Amity Wine & Spirit Co.

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

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

3.85/5  rDev -6.8%
quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I went here as told by local bartenders that it was the best store in the state, with everything that can be gotten a hold of in the state. A long double row of beer, which is above average for most stores, and it was well organized by brewery and neatly placed. Popular beers in coolers. The manager quickly saw I knew what I was doing, and gave me carte blanche to break up any 4-packs and 6-packs. Prices were fine. A medium sized store, when taking into account the wine and spirits. Well lit up but no real beer geek.

08-20-2010 20:03:16 | More by northyorksammy

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

mltobin

Connecticut

4.15/5  rDev +0.5%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Located in a strip mall, near a Sam Ash music store, just off Route 15 in New Haven, right next to the Woodbridge border.

Right when you walk in, if you continue straight, you have the micro/craft and german/belgium/other countries beer selection.
I bought some belgian beer and was pleased with the options. They seemed to have a good array of stuff from Southern Tier, Great Divide, Flying Dog and other quality breweries in the U.S.
Pretty good prices overall and attentive staff...glad I stopped in.

09-14-2008 22:38:57 | More by mltobin

jgasparine

Maryland

4.15/5  rDev +0.5%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I grew-up down the street from this place, went to school with the owner's daughter. Little did I know I would grow-up to be a beer geek and visit Amity Wine every return trip home!

This place is the anchor store a grody little shopping center. It's like a supermarket for booze. Incredible.

More importantly, their beer aisle is probably 75 yards long and packed full of... well... everything. Macro, craft, micro... imports. If it's available in the state of Connecticut, the odds are that they have it.

I have never been disappointed by their selection... quite often I am exceptionally impressed by some of the gems they keep tucked-away in there!

STOP BY IF YOU'RE IN TOWN!

07-28-2009 01:12:06 | More by jgasparine

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

bjohnson

Massachusetts

4.15/5  rDev +0.5%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Located right off the highway in New Haven before the tunnel towards Hamden/Hartford.

Huge selection of New England micro's with a bunch of micro's from other locations as well. I was almost overwhelmed. Very good selection of imports, mostly from Germany, England, and Belgium. Definatley a great place to go if you want to browse for awhile. Most of the selection is on the warm shelves with a bunch in the coolers. There were a couple of brews that I hadn't seen before and was suprised to see Ipswich in stock as I didn't think they distributed out of Mass. Not a huge selection of 22oz. bombers as I was hoping to find some IIPA's in stock that I hadn't had before. They had mostly every offering from the well known micro's (DFH, smutty, T hooker, Victory, Rouge, Long Trail, Otter Creek, etc.)

Definitely recommend this place as you'll never get bored with the selection because it'd be hard to try everything they've got. Didn't get much staff help, but I didn't really need any as I was just browsing.

There was a shipyard tasting going on when I was there and sampled of those good brews.

04-15-2006 20:05:38 | More by bjohnson

Reagan1984

Massachusetts

4.2/5  rDev +1.7%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$

This place was recommended as possibly having Stout Trooper in stock. I dropped by at 8:30pm excited to get my hands on some more of this nice beer. They close at 8:00pm..

Huh? I don't blame them I guess it's state law. Anyway, the next day I was in a liquor store for the first time ever at 8:00am.... This makes no sense, but whatever..

A full one sided grocery aisle of both imports and domestic. Both sections are pretty impressive. I was shocked frankly. The gentleman working the aisle was helpful and interested in what I was looking for. He wrote some names down that they didn't have, presumably in an effort to find them. However, he wasn't really helpful when asked for recommendations.. Pricing seemed pretty reasonable.

A good stop if you are in the area or passing through. I travel Rte 15 (The Merritt) quite often and will now stop here from time to time to see what they have.

** This week I made my second stop on the way to NYC. Almost on a lark... They had a bottle of Brooklyn Black Ops on the shelf. Last one. Worth the stop..

02-01-2009 15:31:58 | More by Reagan1984

Hautacam

Connecticut

4.15/5  rDev +0.5%
quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | $$

Been buying here off and on for years and always liked the place.
I found it because it is located in a plaza with a really good music store. Bought a piano and some Anchor Steam without moving the car !
Always a good selection of International and American Micros.
Prices are reasonable and staff is very knowledgable.
Good selection of Belgians the last time I was there....around Christmas.
Bought a few Ommegang Gift Packs for friends...good price...about $1.50 cheaper than other places I had seen it.

Very easy on and off of Merritt / Wilbur Cross Parkway... and the New England Brewery is across the street (rt 63 ).

01-26-2006 18:36:56 | More by Hautacam

SpeedwayJim

New York

4.15/5  rDev +0.5%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $

Visited this beer store with schen9303 and hoppymcgee while at the BA Imperial Stout Trooper release. It's about a block away so I thought... why not.

The first thing that I thought when I walked into Amity was how much it looked like a grocery store and how hot it was. That can't be good for the beer. However, everything was very easy to find here and the shelves were organized in a very logical. This place is real conducive to shopping. A whole aile of bombers complements a couple of fridge-fulls of sixers.

No one helped us but it wasn't like we needed anyone to show us around. There were more cashiers at checkout than there were customers... always good from the shoppers point of view since they got us out real quickly.

Selection here is pretty unbelievable. Shelves and shelves of American craft and a comparable European selection. You'll likely find what you're looking for here if what you're looking for is anywhere around the New England area.

I didn't really get a good look at all the prices but I noticed that Avery's Samael was $3.50... that's at least half the price of any other place I've been to. A real eye-opener and the rest of their prices are also really competitive.

Amity is worth checking out both for its selection and its prices. You can't really go wrong walking into this place. In addition, they're just a short walk from NE Brewing so that's always a plus since you can just walk there for a growler fill at your covenience. Amity also seems to get all of NE's stuff because of the proximity.

04-24-2010 23:44:37 | More by SpeedwayJim