Belmont Station

On Tuesday, I said that By the Bottle was voted best beer store by the Northwest Brewing News Readers Choice Awards in the state of Washington for 2009. So who took the award for Oregon? That distinction goes to Belmont Station in Portland.

Belmont Station is a little bit bigger than By the Bottle, though it doesn’t seem to have quite the beer selection. It does, however, give the option of buying the beer as a six pack rather than individual bottles. Also, they give a slight discount when using cash for purchases.

For the non-beer drinker, they have a large selection of six pack ciders such as Wyder, Ace, Woodchuck, and Newton’s Folly. Both of Oregon’s cider makers area also represented, but none of the craft ciders from Washington. They do seem to have a larger selection of mead that I have seen other places, though most still seem to be coming up out of California.

Full Throttle Bottle

Behold the power of Facebook.

When I first started researching cider, I found Old Time Cider, which, one way or another, lead me to Full Throttle Bottle on Facebook. Full Throttle Bottle is a specialty beer and wine store located in Seattle, WA. They post quite regularly on Facebook about new shipments coming in, things they are drinking, and brewers coming in for tastings. It is so tempting.

Now, we live in Vancouver, WA, which is right next to Portland, OR. Washington and Oregon have very similar laws when it comes to alcohol. Liquor is sold in state run facilities, and wine and beer are sold in grocery stores. Apparently, they are so much alike that even though we are in Washington, we are most definitely part of Portland’s distribution. This means that what is sold in our local stores is usually from Oregon, especially wine. Meanwhile, Full Throttle Bottle is in Seattle, so it is part of a different distribution market, one that we are not part of. Their posts were talking about stuff that we can’t get here, and it made us envious.

On a recent trip to Seattle, we stopped by Full Throttle Bottle. They had the most cider I had ever seen. Most of it was craft cider from Washington State and a few from France, and almost all of them I couldn’t get at home. They also told me that Red Barn Cider in Mt. Vernon, WA was going to be coming there for a tasting on Wednesday, April 7 between 5pm and 7pm. Sadly, I cannot not go because it is in the middle of the week.

So I recommend that you check out Full Throttle Bottle if you are ever in Seattle for their cider selection. I also have to say that I would have never gone there if it hadn’t been for their Facebook posts.

By the Bottle

Our closest beer store is called By the Bottle in downtown Vancouver, WA. By the Bottle was voted best beer store by the Northwest Brewing News Readers Choice Awards in the state of Washington for 2009. At first, we had a hard time believing that, as it is a small store. Surely there is a bigger beer store in Seattle that could beat ours out. Since then, we have been to two Seattle beer stores, and two Portland stores, and we have realized the gem we have in our back yard.

While By the Bottle is small, it is well lit with UV filters on the lights to prevent light damage to the beer. While all the beer stores have knowledgeable staff, By the Bottle’s owner does something different with her store that sets it above the rest – how the beers are organized. Their website states, “Overall, domestics and imports are grouped separately. Then, they are designated by region, and then by style order from light to dark. So if you’re in the mood for a domestic stout, all of the brands of this style will all be in one place. Placards above each cooler door clearly indicate the organization.” We find this system of organizing the best. Think of it this way, those two beers would be entered at a competition together, so shouldn’t they be shelved together? With By the Bottle, they are all in one place, and that is great when the mood strikes you for a particular style of beer.

If beer isn’t your thing, like it isn’t mine, By the Bottle does have a small selection of ciders, including Ace Cider, and a few meads out of California.