BEERcation (Beer Travel)

Pretty much all my vacations end up being beercations because I always go around trying to find as many beers from that place as possible. When I went to Maui Brewing Company in Maui, that was awesome. I tried so many of their beers that you can't get anywhere else. Also the Sierra Nevada brewery in North Carolina is amazing.

 

My wife and I got home a couple weeks ago from a 26-day pub crawl (we're retired) during which we drove through 21 states and visited 46 breweries and three restaurants that had a good tap list (344 different beers, although that vast majority were sampler glasses). One goal during the trip was to drink a beer in some of the various states where we had not previously done so on earlier travels. Of the 21 states we visited, 13 were ticked from the bucket list so that 11 states now remain for future trips to drink a beer while there (yeah, Alaska and Hawaii are two of them).

Just so you know that we're not a couple of lushes -- we stopped at 5 national parks or battlefields, toured 4 museums, took 3 guided city tours, visited 2 daughters, and had 1 oil change. That was over 7,300 miles in those 26 days, and I have only 5 more chiropractor visits to go to finish straightening my spine from the shape of a car seat.

Best brewery discoveries along the way -- Drake's Barrel House in San Leandro, CA and Evil Czech in Munster, IN.

 

That sounds awesome. In like 80 years when I can do that, it would be awesome.

 

Your day will come, but don't wait 80 years. We're actually slowing down due to age (we don't stay out very late anymore, thus good beer-drinking time is lost.) In a 17-day trip that we took 3 years ago, we visited 40 breweries. (That was a 2.35 brewery-per-day pace vs. 1.88 per day on this most recent trip, which is 20% less.)

 

Got back September 15 from three weeks in Germany. Many beers sampled, many brewery biergarten s visited, toured 5.

 

Every vacation is beercation like I say...

And yes I coined that term and I own all it's rights and subsidiaries and merchandising rights (including the t-shirts).

You all heard it first just ask anybody...

 

We do what we can. We like to go on vacation whenever we can but I always try to get local beers where we are. Sometimes we go to the breweries. We do what we can now. We just can't drive across country right now to do it. I can't wait until we can though.

 

Off the top of my head:
July '14... vacation at a cabin in Lexington VA. Bro-in-law and myself traveled south to Roanoke/Salem to hit Parkway, Soaring Ridge and Flying Mouse
July '15... vacation at same cabin in Lexington VA. Bro-in-law and myself traveled north this time to Staunton to hit Shenandoah Valley, Redbeard, and Queen City
April '16... buddy's wedding at Wild Wolf. Wife and I went up a day early to hit Three Notch'd, Champion, and South Street in Charlottesville
July '16... vacation at a different cabin in Lexington VA. Over the course of 2 days, wife and myself hit Three Notch'd, Wolfe Street, Brothers, and Pale Fire in Harrisonburg.
Last month... went to visit my mom over on the Eastern Shore of VA. Rode up to Maryland/Delaware with her to hit Tall Tales, Rubber Soul, and 3rd Wave (my ma doesn't drink, but enjoys seeing the new breweries)
This weekend... camping in Crozet. Short list is Starr Hill and Pro Re Nata. Would love to hit Random Row in C'ville now that its open

 

Went to visit a friend in Wisconsin for the KBS release at Rays last April. On the way I stopped at 3 F's and had heard about 18th street. Made the trip to 18th St and boy am I glad I stopped. Picked up Seven, black IPA. What a great beer. Also they had a release of Bitches' Bank. I will be stopping there again on my next trip out that way. Also stopped at Raised Grain brewing in Milwaukee with my friend. Will definitley go there again. Great trip and great beers brought back.

 

I wish there was a specific forum for this. People ask advice on trips all of the time, but most of the time there is never any follow-up on the trip itself.

 

My wife asked me to take her to Portland. I said sure, no problem. A while later she returns, asking, "Wait a minute, are there going to be breweries?"

 

Our latest beercation was to the Boston area… We ended up hitting:

Trillium (Canton and Fort Point)
Jacks Abby
Lord HOBO
Allagash
Foundation
Bissel Bro’s
Maine Beer Co
Austin Street
Smuttynose
Night Shift
Harpoon
Samuel Adams
Exhibit A
Offshore (Martha’s Vineyard)
Bad Martha (Martha’s Vineyard)
Treehouse
Notch
Victory (on the way home)
Troegs (on the way home)

We look forward to getting back to the area again, although we would refine the to-do brewery list to just a few standouts. Spending more time at the better stops, for sure! We really had a great time though.

Tonight we fly to Orlando for a few days for a Halloween event at Universal Studio’s. But of course, plan to hit up an Orlando brewery or two we like and Tampa for Cigar City and Cycle most likely.

 

anybody have any recommendations for breweries or bottle shops in pittsburgh?

 

There are so many trips, and so many stories, so I'll just give two that are the opposite of each other.

I was in Rome and I'd heard of a new Trappist beer, Tre Fontane, so I wanted to try it. I was surrounded by new beers I'd never seen, but I didn't see the Tre Fontane, so when I did I was willing to pay the €11... later the next day, just walking down the street I saw it for €3 at a news stand.

Heady Topper was available near me on the grey market for $16 per can - wow! I went to Burlington, Vermont for a week but I couldn't make the "delivery schedule" for it work at any store. My wife wanted to stop in a Whole Foods type of grocery store and while she's looking at handmade soaps a guy brings out a full cart of Heady Topper from the back room and says something like "ahh, there's no sense in just letting this sit back there".

 

Draai Laag is near Pittsburgh and probably worth a trip.

 

Been a good beer trip year so far. Brother and I flew to CA for Pliny the Younger release in Feb (got to hotel 1 am PST which was like 4 am body time EST, got about 3 hrs sleep before getting up to get in line at Russian River at 5:30 am for 11 am open). Also hit Cooperage, Lagunitas, Bear Republic, Marin, Drakes, and Cellarmaker. Beer Craft in Rohnert Park was a nice stop too.

Couple of trips to Asheville, Wicked Weed, Funkatorium, Burial, Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blues.

July trip to Chicago, Half Acre, Revolution, day trip to 3 Floyds. Brought home Pipeworks, Surly, 3 Floyds.

Most recently Boston/Vermont mid August. Tree House, Trillium, Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, Lost Nation, Rock Art, Von Trapp, Fiddlehead, Foam, Zero Gravity. Also, picked up Sip of Sunshine and set up couple IP trades that netted more Tree House, some Bissell Bros, Foundation, and Maine Dinner. Fort Point Market for some Night Shift and had Stoneface at Row 34.

Also, various trips to local breweries in metro ATL.

 

Dang, also forgot I was sent to NOLA for a couple weeks for work (it happened to span Mardi Gras - my work is fond of sending you to places at awful times for getting hotels). For the first part of week 1 I was in a hotel in the French Quarter. Managed to hit Crescent City, and walked to Courtyard (took about a half hour). Also went to NOLA Brewing one day after work.

Pretty sure some work got done in those 2 weeks.

 

Whenever I go out of town I seek a brewery, brewpub or as a minimum, a shop or two. But, when it comes to our annual Michigan vacation, I usually set aside a day to hit multiple places since in Michigan you are really never too far from a blanket's cover worth of breweries.

For example, I made a day trip leaving Ann Arbor area early on a Saturday morning to head to Founders, Schmohz, Bell's, Arcadia, Dark Horse and ended at Original Gravity in Milan. Took it easy as to keep rolling but toured a few places, picked up plenty of beer, grabbed some swag and just enjoyed myself hitting up several places with wildly different atmospheres. Made a similar trip around Traverse City where I was able to hit Rare Bird, Right Brain and Terra Firma.

Wasn't able to set aside an entire day this year but was able to hit Odd Side, which had been on my "to do" list for quite a while.

 

This year I got the chance to do a New England trip for a couple weeks. Went through Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Boston with a day trip to Providence, RI.

Hit the big name breweries of course in MBC, Harpoon (NH location, been to Boston already), Foam, Smuttynose, Aeronaut, Hill Farmstead (middle of nowhere), Allagash, Cambridge, Lawson's. Also hit the big name bars like Three Penny, Prohibition Pig, Sunset Grill & Tap, The Publick House (great Belgian bar in Boston), Novare Ras Bier Cafe (hard to find but really awesome) to name a few.

Was a great time and really checked off a few of my bucket list beers and breweries I wanted to visit and try. Really recommend Portland, ME and Burlington, VT as launch points for area trips. Have also been to Denver for GABF and Las Vegas for Great Vegas Beer Fest. Really enjoyed the Vegas trip, still unlimited tasting but not as crazy as GABF and it's outside.