Beer Road Trip; where to go?

To the south of you it's Cigar City, further down it's Funky Buddha. Go north and you have Westbrook, COAST and others.

 

Tampa is an obviously awesome choice. Cigar City, Cigar City Brewpub, Cycle, Green Bench, Rapp, St. Somewhere, etc.

Jacksonville is a good choice too. You could do Intuition, Engine 15, Green Room, Aardwolf plus hit the beach.

Grand Rapids is only 12.5 hours also.

Chicago?

12 hours really lets you get anywhere in the eastern part of the country.

 

Tampa dude.
All the places Gator listed, plus Cajun Cafe on the Bayou for great food.
Las Margaritas on Saturday evening for smoked pork that is amazing, they only do it Saturday evening though, my god it's good. Crispy ass skin, tender ass pork...oh yeah.....

Also a few breweries not mentioned above:
Big Storm - working man vibe all day, great beer and awesome environment.
7venth Sun - Smaller but pretty cool.

 

Olde Hickory (Hickory), Foothills (Winston-Salem), Bestway in Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill. Take the old Chapel Hill/Greensboro Rd after you leave Bestway and weave through some beautiful country on your way (55 minutes) to Carrboro and Chapel Hill. You can source lots of info about spots in the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill).

 

One thing that's always overlooked on brewery road trips is the big evil breweries. I'd say if you've never been to a macro brewery you should visit one just to see the difference between the little guy brewing beer in a warehouse to the guys in a beer plant. You can check out Budweiser in Jacksonville, or maybe Yuengling in Tampa. They are definitely a different experience from your normal micro breweries.

 

Head to the East Coast and hit The Charleston area for COAST, Westbrook, Freehouse, Holy City etc. Head south down 95 to Jacksonville for Bold City, Green Room and Intuition. Then head southwest to Tampa Bay for too many to name.

 

Pisgah (if its far enough outside of Asheville to not be 'Asheville'), Howard, Fonta Flora, Olde Hickory Day 1, drive to Charlotte. Day 2 hit up all the places in Charlotte (NoDa, Birdsong, Olde Meck, I'm sure I'm forgetting some). Day 3 drive to Raleigh via Winston (Foothills) and hit up all the places up there. Day 4 drive home. Sounds like a plan!

I'm obviously biased though

For pure quality it'd be tough to pass up Cigar City and Funky Buddha. For the sheer number of solid breweries its tough to beat NC!

 

I knew someone would refine my rudimentary ideas. Plus, the terrain is beautiful. Fonta Flora just next to Sam Ervin's home is a jewel making some of the most unusual and inspired beers anywhere. I forget the name of the beet brew, but it was excellent.

 

Even though I'm basically right around the corner in Hickory I actually haven't made it to Fonta Flora yet. Soon, soon.

 

12 hours gives you a pretty wide area to work with..... i'm biased but I think a trip to Chicago/NW Indiana would be a little more interesting than driving around the SE and give you access to more beers that you would never see otherwise. Unless of course you've not done much traveling around the SE, in which case it might all be interesting/new to you. Hard to beat Chicago in the summer though.

 

Ive lived in both the Tampa area and the Charleston area. Although I love COAST and Westbrook, and think the overall beer scene continues to be on the rise, if I was taking a beer-cation and could only go to one of those cities it would definitely be Tampa. More diversity, greater number of brewpubs and beer bars, better distro if you plan on stocking up on some bottles. Now if you can do both, definitely do both.

Also, for what its worth, I personally wouldnt consider the NC sites (minus Ashville which you already said was out). Not to hate on those breweries, they have some great ones, but things are pretty spread out and itd be a ton of driving for your beer yield. Also, Ive spent a fair amount of time around Jacksonville and would not choose there for a beer-cation. Again, not hating on the area, but it wouldnt be my choice.

Have fun!

 

I have mapped a route to Vermont (leaving from Atl), spanning 8 days and making several stops. I could send you some info if you're looking to get that far North. I've done a ton of research.

 

I agree with what treznor said above but would weight Tampa heavily in my decision making on a trip. However, I have a personal desire to hit up Cigar City for a couple of days, which probably skews my opinion.

 

All this talk of places within half an hour from peabody's and no one mentions swinging up to see the beer geek mecca....soooooo, here i am saying that if your close to Boone....it is definitely worth your time, I am sure that you can score some goodies that you won't find elsewhere....promise!

Chris

 

Chris...wont be able to make it this year, but once its over, will there be a list of the rarities still left so I can put in an order??

 

Greetings Chris. I'll be cruising up to Elk Ridge Mountain on the 4th. Anything that I can bring? HD'nR?

 

Bring your golf clubs! Can't wait to see ya'!