If you could select one beer destination in the Mid-Atlantic region, what would it be? My wife suggested a vacation to a beer destination. The only catch is that there also has to be a non-beer sightseeing type place(s) of interest (e.g. National Park, Museum, etc.) in the same area. Also, I/we have already pretty much done Philly, Buffalo, and D.C. Other ideas? TIA!
Richmond and/or Nelson County makes a great Beer/Wine/Cider vacation. There are great restaurants in Richmond these days, plus lots of museums/historical things to see. Hardywood, The Answer, Strangeways, Triple Crossing are all very good breweries. If you haven't been to the Blue Ridge Mountains, it is really gorgeous, and Devil's Backbone, Blue Moutain, Bold Rock and Wild wolf are fun to visit, but a tonne of very scenic wineries. You can stay at Wintergreen to be close to all those, and there are lots of outdoorsy things to do.
Dogfish Head: The brewery is in Milton, Delaware. You each get four free beer samples and you can get a 120 Min IPA 10-12oz glass for $5, tons of merchandise and lots of beer for sale. The brewery is about 20 minutes to Rehoboth Beach. You have the beach, boardwalk, restaurants, bicycling, hiking, walking on the endless beach, walking on the boardwalk which is longer than a mile, fishing, etc. There are three outlet malls if your wife is into that (very wide selection), there are two very good beer stores (where I have found Dogfish Head beers that I did not find either at the brewery or the brewpub). The Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehoboth Beach is also worth visiting for their exclusive beers on tap (you cannot get them even at the brewery). Rehoboth Beach also has a very good selection of restaurants.
NYC? Edit: Just saw the first reply, so now I'm redundant. In any event, agree that NYC is the place to go. Too much good stuff going on there now.
Hard to beat this one. Brooklyn & Other Half are definitely worth it and they are right off the subway (you may not want to take your wife to Other Half, it is a GREAT brewery with a great selection of beers, but it is not very presentable to the ladies, even though the bartender when I went there was a lady ).
This, also, DFH has recently opened the Dogfish Inn in nearby Lewes, about 5 minutes from the brewpub. I've been wanting to check out the Inn, so that would be my recommendation.
Another option would be the Hudson Valley up to Poughkeepsie. There is Peekskill, Rushing Duck, Newburgh, and others and you can stop at the Cold Spring farmers market if Plan Bee is there. For non-beer stops, you can have lunch or dinner at the Culinary Institute, which is amazing; there is the very strange, but very interesting DIA:Beacon art museum; and the FDR National Historic Site in Hyde Park. And driving on Rt. 9 along the Hudson River is really beautiful, even in the winter.
I second Dogfish Head/Rehoboth Beach. Any beer geek would do themselves a favor by visiting the brewpub in Rehoboth and brewery in Milton.
Second this. If you have 3-5 days you could easily hit Richmond, Charlottesville and the Nelson county breweries. Plenty of history in the Richmond and Charlottesville areas and beautiful mountains in Nelson.
Does Asheville count? Never been, but there are a ton of breweries and I hear good things about the town itself. Someone called it the East Coast Santa Fe. Definitely at the top of my places to visit. Plus you've got the mountains for hiking and nature walks.
I was just there last week for a beer cation/Biltmore visit. Lots of good beer to sample and easy walking between Wicked Weed, Green Man, Burial, Hi-Wire, Wicked Weed's Funkatorium, and Asheville Brewing. I think Highland is there also. I didn't get to Sierra Nevada's east coast site near Asheville, but heard it was a great place to visit. Took a run one morning down by the French Broad river and made my way past the still under construction New Belgium brewery. It is huge! I live close to Troegs and I'd say that brewery will be 8-10 times as large as Troegs. I also stopped at Appalachian Vitner beer and wine store. Great place. Was able to find/buy a great selection of beer that isn't available in central PA.
I'm a homer, but have done all these and Richmond area or Asheville wins easy. Can't beat Nyc for overall touristy things but Richmond would be very competitive there depending on your tastes, plus excellent food. Delaware is Dog Fish and done in my opinion. So, yeah, Richmond/Charlottesville area or Asheville if it were me.
I'm gonna echo what several others have said and go with NYC. You have a few great local breweries, especially Other Half and Singlecut, plus tons of great beer bars with pretty awesome distro (Hill Farmstead can be found all over the city at the moment, and Tired Hands recently starting distributing here on a more limited basis). Also, even though Grimm doesn't brew here, their beers are awesome and can be found at bars all over the city. Plus, there's obviously a ton of site-seeing.
