Best craft beer in Disney

[dreamfinder]

How many u only get a good 10 days out of a growler that would be a lot of drinking lol.

I think last trip was 4 growlers and 3 squealers. Usually lasts about 2 weeks. A few of the places have the fancy counter pressure fill stations, and those are usually claimed to last for 3+ weeks unopened. Have to get multiples at Hill Farmstead, and I have enough empty glass to make a trip well worth my while.

 

[ajt5027]

Has no one mentioned Big River Grille at Boardwalk?

Honestly I spent a lot of time in there my last trip, talked to the brewer, invested in some beers. IMO this is the best place/value on property for craft/micro beer. As opposed to spending $7-$8 in park for a macro (blue moon, redhook, etc.) you can get a beer crafted right there for the same price or less. I'm not 100% sure but I think they have a happy hour too.

 

[Phonedave]

I think the problem is the volume that WDW does.

I don't think many of the smaller craft brewers can keep up. One of my new favorites is now Bolero Snort brewery (anything they make is good, so far). Good luck trying to find that at all outside of Northern NJ.

We did an Oktoberfest last year, about 200 people attended. We had Bolero Snort's "There's no Rye-ing in Basebull" and "Ragin' Bull" on tap. We got whatever we could from the brewery, and we were tapped on those in under an hour. Also ran out of the two BOAKs brews we had on tap a bit later. Then we were left with "regular" stuff, such as Sam Adams.

Small operations just can't handle the volume.

-dave

 

[RandomPrincess]

I'm not a beer drinker but my DH is and he loves to try all the different ones. He loved a Grapefruit beer in Germany last year he loved, kept going back.

 

[brifraz]

With Sierra Nevada getting close to full operations at their new East Coast brewery in North Carolina, I wonder if they are going to try to get a contract with Disney... While their more recent new items have been a little less interesting than they were years ago, I still place them quite a bit above Sam Adams in terms of interesting flavor profiles and I would be very happy to see them at Disney.

Obviously, I'd love to see breweries like Stone and Dogfish Head (or to keep it local for me Flying Dog), but as @Phonedave said, even those craft breweries who are top 10 or so in production don't have the facility to keep with the demand of Disney.

I really think that Sam and Sierra Nevada and maybe New Belgium are the only ones who could keep up with the demand of a regular Disney contract.

To the OP question - the Unibroue beers in Canada are my favorites on site but sadly you have to eat at the Steakhouse to get most of them, or go during Food and Wine. During Food and Wine, I do love the Innis and Gunn at Scotland (which I am very happy to now be able to get locally).

If I can digress into personal Disney history, my first foray into craft beers was actually at Disney back in the early 90's. There used to be a bar called the Catwalk Bar at MGM above what is now the Playhouse Disney show. It was my favorite out-of-the-way place to relax. They had a pretty wide variety of beers both on tap and in bottles. I know I had Unibroue's Fin du Monde and Raftman there on tap and Blackened Voodoo and Brooklyn Brown among others in bottles.

 

[xdan0920]

I think the problem is the volume that WDW does.

I don't think many of the smaller craft brewers can keep up. One of my new favorites is now Bolero Snort brewery (anything they make is good, so far). Good luck trying to find that at all outside of Northern NJ.

We did an Oktoberfest last year, about 200 people attended. We had Bolero Snort's "There's no Rye-ing in Basebull" and "Ragin' Bull" on tap. We got whatever we could from the brewery, and we were tapped on those in under an hour. Also ran out of the two BOAKs brews we had on tap a bit later. Then we were left with "regular" stuff, such as Sam Adams.

Small operations just can't handle the volume.

-dave

You do an Octoberfest in North Jersey?

I am in NNJ.

I love Octoberfests.

Tell me more please.

 

[Bparso87]

With Sierra Nevada getting close to full operations at their new East Coast brewery in North Carolina, I wonder if they are going to try to get a contract with Disney... While their more recent new items have been a little less interesting than they were years ago, I still place them quite a bit above Sam Adams in terms of interesting flavor profiles and I would be very happy to see them at Disney.

Obviously, I'd love to see breweries like Stone and Dogfish Head (or to keep it local for me Flying Dog), but as @Phonedave said, even those craft breweries who are top 10 or so in production don't have the facility to keep with the demand of Disney.

I really think that Sam and Sierra Nevada and maybe New Belgium are the only ones who could keep up with the demand of a regular Disney contract.

To the OP question - the Unibroue beers in Canada are my favorites on site but sadly you have to eat at the Steakhouse to get most of them, or go during Food and Wine. During Food and Wine, I do love the Innis and Gunn at Scotland (which I am very happy to now be able to get locally).

If I can digress into personal Disney history, my first foray into craft beers was actually at Disney back in the early 90's. There used to be a bar called the Catwalk Bar at MGM above what is now the Playhouse Disney show. It was my favorite out-of-the-way place to relax. They had a pretty wide variety of beers both on tap and in bottles. I know I had Unibroue's Fin du Monde and Raftman there on tap and Blackened Voodoo and Brooklyn Brown among others in bottles.

I love Sierra Nevada it is an amazing brewery that can sell a lot and make it great their tarpedo is great and their stout is underrated. Plus they have beer camp I love Sam Adams to but Sam Adams can't do hops very well but SN can.

 

[dreamfinder]

I think the problem is the volume that WDW does. ... Small operations just can't handle the volume.

-dave

Obviously, I'd love to see breweries like Stone and Dogfish Head (or to keep it local for me Flying Dog), but as @Phonedave said, even those craft breweries who are top 10 or so in production don't have the facility to keep with the demand of Disney.

I really think that Sam and Sierra Nevada and maybe New Belgium are the only ones who could keep up with the demand of a regular Disney contract.

To me the issue isn't so much the volume a brewer can do, but perhaps a lack (maybe just perceived) of talented bartenders combined with a slimmed down property wide drink menu. If you move away from the one and done drink menu, it's really easy to get beer in volume to handle a larger variety of breweries. Changing to a rotating "guest tap" scenario at the lounges & resort bars wouldn't take that much volume. I'd be shocked if any one of those locations would do more than 2/3 kegs worth a night. Yes, it may not be the same as your local neighborhood beer of awesomeness but heck, between Allagash, Left Hand, Stone, Dogfish Head (all top 50 in sales volume) I doubt Disney would have any issues getting enough kegs to do a single rotating tap. In fact if guys of that volume dont have 60 kegs to spare (running with the 2 kegs worth a day) per month, I'd say we have a bigger problem. I don't have any idea about distributors that WDW uses, but that may be the root of the problem. Many are still very iffy to push anything outside of the BMC family.

 

[Bparso87]

To me the issue isn't so much the volume a brewer can do, but perhaps a lack (maybe just perceived) of talented bartenders combined with a slimmed down property wide drink menu. If you move away from the one and done drink menu, it's really easy to get beer in volume to handle a larger variety of breweries. Changing to a rotating "guest tap" scenario at the lounges & resort bars wouldn't take that much volume. I'd be shocked if any one of those locations would do more than 2/3 kegs worth a night. Yes, it may not be the same as your local neighborhood beer of awesomeness but heck, between Allagash, Left Hand, Stone, Dogfish Head (all top 50 in sales volume) I doubt Disney would have any issues getting enough kegs to do a single rotating tap. In fact if guys of that volume dont have 60 kegs to spare (running with the 2 kegs worth a day) per month, I'd say we have a bigger problem. I don't have any idea about distributors that WDW uses, but that may be the root of the problem. Many are still very iffy to push anything outside of the BMC family.

I beat that is the main problem I don't believe Disney is buying straight from a brewer but have a local middleman so they most likely can only get what gets to Florida.

 

[brifraz]

To me the issue isn't so much the volume a brewer can do, but perhaps a lack (maybe just perceived) of talented bartenders combined with a slimmed down property wide drink menu. If you move away from the one and done drink menu, it's really easy to get beer in volume to handle a larger variety of breweries. Changing to a rotating "guest tap" scenario at the lounges & resort bars wouldn't take that much volume. I'd be shocked if any one of those locations would do more than 2/3 kegs worth a night. Yes, it may not be the same as your local neighborhood beer of awesomeness but heck, between Allagash, Left Hand, Stone, Dogfish Head (all top 50 in sales volume) I doubt Disney would have any issues getting enough kegs to do a single rotating tap. In fact if guys of that volume dont have 60 kegs to spare (running with the 2 kegs worth a day) per month, I'd say we have a bigger problem. I don't have any idea about distributors that WDW uses, but that may be the root of the problem. Many are still very iffy to push anything outside of the BMC family.

I beat that is the main problem I don't believe Disney is buying straight from a brewer but have a local middleman so they most likely can only get what gets to Florida.

Given the supply of craft brews from around the US (and foreign) available within a 10 mile radius of WDW, there are certainly distributors in the area willing to supply those brews. Many of the craft brewers who are more popular are brewing at capacity already to satisfy their regular distributors. THE FOLLOWING IS PURE CONJECTURE!!!! I actually suspect 2 things cause the dearth of craft brews at the World. #1 is that I think Disney likely does their own beer supply contracts and does not use a distributor and as such deal with companies that can give them the largest profit margins and most consistent supply. #2 is that Disney is not willing to get into any contract where sales are not guaranteed. The big guys have guaranteed sales records behind them, Sam Adams does as well (many years at #1 in craft brewers by a HUGE margin), and the few craft brews that are available are extremely specialized in location and priced to only sell to the minority of us who truly want them.

I also think that possibly craft brewers are afraid to get handcuffed by any possible Disney contract. Those who I have had the pleasure to talk to (and read about) seem to truly relish their place in the brewing world (so long as they are making $$) and when craft brewers 'sell out' to the big guys (aka - get distribution deals) they lose much of their cred - I don't think Sam Calagione wants to be the Disney craft beer guy!

And so ends all of my theorizing about the craft beer situation at Disney. Time for a Breckenridge Vanilla Porter and then maybe a Southern Tier Pumking ('tis almost the season)!!

 

[Bparso87]

Given the supply of craft brews from around the US (and foreign) available within a 10 mile radius of WDW, there are certainly distributors in the area willing to supply those brews. Many of the craft brewers who are more popular are brewing at capacity already to satisfy their regular distributors. THE FOLLOWING IS PURE CONJECTURE!!!! I actually suspect 2 things cause the dearth of craft brews at the World. #1 is that I think Disney likely does their own beer supply contracts and does not use a distributor and as such deal with companies that can give them the largest profit margins and most consistent supply. #2 is that Disney is not willing to get into any contract where sales are not guaranteed. The big guys have guaranteed sales records behind them, Sam Adams does as well (many years at #1 in craft brewers by a HUGE margin), and the few craft brews that are available are extremely specialized in location and priced to only sell to the minority of us who truly want them.

I also think that possibly craft brewers are afraid to get handcuffed by any possible Disney contract. Those who I have had the pleasure to talk to (and read about) seem to truly relish their place in the brewing world (so long as they are making $$) and when craft brewers 'sell out' to the big guys (aka - get distribution deals) they lose much of their cred - I don't think Sam Calagione wants to be the Disney craft beer guy!

And so ends all of my theorizing about the craft beer situation at Disney. Time for a Breckenridge Vanilla Porter and then maybe a Southern Tier Pumking ('tis almost the season)!!

Southern tier pumpkin is my favorite pumpkin beer next to terrapin pumpkin pie porter but can never find it up here. I do love a good sweetpotato porter to in the fall.

 

[brifraz]

Southern tier pumpkin is my favorite pumpkin beer next to terrapin pumpkin pie porter but can never find it up here. I do love a good sweetpotato porter to in the fall.

Very excited about this year's Pumking and Warlock from Southern Tier (I've heard that this year's Warlock is even better than last year), both of which just arrived in Maryland this past week. And both of which might get opened tonight....

 

[Bparso87]

Very excited about this year's Pumking and Warlock from Southern Tier (I've heard that this year's Warlock is even better than last year), both of which just arrived in Maryland this past week. And both of which might get opened tonight....

I am running on empty I only have my 12 bottles left from my Great Lakes variety pack but it is great. Will be picking up a 6er tomorrow r a bomber r 2

 

[dreamfinder]

THE FOLLOWING IS PURE CONJECTURE!!!! I actually suspect 2 things cause the dearth of craft brews at the World. #1 is that I think Disney likely does their own beer supply contracts and does not use a distributor and as such deal with companies that can give them the largest profit margins and most consistent supply.

Well, according to the Florida Beer Wholesalers Association here -> http://fbwa.com/licensing-regulation/three-tier-system/, FL is indeed participating in the 3 tier system which means a retailer must buy from a distributor, and not from the brewery direct. This doesn't mean that WDW didn't set up a shell distribution company like several smaller brewers I know did (wife owns the brewery, husband owns the distribution despite being the brewer)

While many of the more popular brewers may already be at capacity, the distributor doesn't care about that. (Much) If they know they will have say 100 kegs of a beer next month, and WDW orders 50 of them, so be it. This is actually pretty common with the rarer bottled beers. The distributor often favors their larger customers with a larger proportion of the available beer. And in my mind, this actually helps craft beer overall. WDW having something on tap means a slightly larger audience. And if that tap means that Ruby Tuesday now needs to buy a different keg, thats another brewer getting exposure, all the way down the line. There are plenty of up an comers that would love to get on a tap somewhere, anywhere.

And the consistent supply can easily be dealt with by a rotating tap. Give Mizers a rotating local FL tap, the Wave a rotating Stone tap, Jiko a rotating Dogfish Head tap, etc. Charging $7 per pint vs $5.50 per pint still would give them the same margins, and if it rotates, you don't need to be worried nearly as much about consistency.

 

[Phonedave]

You do an Octoberfest in North Jersey?

I am in NNJ.

I love Octoberfests.

Tell me more please.

Take a look here

http://leoniaoktoberfest.com/

Time, date and place are current.

Beer and food menu, pricing, and entertainment list is still last years (gotta get our various committees to push the info to the website committee)

Price is $10 cover for all over 21, and that $10 covers your first beer (or wine, or soda) - food and additional beverages are extra. I'll be the tall guy behind the bar.

-dave

 

[Phonedave]

To me the issue isn't so much the volume a brewer can do, but perhaps a lack (maybe just perceived) of talented bartenders combined with a slimmed down property wide drink menu. If you move away from the one and done drink menu, it's really easy to get beer in volume to handle a larger variety of breweries. Changing to a rotating "guest tap" scenario at the lounges & resort bars wouldn't take that much volume. I'd be shocked if any one of those locations would do more than 2/3 kegs worth a night. Yes, it may not be the same as your local neighborhood beer of awesomeness but heck, between Allagash, Left Hand, Stone, Dogfish Head (all top 50 in sales volume) I doubt Disney would have any issues getting enough kegs to do a single rotating tap. In fact if guys of that volume dont have 60 kegs to spare (running with the 2 kegs worth a day) per month, I'd say we have a bigger problem. I don't have any idea about distributors that WDW uses, but that may be the root of the problem. Many are still very iffy to push anything outside of the BMC family.

I don't know - I think Disney likes to play it safe - across the board, in food, drink and everything else (such as merch).

I used to see innovation at WDW. Now I see a lot of product they can get in quantity, with consistent supply, a broad generic consumer base, and a easy to compute profit margin.

I don't think WDW food and beverage upper management wants to be bothered with having multiple different beers at multiple different locations. They may do a few single taps here are there, but I really think they want to be able to have 200 kegs in their warehouse that they can deliver to 20 different serving locations on a daily basis.

-dave

 

[dreamfinder]

I don't know - I think Disney likes to play it safe - across the board, in food, drink and everything else (such as merch).

I used to see innovation at WDW. Now I see a lot of product they can get in quantity, with consistent supply, a broad generic consumer base, and a easy to compute profit margin.

I don't think WDW food and beverage upper management wants to be bothered with having multiple different beers at multiple different locations. They may do a few single taps here are there, but I really think they want to be able to have 200 kegs in their warehouse that they can deliver to 20 different serving locations on a daily basis.

-dave

Oh I certainly agree. As my one and done drink menu comment alluded to. Every restaurant has the same glowtini, 6 specialty drinks, and that's about it. And I still like the guest tap (I'm flogging a dead horse here) as then it doesn't matter what gets delivered where. Keg runs out, stick the next one on. Different brand/different brewery? No biggie, it's the guest tap. Ensure all kegs stored in the "red" portion of the cooler cost between $XX and $YY and need to be sold at $Z per pint to hit a certain profit margin. Easy enough. Or am I giving too much credit to the F&B dept.

 

[Bparso87]

Oh I certainly agree. As my one and done drink menu comment alluded to. Every restaurant has the same glowtini, 6 specialty drinks, and that's about it. And I still like the guest tap (I'm flogging a dead horse here) as then it doesn't matter what gets delivered where. Keg runs out, stick the next one on. Different brand/different brewery? No biggie, it's the guest tap. Ensure all kegs stored in the "red" portion of the cooler cost between $XX and $YY and need to be sold at $Z per pint to hit a certain profit margin. Easy enough. Or am I giving too much credit to the F&B dept.

Most places u go to that have 20 plus drafts usually one of your picks will be out no biggie pick another great beer. The craft beer crazy is hitting a all time high and at a signature restaurant it would be awesome to have a beer paring with your food. I think the one thing they should do is at least have different styles on tap. U go to a beverage stand and they have three light beers on tap drives me nuts.

 

[PhilharMagician]

BraufactuM Indra - Pale Ale was served @ F&W 2009. This beer was outstanding.

I miss Germany having Spaten Optimator on tap.


For a craft beer I think they should have beers from Saratoga Brewery for SSR resort. Their Eye of the Hawk is awesome and the IPA is up there with the best.

 

[Bparso87]

BraufactuM Indra - Pale Ale was served @ F&W 2009. This beer was outstanding.

I miss Germany having Spaten Optimator on tap.

Germany's beer selection is horrible for their history in beer.