99
bottles of beer on the wall, take
one down and pass it around,
then realize we miscounted and
there’s still 198 more up there.
That’s what you get at Tyson’s Fine Wine and
Things’ new wall of beer, 199 Bottles of Beer
On the Wall, which has already expanded
beyond its name to about 230 individual varieties of craft beer. Alabama breweries like
Gadsden’s Back Forty Beer Company and
Huntsville’s Yellowhammer brewing make
up more more than 30 of the brews on offer,
with more from around the United States
and international beers from places like Belgium and Germany making up the bulk.
“If you’re going to find a rare beer anywhere
between Birmingham and Atlanta, this place
is where you’d find it,” said David Prosser,
owner of Tyson’s.
INSIGHT
Over the last year since the opening of the
craft beer section, Prosser has made it a
goal to have something for everyone, for
tastes ranging from straightforward ales to
coffee-infused and fruit-flavored beers for
more complex tastes. Rare beers occasionally make their way to the shop, selling out
as quickly as only a few hours (just three for
a pack of Founders Brewing Company’s KBS
- a chocolate/coffee brew in high demand).
Prosser says that the beers have been popular even with the wine drinking crowd who
regularly frequent the shop, which also operates as a picture-framing company.
Some of that success is owed to Prosser’s
sales scheme for the beers, allowing customers to pick and choose single bottles of
beer rather than committing to expensive
six-packs. It’s easier to try something new if
it’s only two or three bucks out of pocket.
October 2015