touring Utah Parks this June - staying in Moab/Springdale/Brice. Flying into SLC and departing from Vegas. Any hidden gems on this route outside of SLC and Vegas? Beer bars/breweries etc ? Any help appreciated. Cheers!
Can’t speak to the beers, I will let others who know better chime in, we drive from CO and bring them with us, but you are in for a beautiful trip. That section of Utah is stunning. Make sure to get on the trails early, it heats up pretty quickly in the summer and there is limited shade in Arches and Canyonlands. Also hike with more water than you think you will need. Sorry if you’ve been and this is all obvious to you, but we’ve run into folks on the trail who are out of water and miles from the car more than once.
Yeah you're certainly in for a treat as far as scenery goes. I have had the privilege of visiting nearly 30 countries and I still think Utah has the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen. It appears as though you have your trip planned, but I will note that I highly recommend Escalante territory. In particular, the drive from Torrey to Boulder to the town of Escalante is unreal. Great hiking in that area as well. Regarding beer - the Utah beer scene is a bit rough, but is improving markedly every year. I'd say the hottest spots in Salt Lake are Fisher Brewing, Templin Family (TF) Brewing, and Salt Fire. Fisher primarily brews for keg-strength beer (at or below 4%abv), but they do a great job at styles appropriately brewed in that range and I would highly recommend some crowlers for your journey. TF has to-go cans with >4%abv - their WC DIPA Ferda is fantastic. Salt Fire makes great "NE" IPAs, so grab some of those if they have any available. If you were to stock up on beers from those places, Id say you'd be pretty set.
Temper your expectations. If you are coming from Mass you might find the Utah beer scene to be... behind the times a bit. If you are not aware of the Utah beer laws, see: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/utah-general-beer-rules.579167/ Southwestern Utah does not have a lot of bars or breweries, it is Mormon country. St. George which you will drive through has one brewery that I know of, Silver Reef. I have never been. Zion brewery is in Springdale. Moab has one (called Moab). Basically you're just not going to find a lot out of the SLC/Ogden central valley area. Just treat the 4% beers as an excuse to have a few on a hot day.
Bring beer In SLC Kiitos Level Crossing TF Fisher Are decent. Everything pales in comparison to New England. Beer Hive and Bayou in SLC for a somewhat decent selection of beers. Southern UT is a wasteland for beer. No clue in Vegas. You could probably find some Revision. Melvin is usually the best beer available for purchase in these parts. I think they distribute to MA though. Just remember all beer on tap is 4%. Same with everything in the grocery store. Anything higher ABV needs to be purchased in the state run liquor stores and it’s all warm (and not exactly fresh)
A little misleading at the end of your post. ***You can purchase higher ABV beer directly from breweries. I.e. if you walk into TF Brewing, you can purchase their 8%(exact abv?) DIPA Ferda and take it to go. => State Liquor stores are NOT the only source for high ABV beers. I recommend going to breweries to purchase beer over going to State Liquor Stores.
Sorry, I am flooding this thread. Others have stated the Utah brewing scene "pales in comparison" to MA beer scene. If you are really only interested in NE IPAs, then you're definitely going to feel this way, and you are going to be bummed with your Utah trip. However, a lot of Utah breweries do a great job at brewing a diversity of beer styles. If you're open to drinking many different types of beer, I think you can be satisfied with drinking beer in Utah.
Have you spent much time visiting breweries around New England? You’ll find better: Lager Saison Mixed Ferment Hoppy Experimental Stout Etc, pretty much every style I can think of actually, within a 15-20 mile radius of Boston... and that doesn’t even touch the real good stuff. And yes you can get full strength beer at the breweries, where it will be treated much better than at the liquor store.
I was born in New England and my entire family is from that region - spend a lot of time there. I guess I agree that they have better mixed ferm/sours/saison, but I don't agree about any of the other styles you mentioned. Utah crushes it at making lagers, in particular. But it's silly to argue about taste preferences, I just do not agree with you at all.
