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The Best Places to Buy Beer Online
Get beer without leaving your house.
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Untappd
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Updated on March 27, 2024
Craft beer has entered the 21st century. Now, breweries have their own apps to help you restock their favorite beers or catch new drops. And beer fans rate and review their favorite beers on sites like Untappd and BeerAdvocate. Drinkers can even comfortably buy beer online from across the country and have it delivered right to their door. You can buy beer online without ever needing to leave your house. What a time to be alive, right?
“People buy through our site if they’re looking for a beer that isn’t distributed in their home state or that’s only released in a limited run at the brewery,” shares CraftShack CEO and founder Julian Yakoo.
How Online Beer Ordering Works
CraftShack is an online marketplace for beer buyers. It services orders between customers and smaller, craft-centric bottleshops. “Craftshack doesn’t hold any licenses,” Yakoo explains. Our business model is to connect consumers with retailers. We evolved over the last few years and have multiple family-owned, mom-and-pop type stores that fulfill orders.”
This model is just one of the many ways to buy beer online. Some sites work with breweries and then ship beer directly to customers. Others simply pick up beer at local bottleshops and deliver it to your doorstep. The laws of shipping alcohol can make buying beer online challenging or impossible for folks in specific states (like Utah, Alabama, and Oklahoma). But in the last few years, innovators have made it so that residents in the majority of states can buy beer online.
Online beer shopping puts a wide selection of beer at your fingertips. While rare releases are typically limited to those who show up to the brewery or scour trading forums, online shopping has helped spread beer by increasing distribution. Now, lucky couch surfers have access to the occasional limited-release, too.
We’ve rounded up the best places that put beer ordering right at your fingertips. Happy beer hunting!
The Best Places to Buy Beer Online
Untappd Shop
Photography courtesy of Derek Campos | Next Glass
The world’s largest social media craft beer networking app, with over 11 million fans worldwide, just launched its own e-commerce platform: the Untappd Shop! Now, you can go from checking in a beer to checking out a beer in just a couple of clicks. With over 250 beers, the Untappd Shop collaborates with some of the best breweries in the country, often putting together exclusive bundles in small quantities that last about as long as an old-school Saturday release at Other Half. Limited-edition bundles have included the likes of Trillium, Parish, Mortalis, de Garde, Phase Three, and more. About every quarter, the app also puts together beer boxes stuffed to the gills with rare and highly rated beers. The ever-changing lineup of individual beers, bundles, and beer boxes makes this online beer shop one of the coolest new kids on the block.
Restrictions: The Untappd Shop currently ships to the following states: AK, CT, FL, GA, ID, IL, NE, NH, NY, ND, OR, PA, VA, and DC. You can check your zip code in the Untappd app to see if they can ship to your address.
Oznr
Photography courtesy of Sigmund | Unsplash
A quick caveat: Oznr doesn’t ship beer directly, but select breweries are now shipping on Oznr, where legal.
In years past, beer fans may have lined up for hours waiting for a brandnew beer release at their favorite brewery. With the Oznr app, breweries can release new offerings digitally and build excitement through pre-sales, waitlists, and raffles. Moreover, Oznr allows folks to sign up for brewery bottle societies and membership clubs. Plus, with in-app alerts, you can stay updated on discounts, deals, and news from your favorite brewery.
Restrictions: Oznr is available in select cities around the country, growing and adding some top-tier breweries to the app, including 3 Sons, Angry Chair, Cerebral Brewing, Corporate Ladder, Eighth State, Good Word Brewing, Halfway Crooks Beer, Half Acre, Little Cottage Brewery, Mikerphone Brewing, Moksa Brewing Company, New Image Brewing, Phase Three Brewing, Resident Culture Brewing, Russian River, Tripping Animals, Woven Water, and many more. You can use the app to join brewery memberships or pre-order beer for later pick-up, and some breweries on the app even offer direct-to-door shipping.
CraftShack
Photography courtesy of CraftShack
CraftShack is a simple way to get your craft beer fix. Click through their store to find unique beer like El Segundo Broken Skull IPA and Urban Roots Barrel Aged Coconut Almond Chocolate Moustache Imperial Stout or stalwarts like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. CraftShack has a small team of beer nerds who work directly with small bottle shops to fulfill orders. Customers can save on shipping by ordering larger quantities. “For those just getting into craft beer, try out some options at your local bar before ordering,” says Yakoo.
Restrictions: CraftShack offers flat-rate shipping to all lower 48 states but is unable to offer shipping to Alaska or Hawaii, internationally, or to military APO & FPO addresses and U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.
Brews Less Traveled
Graphic courtesy of City Brew Tours and Brews Less Traveled
Online beer box and homebrew supply retailer Brewvana sends its team out to find craft beer gems in all corners of America. Its Brews Less Traveled Beer Club is a traveling beer box subscription that visits a new American city every month, where Brewvana’s beer nerds hand-select local brews to send to members. The beer club has already sent members a curated selection of craft beers from more than fifty independent breweries from places like Houston, Minneapolis, and Birmingham.
Brewvana also builds some insanely fun holiday beer boxes every year for Hanukkah and the 12 Days of Christmas. If you want some beers with holiday cheer, Brewvana is the shop for you.
Restrictions: Brewvana cannot ship to USPS PO boxes or residents in the following states: AL, AR, DE, IN, MD, MO, MS, NC, UT, VT, and WV. They do not ship internationally.
Half Time Beverage
Photography courtesy of Half Time Beverage
Half Time is the ultimate virtual bottleshop, offering one of the largest selections of beer and cider around. The New York-based e-commerce site stocks some of the country’s best cider, mead, and craft beer. After browsing through their options, you can order as little as a single can of beer or as much as a case right at your door. The platform easily checks to see if shipping is available to your zip code before placing an order, and the store’s variety means you can order a mix of some of the country’s best craft beer.
Plus, Half Time offers Beer & Cider of the Month Clubs for those looking to expand their horizons and try a curated selection.
If you’re looking to recreate the experience of perusing through a bottleshop for unique offerings, there’s no better site than Half Time.
Restrictions: Half Time only offers shipping to the following states (and only select zip codes in some): AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MT, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NH, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TX, VA, WA, WI. Enter your zip code in the box on any product page to see if they ship to you.
Tavour
Photography courtesy of Tavour
Tavour’s formula is slightly different because it uses a subscription format, letting customers fill up their box over a period of time before shipping out the full package. Tavour is a great service for experimentation without leaving the house, but you’ll need to order beer by the box, not individually. The offerings rotate constantly, so you’ll need to download the app to stay on top of what’s fresh.
Restrictions: Tavour always updates where it can ship. Be sure to check with Tavour if your state is within their shipping range.
Craft Beer Kings
Graphic courtesy of Craft Beer Kings
As the Craft Beer Kings website proclaims, “If you’re looking for awesome beer, you’ve come to the right place.” What makes this beer-ordering site craft beer royalty is the number of hype beers you’ll find here from breweries across the country, such as Against the Grain, Great Notion, Brouwerij West, Humble Sea, Grimm Artisanal Ales, Evil Twin Brewing, and so many more. Plus, you can craft your own monthly subscription boxes across a variety of styles from hazy IPA to sours to California beer to dark beer. Craft Beer Kings even has a tab for exclusive collaborations. Build your own box or sign up for a subscription and prepare to have the red carpet rolled out right to your front doorstep.
Restrictions: At the time of publication, Craft Beer Kings ships to most of the contiguous U.S. (lower 48 states). Craft Beer Kings does not ship to PO boxes, APO/FPO addresses, or any international addresses, nor does it ship to Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico.
Best Damn Beer Shop
Photography courtesy of Best Damn Beer Shop
The Best Damn Beer Shop is a brick-and-mortar retail store based in San Diego, meaning locals can order online and pick up their beer on the same day. Those living out of state who want some exciting beer from the West Coast, like Fremont’s B-Bomb and 3 Fonteinen Armand & Gaston, can shop on the BDBS online store.
Restrictions: There’s a minimum order of $40 and six bottles. As of this writing, BDBS ships only to AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, ME, MO, NC, NE, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, SC, TX, VA, VT, WA, WI, and WV.
Unless otherwise noted, all of the products featured on Hop Culture are independently chosen by our editorial team. However, Hop Culture may earn a commission from purchases made through affiliate links on the site.
Oznr, Untappd, and Hop Culture are all members of the Next Glass family.
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About The Author
John A. Paradiso
Currently Drinking:
Saison Dupont
John A. Paradiso is the former managing editor at Hop Culture Magazine and current managing editor at Cool Material. His interests include listening to the tunes of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizzard and watching Wes Anderson films. His Wednesdays are spent picking up comics at the local comic book shop and his weekends are spent watching Premier League soccer. He's probably down to get a beer later.
