30th Birthday - Brewery Trip

Depends on your likes, really

You could come to NE Ohio (Cleveland - Akron) and hit up some great breweries (Great Lakes / Fatheads / BrewKettle / Hoppin' Frog / Thirsty Dog, and on and on), visit a great National Park (Cuyahoga Valley) with lots of hiking and biking, great restaurants and many other amenities to explore. You could even day trip up to Cedar Point easily from here - if that is your thing, hit up the Islands in Lake Erie, etc etc....the Midwest has some great beer and many great things to check out - parks - food - sports - even beaches!!

 

Damn as long as I don't see the last bottle of Lawsons being put into a car with an out of state plate we're good.

 

Might as well rename this thread "Where do you live?"

 

really?

 

Like others have posted, there is a lot of Beercentric activities in Asheville, but there is more. The most visited National Park surrounds Asheville. Highest peak East of the Mississippi River is near by, amazing waterfalls. Great music venues, and not just on the weekends, Grey Eagle or The Orange Peel come to mind quickly. Tours, Biltmore House and Gardens are a must see, plus white water rafting possibilities. Great restaurants are located in town to go along with the beer. Minor league baseball team.

You could do a lot worse than Asheville.

Chicago has a lot to offer, but getting to the Breweries can be tricky. Bend Oregon would also be an option that I would consider.

 

Lots of breweries, bars and beaches so yes.

 

I second Chicago. In a 3-5 day weekend, you could hit:

Goose Island Clybourn
Goose Island Fulton and Wood (hopefully they get to open in May)
Three Floyds
18th Street
Half Acre
Lagunitas
Revolution
And many many more

Get a hotel or AirBnb. Take public transit or an Uber to your locations so you don't have to worry about drunk driving. (Have a DD to FFF and 18th street)

Shop the Beer Temple, West Lakeview, Binny's and stock up. The weather in July is the best time of the year here, enjoy the beach for the afternoon, go on an architectural (drinking) boat tour. Eat at some of the best restaurants in the world. Catch a Cubs game.

Seriously, Chicago is probably the best place in the Midwest for a beer destination trip. NW Michigan is awesome as well. Tons of great stops to hit.

 

Yes...but in March would be better

 

I gotta throw my support behind Michigan as well. So many great breweries that you can hit. I'd set up a stay near maybe South Lyons and hit some breweries on the eastern side, then move over to GR by taking 90 (I think it's 90?) and hit Dark Horse, then Arcadia and Bell's along the way. Chill in GR and hit Vivant, Schmohz (sp?) and Founders (amongst others), then take a trip up to Shorts in Bellaire (near Traverse City) via 31 but hit Odd Side, New Holland and a few others along the way. If you golf, there's a ton of great courses in western Michigan that can usually be fairly reasonable. Green as all hell and usually through the week you can just walk right on and keep a nice pace. I do the Michigan trip thing every late July as well.

 

Coast Guard festival in Grand Haven Michigan where Oddside is located (hometown bias here) is a great weeklong festival at the end of July. It's a beachtown right on the Big Lake and there will be beer, food, music and fun galore. Grand haven is the perfect hub to go betwen Grand Rapids (Founder's) Kalamazoo (Bell's) Holland (New Holland). It's also a really relaxing small beach town with a smattering of tiny breweries and great restaurants all within a 15-30 minute drive. Who doesn't want to rent a house on Lake Michigan and watch the waves crash into the sunset with a great beer in their hand?

 

Almost all major and a lot of minor cities in states in which taprooms are legal are going to have 3 or 4 decent taprooms you can visit (there are about 60 taprooms and brewpubs within an hour of me in the Twin Cities area, for instance). One of the strategic errors I think people often make when they travel is to pick a place with a ton going on even though they'll have nowhere near enough time to take advantage of more than a tiny fraction of what the city has to offer. Any city with, say, 100,000 people will have plenty to entertain you for a few days, and bigger than that mostly matters only if you're going to be around for the long term or have very specific or high end tastes.

Since you're dragging along friends, who invariably will have different price sensitivities and beer/city preferences, I recommend that you just pick one of the cheapest to visit cities you can find. See if there is a deal on airline tickets to anywhere in particular at the time of your birthday or carpool to some place not all that far away (my Twin Cities happens to be the closest place mentioned so far, I think). Make sure you can find a decent price on a "sweet house" before you commit to a place. The point is that you're planning on going to only a few breweries and being around for a short period of time, and many places satisfy your simple requirements perfectly well, so why not just focus on price? Once you've picked a place, go to the appropriate regional board on the BA forums and ask what breweries you should check out.

If you and your friends truly aren't price sensitive and this is a go big or stay home situation, then I'd recommend that you pick a city of interest to you in your favorite European beer country. Now that would make for a memorable birthday trip!

 

Yeah I have to agree with this. If you limited to a weekend, It really doesnt matter where you go. Most major cities will be fun. It's what you make of it. Now if you were visiting for a week, that would narrow the list down a bit.

 

Forget renting a house. Fly to San Fran, get an RV, and head to Russian River. Drive north, hit some amazing national parks and breweries, and fly back out of Portland. This trip is on my bucket list. In fact, I'll be upset if you make it happen and I don't get invited

 

I would vote for Portland as well. July will be beautiful there, ocean and mountains are close by. Look into Air B&B for a rental house, we've had such great places going that route and it's way less expensive than hotels.

 

Fly into Seattle, you can take the Bolt bus to Portland for like $10 and it's barely 3 hours.

 

'Pretty rich area of really good breweries! I'd humbly suggest flying into Manchester, NH instead - airport is easy in, easy out and more centric to those breweries. (Either way, alot of driving involved!)

 

Why eliminate San Diego because your from here ? Outstanding warrants? Anyway what I would recommend is a three day, 10 breweries per in San Diego. 30 breweries for your 30th birthday.

 

Definitely a solid idea. Manchester is a great airport for convenience and timeliness. My home spot.

 

I'd fly to Boston as mentioned, great local breweries, then I'd venture into Vt, and Maine. I've been to Maine but not via The Watertown Vt area, so I'm not sure on drive time. But our last trip into Vt guys were driving to Maine Beer from Watertown. That would be killer, and a 3-4 day trip.