Tasting bar, refill station are the hot new things in beer

A supermarket might well be the last place most folks would expect to find beer on tap, but that’s just what Suffolk’s newest supermarket offers, and customers seem to be clamoring for it.

When the new Kroger Marketplace opened on University Boulevard in North Suffolk in December, it debuted a concept completely new to the growing chain: a growler station, where customers can buy 32- or 64-ounce, bottles to be filled and refilled with their favorite craft beers.

The concept quickly proved to be so popular that Kroger brought it to three of its other stores and has plans for others on the horizon, according to Jeremy Arthurs.

Arthurs has been the “wine and beer consultant” at the Suffolk location since it opened, having transferred here from the company’s Virginia Beach location. His broad knowledge about beer and wine — honed through 18 years in the wine and spirits industry — are surely part of what has made the growler station so popular in Suffolk.

But there was also a bit of a ready market, he says.

“As it turns out, this area has a very large craft beer community,” Arthurs says, noting that beer connoisseurs like to try different things, collecting beer experiences the way a wine connoisseur might collect bottles of wine.

To serve that community, he says, the key is to have all 12 taps in the growler station ready to serve new and popular beers.

“As soon as one keg gets empty,” he explains, “a new one takes its place.”

The selection changes daily, though there are some crowd favorites that remain available almost all the time.

Devil’s Backbone Vienna Lager is a current crowd favorite. It’s brewed in Charlottesville, one of half a dozen or so of the brews on tap early in March that came from Virginia breweries. All of the beers available are from within a couple of hundred miles of the store, he said.

Customers visiting the growler station can sample one-ounce shots of the beers to determine which ones they might like. It’s very similar to a wine tasting, and Arthurs says he often finds cheeses from the adjacent cheese bar to pair with the beers.

If it all sounds a lot like the wine culture of the ‘90s and 2000s, that’s because it is.

“Craft beer and wine have a lot of parallels,” he says, but “beer is the new wine.”

Even longtime beer drinkers can find something new and interesting through the growler station.

“Come in with an open mind,” Arthurs advises potential customers. “Try some things. Drink with a friend. Experience the beers together. Share. For the cost of a couple of pints at the local pub, you can take a growler home and enjoy it on the couch.”