People around here just love Wegmans. Really, everyone–even the employees–seems to love Wegmans. What’s not to love? Admittedly, they are a little spendy compared to their competitors in the region, mainly Tops and Dash’s, but that extra you pay at the register is more than made up for by their incredible service and selection. Their beer inventory underscores the point. No, Wegmans is not quite a bastion of the best and the rarest that the world of lovely malt beverages has to offer, but they do better by far than their competitors when it comes to stocking those coolers. For this edition of WAYUPOB?, we’re heading over to the Weggies (we sometimes like to call ‘em Wedge-mans) on Amherst St. I’ll compare with their other city location sometime on down the road.

Let’s start with the cooler as you see it from the end of the cleaning supplies & sundries aisle:

The coolers to the right of the walk-in door, pictured, contain the beers we want to worry about right now. On the left side of the door, you’ll find those that come in 30-packs, Canadian beers (not mutually exclusive, those two), and in a fully separate produce-style case on the east wall, a colorful array of sugary crap malternative beverages, some Hornsby’s and Woodchuck, and the ol’ college faves Milwaukee’s Beast—lite!—and Keystone. Let’s move along, then; nothing to see there.

Not fully pictured we see the imports: Stella Artois; Hoegaarden (have you seen/had their new Raspberry Wit yet?); Löwenbräu; Grolsh (bottles with caps, not swing-tops); Red Stripe; Amstel; Heineken (6’s, 12’s, keg-cans, you know the drill); Becks; Warsteiner; St. Pauli Girl; Spaten; Smithwicks; Guinness galore (pub draft cans & bottles, and the Export Stout; I’ll have to do a post their 3,974 different products someday); Boddingtons; Beamish; Harp; Bass; las cervezas; Newcastle; Fosters; Harp; Pilsner Urquell; Carlsberg; Peroni; and.. Steinlager, but not really. I mean, Steinlager is really there, it is also really brewed in Racha. No biggie, just a point… I’ve probably made before. In fact, more than a few of the ‘imports’ above are not imported from the country you might think- or imported at all. There is a legal and marketing distinction between “import beer” and “imported beer”, so caveat emptor!

Continuing this litany of linkage, domestic micros look a lot like this: Southern Tier (IPA, Phin & Matt’s, and variety packs); Anchor (Steam only); EBC (Blueberry Wheat & Pale Ale); Long Trail (Double Bag, Blackberry Wheat and a Summer Survival Pack; no idea what’s therein); Magic Hat (#9, Circus Boy and summer variety pack); Harpoon (IPA, mix-pack and seasonal Hibernian Ale, somewhat out-of-season, I have to say); Ithaca’s Apricot Wheat, Nut Brown and variety pack; lots of Utica, NY’s Saranac (6’s of Pomegranate Wheat, Black & Tan, Pale Ale, Black Forest and mix-six, plus 12’s of Summer and Adirondack Trail variety packs); Pete’s Wicked; Red Hook’s ESB, Anheuser-Busch’s gluten-free Redbridge, Otter Creek’s Copper Ale & variety pack; Blue Moon; Brooklyn Brown Ale (and some Lager in the back); Sierra Nevada (Pale Ale and Porter, also 12’s of the Pale); Flying Bison’s Buffalo Lager; Victory’s Hop Devil; loads of Sam Adams (Boston Lager, Light, Summer Ale, Cherry Wheat and mix-12); Leinenkugels‘ Summer Wheat and finally… Wolavers’ Brown Ale.

Ok, that was certainly unnecessarily exhaustive- but useful for my bookmarks folder, anyway. For all of that, the real secret is what Wegmans keeps inside the cooler. Oh yes.

This is what greets you on the right as you enter (left, as I left, right?):

Yes, there are some unfortunate shelf-mates here for a pre-St. Patrick’s day party supply (for one) of Guinness Pub Draft Cans and some beleaguered Ithaca Apricot Wheat- but all the Southern Tier 22oz bombers (including über*sun, Hoppe, un*earthly and Big Red) are on the top nearest the door, and below whatever that stuff is underneath them lies a few real unexpected gems: Grolsh in swing-tops (for you brewers out there); Ayinger Ur-Weisse(!); Heineken… Dark (which is pretty tasty); not one but two types of Sam Smiths (I did fail to note which); the Great Lakes 12-bottle sampler and those great Heineken keggy things. Special occasion beer, you might say.

Now, I’ll make one small complaint about the the good folks at Wegmans, Amherst St., and that’s this: I have oft seen other beers—beers of quality and poise, I might add, I mean Ommegang’s beers—sitting about on racks, warm, under the florescents, just getting, well… worse and worse. For a good monk’s sake, Danny, get those poor beers in the coolers, too, ok? I don’t mind as much that Redmill and Wolavers languish in quite the same way in the natural foods section of the market, because they’re in the coolers, too. And, I understand the desire to place beers near where similar products or marketing efforts are intended- like the beers that pop up in the cheese section from time to time. But you know… if you take care of your beer, it will take care of you. Still, it is a small complaint, and so pass on over it and come to the end of our hagiographic- yet fully unsolicited- review of Wegmans beer inventory.

So there you go- another way you can spend your beer dollars in the city (well, in some sense; in another, not so much) and contribute to the micro-economy: Drink Beer; Save The World as the man over here says. Or perhaps better: BuffaloFirst!

post script:
At Wegmans, and then again for two brands at consumers in Kenmore, I noticed this:

That’s right: Pumpkin beers are here (it was Post Road’s (made by Brooklyn) and Shipyard’s I espied at Consumers). You know, the last few nights have been a bit chilly, but still… Is summer really over? Not until the Buffalo Brewfest it isn’t! Some of the brewers will surely be whipping out their fall lines, so don’t miss it…. I know Southern Tier has an Imperial pumpkin ale, called pumking, coming soon…