown and the outside is in disrepair as the pictures show.



St. Sebastiaan

Instead, I got in the van and decided to try to find some Saint Somewhere beers one last time. We were just north of Tarpon Springs (where the brewery is located) so I headed south to see if I could score some.

The local ABC Liquor store was no help, as I expected. So I headed further south to the Clearwater location of Total Wine. There I found two bottles from Saint Somewhere, the Saison Athene and the Lectio Divina. The Lectio Divina was listed as an amber but at 8% ABV, it certainly isn't an ordinary amber. Mission accomplished...but it was only a bottle of each. So it was onward...

World of Beer is a small store but it has an enormous selection. The owner knows his beer and even keeps the place dimly lit to protect the beer from getting light struck. I found more bottles of Saint Somewhere but there was more. Mikkeller had just come into the market so I grabbed a Stateside IPA and Mikkeller Black, a 17.5% ABV imperial stout. To top it off a La Granja Espresso Stout from Norrebro Bryghus in Denmark. Fantastic.

To complete the trilogy, I headed over to Luekens Big Town Liquors in Dunedin to see what else I could find. There, I found Holy Mackeral Mack in Black from Gordash Brewing Company. Gordash is another new brewing concern in Florida but has their beer contract brewed at this point. Add another mixed sixer that included some old favorites from Maine breweries and my evening was complete.

New England, July 2005: Part 4 - Kennebec River Brewery, Quebec City and the Seas Dog

(I kept putting this last installment off because I thought I had pics from this leg of the trip. I guess I was wrong. So here it is...)

We arrived at The Forks, Maine early on Saturday afternoon. Our target was the Northern Outdoors resort where we would be camping out and taking advantage of a fringe benefit; that this resort also has a working brewery/brewpub.

We pitched our tent right at a site within a stone's throw of the Kennebec River and headed up to the lodge for some lunch.

We ordered some burgers and some brews. I had the Penobscot Porter with my burger and it was very tasty. Creamy and roasty, very smooth and sessionable. Did I mention they serve their beers in mason jars?

At the time, they also had a blueberry ale (not bad), a hazelnut brown ale (a tad heavy handed with the hazelnut) and their Magic Hole IPA. Magic Hole is one of the overlooked IPA's in New England. It is hopped exclusively with East Kent Goldings (at least it was at the time) and is just a fine, snappy and tasty IPA. In the age of the Imperial IPA, I guess I can see how many would overlook it.

Over the course of the day and a half we were at the resort, all the beers were sampled. In between the kayaking, the hiking or the hot tub, we found ourselves in the pub drinking beer or at our campsite drinking the beer we got at Oak Pond Brewery the day before. Not a bad way to spend a couple of days. My only regret is I didn't snap a few pictures on this part of the trip!

Sunday morning we decided to take a cannonball trip across the border and go beer hunting in Quebec City. We arrived late in the morning and found a pub to grab a sandwich and a couple beers.

At the Pub St-Alexandre, I enjoyed a Blanche de Bruxelles witbier with my ham and cheese panino and followed that up with the excellent Raftman from Unibroue, a Belgian-style ale made with smoked whiskey malt.

After lunch, we took a stroll around Le Marché du Vieux-Port de Québec, what could best be described as a sort of indoor farmer's market on the St. Lawrence River. We bought some outstanding artisinal cheeses and some Canadian ice wine and started the drive home.

On our way out of town, we stopped off at a Metro grocery store to look for beer. I picked up some Raftman, some Ephemere Cassis and some Irresistible Blonde and Brune, all from Unibroue. Dave picked up some Leffe Brune and we made our way back to Bangor.

On Monday, I had some time to kill before driving back to Logan Airport. I visited one of my favorite places for beer in Bangor, the Sea Dog Brewpub. The beer they serve are always tasty and, more importantly, they always have an offering on cask. Today it was a brown ale called Old Gollywobbler and I had one with lunch. I can't always recommend the food at the Sea Dog but the lobster roll I had that day was pretty good.

Rental car returned and bags checked, I headed to the Harpoon Brewery tap at the terminal to have a couple beers before the plane took off. I started with a Harpoon UFO (an unfiltered wheat which was fair at best) and then realized they had an offering from their 100 Barrel series...Triticus Wheat Wine. The Triticus was very, very good and weighs in at 11.5% ABV. As you might imagine, I was feeling very mellow as I boarded the plane for home.

All in all, a very good trip and quite a nice haul of beer was brought home.

The Session #15: Seeing The Light

For this month's version of The Session, we were asked to write about when we knew we were hooked on beer. I know the exact night it happened. It's not an incredibly exciting story but here it is.

I was visiting one of my college roommates at his parent's place in Wilmington, Delaware. We were preparing for an evening in the basement, shooting pool, watching baseball and drinking beer. We were heading out for a beer run and Tom suggested we go to Total Beverage because they had this great feature where you could "create your own six-pack". This was the early 90's and while I had started drinking "better beer", I really hadn't explored that much. This new concept of a mixed sixer would allow me to do just that.

We went to Total Beverage. I got two mixed sixers. I still remember the beers.

Anchor Steam

Anchor Liberty Ale

Anchor Porter

Sam Adams Boston Lager

Sam Adams Cream Stout

Sam Adams Honey Porter

Orkney Skullsplitter

Rhino Chasers Amber Ale

Rhino Chasers American Ale

Sierra Nevada Stout

Pete's Wicked Ale

Guinness Extra Stout

I had no idea what I was buying. I was just making selections based on what were my favorite beers at the time (Sam Adams Boston Lager and Guinness Draft) and how cool the labels looked. but I lucked into a few really good ones and somewhere in the middle of all those beer that night, I knew I was hooked. It solidified my new found love of stouts and porters, gave me my first tastes of an IPA and introduced me to a whole new style of beer (Wee Heavy).

Outside of Pete's Wicked and Rhino Chasers American Ale, all of those beers became regulars in my drinking rotation and set the stage nicely for the beer journey to come.

All thanks to Tom, a huge corporate beverage entity and Wilmington, DE (one of the ugliest cities you've ever seen).

More entries for The Session can be found here on Boak and Bailey's UK Beer Blog.

New England Trip, July 2005: Part 2: - Beerhunting Through New England

It's only about 3-4 hours from Boston to Bangor and since Dave wasn't going to be off work until Friday evening, it was time for some beer hunting at the area liquor stores.

Heading north, the first place I stopped off at was Portsmouth, NH at a little place called Gary's Beverages. Gary's doesn't look like much from the outside. In fact, it could be mistaken for just about any bottle shop in northern New England. In truth, it's the best beer store in Portsmouth. The selection is great but the store is a bit cramped and disorganized so hunting for beer takes on a whole new meaning. I stopped here specifically for Smuttynose beer (especially the Big Beer series) and I was not disappointed. I got hold of some Smutty Barleywine, Wheat Wine and some Big "A" IPA. Also found some bottles of the Harpoon 100 Barrel Series, in this case it was the Triticus wheat wine.

Crossing into Maine, the next stop was Tully's in Wells. Tully's is housed in a shopping center anchored by a Hannaford and is easily the best beer store south of Portland and north of the New Hampshire border. That makes it a popular stop for people from Massachusetts and New Hampshire to find Maine beers that are not distributed outside of the state. (Can you say Cadillac Mountain Stout?) Tully's had expanded their selection since my last visit and had anything you could want as far as Maine brewed products. The selection of Belgian beers was also notable.

Next up was a stop to RSVP in Portland. RSVP is not the best beer store in Portland but it is reasonably easy to get to from the interstate. It's dingy and they don't dedicate near enough of their ample floor space to beer but the selection is still very good, they even sell growlers from draft-only Maine brewers. Again, lots of Maine beers but tons of micros "from away", certainly better than when I lived in state. RSVP also benefits from being in close proximity to the The Great Lost Bear, the best beer bar in Portland. Alas, the GLB was not yet open. That may have been a good thing as a quick lunch at GLB can quickly turn into a lost afternoon and I still had to get further north.

For kicks, I stopped off at Lou's Beverage Barn in Augusta. Lou's always had a great selection but notoriously kept really old beer in the store. It's no different now. I left without buying a thing. Back on 95 North.

Arriving in Bangor, I stopped off at the Natural Living Center and was pleasantly surprised that their beer selection was greatly improved. Natural Living Store had always been the best place for beer in Bangor by default (this is no longer the case, several stores in the area have stepped it up in recent years) but now it was worthy on its merits. Lots of singles, lots of in and out of state micros. I picked up some singles of old friends and some I wanted to become acquainted with...and headed further north still.

I know my destination was Bangor but up in downtown Orono (home of the University of Maine) is Burby and Bates, a fine little liquor store with an emphasis on fine wines and, more importantly, fine beers. You can mix your sixers, they have fresh growlers from area breweries but today I was all about the Dogfish Head. Georgia had recently raised the ABV limit on beer but that was only up to 14%. Hello World Wide Stout and 120 Minute IPA!

I had made better time than I had expected so it was down the street to sample some beer at the Bear Brewpub. Not the most imaginative name for a Maine brewpub, I'll grant you. Still it was a drizzly afternoon and I decided to grab a late lunch and kill some time over a pint or two. The salmon chowder was excellent and I had the house IPA with it. Was it a master stroke of beer pairing? No but the wicked herbal hoppiness did cut the creaminess of the chowder nicely. Not a bad little IPA here. After a couple hours, it was off to Dave's place for a good night's sleep before we ventured out on the next leg of the journey...

The Haul

Harpoon Triticus

Smuttynose Finest Kind IPA

Smuttynose Big A IPA

Smuttynose Summer Weizen

Smuttynose Barleywine

Smuttynose Wheat Wine

Allagash Summer Ale

Allagash 4

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

Sea Dog Winter Ale "Cabin Fever"
Dogfish Head World Wide Stout

Dogfish Head 120 Min IPA

Atlantic Special Old Bitter (S.O.B.)

Atlantic Brother Adams Honey Bragget Ale

Geary's London Porter

Magic Hat Blind Faith

Casco Bay Pale Ale

Frye's Leap IPA

Unibroue La Terrible

Maine Coast Irish Stout

Unibroue Ephemere Cassis

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Michael Jackson: 1942-2007

I was saddened this week to learn of the death of "The Beer Hunter", Michael Jackson after a long bout with Parkinson's Disease.

In 1992, at the age of 21, I bought a hardcover copy of his 1988 revision of The New World Guide to Beer and, at the risk of sounding completely sappy and geeky, it truly did change my life. My new found interest in "microbrews" was pretty enthusiastic but now I had a beer bible! Styles I had never dreamed of, brewing processes, origins and producers of the great classics were now revealed in glossy pictures and words that breathed life into those pictures.

My favorite quote: "It's a perilously drinkable brew." That was in reference to De Konninck but I'm sure he used it elsewhere.

I loved his writing style. He was sometimes criticized for being too easy on beer that was less than stellar. People sometimes missed the subtlety in his jabs at soulless, corporate beer but Jackson was a beer ambassador more than a pure critic. His writing was pure beery poetry.

Mostly, Michael Jackson inspired me to seek out the beer. My tendency to road trip or plan entire vacations or incorporate beer hunting into vacation or business trips is directly attributed to Jackson. (I actually call those entries in my blog "Beer Hunts".) Getting the beer at the source is very rewarding on many levels.

So, to Mr. Jackson I'll raise a pint or three today. But every pint I've had up until now and every pint I'll have after will really be in his honor.

Beer Hunting: The Midwest, June 2007

I will always be swayed by the occasional surprise while beer hunting but I typically have a focus, a general idea of what I'm looking for before embarking on a trip. On this trip out west, I was looking for La Folie, New Belgium's limited edition brew that seems to be sporadically distributed around the mid-west but I never seem able to find. Since I would be travelling from Atlanta to South Dakota, it seemed to be a good bet that I would find it somewhere...

I used Beer Advocate's BeerFly to locate some good beer stores along the way and hoped for the best.

Kansas City, MO - First things first, we grabbed some dinner at one of the better (I'm told) BBQ restaurants in town, Hayward's Pit Barbeque. the beef brisket burger is outstanding and the sauce was spicy with just enough sweetness to balance it out. They also had bottles of Boulevard Pale Ale so I ordered one of those. It was hoppy enough to hold it's own against the sauce and complemented my meal nicely. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Boulevard was carried widely in restaurants from KC all the way to Mitchell, SD and if you've tried anything from Boulevard, you know that's not a bad thing.

That night I ran out to Luka's a few miles away as fellow Beer Advocates had deemed it the best place for beer in Kansas City (at least on the side of town I was on). My plans of just picking up one six-pack were quickly dashed as I wandered the aisles of beer. They had make-your-own sixpacks, a rarity in Atlanta, so I was guaranteed to have to get one of those and they had a lot of Bell's beers which I had not laid hands on in nearly two years so I was going to have to get a sixer of one of their stouts. In the end I got a mixed six of various Bell's and O'Dell beers, a sixer of Bell's Java Stout and a bomber of O'Fallon Smoke (I'm a sucker for smoked beers). I could've bought a lot more but was already over my self-imposed limit. La Folie? I wandered the aisles, scanned the shelves but there was no sign of it. If this store didn't carry it, who would?

The next day we were headed north, up through Omaha on the way to South Dakota. BeerFly had recommended Brewtopia, which was an easy drive for me off the interstate. I ran in and for a small store, this one packed quite a wallop. I got a mixed sixer of various beers from Summit, Spanish Peaks and Empyrean and also an interesting looking beer in a corked and caged 750 ml bottle called Batch 1000 from Upstream Brewing. And...they had the New Belgium La Folie! I grabbed two pricey bottles. I later found out that it was fellow BA bditty187 who rang up my order. Mission accomplished...for now.

On our way home, we stopped by Taylor's Pantry in Sioux Falls, SD to see what was there. The answer was: Not much that you haven't gotten elsewhere on this trip. I did get a mixed sixer of beers from Big Sky, Schell's, Boulder and more Spanish Peaks.

We stopped in KC once more on the way home and I had to go to Luka's just one more time. This time I walked out with a case plus of beer. I got some more Bell's Java Stout, O'Dells Imperial Stout, Goose Island Demolition, Anchor Small Beer and a mixed sixer with Schafly, O'Dell and Flying Monkey.

Some very nice scores on this trip. Reports on the actual beer to follow.

Beer Hunting: Arkansas and Tulsa

5/26 -5/29, 2007

I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time for beer hunting on this trip since I was travelling from Atlanta all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma with my young children in tow. The events planned around this family reunion were going to take up most of the free time I would have while in town and, let's face it, being the primary caregiver for a 5 and 1 year old for a long weekend isn't the most conducive situation for beer hunting anyway. However, I had a plan, knew what I wanted and had a fair idea of where to find it.

Passing through Arkansas, I knew there were a few decent stores in Fort Smith and using Beer Advocate's great BeerFly directory, I narrowed my visit down to Empire Liquors as it had a nice selection and, almost as important, was located right off the interstate which meant it would be a quick and easy stop.

On previous visits I had seen beers from New Belgium and that was my target for the Arkansas stop. I was looking for La Folie first (hopeful for this being stocked but knew it was not likely), Loft second and after that any New Belgium beer that struck my fancy. There was no La Folie and I couldn't find Loft either. (Since the trip I have seen that Loft is no longer on their website so it may be discontinued or perhaps renamed. I e-mailed the brewery to check.) It's getting hot in Atlanta these days so New Belgium's Sunshine Wheat looked pretty good to me. I grabbed a sixer and Breckinridge's Oatmeal Stout caught my eye. I love a good oatmeal stout so I decided to give that one a whirl too. So in less than five minutes, I had my two sixers of Colorado beer and got back on the interstate.

The day I was leaving Tulsa I stopped off at the Country Hollow Liquor Store to see what might be distributed in Oklahoma that I can't get back home. Country Hollow was said to have the best selection in town in one BeerFly entry and was right on my way out of town. I stopped in and started browsing, 5 year old in tow and 1 year old in my arms. A gentleman working there asked if I needed something and I said, "No thanks, just browsing." It was then that he informed me that children weren't allowed in liquor stores in Oklahoma! I asked if he was kidding and he said he wasn't and that it was state law. (I was aware that Oklahoma was a 3.2 state, meaning that if you wanted beer with the full alcohol content you would have to go to a liquor store to get it but not this particular law.) I replied that OK, I would go when he offered me the option of letting my oldest wait by the door (for some reason, if the kid is in your arms, like my youngest was, it's OK). Since the end of the beer aisle was by the door, I said OK and did a quick scan of the row. Atwater Block from Detroit had a dunkel and since I don't see a lot of dunkels, I grabbed it. I wish I could tell you how the selection was but I didn't want to leave my kid by himself! (As an aside, liquor stores in OK aren't allowed to sell ice either. Crazy laws...)

So on this trip I definitely learned I need to leave the kids with Grandma if I want to grab a sixpack in OK! I also learned that buying beer is a lot easier in Arkansas and finally that when your 1 year old is sleeping, you don't care enough about beer hunting in Memphis to wake her up!

Posts on these beer to follow.