Best Brewery/Pub experience you've ever had.

Sergio's World Beers is by far the best beer bar I have ever been too. I used to travel for work and I have to been to many of the so called "Top Beer Bars in America". Sergio's takes the cake. I must have walked by this place three or four times before I realized, yes, this is indeed it. No sign on the outside, national flags of various countries lining the windows. I finally spotted the A rating health code sign, which also said in small letters, "Sergio's World Beers", on one of the windows and opened the door to this beer mecca. At first glance this is a complete dive bar, which isn't bad, I just wasn't expecting it. A very quiet night, only a few people seated at the tiny bar and a few scattered in the back at the tables. I was greeted by the tender of beer and ordered a beverage. I quickly realized looking around the place, that there was beer for purchase nearly everywhere. Coolers upon coolers, even an old school refrigerator to open and find treats. Everything was for on and off sale, save for a few glorious things that we'll get to later. I had a couple beers on tap and ordered some chips and guac to munch on. The decor of this place is amazing. A dive bar that must have over 500 beers to choose from. Sergio, the owner of the place, apparently also lends a hand in the kitchen, because he came out letting everyone know that the special for the day was Lengua Tacos, asking..."Would anyone like some of my tongue"? He then made anyone that wanted some, tacos. They were delicious. At some point or another I found the cooler containing the Belgian Lambics and came out with a Drie Fonteinen Golden Blend Geueze, much to Sergio's delight. He grabbed his personal glass from Armand and poured the beer for me. He proceeded to tell me stories of his times over in Belgium with Armand, as well as several other blenders. What a character this guy is. When he found out I was from MN, he even informed me of a brewery that his good friend was opening in a suburb of the Twin Cities within the next year or so, Hammerheart, which I have since been too. After about an hour of great conversation, I asked him about purchasing one of the Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus' he had in the cooler to take home. He informed me that those were only for in store consumption, as to avoid people reselling them outside. I assured him it was going to be making the flight back to MN with me and enjoyed by myself and good friend...he made an exception. And yes, it was indeed enjoyed by myself and said friend. Overall I spent about 3 hours there, when I was originally planning on two beers and dinner. Hands down the best beer bar experience I have had anywhere. Would recommend Sergio's to anyone and everyone. Cheers!

 

Next time I am out in Kentucky, I will have to hit that place up. Did you get dinner at Ed Lee's place while you were there?

 

Easy one, Shipstone's back in the late 70s or early 80s.
We were taken round the brewery , got the talk, saw the equipment used from start to finish in the brewing process.
We were than taken to the hospitality room which was the reconstructed Dolphin pub (this had been demolished at its site in Nottingham and saved)
There were tables groaning with food,sides of beef ,you name it ,it was on the table.
We were each given a pint glass and invited to help ourselves from rows of casks in the cellar."Stay as long as you like and the directors will join you presently"
We stayed as long as we liked and somehow my wife was able to find us miles away from both the brewery and my home!
Cost of the trip - nothing at all. Negative if you include the gifts , the food and the beer
Beat that.

 

Easy. Alchemist brewpub some years back. In Vt. to forage edible shrooms. Hit Blush Hill and lots of surrounding woods with really bad luck, except for how beautiful things all were, and of course it's always fun to be in the woods. We got a seat at a table, I ordered a Heady, my son a soda (he was 12 at the time)and started talking about the day. First the waitress stops by to ask how I like the Heady and to tell me the bartender thinks I will enjoy this one, an Ouroboros, compliments of the house, which she leaves a glass of. Wow just as good as Heady, but different. Some minutes later as we are about to order waitress admits she overheard us talking about our bad luck shrooming, asks if I would like to try some Black Trumpet mushrooms the brewer just picked. Would I? One of my favorite shrooms. Enjoyed the finest dish of Trumpets I have before or since tried as I drank another Heady. Does life get better than this?

Sad counterpoint was a couple years later standing in the destroyed pub as a nearly destroyed JK stood behind a folding table selling bottles of beer Rock Art had bottled for him trying to earn a few dollars to recover from the complete destruction of the pub, and town, by Hurricane Irene.

 

Like cavedave, this is an easy one for me. Also in Waterbury, except for me, it was the Blackback.

Me and a buddy were in town, and we knew the reputation of the place before we got there, but they blew that out of the water. We arrived on a Saturday around lunch time, and it was quite quiet. We sat at the bar and got a full description of all the beers as we perused the tap list. The first thing we were told was that they still had KBS on tap. We ordered that and so began an afternoon of great beer, amazing company and fine food.

As I said, the place was quiet. But those folks were friendly and the people who joined us at the bar were too. We chatted all afternoon. And when we got hungry they made some awesome recommendations. To start we were recommended a cheese/meat plate, which the chef/cook came out and explained every bit of to us. Later when we were looking at mains he came back out and asked what we were drinking then. He said he had a couple of things that weren't on the menu that he would make that would go great with Heady, and we were hooked based on the description (a pork schnitzel sammy...yes please).

The entire time we were there the bar keep kept chatting with us, and introduced us to regulars.

Wow, what an experience. In a town where nobody knew us, we were treated like we belonged. Tough to top for me.

 

I did not. Was only in town for one night.

 

Three come immediately to mind -- Russian River, Cigar City and 10 Barrel. The first two were pretty much expected to be great visits, but 10 Barrel in Bend surprised me because I had no prior knowledge about the place.

 

I don't know about "best", but I went to Levante in West Chester PA on a Tuesday. They're only open Thursday thru Sunday. The owner said if I didn't mind watching them install shelving I was welcome to sit down and drink. That's customer service!!!

 

West 6th in Lexington. Went on the free tour, and got an awesome tour, a bunch of free BA beer, and a couple glasses for free. Love that place.

 

Sierra Nevada in Chico California.

It is the Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory of Beer.

Something for your bucket list.

 

Probably Kern River Brewing. I went white water rafting with a friend and his family and our hotel was in the same parking lot essentially.
We drank some great beer, got food, and I got a t-shirt. The bill? $35-ish dollars! And the people working there were beyond cool. Used to be marine biologists, but wanted to live a different lifestyle. Great conversion and the overall best experience I've had.

Aside from that? Every time I've gone to Beachwood BBQ, without fail.

 

Sierra Nevada in NC, the beer was amazing as was the food and the service. I took the family with me and they were amazed at the place!!

 

Midnight Sun Brewing Co. in Anchorage by a long shot. Lee treated us like lifelong friends, we received the VIP treatment despite being peons. What a nice guy. We even got to drink one of his experimental sours straight from the salmon anus lol. And by one, I mean more than we could handle.

 

Best for me might be my visit to Sante Adairius last year. Randomly picked a weekend to visit a buddy out there and we hit up SARA. The day before we spent a few hours at Russian River which was awesome but I was blown away when I walked into SARA and saw that West Ashley, Fruit Punch, and Bernice were all available in bottles. The two of us sat there most of the day splitting one of each.

 

Mentioned this in the "negative" thread but The Bruery has blown us away both times we visited from AZ. Super busy both nights as we went on weekends. Luckily after a little wait we were able to grab spots at the bar both times. Staff was super attentive, had a genuine interest in our visit there, and answered any questions plus gave good recommendations on beers to try based on our conversations.
Our second visit the bartender surprised us with a couple selections off the reserve menu after finding out we were from out of state which was an awesome surprise.

Stone Beer Gardens in Escondido was another great visit. We just drove in from AZ on one of the sketchiest road trips ever I really just wanted to get a beer and a bite before we headed to our relatives. Was pretty quiet in there since it was later in the evening. Great conversation with the bartender who like the Bruery staff genuinely cared that we had a good visit. Great beer list even though I am not the biggest fan of Stone. Definitely a place we will go back to next time we're in San Diego although there are so many other places I want to check out.

In AZ I always enjoy AZ Wilderness, though the staff is not perfect they own any mistakes they make and are friendly.

Although I was not with them my parents raved about Russian River as they were in the area and I selfishly recommended they get lunch there just so they could bring back some Pliny to AZ

 

Tampa Bay Brewing Company, good food, awesome atmosphere, excellent customer service. Has a cool inside.

 

On a recent road trip I was able to visit some GREAT breweries. Heist brewery was first (Charlotte), great spot with some awesome people. The bartender was very friendly, the food was great, and shared a beer with the head brewer, Eric. Definitely check them out if you can.

2nd was a place I've loved for a long time and I finally got to visit, Parish Brewing in Broussard, Louisiana. The road trip was to New Orleans (from Boston) and one of the biggest reasons for agreeing to go was because I'd only be a few hours from this place. I had been in contact with @K_evincent who brews there prior to going down and was saddened that he predicted I'd miss out on fresh Ghost. Luckily it was ready when I got there. Met a friend at the brewery and we shared outstanding Parish beers (particularly Ghost, Opus and Reve) as well as some beers we brought. Up here in Mass you can't (as far as I know) BYOB to breweries like that, and it was actually a really cool experience. The whole staff at Parish is awesome, super friendly, super knowledgeable about their craft and just great company. I hope its not my last visit to Parish but even if I don't manage to get back down there, you can bet your ass I'll be trading for their stuff as long as I'm in the game!

 

B-E-L-G-O cafe in Tokyo. Not a big fan of Belgians now but was then. I'd been in Korea for 18 months and had hardly tasted a decent beer in that time. Drank with some Japanese friends I met whilst backpacking around Australia and got hammered. A supremely cathartic and euphoric night. Fell asleep on the subway home, was woken up by the station guard at the end of the line. No idea where it was. Two hour taxi ride back to my hostel. Cost a pretty penny.

 

Dive Bar, Worcester, MA.

Dive Bar is the more casual sister bar of the famed Armsby Abbey in Worcester. Last year, I attended, what I have as understood as the only, or at least, the most recent Treehouse Tap Takeover. We were told that they would be bringing several favorites and tapping one of the first kegs of King Julius.

The event started at 6 if I remember and a group of three friends and myself got arrived at around 5:30 or so and had a hard time finding the bar. There were no lights on and we spoke to some friendly strangers on the street who were also looking for the bar. We waited outside this seemingly closed bar (3rd in line), and twenty minutes later there were about 60-70 people behind us. It was a beautiful spring day outside and we were looking forward to the patio but the realization hit us that if we did not get front and center at the bar, we may miss have to wait in an enormous line behind the bar. So we sat front and center at 6:01, ordered my first ever Julius, poured into a 16oz pint glass, and it was love from then on. I had waited in line for Green before which was and still is my favorite Treehouse beer, but trying Julius in that setting was unforgettable. 12 minute in, Julius kicked. We ordered Green, Haze, and Sap, and before 6:45 all of those options (also Lights on and Eureka) were kicked. It was a surreal experience as we saw the disappointed faces of people who would not be able to order any Treehouse offerings and had to settle with Hill Farmstead options!

The bartenders waited until all of the Treehouse brewers and co had arrived at 7:30 or so to start pours of King Julius. At this point, the line was five people deep behind us everyone shouting and trying to grab the attention of the bartenders for pours. Before they even started pouring, it was clear that everything would be sold within minutes. I believe that everyone that was there at that point was able to get a 6-8 oz pour of KJ and it was truly amazing to share something that great with so many good people in such an amazing environment.

From there on, we had dinner at Armsby, alongside many people who had attended the event and the Treehouse co themselves, drinking Hill Farmstead beers and recapping a perfect evening.

Truly an unforgettable experience with my favorite brewery and one of my now favorite beer bars. Bonus that my girlfriends love of IPAs started that very night with Julius and Green and she hasn't looked back.