We’re Louisville’s favorite stop for craft beer shopping.

Whether locally brewed or a regional favorite, Cox’s Spirit Shoppe carries a wide selection of today’s most popular craft beers. Here you’ll discover exciting craft beer brands like Three Floyds, Mile Wide, West Sixth, Falls City, Founders Brewery, Bells, Against the Grain, Goose Island, Rhinegeist, Great Lakes, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, Sweetwater, and Dogfish Head, plus many, many more. You won’t need to shop an over-priced mega-beer warehouse when you can easily find all the craft beer brands you love, at the area’s best prices, all at your convenient neighborhood Cox’s outlet. Check out our location pages to find the craft beer Spirit Shoppe nearest you.

What exactly is craft beer?

By strict definition, The Brewers Association defines craft beer as “beer made by a brewer that is small, independent and traditional.” There are also set limitations and qualifications to each of those terms but to really simplify let’s just say that craft beer is carefully crafted while other beers are just manufactured. Craft brewers generally use finer ingredients and adhere to a very specific recipe in order to achieve a very special taste. There are now over 7,000 breweries in the United States, with 98% being craft brewers. Its growing popularity has allowed craft beer to capture 24% of the total U.S. beer market. With so many new tastes out there today, you are sure to find something to please your beer palate.

How is craft beer made?

All beer is typically made with malted barley, hops, yeast, and water. But the beautiful difference between a beer’s style and taste is the quality of each ingredient, the proportion of each used, and even the timing of when they are added in the process. Craft beers are meticulously made true to a very precise recipe and process. Surprising ingredients may be added to create wildly creative flavors. A craft-brewer never cheats the recipe. But a mass production brewer may substitute cheaper grains and additives to cut down on production costs and ensure sameness, beer after beer.

With craft beers, the carefully selected grain is first malted, which gives the beer its color and part of its complex flavor. Then it is steeped in hot water and turned to a syrupy mash called wort. This product is then boiled and select hops are added in at very specific intervals. The hops are what gives the beer much of its flavor profile and level of bitterness. When this is complete the mixture is sent to a fermenting vessel where yeast is added to break down the sugars to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide over the course of weeks. It is produced in small, controlled batches and distributed in limited areas.

What are the different styles of craft beer?

There are many styles of craft beers available in the market today. The huge variety of flavor profiles and creative ingredients make it difficult to categorize many of them. But here are the basic types: American IPA is one of the most popular styles among craft beer drinkers. It’s characterized by its bold and bitter hop flavoring. American Pale Ale is another favorite, known for its American hop flavor, often accented with a citrus and pine aroma. Stouts and Porters are dark beers with rich flavor. Brown Ales are typically full-bodied with low hop bitterness. Amber Ales are a balanced, easy-drinking style with moderate sweetness. American Wheat, as the name implies, is wheat-made with a light bready profile. Finally, Belgian Pale is a diverse family of spiced, sweet, fruity flavors with typically high alcohol content.

Make Cox’s Spirit Shoppe your craft beer destination.

As you know, there are lots of choices when it comes to craft beers. But there’s only one choice for the best place to buy them. For the finest selection at the lowest prices, Cox’s is your neighborhood craft beer headquarters.