Visitors find a walkable college town with crisp, fresh air and a vibe that’s simultaneously urbane and outdoorsy—more hippie than yuppie. So it’s no surprise that Flagstaff is a big beer town, with a scene that’s still on the rise.
The teeming Metroplex area runs from Dallas to Fort Worth, a decent-sized city in its own right that’s since been pulled into Dallas’ orbit. There’s a lot to take in, so it’s best to take it a step at a time, a bar at a time.
Boise bars eagerly stock the biggest, most fragrant beers that Oregon and Washington can pump out. And its homegrown breweries are following that brewing tradition to great effect. Come see for yourself.
Spokane has good water running through its center, and it’s surrounded by wheat and barley fields, with Washington’s hop fields a couple hours to the west. This college town, best known for its ties to NBA short-shorts hero John Stockton, is a fine place to knock back a pint.
How can craft brewers survive the global recession? Ask the Japanese. During its economic boom in the 1980s, the Japanese were huge consumers of single-malt whiskies and fine wines. Beers are starting to enjoy a similar cache.
When you throw high and low culture in a bag, douse it in bourbon and shake it around a bit, good things tend to come out. The city has vibrant arts and music scenes, and a level of comfort with folks on the fringes. All of which makes it a fine place to pause and tip back a pint.
Good beer can’t be stopped; quality will prevail. Just look at Texas. If you want to see the revolution crystallizing before your eyes, head to San Antonio, a massive city that’s just now at the precipice of becoming a brewing hot-spot.
It’s big and dense and modern, the people are welcoming, the food is fresh and tasty, and should you be inclined to venture outside—some pretty staggering natural sights are right outside the city limits. And here’s where to drink while you’re taking it all in.
In May 2010, a modern tourist structure was completed in the center of Bamberg, and they launched “Brewery Trail” walking tours that have been designed by the tourist bureau on the east and west sides of the Regnitz River.
Until a few years ago, South Carolina’s beer culture was hamstrung by arcane and capricious caps on beermaking, alcohol content and distribution. In a few years, the city has become a true world-class beer destination.
Milwaukee’s beer scene is far from dead. You just have to quit looking for an old guard whose days are gone, and start paying attention to Milwaukee’s neighborhoods, where good beer is thriving quietly.
A great, friendly city with a strange but refreshing mix of Southern attitudes and blue-collar, Northern atmosphere. It’s compact, walkable and full of stellar places to enjoy a drink.
Like its West Coast counterpart, Portland, Maine, boasts a world-class brewing tradition that’s rooted as far back as craft brewing’s history can stretch. Plus, this Portland also has lobsters and clams and flannel and some rather wicked accents.
Big lager brands may be shiny and reliable, but they are not exactly fun, so dreamers, misfits and visionaries stepped up to start making beers for the more discerning drinker. Twenty years later, Argentina’s craft beers are its best-kept secret.
The beers that brought craft brewing into prominence largely owe their existence to a historic brewing scene that largely revolved around, and served, London’s thirsty masses.
What brings the visitors is the spectacular backdrop of Andean peaks, ice-capped even in summer, the breathtaking scenery around the seven sprawling lakes and, increasingly, the beer.
Los Angeles is an absolutely massive place, teeming with a multitude of people. If only a tiny percentage drank good beer, that would still be a staggering number of craft drinkers sprawled out between the mountains and the ocean.
Geography and history explain why the Farmhouse Ale tradition has stayed alive in Nord-Pas-de-Calais or northern France. Also known as the Bière de Garde region, this area is nestled right against the Belgian border.
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.
Similar to the origins of IPA, Saisons were and are highly hopped. Add the existence of wild yeast in the process and the result is a finished beer that is quite bitter and tart.
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.
