Beer

Grab a jacket, take a stroll in beer alley

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Now that my fingers have thawed, I write to report on the walk I took through Beer Alley at the new Whole Foods Market (Lamar Boulevard and West Fifth Street).

Beer Alley is a 400-square-foot glass chamber containing 360 different kinds of beer with sliding doors at each end and a thermostat set at 37 degrees, according to the store's Specialty Coordinator Andrew Vialpando. On one side of the alley are pallets of case beer and on the other a wall metal shelves from floor to ceiling with six packs and individual bottles of beer.

Whether Whole Foods can boast the biggest selection in town is debatable, but Beer Alley demonstrates the home-grown grocer's commitment to variety and value. Both are qualities I prize when making craft beer selections.

This week, for example, there were significant price reductions for the excellent line of Chimay ales from Belgium, all of the New Belgium Brewing Co. beers, including flagship Fat Tire and the popular Real Ale beers from Blanco.

The other side of the alley offers plenty of choices, but in its haste to have the shelves full for its opening last week, the placement of beers was a little hard to fathom. The Belgians were mostly together in one place, as were the India pale ales, ambers and pilsners. But some of the shelves were a mixture of brands and styles, making some beers hard to find. I'm assuming Whole Foods will correct this in time.

As I shivered and scanned, the confusion yielded a great find: Fuller's 1845 Celebration Ale has been around Austin forever, but you'll have to pay $3.99 for an 18.6-ounce bottle. Beer Alley has Fuller's 1845, one of my favorite English ales, for $2.49 a bottle. It has a rich and woody maltiness and a less aggressive hop bitterness than a comparable American ale. This ale is bottle conditioned, meaning the brewery has added a little active yeast to allow the beer to mature with age. This is a beer and a value worth bundling up for.