Originally Posted by
BSBD
I don't know how much you travel outside of the area, but I find that no matter where I go, wide-ranging beer selections are more common in beer-focused establishments, rather than restaurants. There are always exceptions, but they are always few and far between.
No one has disagreed with that, but unless your spouse and friends are also beer connoisseurs AND they find pub grub appealing, you're seldom likely to visit such places for social events. If they prefer wine or food instead of grub, then you may have a problem.
Originally Posted by
BSBD
Well, I guess I'm forced to agree with a previous poster - if all you can find in Nashville is Shocktop and other big-vat beers, and if your husband's tastes in beer aren't accommodated by the wide availability and variety that can be found in Nashville if one makes the effort to look, you should consider moving to someplace where the selection is more in tune with his tastes. Perhaps an area of the country where there are a lot of descendents of German/Belgian/Dutch immigrants would have more easily-found restaurants with a beer selection catering to his likes. Consider Minneapolis/St. Paul.
The sensible thing to do is to stock up on your favorites, enjoy them at home, and abstain if you don't like a restaurant's offerings. Some do seem to take offense when you do that however.
As big-vat beers go, Blue Moon isn't half bad, he says, and he's looking forward to sampling Allagash and the others mentioned above.
Incidentally, the post you quoted in this section was referring to Beer Advocate's ratings of Nashville brews, not his personal observation. Nothing really stands out aside from a few with very small sample sizes. Are there any that really stand out for you?