Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Looks like a Total Wine & More will be coming to my adopted town of Glendale. And within a five minute walk to me.
I really like that they do single can sales but they do not refrigerate the majority of their beers. I am tempted to mark some cans with dates to see how long some beers, especially IPAs, last on the shelf.
Unless their inventory process changes, you will need to be super careful as to what you buy here. Keep it to stouts and spirits.
Cryptic headline I know. But Total Wine opened up a new store in Woodland Hills and since I got an invite, I thought I would check it out.
In the past, I have bought some old as f..k beer at the TW Torrance location. Thanks to a combination of breweries not date stamping their beers and retailers not rotating their stock out.
But I drove to the new store and after struggling to find it, (It’s well hidden inside the Westfield Mall with not much in the way of signage on the street), I entered a bright and big store with an goodly sized tasting area directly to the right and a pair of tasting kiosks as well.
The Beer was pushed to the back but there was quite the selection. Singles lined one aisle organized by style. There was an aisle for big party boxes as well as a seasonal and special sections plus a six-pack area. Unfortunately, most of the beer is not refrigerated.
With a new store, you would expect new stock and for the most part it was OK. I did find some Bravery Allegiance IPA that was smack dab on the 3 month old mark though and also checked some Easy Jack that had a 8/19/16 date stamp on it.
The other unfortunate event was the fact that a certain Bud-Owned brewery was the only beer being sampled. Would have been nice to see them highlight some beer from Los Angeles.
Overall, if you are in that area, it is a nice well lit store with plenty to choose from. It won’t win awards for pop-in pop-out easy access but you can extend your visit and check out the Eureka! Burger location which is pretty reliable with craft beer. Just make sure to check those born on dates like a discerning beer customer, and you will find plenty to buy.