Ultimate United States Beer Vacation

This is the correct answer.

 

The one I respononded to would be well over a hour a day. Just getting to some of the breweries he listed a several hours off of the 5. FW is on the 101, a little out of the way. Pelican Pub about 2+ hours from Portland. Bend is 3+ hours.

I have been to most of the breweries he listed, it takes some time to get to them. You can see some good scenery going from Pelican Pub to Bend, but 2 mountain ranges on 2 lane roads eats up a lot of time. Chico to Santa Rosa is 3 plus hours, or much more if you hit traffic.

Hey, I like driving, but I also like to stay and have a beer and not worry about the drive.

 

That's fair, the whole west coast is a bit much. Boston to Rehoboth is definitely doable though.

Clearly the best solution for the ultimate beer vacation is to hire a limousine so you can drink on the road.

 

I agree with this, but my buddy and I looked into this trip last year and found that 2 weeks is barely enough time; it's pushing it. I'd hate to rush things and take a good leisurely time when making an epic beer trip like this, but it doesn't seem to work.

Here's what we were planning:
2 days in Portland (should be 3...)
2 days in Santa Rosa area
2 days Bay area
1 day in Paso/Kern River (should be 2)
2 days in LA/OC (should be 3)
4 days in SD

We decided this is too tight a timeframe.
I'd like to hear from someone who actually made this trip for some lessons learned.

 

The important question is: are you just looking for the freshest beer or do you really want to see the same things multiple times. Touring multiple breweries just to look at tanks and hoses, etc. doesn't seem to be the most exciting thing to do but having the freshest possible beer is something else entirely.
With that in mind, I would certainly suggest the Denver area since there seems to be some excellent breweries within a few hours driving distance from each other and the scenery is unbeatable. 2nd choice would be VT/MA for the same reasons.

 

I'll second this one--DFH is a nice visit, but it's apart from everyone else. I'd also skip NYC just for the traffic and parking concerns and hit Upstate, then cut over to Vermont to get the main ones that do tours (and the driving is much nicer and more pleasant than the I-95 corridor), then make way down I-91 to either hit Berkshires first or just stop at Tree House before heading to the Boston area for Jack's Abby, Night Shift, Mystic, Trillium, Harpoon, BBC (SamA). Then just go through Connecticut and see what you can find there--a lot of breweries and some quite good (NEBCO, Two Roads--don't know if they do tours, but I know that they don't distribute in MA). One caveat--some breweries, including Trillium (still no tasting), Night Shift, Mystic and Jack's Abby, have very limited and unusual hours. This has the added benefit of looping back toward NY state and closer to home (for you, not me--I'm near Boston). Getting it done in two weeks is kinda tight and would take a lot of planning. (Traffic watch--Boston, Hartford)

Not trying to disparage other regions, but Delaware is hardly the Northeast and how much barren highway driving do you want to do on a two-week vacation. At least the ones in VT and Upstate NY are nice, green and hilly. And where else would you want to be in the middle of the summer but New England?

Another idea is to do the Lake Michigan loop--essentially, going from Chicago north, picking up a few breweries in Wisconsin, crossing over to Michigan, then cutting back along the lakes through Ohio and Indiana. The upper part is also spectacularly scenic and there is a lot of good breweries along the way (also a lot of small roads). Not sure if this is a two-week or three-week vacation though... There's only so much you can do. But again, good beer, nice driving and decent weather. Would not do either loop in winter though. (Traffic watch--Chicago to Elgin, Northern Indiana, especially from South Bend to Chicago, if taking that route).

 

DFH would be worth it if you also wanted to hit Evolution, Burley Oak, and hang out at the beach. By itself though, I'll agree that it's two hours from everything - pretty hard to work into a larger road trip.

 

Staying in the Denver-Boulder-Longmont area would give you a lot of breweries to hit with very little driving. You can also drop down to Colorado Springs or up to Fort Collins for more breweries. Both are easily day trips from Denver.

All of the routes recommended sound good, it's just a matter of how much drive time you want vs. drink time.

 

Below is a beer related vacation itinerary that I provided draheim in a past thread:

Permit me to suggest that a pleasant vacation would be to visit Ommegang (for their idyllic setting, good beer, and the nearby Baseball Hall of Fame) and then a continuing visit to Vermont to visit Hill Farmstead (plus The Alchemist and Lawson’s). An ideal time would be late September/Early October when the trees change colors. Upstate New York and New England is very, very pretty in the early autumn.

Cheers!

 

vermont was an incredible experience, with that being said i'm dying to hit the west coast (still never been to cali). also i'm definitely going to dark lord day next year. so those 2 are definitely up there for me. maybe one day i'll be fortunate enough to visit the cantillon brewery and i'll be in sour heaven

 

We had a couple of great days in Ft. Collins, walked to the breweries, and had a very good time. Prost in Denver was excellent. There are some fine breweries in the Rockies and West Slope if you have the time. Really liked what I tried at Elevation, Pagosa Springs, and Crazy Mountain.

 

Agree on that too... But Colorado was also covered in a couple of recent threads (more links on that page).

 

Last year my wife and I did a drive from WA along the Oregon coast. On our way there we hit up HotD, Cascade, and Pelican. If my wife were into beers, I could have hit up a few more such as Deschutes (Portland), Upright, Lauralwood, etc. etc. IMHO, Pelican wasn't worth it. It is situated on a beautiful beach so maybe that might be a good enough of a reason to hit up that spot, but their normal beer lineup is just alright and their food is just meh.

 

For California week 1 would look like this: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211581588016876418382.0004cc5f98859a2f62163&msa=0 and week 2 would look like this: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211581588016876418382.0004cc5fb778444b22d77&msa=0 and while in San Francisco I would hit up Toronado and La Trappe Bar.
For the Mid-Atlantic, this would probably take 2 weeks: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211581588016876418382.0004cc58a4995db2af00a&msa=0 and I would of course go to Monk's Cafe while in Philly plus Blind Tiger and Torst while in New York
For the Northeast, this would most likely take 2 weeks: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msi...62fde6ebeb5&msa=0&iwloc=0004cc58a4b599052c653 and I would hit up Ebenezer's in Maine
And finally, for Michigan/Chicago and surrounding states: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msi....317101,28.256836&iwloc=0004d0fc398c15593b4eb would definitely take 2 weeks.
I also have maps set up for the Pacific Northwest and Colorado but thay're not quite as exciting. If I had to pick one, it'd probably be the Michigan/Chicago one but just by a hair. Obviously I've put a lot of thought into these. A guy can dream can't he?

 

Add Brewery Ommegang to that list

 

In my opinion there seems to be three choices for you: Northeast, Great Lakes, West Coast.

For the Northeast loop you can hit some of these gems: VT- Hill Farmstead, The Alchemist, Lawson's (in store), Rock Art, Long Trail, Otter Creek/Wolaver's, Harpoon, and some of the smaller ones around Burlington. MA- Jack's Abby, Tree House, Amherst Brewing, Boston Beer Co (sam adams), the main Harpoon building, and a few of the other ones in Boston metro mentioned above. CT- NEBCo. NY- Brooklyn, Sixpoint, Ommegang, Upstate near Albany/Saratoga has Brown's, Schmaltz, the Pump Station and some other cool places.

Lakes region, which is something I'd like to do at some point: Founders, Pipeworks, FFF, Goose Island, Central Waters, Surly, Town Hall. The latter two I've been to during a work trip.

 

From here I would drive directly to Dulles airport for a flight to London, north to Edinburgh...

 

This might help: http://beermapping.com/brewery-maps/us-brewery-map/

 

4th of July weekend got in a very quick trip to Vermont - Alchemist and HF. Did not visit, but also got to try some Lawson's and Jack's Abbey on draft. Not bad for a 36 hour trip.

In October, dear girlfriend and I are contemplating a DC --> StLouis --> South Dakota --> home road trip (2 weddings), with a week of beer-cationing in between. Not an 'ideal' location, but i'm sure we'll find some good stuff - including driving out of our way to visit Toppling Goliath

 

I'm actually planning mine for October of this year. It'll consist of;

VT: Hill Farmstead/Alchemist
CT: NEBCO
MA: Jack's Abby
PA: Tired Hands
NY: Brooklyn

Pretty excited, this will be over the course of a week and will include a few days in CT visiting the girlfriend's family for the first time.