Bottle Shops and Bars

Over the last year we have watched the boom of the bottle shop. Croydon, Gipsy Hill, Nunhead, Balham, Kings Cross… The list is endless.  So what is a bottle shop and why have they become popular so quickly?

A great bottle shop is somewhere to buy unique beers for the fridge, fill up your growlers and have a swift half on site while talking hops.

Let me set the scene. You’re at the bar and you know Steve is about to start harping on about his trips to America and how many breweries across the pond are making great beer. Then Paul pipes up about working in Belgium and rebuttles that Belgians makes the best beer. The conversation goes on for hours with no resolution. If only you had access to a wider range of beers, you could have held your own! This is what bottle shops bring to the table – variety, the treat of spotting something you haven’t tried and affordability. Simply, that is why they have a place in our hearts.

With this boom, We have started to see this ethos leak through into bars. More and more they are offering an ever changing selection of bottles. We have to admit, we kind of love it. When you walk into a bar and you’re confronted by a wall of bottles, you just know you can treat yourself after a long day.

In our opinion we just love that people have better access to great brews. After all, it’s about drinking beer and talking to people.

So what do you think? Are you more inclined to head to the bottle shops over a bar? Do you think its just a fad?

-Mike-