Knoxify

13 Responses to “Who Has the Best Beer Selection in Knoxville?”

1. Rob Shomaker 
   December 11th, 2009 at 7:53 am

   

   That’s a tough one. World Mar­ket typ­i­cally has an inter­est­ing selec­tion but you never know what they’ll have. I’ve been impressed that Food City and Kroger seem to be branch­ing out a bit on selec­tion but that prob­a­bly has some­thing to do with the distributor.

   As far as bars; Preser­va­tion Pub, obvi­ously. Mel­low Mush­room and Barley’s both have a good tap selec­tion. Also, The Pizza Kitchen has been adding taps with some reg­u­lar­ity. They’ve got Duck Rab­bit now!

2. John Dezember 
   December 11th, 2009 at 9:49 am

   

   I have to agree with Rob, Kroger seems to reg­u­larly have a nice selec­tion available.

3. CHuskey 
   December 11th, 2009 at 10:19 am

   

   MMMMM beer. Let’s see on tap, I’d say Barley’s & the Half Bar­rel, bot­tle selec­tion hands down Union Jack’s. At the store, I’d say World Mar­ket and Earth Fare.

4. CHuskey 
   December 11th, 2009 at 10:32 am

   

   Oooh this reminds me, I’ve meant to do a lit­tle write up on this place and it keeps slip­ping my mind. There’s is a new shop that opened up in Maryville this past sum­mer that the wife and I just dis­cov­ered a few days ago. http://www.themarkettn.com/ although not a huge selec­tion they have some very inter­est­ing beer selec­tions, sev­eral of which I don’t think I’ve seen any­where else. They also have reg­u­lar beer tast­ing to sam­ple new prod­ucts. The place is in a his­tor­i­cal old build­ing, it’s actu­ally five local ven­dors under one roof sell­ing fresh, local goods. They have an amaz­ing butcher shop and fresh fish mar­ket, pro­duce, and even hot meals to go. It’s a short drive down Alcoa Hwy to our Blount County neigh­bors, and I highly rec­om­mend check­ing them out.

5. laurabower 
   December 11th, 2009 at 1:16 pm

   

   I know my tweeps will want to weigh in on this one! RT @knoxify: Who Has the Best Beer Selec­tion in Knoxville? http://bit.ly/4pDeOE

   This com­ment was orig­i­nally posted on Twit­ter

6. mybuzzabee 
   December 11th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

   

   I love the selec­tion at the cigar store near Cedar Bluff/Kingston RT @knoxify: Best Beer Selec­tion in Knoxville? http://bit.ly/4pDeOE

   This com­ment was orig­i­nally posted on Twit­ter

7. Patrick Beeson 
   December 13th, 2009 at 10:02 am

   

   Good ques­tion!

   I too have been impressed with my local Kroger selec­tion, though they’re miss­ing the higher ABV beers obvi­ously (thanks Ten­nessee beer laws). They stock most of the usual brands, such as Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Rogue, Avery, Har­poon, Yazoo, Cot­ton­wood, and oth­ers. Leaf and Ale in West Knoxville main­tains a pretty good selec­tion as well.

   For any­thing more than 6 per­cent ABV, I rec­om­mend Down­town Wine and Spir­its or Har­vest Town Wine and Spir­its in Foun­tain City, though I can’t com­ment on how either treats their beer since their pri­or­ity is wine and liquor.

   Oth­er­wise, you’re best bet is to make the two-hour drive to either the Lex­ing­ton, KY Liquor Barn, or Brusin’ Ales in Asheville. You could even get away with just vis­it­ing a gro­cery store in Asheville since their state laws acco­mo­date a fan­tas­tic selec­tion anywhere.

   For bars, I’ve found great selec­tions at Barley’s, Preser­va­tion Pub (smok­ing), Sunspot and Union Jacks (smok­ing). You will do best to get fresh beer from the source at Down­town Brew­ery and Smokey Moun­tain Brewery/Calhouns.

   But again, I highly rec­om­mend sav­ing your pen­nies for a trip out-of-state for beer. The selec­tion is sim­ply amaz­ing in most of the sur­round­ing states, even Alabama!

8. Chad P 
   December 14th, 2009 at 2:44 pm

   

   McScrooge’s now has a great selec­tion of high alco­hol beers and a few selec­tions of mead to boot.

9. Debra 
   December 15th, 2009 at 9:31 am

   

   The new Earth Fare has an impres­sive col­lec­tion;
   Preser­va­tion Pub

10. Leaf And Ale 
    December 18th, 2009 at 9:25 am

    

    While Earth­fare, Kroger and World Mar­ket have a decent selec­tion of micro and imports, each loca­tion is miss­ing at least sev­eral dozen beers that we carry at Leaf & Ale. If it is under 6% and avail­able from a local dis­trib­u­tor in our area, we carry it at Leaf & Ale. The excep­tions are Bud, Miller, Coors and their asso­ci­ated light beer brands. No retail store in Knoxville has a wider selec­tion of under 6% beer in Knoxville… period.

11. Patrick Beeson 
    December 21st, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    

    I vis­ited McScrooge’s this week­end for the first time. They had an impres­sive array of higher ABV beers, though very few Amer­i­can craft beers. Most were Euro­pean, which makes me ques­tion the freshness.

12. Patrick Beeson 
    December 21st, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    

    @Leaf And Ale

    Why don’t y’all get a liquor license and carry all beers?

13. Leaf And Ale 
    December 21st, 2009 at 4:33 pm

    

    @Patrick Bee­son
    There’s an easy answer to that. TN law does not allow under 6% abv beer to be sold in the same retail loca­tion where liquor is sold. That’s why you have to go to dif­fer­ent stores. That’s why Kroger doesn’t sell liquor.

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