Playground, I need your help.

[Bouregard]

So during a rather alcohol heavy festivity in the recent past we had a argument about the usage of beer. Someone boasted that nowhere in the world you can buy so many different sorts of beer like here in Germany.

So I ask you to take a photo of your local beer shelf of your nearest supermarket to compare.

[Dallas-Dakota]

I don't know about quantity, but Sweden does have some very strong, good beer....

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For the record, I am not from Sweden.

[Spiryt]

Buying beer in supermarket isn't really the best choice, and it's unlikely to have really good choice.

Smaller, local markets or actual beer only shops give better chance. At least over here...

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[Asta Kask]

We have special, government-owned facilities where we shop (stronger) beer. Just looked it up - 1 262 different sorts.

Over to you.

[Jack Squat]

Different kinds as in styles, or different kinds as in brands?

Here's the grocery store I work at
Domestic beers

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Imports/Craft beers

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And not a supermarket, but the Brickskeller was a place in Washington, DC that carried 1,032 different types of beer. Unfortunately, they went out of business last year. The place is now The Beir Baron, and has 50 beers on tap, and 500 bottles, though I'm sure there's a bit of overlap there.

[Zherog]

Here in Pennsylvania, we can't buy beer in grocery stores or convenience stores or any place other than specially designated (and misnamed) beer distributors. They typically overstock crappy beer such as Coors Light, Bud, etc. A few have a shelf or two designated for imports and/or craft brews. And fewer still will have a good selection in that small area. Those stores also typically sell a few other things such as soda by the case, bags of ice, lottery tickets, cigarettes, etc. So the stores will generally have nice square footage, the selection is terrible.

OK, the first sentence isn't quite true. We can buy some beer at other stores - generally corner "deli" type stores. However, to buy beer from those sorts of places, you have to purchase by the six pack; the six pack costs more than half the price of a case (so, for example, if a case of Coors Light costs $10, the six pack will cost around $5.50), and... you can only purchase 2 six packs at a time.

We also have to buy our wine and "spirits" (aka alcohol such as vodka, rum, etc) from stores owned by the state. Those stores have terrible selection, are way too pricey, and the sales staff are generally rude and knowledgeable.

[Tyndmyr]

So during a rather alcohol heavy festivity in the recent past we had a argument about the usage of beer. Someone boasted that nowhere in the world you can buy so many different sorts of beer like here in Germany.

So I ask you to take a photo of your local beer shelf of your nearest supermarket to compare.

Can't buy beer in supermarkets here, however, my local shop does not have a beer shelf so much as a beer section of the store. There's a few aisles of boxed beer, a double aisle of local/craft/foreign beers, and an aisle of cold beer. It's about the size of a moderately sized supermarket in total, but wine is the dominant thing, with beer and hard alcohol both being somewhat smaller sections.

Edit: oh, and this being Md, there is no shortage of such stores. This is bigger than most, but finding booze is no harder than finding gas. In fact, during the blizzard a while back, the corner alcohol store was the only thing open(and busy!).

[Bouregard]

Different kinds as in styles, or different kinds as in brands?

Here's the grocery store I work at
Domestic beers

Spoiler

Show

Imports/Craft beers

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Show

And not a supermarket, but the Brickskeller was a place in Washington, DC that carried 1,032 different types of beer. Unfortunately, they went out of business last year. The place is now The Beir Baron, and has 50 beers on tap, and 500 bottles, though I'm sure there's a bit of overlap there.

Mhm... that looks like like a good selection. To quote a famous yellow skinned nukular security inspector:

mhm.... beeer *drool*

[grimbold]

We have special, government-owned facilities where we shop (stronger) beer. Just looked it up - 1 262 different sorts.

Over to you.

impressive

france isn't really a beer country so i won't argue with you guys

[Asta Kask]

impressive

france isn't really a beer country so i won't argue with you guys

Red Wine - 4 822 sorts
White Wine - 2 750 sorts

[Mephit]

I don't think the beer shelf in the supermarket is very indicative of how many beers the country produces. There's probably a relation, but supply is invariable linked to demand, ie beer consumption.
So I'm fairly sure Germany would win if it were not for the Irish.

[Haruki-kun]

Beer shelves in supermarkets in Mexico are generally mixed up with imported beer. That aside, Jack Squat's imports pic seems to show loads of Mexican beer anyway, so just refer to that one.

[Zeb The Troll]

Can't buy beer in supermarkets here, however, my local shop does not have a beer shelf so much as a beer section of the store. There's a few aisles of boxed beer, a double aisle of local/craft/foreign beers, and an aisle of cold beer. It's about the size of a moderately sized supermarket in total, but wine is the dominant thing, with beer and hard alcohol both being somewhat smaller sections.

You wouldn't happen to be referring to Corridor Fine Wines in Laurel, would you?

According to their website, they stock more than 1500 different beers, with 900+ being from American breweries.

What this fails to take into account as far as "what's available in your country" is that a large number of the breweries here only do local distributing, if any at all. Take (my current favorite brewery) DuClaw, for example. It started as a brewpub and didn't bottle anything. You could only get their beer in one of their pubs and you could only take it home by the growler, filled right from the tap when you purchased it. Now they deliver across Maryland and in some parts of PA and northern VA, but nothing further out than that. Yet. There are probably hundreds of breweries in the country that are in that same situation, with only a small distributorship incapable of handling the capacity necessary for nationwide distribution.

Getting back to the original question, though, what do you mean by "types of beer"? I can guarantee that any style of beer available in Germany is being produced by someone here in the US (Germany did set the standard, after all). Can you guarantee that any American style beer is being brewed for sale somewhere in Germany?

[Pokonic]

Shoot, to young to post in this thread, else others get concerned.

[Mikhailangelo]

Well, I'm just going to say it. Needs to be done.

Belgium.

Oh lawdy how I miss Bruges

[GolemsVoice]

While I'm no expert on alcohole, I'd say that Germany certainly has very many types of beer, especially in regions where small breweries still exist, like Franconia. But there are more beer-happy places in Europe, for example, the Czech Republic has recently overtaken us in beer consumption per capita. On the other hand, Europa has about 2800 breweries (according to Wikipedia), half of which are German.

So I'd say when it comes to variety, Germany is definitely up in the top five, but I'm not sure if we're number one.

[Maelstrom]

Well, I'm just going to say it. Needs to be done.

Belgium.

Oh lawdy how I miss Bruges

I was going to post this earlier, and am going to concur...I think Belgium has the market cornered on this matter (especially when you consider the size of the country!)...

EDIT:

Here's a fun resource! http://beermapping.com/maps/maps.php...189453125&z=10 from http://beermapping.com/

[phoenixineohp]

Canada baby. It's in our blood. Sometimes often literally.

[Tyndmyr]

You wouldn't happen to be referring to Corridor Fine Wines in Laurel, would you?

According to their website, they stock more than 1500 different beers, with 900+ being from American breweries.

That'd be the one. It's got a pretty solid selection of beer and wine, though I find that for certain liquors, I have to stop off elsewhere(Pink Vodka, for example). Great shop overall, though.

[Zherog]

You could only get their beer in one of their pubs and you could only take it home by the growler, filled right from the tap when you purchased it.

No growlers here in PA, either. I was fascinated by the idea the first time I saw it (in Indy at GenCon).

[Telonius]

Well, there was a place in Washington, DC called the Brickskeller. It allegedly had hundreds of different beers available. (I say "allegedly" because on six separate occasions, I had to ask for three different beers before finding one they actually had on hand...)

There are a very few supermarkets in PA that have special permits to sell beer. The Wegman's in Erie gets around the usual restriction by having a special section of the store that sells the alcohol; you have to buy it at the cash register right there (they won't let you purchase it at the other cashiers). Hooray for laws left over from Prohibition.

I live in Northern Virginia, and almost any supermarket will have at least four or five dozen different varieties of beer. Wegman's (again) probably has the biggest selection, but there are a few local places where you can get a smaller number of high-quality, hard-to-find varieties. (There's a little shop on Route 9 called the Paeonian Grocery and Gourmet that gets some of the best craft brews around).

According to Wikipedia, there are something like 1700 craft breweries in the US. From what I've been able to find, it looks like there around 1250 total breweries in Germany. Germany definitely has us beat for per-capita, as well as availability. Thanks again to outdated laws, many beers can't be shipped across certain US state lines. (I also suspect Germany has a lot more access to beers brewed in other EU countries than the US does).

[Zherog]

There are a very few supermarkets in PA that have special permits to sell beer. The Wegman's in Erie gets around the usual restriction by having a special section of the store that sells the alcohol; you have to buy it at the cash register right there (they won't let you purchase it at the other cashiers). Hooray for laws left over from Prohibition.

Yeah, but as your note about how to pay shows, it's not so much "a grocery store that sells beer" as it is "a grocery store and 'beer distributor' smashed into a common building."

And yes, all of PA's bizarre rules for how to buy booze -- right down to the state being the retailer of wine and liquor -- go back to the end of prohibition, and how PA decided to handle it way back then.

[Tyndmyr]

Yeah, PA has it really rough on alcohol..it varies quite a lot by state. It actually makes it somewhat hard to come to an overall conclusion, as some areas probably have more variety than germany while some have less.

I'm pretty sure Germany has us beat on per capita consumption, though.

[Starwulf]

That'd be the one. It's got a pretty solid selection of beer and wine, though I find that for certain liquors, I have to stop off elsewhere(Pink Vodka, for example). Great shop overall, though.

Somedays, I really, reaallly think I live in the wrong section of Maryland. Not crap around here for Alcohol besides small-time liquor shops. Not that I particularly drink, but I've always wanted to try some good beer(ie: not mass-produced)

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

There are two beer stores in Ontario. The Beer Store, and the LCBO, standing for Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which mostly does other alcoholic beverages, but also carries beer.

Range is generally quite good.

Edit: Thing with Germany, is that there are a lot of different beers, but so many of them are only served at such-and-such monestary, or at the particular brew-pub, or something like that. Very small in scope.

[Keld Denar]

Hmmmm, there are 143 breweries in Washington (30 in Seattle) and 159 breweries in Oregon (40 in Portland). Thats 302 breweries in just 2 states combined. If each brewery produces 5 different brews (most have a Blond, an IPA, a Hefe, a Porter, and a Red Lager, at least), thats 1510 different brews in both states. All microbrew craft beers.

Contrast, there are 1,640 breweries in America. That means that just shy of 20% of breweries in America lies in 4% of the country.

Apparently, northwesterners love beer. A lot.

I'll try to get a picture of the inside of a local place called 99 Bottles tomorrow. I'll give you a hint though, they stock more than 99...

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Pics!

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Thats one wall of room temp beers. Thats a LOT of beers. There are 2 other walls just like that one. The other pic is of one of the coolers. There are...I think about 12 of these coolers running the full length of one wall.

EDIT EDIT:
The second pic contains my personal favorite beer in the middle of the left hand cooler: Ninkasi Brewing Company's Total Domination IPA. Delicious!