Bottles

Beerfolk:

• Jason Selby - Assistant Manager

Bottles is an interesting spot.  It's a huge alcoholic beverage retailer, with a big room dedicated to liquor and an even bigger room for wine and beer, located in a strip mall on Coleman Boulevard in Mount Pleasant.  But despite its size, it's locally owned and operated.

The lack of a corporate structure hanging over their head puts them at what seems to be a distinct advantage.  They have the buying power of a huge store, but the turn-on-a-dime buying opportunities of a store that doesn't need their decisions approved by suits in another state.  This may have already put them in a great position on the liquor and wine departments, but with no expertise, I've got no idea.

I can say that the beer selection is solid, and continues to be refined.  Bottles get especially high marks for brand representation. For example, they carry Rogue, as most craft beer retailers do, but they carry nearly the entire available Rogue offering.  Moreover, all the brewery's offerings are displayed in the same cluster of facings, regardless of package size, something I'm particularly fond of (the brewery is more important than the package).  Same goes for most other notable craft brands.  Pair that with a locally-focused growler station, and you've got a winning recipe.

In early March of 2012, Bottles got in the homebrew supply game as well.

Beer info

Number of bottles: 500
Number of taps: 6

Bottles bottom-fills growlers from a six-tap bar located smack in the middle of the store. If you're bringing from home, clean your glass before coming, but you can buy clean, brown, branded glass from them for the standard price of $5. The taps nearly always feature one or more locals.

Hours