Your regions best brews

The South Suburbs of Chicago/NW IN, are close to downtown, and 127th street is now known as Burr Oak Obama Drive. From Blue Island to Calumet Park.

 

Obviously great brews in northern New England (which I'm grateful are within driving distance) and Treehouse and Trillium in Mass., but some of my local favorites are Clown Shoes Space Cake, Wormtown Be Hoppy and Jack's Abby Hoponius Union.

 

Yes, only from the bottle though. I generally don't care for stouts with a fruity flavor profile, which I found Winter Warlock to offer. I do like it, but it is just is not a favorite.

 

Forgive my abundance of local pride but...

If I may be so bold as to offer up a plan for a nice day to spend drinking in my hometown, I would say to come to Binghamton and have lunch at Water St. Brewery. They typically do well-balanced European styles. I'd recommend a flight. Then go literally around the corner to Galaxy and try whatever strikes your fancy (if you want a fancier lunch, eat here). Then head to Endicott and do a flight at The North. They typically do more extreme beers and I recommend doing a growler fill here. If you really want to get crazy, then head to Owego and go to Farmhouse Brewery. They pride themselves on using as many local NY ingredients as they can, and even tell you what percentage of each beer comes from NY. The owner also does his own malting. Then it is easy to hop on 17, to get to 81. Or you could flip the trip and do dinner in Binghamton! Cheers!

 

I love massachusetts right now. We have Trillium that kills it with IPAs, Nightshift that has a pretty nice sour program (even though sometimes they are hit or miss) and Jacks Abby that deal with the lagers. All 3 breweries make some great porters/stouts as well.

 

I don't think they're secret, but i would say beers that havent gotten to the mainstream that are amazing for me are Naughty Sauce by Noble Ale Works (Draft only) and Peanut butter Milk Stout by Belching Beaver. Also Rip current has great IPAs, Impact Zone, Double impact zone, Lupilin Lust. And Stumblefoot has two great sours that everyone over looks, Questhaven and Quadraven

 

Burial Brewery in Asheville brews some great beers, Scythe Rye Pale Ale is one of my favorites

 

I'm going to leave out the more well know New England hard to find beers for my list.
Lost Nation The Wind (VT)
Ancestral from Earth Eagle (NH)
Epiphany from Foundation (ME)
Brett Loves Hops from Austin St. (ME)
Lux Rye Ale from Bissell Bros. (ME)

 

Funky buddha and cigar city, both FL

 

I can speak mainly for Minnesota and, to a lesser extent, Wisconsin. I'll list Dave's BrewFarm, Sisyphus, Fair State, Dangerous Man, Fitger's (the last two may have some national buzz, but you can't get them in stores even here), HammerHeart, and Olvalde, in that order. Only Fair State and Olvalde bottle/can for retail distribution, and I don't think their stuff makes it outside of Minnesota (and maybe Western Wisconsin). Black Husky also is doing some interesting work.

Bauhaus Brew Labs Wonderstuff is a world-class pilsner widely available in cans in the Twin Cities area but not well known elsewhere. It ranks as the #4 Czech Pilsner in the world at the other site. I encourage traders to request it if they're trading with a Minnesotan.

 

Funky buddha - Hop Gun
Cigar City- Jai Alai

 

Appalachian Mountain Brewing in Boone, NC has some really nice beers to try:
Longleaf IPA - Alot like Two Hearted with a little more bite
Daniel's Double - Another nice citrus bomb of a double IPA (my personal fav of theirs)
Son Of Daniel - Probably the best session IPA I have ever tried
Corruption - Oatmeal stout (the barrel aged version is really nice)
Black Gold - Incredibly solid porter
Say Hops Again - One of my favorite Black IPAs
Honey Badger - Their award winning Blonde Ale
Crooked Common - Award winning Hoppy Lager
Rye'd That - Rye Pale Ale with a nice spicy bite
Slackline - Another Oatmeal stout that the put on Nitro

and some of the best brick oven pizza that I have ever tried

 

Freak of Nature IIPA Wicked Weed brewing
Country Roots Stout Tennessee Brew Works
Green Man ESB
Wiseacre Ananda and Gotta Get Up To Get Down

 

Southern-Central Alberta:

Troubled Monk Pesky Pig Pale Ale
Ribstone Creek Great White Combine White IPA
Last Best IPA
Village Maiden Session IPA
Village Monk Chai Winter Porter