Utah BAs

Yes, liquor stores & Brewery bottle shops are your best bets. There are currently nine breweries/brewpubs in Salt Lake County with a couple more in the planning stages. There are two main beer bars in SLC The Beerhive & The Bayou. They currently have the best beer selections, though many places around the area are improving weekly.
It's all covered at Utahbeer.blogspot.com

Load up if you want, there's always a favorite beer or two from home that you'll miss.

Prost!

 

Normally the responses are pretty good here, probably just the Holiday Weekend.

 

There's a few of us--but Mikey is the authority

In addition to the state liquor stores and breweries, most grocery stores in town have a good selection of 4% stuff.

 

I haven't tried all the breweries in Salt Lake but Red Rock, Uinta, Squatters, and Epic are all good visits. Bottle shops are your best bet for out of state beer. Liquor stores are owned by the state and any special orders you make through them have a limited selection and you can only buy by the case. Utah liquor stores aren't usually a fun experience, that's why I stick to breweries and bring back hauls from Colorado. Also keep in mind that even breweries are not allowed to have anything over 3.2 (4% in your terms) on tap, though they might have bottles with higher alcohol for sale to go. My best advice is to start brewing, that's the main way you are going to get variety and your desired alcohol content. I live in Moab and most everyone who is really into craft beer either brews or makes friends with a homebrewer. Good luck. Why Salt Lake?

 

I don't mean to high jack this thread but I'm also moving to Salt Lake City soon and I have a related question I visited the Beerhive when I was in town in January but didn't get a chance to check out the Bayou, definitely going to head there next.

Based on my use of seekabrew, it doesn't appear that Utah has the greatest distribution (having lived in Kansas for the last three years, I'm used to this). My question is, if you were to drive to one of Utah's neighboring states to pick up a haul of beer, where would you go? I know Colorado has great distribution, is there anywhere worth going in Grand Junction?

 

Evanston, Wyoming is quite a bit closer--and has a bunch of regional beers that we don't. Idaho Falls has a couple of really good shops. It's a longer drive, though...

 

Thanks That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I think I'd like to avoid the state liquor stores for as long as possible in Salt Lake based on my experience in January.

 

I will definitely let you know. I am starting at the U on August 1st

 

Well, there are some good/great beers available in town--I mean, why avoid Rochefort? Or Sierra-Nevada, even. Not to mention the locals... But yeah--if you like trying different beers, the well runs dry pretty fast. I'm about overdue for an Evanston run myself.

 

You can; they'll just be in bottles, though.

 

Vegas is also a great place to pick up some brew's, but a long drive.

Cheers!

John

 

Nice avatar!

 

So, true.

Cheers!

 

Thanks.

Cheers!

 

The beer selection is not great, but it is getting better every quarter & you'd be surprised by how fresh some of the beer from out of state breweries is. This last batch of Fresh Squeezed was less than a week old when I got my wookie paws on it.