Costco has had that the last times I’ve been there. It’s really not bad, could be hoppier. But everything could be hoppier to be honest… A small brewery in Michigan put out a hop NA water concoction that was a knock out, and it seems it disappeared, haven’t been able to find it anywhere since. It was what got me to experiment with these ‘hop water’ things.
It was from Short’s, and months ago, sadly…
Some of us can just ride across the Curtain and grab a few cans on the way home. 
For states with bottle refunds: How much of a PITA is your return dance?
Here, the retainer has the ability to deny any brands, and even sizes of containers they don’t sell, and it makes returning bottles/cans a real pain.
The last time I did the return dance, I had 40 cans that the store sold, and yet the attendant refused, initially, to manually accept. ‘Did you get these here?!’ Yes. They are on the shelves right now, wanna go see them? ‘I’m not sure you bought THESE beers here.’ Um, do I have to bring the receipts next time? That’s not part of the law. ‘Well, I don’t recognize any of these! Are you sure we sell these?!’ Let’s go take a walk and I’ll show you! ‘Well, I’ll accept these now, how many?’ With such a snotty affect. Like I was ‘cheating’ them out of the money somehow. They weren’t relabeled water bottles for Pete’s sake… It took them nearly a half hour to give me the slip. Stupid… Total return time: Just over an hour. Ridiculous. 
(Last time I was there, I used their ‘red phone’, and the attendant asked how many I had, and came with a slip right away)
They tried to kill it 5 or so years ago, and it was widely called the best republican welfare program the state had, and was saved, but they did tweak it to allow retainers to refuse items for a weird list of ‘issues’. (Like none in plastic trash bags, for some reason)
Just curious… Thanks, and Drink on!
(I’ve had to go to three stores to get all of them returned. I save them up for a few months so maybe that is part of the problem?)
(I wish Starbucks did a ‘hop coffee’. Seems it could be better than the pumpkin spice slurm. 
On a related note (and back to the thread), one of the local breweries is starting distribution of their Oktoberfest next week.
Seriously…can I please enjoy the rest of my summer before we rush Fall?
Pumpkin Spice everything soon to follow… 
Pretty easy in Michigan, back in the 1970s and early 80s. Bought a lot of steaks in college by getting up early on Saturday morning and picking up bottles and cans on the way to the grocery store 
Here in California there are return centers, they weigh and pay. Grab some plastic cans, dump your bottles, cans, and plastic into separate cans, and get in line. They take everything with CRV printed on it, and will remove wine bottles and what not. I can even return scrap metal at the same time.
My last experience was in a Meijer’s. So crazy. Usually they are pretty good about it, but some people there are just punitive. Unneeded, unnecessary.
The worst part of it is the good stuff that they even sell is a pain to return because the machines never seem to take them and they play games like that 
. I know people that just donate their empties to different groups around and let them deal with the BS. It SHOULD be easier. It should be more consistent. Bring your stuff, get your money. Saving up returnables until I get enough has its drawbacks. Might be westward bound in a month or so.
Last year I saw Pumpkin Spice (PS) toothpaste, mouthwash, ice cream, coffee creamer, gum, dental floss, an odd beer I’ve never heard of, hand sanitizer, tissues, candy bars, and on and on. I think they all missed the wave of junk products, but yeah, YUCK. My sister is militant about PSL’s (lines up for the first one in her town) and hates IPA’s; so she gets her slurm, and I get my good stuff.
Yeah, ‘End of season sales’ already? Even from the local bike shop? No STOP! I’m not ready! It’s been to damn hot to enjoy the ‘spring’ and if this is summer, so NOT READY! (sigh)
Weigh & pay for the win. I usually take 4 trash bags and get $20-$25. So much better than the grocery store routine, which disappeared in CA sometime in the late 90s or early 00s.
When I was 10 years old we took my red wagon door to door and asked people for their returns. To buy coca-cola and candy.
Bet it’s a hit in Hawaii. SPAM is a delicacy there, which shocked me. It’s on restaurant menus! They do some crazy stuff with it. Like it’s haute cuisine… 
The industry tried here to kill it here probably 8 years ago. It didn’t get very far. Now they want to extend it to water bottles (which is a fantastic idea) and are getting a lot of push back.
I just hope the undertow doesn’t subsume the whole bottle return law.
The MI law was a boon for go getter kids of the 1970s, and also for their dentists!
Ted King had tBill Shufelt - he founder of Athletic Brew - on his podcast. He said that Europe’s market for NA is a multiple of the US which surprised me.
I believe he said that the issue for NA historically is that brewers just tried to take the alcohol out of an existing beer versus actually trying to brew a good NA from scratch.
Junior Astronaut Juice, IPA from Illuminated. Decent beer, better place, with exceptional people there.
I had an NA decades ago that tasted like they tried just adding water to it to dilute it enough to lower the ABV numbers. To say it sucked would be being far too kind. It had almost no flavor to it. Quite a disaster. I swore off NA brews after that. It has to have some flavor, depth in order to get people to take it seriously, DUH!!
Decades ago I wouldnt be surprised if the company just emptied out their toilet tank and called it NA beer. The newer stuff is dramatically better.
I’d say…roughly speaking, there is overlap between regular beer and NA beer. Like, the top 25% of non-alcoholic craft beer is better than the bottom 25% of US regular craft beer.
Being 100% serious - if it’s been decades since you’ve tried NA beer…unless you’re against NA beer on philosophical grounds…go out and get a 6 pack of one of the NA beers recommended here; you’ll be stunned.
FWIW last summer I bought a six pack of Athletic Brewing’s Run Wild IPA (I think it was that one), we sampled and nobody was impressed. Left them at my brother-in-laws and the next time I visited he asked me to take them home!
I do like the Athletic Brewing IPA. The local store doesn’t carry it all the time, sold out I guess.
I’m trying to remember now what that watered down swill was. Freudian mind block? I remember trying Ultra, and was really not seeing its popularity, but it’s not NA, is it? Just ‘low calorie’. Again, what’s the point of drinking ‘beer’ if it doesn’t have any flavor. Might as well be drinking toilet water. Actually ‘used’ toilet water would taste better than almost all America standard shelf ‘beer’.
Agreed. But genuinely, Athletic is SIGNIFICANTLY more tasty than say miller or bud, or Ultra, etc. as @WindWarrior mentioned above, is it the best IPA out there? No. But it’s tasty, and tastes like a decent ipa. Just maybe not a great one. It’s 65 calories, no alcohol, and tastes like real beer.
