Gail and Steve want to know our beer tips and strategies on the road. (Perhaps for getting prized bottles home.)
I do not take on the road literally. Sure, there are roads from here to Sweden, and, with a week or two to spare, we can drive to Finland or Russia. But I travel, across Europe. And I have developed an eye for finding rare brews more or less everywhere. No, not in Cyprus.
The secret is mostly planning ahead. Find beer blogs and web sites from the country or region you are going to visit. Don’t understand the language? Google translates. Not perfectly, but good enough for the purpose. Then you use Google Maps to pinpoint the places near where you are going to stay.
Next, e-mail the breweries. They are flattered to have enquiries from far away places. If you tell them when you’re coming, they will open the doors for you at all hours. You might get to sample something not for general sale, they might deliver a box of beers to you hotel – or, at the least, they can tell you where the beer is to be found in bars, pubs and shops.
As I wrote the other day, we are going to Sardinia this summer. They used to have one industrial brewery – now they have almost a dozen micros, one of them ranked among Italy’s finest. Using the resources available at the web, I have managed to reach some of them. Most have a very local distribution, so I probably won’t get to them. But at least I increase my chances of getting something else than Peroni..
As for getting the bottles home, the answer is bubble wrap. A hard shell suitcase, sure, but bubble wrap is what you need.
And, once in a while, a cork will be leaking. It would be an unwise combination if your wife’s finest outfit is in the same suitcase. There is enough tut-tuting about the beer already, isn’t it?
Knut Albert's beer blog 
I have the same practice regarding planning and I think it’s the obvious choice.
Good advice for the bubble wrap, too.
Nevertheless, since I have a good geographical position, I am able to travel to Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic and so on with a van, so there’s no problem bringing the beers back home (basically, I do all my beer travels in a radious of approx. 1600 km with a van).
And one more thing regarding the local (brew)pubs – it’s always a good thing to ask the locals (or even better, to have a beer or two with them) about good places to go to.
That’s how a managed to enjoy a Westvleteren (8 & 12) in Ghent in an awful turist-trap place, where my new friends from a local pub directed me. (yes I know they shouldn’t be selling it and nobody would have thought that they have it in this turist trap)
Of course, talk to the locals. They often have something in the cellar that they want to share as well.
And, if you have an appointment – bring along a few rare beers from home. That is always very welcome!
These are very good hints, Albert 🙂
If I could travel across Europe the way I’d like, it would almost certainly be in search of good craft breweries too ( of course after a visit of the major local tourist POI ).
Since you will be in Sardinia and you reached some of the local breweries, I expect to see your review of the BB10 from “Birrificio Barley”. Won’t you look for it ? 🙂
Of course there are more good brews to look for, and two weeks may be enough to gather all your beery curiosity needs 🙂
Have a nice holiday and enjoy! 😉
I’ve actually tried the BB10 – John at the famous Johnny’s Off Licence in Rome gave me a glass when I visited. But yes, I look forward to trying their whole range of beers.
I hope the Conad supermarket will aslo have some interesting stuff – they occationally have some local or regional stuff.
That’s an interesting trend I noticed in the past months. Even great distribution sell points ( as Conad, the chain you mentioned, or Esselunga, Coop, Auchan… ) offer some quality product that was very hard to find even in enotheques only a couple of years ago.
The wierd thing is, not all of the stores of the same company have the same selection, and sometimes you can find “rare” bottles more easily in little, countryside stores rather than in big and “well-known” ones in city centers.
It may be because the choice is in the hands of the single store director ( or the person who is responsible for the orders of the goods ), and not unified by the company. I think I’ll never know… 😛
What I know is that I’ve found some local beers in the Conad store in Parma from both Panil and Ducato, some of them with special labels for the chain.
But, to be sure I get some nice stuff, I ordered a few beers from Birraland. Let’s hope Google’s translation wizardry and the people in the hotel reception do their job. The postage rate was not too bad, maybe I order more when I get there….
Nice! Thank you very much, and cheers to that Sardinia vacation.