Seamless for Hard-to-Find Craft Beers

Buy your beer from the same bodega twice a week for a year, and patterns will inevitably develop. You buy what you like, the store restocks it, and a never-ending cycle of sameness is born.

Helping you break it: TapRm, a new online marketplace that delivers rare craft brews from all over the world straight to your door.

Currently only available in New York, TapRm is essentially Seamless for beer, with new styles and breweries popping up every day. From upstate IPAs to a Nicaraguan post-surf pilsner, the service is truly transforming NYC’s beer landscape, and at prices that often undercut what you’d pay at a brick-and-mortar.

There’s also a strong “buy local” aspect: many of the brews on the roster come from mom ‘n’ pop brewers like Plan Bee Farm, who don’t have the resources or distribution power to ship across state lines.

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We recently gave it a spin — for research, of course — and the suds we received did not disappoint. Five of our favorites:

Death to Ego IPA, an East Coast-meets-West Coast style with a strong, malty backbone and plenty of hops that doesn’t beat you over the head with its bitterness
Free Your Mind Sour Ale, which is light, tangy and dangerously easy-to-drink compared to other sours on the market
An Arrowood Farms Variety Pack, which included a Porter, a Mixed Culture bottle and a rich Copper Ale
Panga Drops Keller Pilsner, a stubby lil’ “beach bomber” that’ll transport you to the surf of Nicaragua sip by sip
And BIRA 91 White, a wheat from an Indian microbrewery that’s smooth in composition but mighty in flavor, with notes of orange peel and coriander shining through

For the indecisive among you, TapRm also offers a Microbrewery of the Month Club that delivers a dealer’s choice of new selects every 30. And for those who desire more of a tactile beer-buying experience, look out for the forthcoming third leg of the business: a Brooklyn storefront on Flushing opening on the near horizon.