The Andersons General Store

The Andersons general stores are a very unusual and fun place to shop.  Inside them, you'll find an impressive array of merchandise, including fresh produce, meat, frozen foods, dry goods, home appliances, home improvement materials, animal feeds, kitchen utensils, bedding, and holiday decorations.  You'll also find an excellent assortment of wines and beers… which brings us to this review.

The beer selection at The Andersons varies slightly each time you visit.  As you can see in the image at the left, you'll find a nice assortment of craft beers there, some from breweries you'll instantly recognize (like Samuel Adams, Sierra Nevada, and Stone) and others you may not recognize (from Belgium, Russia, and Japan).  I'm always able to find a beer that I've never had (and which looks interesting), and several I've enjoyed before.

On my last visit to The Andersons, I was able to pick up a bottle of Baltika 4 Dark Lager, a Victory V-Twelve, and Baltika 9 Porter.  I also picked up a bottle of Rinkuskiai Before and After, a Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale, and a few others.

As you can see in the photo above and the one at the right, the selection of individual bottles available for purchase is quite wide.

This is a great way to try out a beer that might interest you because of its name, the brewery that makes it, the label on the bottle, or the type of beer inside it.  You can buy a single bottle this way and invest a minimum amount of money.  If the beer turns out to be great, you'll know to buy it again.  If it's not to your liking, you've only invested a few bucks in the individual bottle.

But The Andersons carries more than just a selection of individual bottles of craft beer. You'll also find a good assortment of 6-packs, 12-packs, and cases.

Although it's not visible in the photo at the right, on the other side of the brick wall you see in the image, there is a large walk-in refrigerator filled with a selection of their more-popular beers, including some of the mass-produced beers.  If you're looking for something "ready to drink" this is where you'll want to head.

In addition to the individual bottles, The Andersons also carries a variety of multi-bottle packs as pictured at the left.

In the photo at the left, you can see brews from North Coast, Stone Brewing Company, Cave Creek, Mt. Carmel (an Ohio brewery), and Elevator Brewing Company (also in Ohio).

Although I'm providing four photos here to give you an idea what the selection at The Andersons is like, you shouldn't come away from this article thinking you've seen everything they have to offer.

Because I don't want this article to be too long, I'm not showing you every aisle of beer they have.  For example, you're not seeing inside the walk-in refrigerator.  You're not seeing the beers on the end caps at the end of the aisles, or the displays in the aisles.



If you're much of a beer connoisseur, you'll probably find yourself browsing the selection at The Andersons for quite a while before you head to the checkout.

For those of you less interested in beer, The Andersons offers a selection of wines that is at least as wide as their selection of beer. (None of that is pictured here, either.)

In fact, the Sawmill location caters slightly more to wine drinkers than beer drinkers.  For example, some of The Andersons locations offer beer tastings during the week, which give you the opportunity to sample a number of beers inexpensively.  The Sawmill location, unfortunately, only offers wine tastings.  The wine tastings are held every Thursday from 6:30pm to 9pm (according to the calendar on their web site) and on Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm.

Many of the beers I review on this site have been purchased at The Andersons or at one of a few other places around Columbus that I shop for beer.  We'll look at some of those in a future article.

The Andersons General Store
7000 Bent Tree Blvd
Columbus, OH 43235
(614) 766-9500



To help give some idea of the selection you'll find at this store, I'm going to list below the names of the breweries whose products I found on the shelves at The Andersons during a visit in April 2013. This list is by no means complete but is as complete as I can make it without being plugged into their inventory system.

• 21st Amendment


• Abbaye de Saint Bon Chien


• Abita


• Acme


• Alesmith


• Almond '22 (Italy)


• Anchor


• Anderson Valley


• Asahi


• Avery


• Ayinger


• Ballast Point


• Baltika


• Bear Republic


• Belhaven


• Bell's


• Black Diamond


• Breckenridge


• Brew Dog


• The Brew Kettle


• Brooklyn Brewing Co.


• The Bruery


• Cervejaria Kaiser (Brazil)


• Chimay


• Clausthaler


• Columbus Brewing Company


• Corsendonk


• De Koninck


• Dogfish Head


• Dundee


• Dupont


• Duvel


• Elevator Brewing Company


• Emelisse


• Epic Brewing Co.


• Estrella


• Evil Twin


• Fat Head's


• Flying Dog


• Founder's


• Full Pint


• Fuller's


• Gaverhopke


• Goose Island


• Great Divide


• Great Lakes Brewing Co.


• Green's


• Gulden Draak


• Harviestoun Brewery


• He'Brew


• Heavy Seas


• Henry Weinhard's


• Hinterland


• Hitachino Nest


• Hof Ten Dormaal


• Hoppin' Frog


• Huyghe Brewery (Belgium)


• Indigo Imp


• Innis & Gunn


• Ithaca


• James Boag's


• J.W. Lees


• Kasteel


• Kentucky Ale


• Kingfisher


• Kwak


• La Baladin


• La Trappe


• Lagunitas


• Leffe


• Left Hand Brewing


• Liefmans


• Lindeman's


• Maredsous


• Meantime


• Mission Brewery


• Mt. Carmel


• New Holland


• Nogne


• North Coast


• O'Hara's


• Ommegang


• Orval


• Oskar Blues


• The Perfect Crime


• Petrus


• Porterhouse


• Reissdorf


• Rinkuskiai (Lithuania)


• Rivertown


• Rodenbach


• Rogue


• Samuel Adams


• Samuel Smith


• Scaldis


• Schneider & Sohn


• Sea Dog


• Shiner


• Shipyard


• Shock Top


• Sierra Nevada


• Sixpoint


• Smithwick's


• Smuttynose


• Southern Tier


• St. Ambroise


• St. Feuillien


• St. Peter's


• Sterkens


• Stillwater


• Stone


• Straub


• Tecate


• Thirsty Dog Brewing Co.


• Tilburg's


• Traquair


• Troeg's


• Tusker


• Two Brothers


• Uinta


• Unibroue


• Urthel


• Victory


• Well's


• Weyerbacher


• Widmer Brothers


• Williams Brothers


• Wittkerke


• Wychwood


• Young's