Is There Really a Call For This?

I know that some people party all night long, but even in college, even when we had no restrictions (i.e. house party) things were mostly done by 3 am.  Yes, there were occasional later nights, and yes, some people have schedules that make the wee hours of the morning a perfectly sensible time to have a beer, but is there really enough of a pool of patrons to have bars stay open until 4 am?  Well, in a working/residential city anyway (not Vegas, not New Orleans)?

I know I'm old and all, but things just go downhill fast after 2 am.  Also, nearby residents probably will hate it and stay off my lawn (don't really have to worry much in my inner burb hood).

Yes, I'm a Beer Snob

Just looking back at this post.  I am a beer snob.  It isn't that I won't drink crap beer, it's that I see little point in buying it.  If I'm going to spend money on something, it should be something I either need or enjoy, and crap beer fits neither category.  I suppose if I enjoyed getting blotto (especially if I enjoyed doing that regularly) then crap beer would be fine, but even then it would be the cheep crap beer, which Bud [Light] isn't.

All that is a prelude to a new (to me) discovery: Shiner's Ruby Redbird beer, which may be the perfect hot weather beer.  I've had Shiner's Bock, Wild Hare, and Black Lager, but I spotted this one (in cans) at my favorite beer store (Big Top, on Easton Rd.).  The ginger and red grapefruit are not overpowering (it still tastes like beer) and are perfect when consumed cold on a hot day, especially after doing yard work/gardening, maybe getting in a hike/run/ride.

U.S. Beer Market

It is still astounding to me that, even with the rise of small breweries and brewpubs/brewery restaurants, that Inbev and Miller-Coors have 80% of the beer market in this country.  More astounding, still to me, is that if you look at all the independent brewers (which includes Samuel Adams), their entire market share is 6%!  That number is more astounding by the fact that prices for those beers are higher (sometimes much higher). 

On the one hand, I don't know why anyone buys Budweiser or Miller Lite at just about any level.  Really, it's kind of creepy, and pretty much reinforces that I will continue to not buy those beers for reasons that go beyond: "They suck."

PA Alcohol Privatization

Pennsylvania has some of the strangest alcohol related laws in the country.  Many places have wet and dry counties, or no sales on Sunday or before noon, or rules for who can sell what (e.g. grocery stores some places can sell 3.2 beer only, other places beer only, others beer and wine, and some can sell anything).  In many states hard liquor is only available in liquor stores, which may be state run.

In PA, wine and liquor are sold in state run "Wine and Spirits" stores operated by the liquor control board, and beer is sold by beer stores in cases (only).  Some "restaurants" are allowed to sell up to 2 six packs worth of beer.  Restaurant liquor licenses are so expensive and hard to get that PA has many restaurants which are BYOB (this is actually quite popular, but very strange to people not from here).  The LCB operates far too few wine and spirits shops in the state (600).

Something that simplifies things, and improves access would be great.  It could even include privatization.  That said, whatever ends up getting passed will just be another layer of complexity and will likely mean higher prices (particularly for spirits).

Oh, as for the other end of the anti-privatization...As much as it can be a bit of a pain in the ass, I'm pretty sure that people who want to get drunk don't have any problems doing so with the current situation.

Horay Science!

Wine is good for you is one of those things we've been aware of for a while now, but specifics were not really clear. Well, here is one. And for the teetotalers out there: eat grapes I guess.

PA Liquor Stores

My general experience is that selection is pretty good (one of the commenters complains about not finding Appleton Estate Rum...which I have purchased from the PA wine and spirits near me).

Wine is too expensive here, but, were it not for taxes, liquor is a good buy, and even with taxes it isn't too bad. But those taxes won't go away with privatization (unless the government wants waaaay less revenue) so the most likely result is that liquor will be more expensive, DE and NJ will be an even bigger bargain, and the state will have given up a profitable if flawed business for a one time pay out and less money down the road.

The thing is, PA is a big state that sells lots of liquor. If PA sells 10k gallons of Grey Goose Vodka (I've no idea how much really gets sold here), then they get to buy all that and have a bigger discount. Dividing that up among 1500 individual retailers means higher wholesale prices and either lower margins or even higher retail prices. Even if a handful of big groups buy out most of those it will still divide the total purchased and make for higher prices. This problem gets worse as the sales volume goes down, which will make it no longer worthwhile to stock things that are currently stocked only because the better pricing allows it.