Amity Wine & Spirit Co.

sbattert

Connecticut

5/5  rDev +21.1%
quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5

I have a few liquor shops within walking distance of my house, but whenever I'm in need of good hard to find beer I always stop down at Amity Liquor.

During the New year's rush, I was looking for three hard to find beers. The first associate that I talked to guided me right to the three that I was looking for (Aventinus Wheat Dopplebock, Wild Goose Porter, and Victory Storm King Stout). Then I started talking to another young associate who was an avid beer drinker. We talked for a good thirty minutes about the characteristices of Dopplebocks and he recommended some outstanding beer.

I am not very informed about wine, but I did get lost in the wine section. Actually, I like cheap wine - They had 1.5L Yellow Tail for a little over $11.

Whenever my friend tells me he's searching for a beer, I call them up and ask if they have it in stock.

I'm glad that they are not along my drive home or I'd be broke.

01-05-2004 15:29:26 | More by sbattert

opwog

Minnesota

5/5  rDev +21.1%
quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$$

I have been shopping here since my old days of living in New Haven and I still stop in each time that I visit. This was a well known wine shop back in the day, but each time that I return the beer selection is just that much better and they stay right on top of current local releases. When visiting the New Haven area, this is the place to stop to see all North East micros, alongside a very impressive international selection. Prices are marginally higher than near by small town heroes; Mountview Plaza Liquors (Naugatuck), but is understandable because of the obvious difference in overhead and not everybody is going to take that trip up route 63.

08-02-2008 04:24:06 | More by opwog

TurdFurgison

Ohio

4.55/5  rDev +10.2%
quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

I stopped here after dinner at Delaney's Tap Room (very close) to find something to take home. The selection is here is very good, definitely as good or possibly better than Manchester in Hartford or Mountview in Naugatuck. I would guess there are 200+ USA craft beers, 100+ Belgian beers, 50-60 German beers, 30-40 UK beers, and lots from other places. Prices are just a little higher than I saw in Hartford ($1 more for Gordon 4-packs) but not too bad. Most of the selections are on room temp shelves but there is a good selection in the cooler in back too (that's where I had to look to find the Gordon).

12-12-2008 11:00:49 | More by TurdFurgison

OatmattStout

Connecticut

4.5/5  rDev +9%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5

Great selection brokrn into american micros and then imports. The imports are further broken down to country with signs, which is a new addition. The selection of single Belgian and German are great and alot of English singles as well. They carry 5 or 6 mini kegs at most times as well for that beer occasion. Right off rt 15 in new haven stop if you are passing by.

The service is ussually good and the young guy's in the beer dept. ussally know there beer.

01-28-2003 12:57:40 | More by OatmattStout

SteveO1231

Connecticut

4.5/5  rDev +9%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | $$

Stopped in Friday night to check out this place before an open house at the New England Brewing Co. Pretty big place located right around the corner from the brewery. As soon as you walk in you a greeted by a wall of beer about 50 feet long, great selection, really good prices. They really had everything from CT, other regional/New England breweries and a ton of imports. I picked up a couple bottles from Wyerbacher that I couldn't find anywhere else in the state and of course a few 6 packs of New England's brews since they are nowhere to be found in the Hartford area. This place does rock and I'll stop by every time I'm in the area.

Cheers!

12-31-2006 19:59:12 | More by SteveO1231

Pete27lax

New York

4.43/5  rDev +7.3%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Amity wine and spirits is a very good beer distributor for craft beer. Their selection for domestic and imported beer is great but they do not get a lot of rare releases often, aside from all of the releases from New England Brewing Company which is within a few miles of the store. The staff is very friendly and decently knowledgeable about craft beer in the United States. The craft beer there is generally cheaper than most stores that I have been to which I love. Overall it is a good distributor and worth stopping in if you are in New Haven, Connecticut.

07-30-2011 19:25:40 | More by Pete27lax

jeffthecheff

Germany

4.35/5  rDev +5.3%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

This is a very good beer store. The selection is huge, and has a lot of beers that are never available in the Hartford area. I saw a four pack of (brown!) Saison Dupont bottles, and some Ithica brews that are hard to find in CT. I was also able to find the Duvel gift set that is always sold out by this time of year.

Prices were average, and service was quite good. I was asked if I needed help twice on a busy Friday night. My only complaint from this store is that their refrigerated selection was very small and in a seriously cramped area. You can't even push a cart through the cooler area. Otherwise, the stock was reasonably fresh and there were enough beers to warrant the "cart status," so this is a good store in my book.

12-19-2010 21:05:08 | More by jeffthecheff

slander

New York

4.3/5  rDev +4.1%
quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Real good beer stores are hard to find in Connecticut. This site is located just off the Merritt Parkway at the foot of the West Rock Tunnel.
A big aisle of American micros, healthy on New England and Mid-Atlantic regionals (Dogfish Head, Victory, Brooklyn, Smuttynose, Magic Hat, Otter Creek, Cisco Brewers, Harpoon, Allegash, Sea Dog, Gritty's, Atlantic brewing Co. and on and on) and then the import, imports, imports. A good Belgian collection and Gremans, English, all that.
It's a 4 on quality because they have some questionably dated beers. There's a shopping cart wagon with singles that you need to avoid. But the selection's good all around.
The selection used to be bigger but they've consolidated the american micros and squoze them into a smaller area to make room for malternatives and the like but I'm still very happy having recently scored a bunch of 22 ounce Magic Hat Ravell's (with which I will ruuule the world).
And just yesterday, I found one Magic Hat HI.P.A. on the shelf. Well I wanted more. They opened up every Magic Hat bomber box they had stacked up and then hunted around out back. Having come up empty, they made a call to the other store in Hamden and put a bunch of them on hold for me. Now that's service!!

01-12-2003 09:11:43 | More by slander

far333

Connecticut

4.3/5  rDev +4.1%
quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5

The Hamden Amity location is where I shop for beers most often. They have a great selection of micros, macros, and pretty much every import you can think of. The New Haven location is a little better, though, because they also have many imports that you wouldn't think of, and some you probably never heard of. If you don't see what you want, they'll order it for you. They also don't hassle you for grabbing singles, and they usually carry all the seasonals and one-offs. Prices are usually good too since they're a big retailer.

04-29-2003 17:51:25 | More by far333

BierManVA

Virginia

4.3/5  rDev +4.1%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 5

I 'found' this place accidentally while hanging out in New Haven this last weekend. I should have checked the barfly before I left. As it is, I found it on my last day.

As with most other posts here, the selection is HUGE! If I lived nearby, I would be there all the time. Full Dogfish Head selection, MANY belgian biers, German, US Micro and craft brews. There were some old looking singles on the shelf so check the freshness dates, codes, etc.

I rated service good for lack of any other because I didn't really need to ask about anything.

Other than that, definately stop here if driving by.

John

05-26-2004 18:10:48 | More by BierManVA