In this city, there’s stunning prewar architecture downtown, boulevards of old-money mansions and reclaimed industrial warehouses. And for two decades now, it’s been ground zero in the fight against fizzy macro swill.
Asheville’s moniker is “Paris of the South,” but the place feels more like a strangely wonderful convergence of Appalachia and the South, with a bit of Cambridge, Mass., and Boulder, Colo., thrown in for good measure.
Phoenix has grown into a sprawling boom town, a sizzling desert metropolis spilling well over its nominal borders. And as a place to have a pint, it’s no hot mess. These are the top beer destinations in the Phoenix area.
A couple decades of explosive expansion have left a tall, gleaming downtown, a few up-and-coming post-industrial warehouse districts, booming suburbs and a cultural infrastructure still growing into all that growth. Hence, most of the excellent local taps you’ll find in town come from out of town. That’s changing.
Academics, artists, bureaucrats, techies and unreconstructed hippies: You throw them in the pot, they simmer for a while, and wind up congealing into a mass that’s thirsting for a quality beverage. And nowhere in the upper Midwest does it all come together like it does in Madison, Wis.
This place is a steaming melting pot of Spanish, French, African and Caribbean influences, a magnet for artists, musicians, misfits and criminals, a charmingly seedy town united by its distaste for authority and its mighty thirst.
Move beyond the strip clubs and the discos and you’ll find a warm, cultured town that’s immensely proud of its heritage and its future. And, increasingly, that pride is centering on the region’s burgeoning brewing scene.
The city is home to well over two dozen breweries and brewpubs, and scores of good beer bars. It’s got more breweries than any one city in the world, and its citizens drink more, per capita, than anybody.
As Belgium’s capital region, the Brussels area is awash in the nation’s unique beer styles, from the Oud Bruins of Flanders to the bounties of Belgium’s far-flung abbeys.
Put in a little work and a bit of forethought, and scratch beneath the surface. If you do, you’ll find a beer scene that’s quietly burgeoning. It’s been an organic growth, and it’s about to take the rest of the country by surprise.
San Francisco wasn’t much of anything until 160 years ago, but in that relatively short time, the city has left an indelible impact on the nation’s culture. And the same goes for its brewing palate.
In many ways, the Denver/Boulder region is the capital of the modern craft brewing renaissance. Whether in their kitchens or their brewhouses, the brewers of the area have been pushing craft beer forward for more than three decades.
OK, so, yes, St. Louis is home to that really big scary beermaking corporation that shall not be named. But wait! St. Louis has much to redeem itself with, you judgmental beer snob. Give the city a shot. Here’s how.
Austin is home to the state university, some legendary BBQ, musicians, artists and other assorted weirdos. Which is to say, it’s a city that’s perpetually overrun by professional drinkers of every sort.
A crop of serious young brewers and a mammoth lineup of bars boasting huge craft beer selections, modest prices and liberal liquor laws that let bars serve bottles and mini-kegs to go, and you’ve got, perhaps surprisingly, one of the country’s best beer towns.
Antwerp boasts one of the world’s highest number of pubs per capita. There’s no legal closing time. And the breweries of Belgium’s countryside know something about rewarding thirst.
Gorgeous scenery. Friendly people afflicted by a near-compulsive need to mainline hops. Tons of boats. Is there a reason to not start drinking your way from one end of Seattle to the other? Yeah, we didn’t think so.
In this desert wasteland, there are evangelists spreading the gospel of good beer to the darkest corners of Sin City. So read up, and when business (or a bachelor party) comes calling, you’ll be ready.
As a working city, DC is full of politicians and journalists, not to mention influence-peddlers, rich foreigners, bureaucrats, students and the service workers who cater to them all. Which is to say that this town has a wicked thirst.
Like much of Scandinavia, Sweden’s capital and transportation nexus is now enjoying a craft beer revolution, its people trading the fizzy, lackluster lagers that have traditionally dominated its pubs for full, flavorful brews.
Toronto has quietly become one of North America’s great cities—a haven for sports, culture and, of course, great beers. They love to brew it, and they certainly enjoy drinking it.
