Top 5 breweries you have been to

The Ale Apothecary
Cascade
De Garde
Hair of the Dog - Actually going there after work today ...
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Cantillon (Brussels, BE)
Cascade (Portland, OR)
The Bruery (Anaheim, CA)
Brassneck (Vancouver, BC)
Arizona Wilderness (Phoenix, AZ)

 

Definitely a homer here:
Cigar City
Rapp
Cycle
Green Bench
Swamphead

Unfortunately I haven't traveled much since getting into craft beer. The only breweries outside of the Tampa Bay area and Gainesville I've been to have been Moon River in Savannah and Abita. I also tend to be driving through cities with breweries that Id like to try out, but at the wrong time. So many small brewers are closed a couple of days of the week and don't open until late afternoon. I've had bad luck with that.
However, I'm planning a trip to Asheville soon, so I'l be hitting up a few places up there soon.

 

One which lives in my memory was a visit to a local regional brewery, Shipstone's in Nottingham. We were warmly greeted, taken for a tour of the brewery and then went to the hospitality room. This was a demolished pub which had been removed and rebuilt in the brewery.The table was groaning with food including sides of beef and other goodies.We were handed a pint glass each and invited into the cellar in which casks were lined up in rows.The Head Brewer told us to have as much as we wanted and stay as long as we liked.
All this at no charge whatsoever, but in the day brewery trips were normally free.

 

Essentially all of Bamberg counts, although I've never actually set foot in the Schlenkerla brewery since it's off-site.

 

The Bruery
Russian River
Lagunitas
Toppling Goliath
Surly

 

Stone (Escondido CA)
Odell (Ft. Collins, CO)
Green Flash (San Diego, CA)
Societe (San Diego, CA)
Burial (Asheville, NC)

 

No particular order

Dark Horse , Jackson MI 2012. Always enjoyed their beer, so I figured I'd stop in while on my own little mini-tour. Place was straight out of SOA. Great beer, fun yet gruff atmosphere and a pretty cool layout overall.


Bell's; Kalamazoo, MI 2012. Part of same mini-tour. The place was very approachable for non-hipsters (which is why Founders is NOT on my list of favorites.....) has a great flow, great space and just terrific personnel all the way around. The staff could not have made it any better than what they did. Just a fantastic time.


Hardywood; RVA, all the time. My favorite "home" brewery. I have been lucky enough to get to know some of the folks there and though they may draw a hipster crowd, the principles and top folks are just about the most thoughtful and kind people that you'd ever meet. Then you tie in the great, no, world class beer with the expanded location and you have a place you can really get behind.


Victory; Easton, near Easton? PA, 2014? Stopped here with my son during a hockey tournament and mixed in a late lunch, so I had an opportunity to try their food as well. Great food and as for the beer, always great stuff. Waitress was absolutely wonderful, courteous and appreciative. Helped my son with his selections with awesome patience (he fancies himself a foodie at ten and puts wait staff through the paces on item descriptions...politely though...). She was very helpful in my growler full of beer selection process as well. Since I had the boy with me I chose to enjoy their root beer (save for two samples to verify growler fill choice) and even the root beer was good.


Weinhard. Portland, OR circa 1995. About six of us from our softball team traveled down for regionals and happed across this brewery. The elderly fellow giving us the tour knew we were simply placating him until we hit the tasting room, where he said "Ok boys, I'll be back in half an hour and you need to be gone by then." Well, what happened next was a 29 minute all you can drink extravaganza for the six of us as we were the only people on the tour and the pourers could have given a shit less how much we pounded.

 

Firestone Walker (just gorgeous)
Russian River
BrewDog
Funky Buddha
Aardwolf (homer answer, but I love it there)

 

Hill Farmstead
Other Half
Fiddlehead
Alchemist (I'm counting the old taproom)
Brooklyn Brewery

 

I honestly can't pick just five:

Revolution (Chicago, IL) -One of the best brewpub vibes and the times that I visited were before they exploded in popularity and greatly expanded their offerings. Wish I was closer to Chicago to go back.

Russian River (Santa Rosa, CA) -Not much to be said besides "get me a Lola pizza and a Row 2."

Lagunitas (Petaluma, CA) -Quintessential California beer garden. Live music. Great beer. Great Vibe. Amazing tour.

Cellarmaker (San Francisco, CA) -There are few places I would rather be than the taproom at Cellarmaker.

Southern Tier (Lakewood, NY) -Such a relaxing place to drink great beer. Like being in a hunting cabin in the woods eating a bbq sandwich...but at a major production brewery.

Founders (Grand Rapids, MI) -Sitting out on the porch of the taproom munching on amazing sandos and drinking amazing beer while it pours rain. Unforgettable.

Ballast Point (Little Italy-San Diego, CA) -Yes please I will take a Sculpin and San Diego harbor view.

Societe (San Diego, CA) -Much like Cellarmaker IMO just a great place to chill.

Sante Adairius (Santa Cruz, CA) -Great vibe. Super relaxed. Amazing beer.

Glaringly omitted:

Firestone Walker: Don't get me wrong this was one of my favorite breweries to visit and the experience was amazing, but the Paso taproom was a bit of a letdown. Vibe was sterile and blah. Beer was incredible. Food decent but overpriced and under portioned. Of course I can't wait to go back lol, cuz, ya know, visitor center tap list...

 

U Fleku (Prague)
The Commons - new place (Portland, OR)
Pizza Port Ocean Beach (Whale's Vagina, CA)
Free State (Lawrence, KS)
New Belgium (Fort Collins, CO)

 

On second thought... I want to change my list.

The Ale Apothecary
Crux Fermentation Project
De Garde
Hair of the Dog
pFriem

Crux and pFriem have really beautiful facilities.

 

In no particular order:

Reubens in Ballard, WA

Brooklyn in NY

Harpoon in Boston

Redhook in Woodinville, WA

New Belgium in Ft. Collins, CO

Honorable mention: Elysian (Seattle) and Sound Brewing (Poulsbo, WA)

 

Breweries where I've been? That's a small list, unfortunately.

1.) Triple Digit in Cincinnati. There's almost nothing branded Triple Digit that I haven't had, and of what I've had, nothing I don't love. High-gravity beer is my jam, yo.
2.) Great Lakes in Cleveland. Despite them dropping a bunch of amazing, awesome seasonals to go into "IPAs everywhere!" mode, there's little that beats a good batch of Eliot Ness and Edmund Fitzgerald right from the source. Plus the brewpub there is now the only place one can get The Doppelrock. And their shepherd's pie is bomb.
3.) Kansas City Bier Company. One guess where. I'm a sucker for non-excessively-hopped German-style beers.
4.) Backpocket Brewing in Iowa City. I've been stopping by this place on every Iowa run since my first trip out to Iowa City with my Hawkeye girlfriend, so I've even had the AIRBHG ESB prior to its retirement. Their Slingshot, Wooden Nickel, and Pennywhistle aren't bad, especially fresh.
5.) ...yeah, that's about it for places I'd even rank. I suppose I need to make an effort to get to more actual brewpubs. All the local ones I've been to aside from Triple Digit, I wouldn't rank.

 

Tired Hands--pretty much exactly everything I'd want in a brewpub if I opened it myself: rustic atmosphere, the perfect food pairings, mix of adventurous and traditional beer styles
Russian River--one of the friendliest brewpubs I've ever been to, both staff and patrons (+ fresh Pliny flowing like a river)
Sante Adairius--relaxed, Santa Cruz vibe and, obviously, ridiculously good beer
Modern Times--spacious, fun vibe, always interesting taps and cans
Cellarmaker--all about the beer, you feel like you're in the presence of greatness; i.e., the West Coast Hill Farmstead. A little heavy on the high-tech bros, so try to go during the daytime

 

Stone Brewing (Escondido-My hometown)
Boundary Bay
Pizza Port
Fremont Brewing
Societe
Hair of the Dog
Port Brewing
Russian River

In that order.

Obviously I cannot count...I didn't major in mathematics.

 

Some cool ones off the top of my head:

Voodoo - amazing barrel program and underrated on the whole.
Tired Hands - horribly overrated beer on the whole but a cool atmosphere
Side Project - not much to write home about other than their beer and selection of non-SP offerings but a cool little place
Dogfish Head - Great tour, constantly innovative beers
Fat Heads - Some of the best hoppy beers out there

 

In no particular order:
Comrade brewing
Dry Dock brewing
Trinity brewing
those are the only ones that stand out, but am looking to hit TRVE this weekend.