I need y'all to recognize who is finally distributing to us all the way down in Louisiana. I about shit when I saw it in the shoppette on the army base where I work.

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Traded a buddy of mine a sixer of Alpha King from 3 Floyds for a sixer of the Waldo's Special. Pretty damn amazing.

IMO, Alpha King is better; much more balanced.

Yup! We're finally getting some of the big missing breweries down our way as well. I just saw Ballast Point across the border in Missouri last week as well.. so it may not be too far off either.

Within the last year or two, Arkansas has gotten:

Oskar Blues
Victory
Clown Shoes
Sixpoint
Founders
Summit
Prairie Artisan Ales. Stone
Bells
Lagunitas

It's absurd that Missouri doesn't get Clown Shoes, Sixpoint or Victory......

Whereas I love the prototypical west coast hop bombs. I'll take the Stone Ruinten or the Green Flash Palate Wrecker over Hopslam any day of the weak and twice on Sunday. Not to say I'm strictly a hop head, but I do love that style. Also, I missed the distribution for Waldo's, but now that I live across the river from Indiana, 3 Floyds isn't as hard to get as it used to be. Store I went into had a nice collection of bombers and sixers of Zombie Dust, Robert the Bruce and Alpha King. Also still had an Alpha Claus, which I've never had.

If you guys enjoy Hopslam, you should definitely try this https://barrelsandmash.files.wordpre...ve_closeup.jpg

While I'm excited about seeing Bell and Laguna taste become readily available in my area, I do worry about quality. I believe that when some of these breweries begin upping production in order to supply more areas, then the quality starts to lack.

In Lagunitas case, I know they opened up a second brewery in Chicago. I would assume that's what we're being distributed, and the last six pack of Sucks I tried was not that great.

I did enjoy the Two Hearted I had this week, but it wasn't as good as I remembered (although I admit the first time I had it was on tap in KC with some great bbq, which probably made the beer even better).

Chicago Craft Beer Week kicked off yesterday. If you're ever looking for a good time to visit Chicago, this is a pretty good one. 13 days of craft beer events and special beer releases throughout the entire city.

Another brewer on the rise up here is Mikerphone. He made the local news last week when social media blew up after he cut off an account for price gouging customers due to the high demand for his beers. Each of his releases seem to get better and better.

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Also, there is a definite freshness/price point issue with Ballast Point around here. There's 6 month old $15+ 6-packs sitting on Target shelves here. It went from a couple 6-packs of Sculpin and maybe one or two other fish 6ers to end caps full of all varieties in what seemed like overnight.

Finally found some Boulevard brewing bottles here in Phoenix!

Too bad at the grocery store 2 minutes from my place it was a 25oz bottle for $9.99. Seems a bit steep? They had Tank 7 and the Sixth glass.

Did look online and Total Wine can get your a 4pk of 12oz bottles of Tank 7 for $10.99.

At least it's showing up here. I emailed boulevard brewing over a year ago and they told me they didn't have any of their beers making it to Arizona yet. I just checked their beer finder and it's now in a few grocery stores and a nice little restaurant by us that looks to even have some boulevard taps now! So this is progress!

That's about the going rate for a widely distributed 750ml bottle.

Visited Grand Rapids a few weekends ago. Part of the trip was a brewery crawl. Visited five:

Grand Rapids Brewing Company: Had lunch and beer. Honey Brown Ale was pretty good.

Founders: Had Dirty Bastard and Mango Magnifico. Magnifico is a dangerous beer 10% ABV with not a hint of alcohol taste. Tasted like a Mango- tamarind punch with a spicy kick at the end.

Elk: Got a flight of ESB, Hefeweizen, cream soda ale, amber ale, and coffee stout. Coffee stout was the best. Hefeweizen was most disappointing as it was weak. Cream Soda ale was odd. Sweet up front, then beer bitterness, then a cream soda vanilla aftertaste.

Brewery Vivant: Had Wit, Raspberry ale, Malt Guild, and hard cider. The cider was the best very tart and dry. Everything was good. Wished they distributed outside of Michigan.

Harmony Brewing and Pizza: Had Grand Jubilation which was a Berliner Weisee half and half with lemonade. Very good and sour. The lemonade wasn't sweet so it didn't come off as cloying.

Ranked:

Founders
Brewery Vivant
Harmony
Grand Rapids Brewing
Elk

Ok well not bad then! Just checked their beer finder map and there are multiple grocery stores and even some restaurants by us carrying them now. I looked up my email I sent to them and it was almost exactly a year ago and they weren't here yet. The email said they were looking at expanding in the next 1-2 years. I am beyond pumped today. I've been looking forever here!

I have to travel to GR a few times a year for work. Brewery Vivant is definitely on my list when I'm there next.

Agree on Mango Magnifico being a dangerous drinker, but I do find it boozy. I had it at Founders and out of the bottle in Chicago. A lot of people (I know) don't like it but I really enjoy it.