Great beers in your area....

Absolutely! Plus, I'd add McFate, 8-bit, and O.H.S.O to your list.

 

I'm sorry I didn't see McFate in your original post.

 

Two hearted and FFF Gumballhead are readily available to me as far as sessions goes, Stone Ruination and Victory Dirtwolf for DIPA, Founders Porter and Old Rasputin for darker desires. I know there are better options, but can be hard to get a handful or four of, so these could be go to beers if all else fails.

 

pipeworks dipa's and some of their stouts
half acre with their double daisy cutter
brickstone's hop skip dipa
destihl reserve series beers like le diplomate
revolution with their hero beers and bean gene
spiteful's god damn pidgeon porter
two brothers northwind imperial stout

 

Locally, Wilmington Brewing Company makes great IPAs/IIPAs (Midtown Swank, Tropical Lightning, Sneaky Goose) and a very solid breakfast stout (Blair's Breakfast Stout), among other things.

In-state we have a bunch of solid-to-great breweries; of the ones that are readily available on the coast, I'm partial to offerings from Wicked Weed, Hi-Wire, Oskar Blues, Highland and Foothills. Favorites from these guys include Pernicious, Hi-Wire Lager, Freak of Nature, Enchanter, Jade, Torch Pilsner, Tyranny and Highland IPA.

And we get solid distribution from Bells, Devils Backbone, Founders, Lagunitas, Left Hand, Sierra Nevada, Victory and Weihenstephaner, all of which are go-to breweries for me. My top 10 usually-available beers from this group would be Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, Brown Shugga, Two Hearted, Vitus, Weihenstephaner Original, Fade To Black Vol I, Founders Breakfast Stout, Sucks, DirtWolf, and Ten Fidy.

With all these available right at my doorstep (so to speak), I don't feel any compulsion to travel for beer. Of course, when I am forced to travel, local/new beer is always going to be part of the itinerary.

 

Jai Alai and Unholy are really great tasting local beers that are readily available

 

Because of the previously more archaic beer laws, RI breweries are not able to grow fast unless they put an initial huge investment in a bottling/canning line and distribute. Therefore Proclamation was not subject to the "whale hunterz" prevalent at other NE breweries. Why travel far to only get 72 oz max of growler beer at a time? So I could get a mini growler each of Derivative and Tendril with zero wait.

And you know what? After the update of laws a few weeks ago to allow for up to 32 oz sales of on site consumption and 288 oz take home beer, it was still easy peasy this week, except I could buy more! In addition to Tendril and the pilot DIPA, I could purchase a couple 500ml bottles of the coffee porter. Hopefully there remains a place 25 minutes away that is super easy to buy beers at least 85-90% as good as the beer I would have to travel a few hours and wait in an hour line to purchase!

 

I live about 5 mins away from Tired Hands so I'm spoiled.

 

Agree with OHSO. Only been there once though. Never been to 8-Bit. I live in East Valley so I don't get over that way much, but I have heard some great things about them. Cheers!

 

I'm 15 minutes away from a new brewery in LeClaire, IA called Green Tree. Wonderful Stouts! Have some good Apas, IPAs including a Mango IPA. Took a shot at a Whiskey barrell aged IPA and did a fine job. I hope he continues to take some risks.

 

Plenty of great beer in and around my area (Albany, NY): Crossroads Brewing, Common Roots brewing, Rare Form brewing, etc. Even a tiny one right in my neighborhood called Real McCoy.
But as more and more breweries open, it's getting to the point where you could take a "beer-cation" anywhere. I went on a normal visit to my sister-in-laws in Syracuse recently, and ended up going to 3 new breweries in as many days. Not bad for a trip not at all intended to be a beer-cation.

 

Most of Odell's year round lineup
New Belgium's sours
Funkwerks saisons
Zwei German lagers
Everything from Snowbank and High Hops

 

I'm not complaining.

Cheers!

 

i'll ignore the easily available yet great year-round brews that are out-of-area such as:
-Dogfish Head
-Stone
-Lagunitas
-Sierra Nevada
-Great Lakes

Locally:
-Conclave
-River Horse
-Carton
-Victory
-Neshaminy Creek
-Yards
-Kane
-Sixpoint

there are many breweries within 50 miles of me that i need to try but just haven't been to yet

 

I think this thread started out as what's available in your area, not necessarily produced locally.

As far as available goes, my somewhat rural area has gotten a lot better in recent years. I can get most of the major brands discussed on BA, things like Pliny the Elder and Heady Topper being a few notable exceptions. Neither of which I have had the fortune of having yet.

Having said that I have tried a few that were once whales for me but are now readily available. Lagunitas, for example.

My experience has been that they're all good. I think that a fresh IPA from a local brewery is better than a bottled or canned whale from any brewery.

Re the Lagunitas I just mentioned. When Sucks showed up a local bottle store I was positivity giddy. Shelled out 12 bucks for a six pack. Hey, it was good. Very good, even. But still not as good as a fresh pour of Allegheny IPA at Four Mile Brewery, 20 minutes from my house.

Point being is that I think you're better off supporting the local breweries as much as possible. They're ALL good, and fresh really is better, if you can get it.

 

I've got to go with Creature Comforts Tropicalia, Terrapin's Liquid Bliss Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter, and Southern Brewing Company's Cherokee Rose which uses wild, local yeast collected from a cherokee rose plant in the owner's backyard.

 

On a recent extremely hot and humid day, I happened across Hay Loft Hefeweizen from Take 16 Brewing, a nearby Minnesota brewery, and had an ice-cold one. Excellent!