BEER in the Rogue River Valley ? Where (Portland, Medford: to buy, live)

[Rory27]

I thought when i moved here, Beer stores & grocery stores would have a great selection of all of the fantastic Northern Ca & Oregon beers that were hard to find out east.
Six packs and Bombers.
Nope.
Then i find out about the stupid cave man times law about only grocery stores sell beer.
Can you pump your own beer here?


I see the same menu at every store and it's pretty standard.
Looked at Beerworks, way overpriced single bottles and not a great selection. A pretty dismal place really.
Not the kinda place i would want to go and sit to drink beers especially when you feel like your getting your pocket picked in the process.

I know there are a few brew pubs but thats not what i'm looking for right now.
Ive seen a few growler stops, surprised to find that oz to oz it's no cheaper on many brews than the bottled version. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot was actually a lot more than the bottled version.


Where's the beef? / ahhhhh BEER hiding?

[PNW-type-gal]

Go directly to the local breweries to buy growlers (32 or 64 oz refillable containers). Southern Oregon Brewing, Walkabout, Opposition ( formerly Apocalypse), Bricktowne Brewing, Portal, Caldera, Standing Stone, Wild River (meh). Also Kaleidoscope Pizza, which will fill a growler with anything they have on tap.

Or, my favorite, Growler King,
Beer growlers filled in Medford, OR by the Growler King at Quality Market - Over 20 Craft Brew & Microbrew Taps

depending on where you lived prior, beer is more expensive here. The offspring lives in LA and my favorite Rogue Dead Guy is $12 a six here (where it comes from) and $9 a six there. The grocery store with the widest selection is Fred Meyer on Crater Lake Hwy, by the intersection with I5.

Or learn to make your own at Grains & Beans
Grains Beans & Things

For somewhere to go and have a beer, try Portal for small and laid-back or Howiee's for more noise and crowd.

[Rory27]

Yeah Beer is more expensive here, surprisingly, it's more expensive than LA, SF & NYC???
How is that possible?

Whats the deal with the lack of bottled beer here.
Great breweries north & south of here and non of the beer is here.
I go 2200 miles east and i find more local brews from the area in St Louis & cheaper.

WHAT the ?

Yeah i have made beer before, it was never great and the bottleing part sucked.
I have all the stuff, just need a keg fridge, join a club to get it right & i will start doing it again.

[PNW-type-gal]

You continually compare this small, semi-isolated town with HUGE markets - LA, SFO, NYC. You aren't there. This is a small town, not a huge metro, and the selection available in large markets isn't here. I have no trouble finding local beer I like very much here. True, I can't get some Goose Island or other beers, but I don't consider it a huge loss. You can find them in Portland, along with a lot of other beers not available here - because Portland is another large market.

[Rory27]

Your right, I keep mentioning those big cites, as a comparison, I shouldn't.

I should say Ballwin Mo. Lompoc Ca, Bucks county PA. Utica Ny.

Everything i posted applies to them, places I have lived also in comparison to Medford and are better comparisons.

Being between SF & Portland on the major hyw you would think things fall off the truck like they do in similar places. That doesn't seem to happen here very much.
Medford seems like it's caught in a time warp in some ways, 20 years behind in a lot of things. It's just what i have observed and never expected considering the location.

The number of people still smoking here is really a surprise.

On the other hand finding the Black Bird was a positive!

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I've got to say, it surprises me when someone says they can't find beer.

The Costco in Bend has a good selection. There are 3 full aisle-length shelves full of beer. Some of it is priced like fine wine. Try your local Costco.

My son, who is a beer fan buys some at a little community grocery store in Terrebonne. A selection of Deschutes Brewery is available every place, including the gas stations and Grocery Outlet.

In addition to local beers, I have all sorts of oddly named beers in weird bottles coming into my house. I am certain that it is not being purchased at any place esoteric. We live way out in the country and miles from any sort of sophisticated store.

So. Can't find beer? If you look around, you can find what the usual suggestion is for Californians who are unhappy in Oregon and complain about how California was so much better.

[Steve Pickering]

Being a Teetotaler I can't answer for the craft beers, but from a marketing standpoint, craft beer is by it's very nature small production runs and not sold in bulk quantities.

[Rory27]

I never said i couldn't find beer.
Costco in Medford doesn't have craft beers when i looked last week, just your standard big brews.

If it wasn't clear what i was trying to say was i was surprised to find that very local close Brews were hard to find in bottles here.
Especially When I could find them in very small towns thousands of miles away.

Russian River Brewery Santa Rosa - Pliney

North Coast Brewery Fort Bragg - Old Rasputain

Sierra Nevada Brewery Chico - Seasonals

Ps Calif is better than Oregon in a lot of things
So is NYC, So is Bucks county PA, So is Paris France and Milan Italy.
Oregon is better than those places in a lot of things also.
No place is perfect.

pps : Tried a few Fort George brews the last few days and they are impressive!
Vortex IPA is special. be warned, it's a HOP BOMB.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by Rory27

I never said i couldn't find beer.
Costco in Medford doesn't have craft beers when i looked last week, just your standard big brews.

If it wasn't clear what i was trying to say was i was surprised to find that very local close Brews were hard to find in bottles here.
Especially When I could find them in very small towns thousands of miles away.

Russian River Brewery Santa Rosa - Pliney

North Coast Brewery Fort Bragg - Old Rasputain

Sierra Nevada Brewery Chico - Seasonals.

You can get most likely get all those beers at Shop 'N Kart in Ashland. I never lived in Medford(and never bought beer there except for picking up kegs at the distributor), but in Ashland there were plenty of places to buy good selections of beer.

[Larry Caldwell]

Circle of Wolves in Wolf Creek carries an interesting assortment of fizzy brews, but they tend more toward the ales than the beers. Most of their stock is local product, with a few imports.