Favorite Brewery to visit

Tree house or trillium great place.

 

Alpine on a Tuesday afternoon. Tacos and beer, almost guaranteed that something will have been bottled fresh on Monday.

Stone- skip Escondido and hit up Liberty Station instead. If you don't get your fill there, the South Park Stone Store is awesome.

Ballast Point- avoid driving all the way up to the main brewery and hit up Home Brew Mart and Little Italy instead.

 

Bear Republic, Russian River, Lagunitas, Snake River, Wild Life, Grand Teton, Lone Peak, Schlafly

 

I lived in Tahoe for a while and don't care much for FiftyFifty but if you are in Reno you should check out the Great Basin brewing company,

 

I haven't seen near as many as I would like, but my favorite would probably be Fatheads in Middleburg Heights, Ohio. At a close second I'll give it to Smartmouth Brewery out of Norfolk, Virginia. Three and four would be either O'Connor Brewery out of Norfolk or Saint Archer out of San Diego.

 

Cape May Brewing Co. is a great place to hang out, if you folks are visiting the South Jersey shore next spring or summer, definitely make that a stop.

 

Stone and Other Half.

 

If you are in the Connecticut area I highly recommend Two Roads. Right off I95 and great brews on tap.

 

Central FL has a lot of fantastic breweries. West Coast Central FL [Gulf of Mexico], must stops are Cigar City in Tampa, 3 Daughters and Barley Mow in St Petersburg. Traveling east from there, Two Henry's in Plant City, then you can hit Orlando Brewing, and then head towards the Atlantic Ocean and a must stop is Intracoastal Brewing in Melbourne, FL : )

 

Shorts. If you're ever in Traverse City, MI-make it a point to stop there. It's awesome.

 

If coming through CT then New England Brewing and OEC are two must stops. New England makes the best beers in the state IMO and OEC has one of the nicest bars I've been to and their sours ain't too shabby either. I've heard good things about Thimble Island and Beer'd as well. Two Roads is nice if you want to see how a full scale brewery is run but their beers are pretty average.

 

My favorite was Miller Brewery in Milwaukee. They do a great tour and you get a lot of history of beer brewing in the USA. It's old school and the beer to sample is adequate and a nice gift shop.

 

Three Floyd's for me. Great food, great beer, great atmosphere. And, if you're in the area, Lagunita's Chicago tap house, half acre, dry hop, Goose island, Piece, and a host of others are in Chicago.

 

I just went on a beer-centric odyssey to the west coast, top to bottom, and then to Texas before heading home to WI. My top five breweries to visit in order were:

1. Logsdon-great beer, incredibly friendly people, and the best setting I can imagine for drinking beer (besides maybe Hill Farmstead, which I only know from pictures)
2. Alpine-the best beer of the trip overall (so many very close seconds, however), again incredibly nice people, sort of an odd, kitschy setting that is pretty much a dive bar but is welcoming, and surprisingly superb (bar) food
3. Russian River-obviously fantastic beer and the flight is legendary, relatively nice people, welcoming pub environment, good pizza
4. De Garde-Ridiculous beer (no flights though), just a notch below Alpine for me, great variety, and they always seem to have a great selection to go; nice and helpful, if aloof, people, sort of a hipster vibe (not a knock), and a beautiful drive from Portland (and from Tillamook it's only a short drive to the coast)
5. Jester King-awesome beer and a wide selection of guest taps but no flights, very nice folks, awesome location, good variety of to-gos

Honorable mentions:

1. La Cumbre-beer was superb and had some of the best west-coast IPAs of the trip (besides Alpine) and they have a surprising amount of different non-IPA beers; nice people; good food carts; bland location, but nice environment inside
2. Cellarmaker-great IPAs, Coffee and Cigarettes, and a very ambitious plan for the future, plus great growler prices; nice people; only a solid location and typical bar feel, though
3. Cascade-the House of Sour indeed, beer can sort of run together after a while, but flights are extremely reasonable and can contain anything on the menu, bottles are pricey but many vintage bottles are available professionally stored; extremely nice people; average location, but a good feel inside; great hours

New Glarus is great, but skip the tour unless you do the Hard Hat one.
Three Floyds is sort of blah and can be very abrasive, but getting their beer for a good price at the brewery is worth it if you're passing through.

 

My personal favorites are Shorts Brewing Company, Founders, and Dark Horse! All three have amazing beer and great food.

 

ussian river is always a great time and I also enjoy deschutes. The bruery is a great brewery, but it's always so packed and the food trucks vary. Maybe when the tasting room opens it will get better

 

Three Floyds, Cigar City, and Wicked Weed!

 

The F.X. Matt Brewing Co./Saranac is always great for tours. The cost $5 and you get 2 beers at the end of whats on the main line and possible pilot brews. The host music in the summer time. Magic Hat is another that would seem fun.

 

We stopped there as well. Also, most of the casinos have Icky on tap. That was nice.

 

I love the Icky at the brewery and on draft but the bottles have always tasted off to me.