Best Beer-cation cities

Bend.

 

There is no shortage of beer-cation cities, large and small. If you are looking for a place to spend a day/night on the way to the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, or Sturgis - coming from the East or South - there is an area of downtown Sioux Falls that has several breweries and taprooms within a few blocks. Most of them are in a three block stretch of 8th St, but a brewery/taproom and an independent taproom are on nearby Phillips Ave

There are couple of decent new hotels right there also, plus plenty of restaurants. Specific places you can look up are JL Beers taproom, Woodgrain brewery/taproom, Gandy Dancer brewery/Monk's taproom, Prairie Berry wineroom/Miner taproom, Fernson taproom, and Remedy brewing/taproom. Elsewhere in Sioux Falls are the Fernson brewery/taproom, Hydra brewery/taproom and several non-brewery taprooms.

 

Anyone doing Portland, OR as a beer vacation should try to spend a day or two in Hood River. pFriem , Logsdon, Double Mountain and Full Sail are
pretty much in walking distance, plus some local taproom.

 

Portland Or. Easy airport, easy transportation and one of the highest conglomerations of beer taps on earth and the food.......

 

No need, If you are in Portland SOMEBODY will have all those on tap

 

In fact somebody in Portland will have almost anything you could wish for, It's not just the breweries it's the tap houses PLUS the
breweries

 

Portland to hood river to Eugene. Beautiful scenery and beautiful beers.
But picking just one? I'd like to go back to hood river.

 

Perhaps not the best, but Fort Collins, Colorado is way up there on the list for me. Great beer, with the major local breweries all being within walking distance of one-another. Extremely active town, with near world class cycling, running, and swimming available. Solid disc golf courses. Decent views (nothing compares to actually being in the mountain range, instead of looking at it one sided). Great bar scene, with everything from major craft bars, to cheap college bars. Their school even metaled with two different beers at the latest college brewery competition. Fantastic food options as well. Downtown is nice and small, but big enough to still spend a day or two wandering around, eating and drinking.

Okay, so a lot of that wasn't strictly related to beer, but it's a fantastic city to bring the family, take them on some day outings, and check out some new local beer every night. Or, in my case, get in some solid training during the day, and sip on craft beer all night.

 

If you like sours, Portland, OR.

My east coast bias would be Richmond, Boston or NYC.

 

Seeing as I spend my time between the Senne valley (gueuze country) next to Brussels and Vermont (Northeast Kingdom). I would say these two. Vermont is just beautiful and so many outdoor activities to be done and Belgium is small enough to see a lot of the country in just one week.

 

I love San Diego as a beer-cation place, but I will put Richmond out there as a dark horse candidate. I just spent a few days in Richmond and thought that the quality of breweries I went to were as good as anywhere (The Veil, The Answer, Stone, and Triple Crossing). In my mind, it is a better beer city for a beer geek than Asheville. Asheville's breweries are located within a small location, but I thought the quality was lacking. Wicked Weed and Burial were great and the rest were OK (at least that I visited).

 

For a true vacation that has an insane amount of beer possibilities, Asheville is your huckleberry.
May not have the crazy hard-to-get distro of someplace like NYC, but there are dozens (literally) of different breweries within a 5 mile radius of South Slope, and a few world-class sour/barrel breweries within 30 minutes. You can get your boat wet, your bike dirty, and have food that will stop conversation at the end of the day. There are breweries that have been here for 25 years as well as only 25 days. The lazy French Broad runs right through town (a beer-boating trip between bars and breweries is possible) , there are lakes within easy reach, and there are 6000+ft mountains within a half an hour. You will sweat...but not as much as Florida (plus it's a wet heat, so there's that). The people are absolutely beautiful. The airport is mediocre, the hotels downtown are expensive as shit, and you can't swing a dead cat without offending some skinny-jeans-wearing hipster, but where else could you see a street busker playing spoons well enough to be on the Grand Old Opry (her name is Abby). No idea what you're into, but Asheville will have it and good beer too. Maybe not ice fishing though.

 

Way to represent. South Dakota isn't one that is thrown into the mix very often.

 

Man Richmond is awesome. Answer Brewpub with their Andall's are killer. And Veil and all the others. Great food at Mekong also.

 

These days just about any major metro area will have several local breweries. I would just choose a city with interesting things you want to see and then fit in your beer stops too. That's what I do on my vacations and I've never been thirsty for good craft beer, even in relative beer wastelands [like my trips to Iceland and Utah]. Good beer is everywhere if you keep half an eye out. But, there are cities with more breweries than others, so with those things in mind, I would recommend:

New York City - subway system is second to none in the US, tons of other stuff to see/do.
Asheville - Small, very walkable, take day trips out of town to see The Biltmore Estate and Smoky Mountain National Park.
Portland, OR - A brewery on every block it seems, a very bicycle-friendly city if you are so inclined. If you have a car then day trip to Columbia River Gorge, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, the coast, etc., or go spend a night or two in Bend, OR [which others have mentioned].

If you are taking distance between breweries into account, then I would rule out San Diego and Burlington, VT [or, needless to say, VT state entirely]. Their breweries are spread far apart and public transit options are poor. You can rent a car and there are very nice areas to drive through, but driving around doesn't mix well with an itinerary of brewery stops.

 

Massachusetts has some great breweries if you like Hazy Juicy IPA's . Trillium in Boston/Canton is my top pick. Western mass Has TreeHouse. And Portland Maine is about an hour and 1/2 - 2 hour drive depending where you are and that has Bissle Brothers

 

I'm biased towards Portland, OR because I used to live there so I'm most familiar with it, but man is it great for beer for all the reasons stated already. There is just so much awesome beer anywhere you go that sells food and drink. And if for some reason you get tired of Portland and enjoy beautiful drives/scenery/the outdoors, Hood River, Bend, and some great breweries scattered along the coast are right there for you.

 

I might be biased, but Montreal is hard to beat for a lot of reasons.

1. Quebec has some of if not the best beer in Canada, and Montreal is the best beer city in the province.
2. The necessity of passing through VT if you are driving from places on the east coast (do this on your way BACK so that the border cops don't ruin your opportunity for a QC haul as well)
3. There are multiple neighborhoods that allow for visiting multiple brewpub/bars/breweries in one shot.
4. Good public transportation and bike share program
5. It's another country so there is an exotic factor that makes it cool as well (all while still being close to the US).
6. A favorable exchange rate (approx. 30% off USD).
7. Tons of free activities during the summer to mix with drinking amazing beer. These also can help to justify the trip to non-beer people.

If any of you ever make it make sure to drop me a line

 

I'll give Montreal a shout out too. Nice city, great history, and good beer. But...in regards to #2, New Englanders would drive to Montreal through VT on I-89... The fastest route for anyone else in the US driving to Montreal would probably be I-87 through NY, but if beer is an interest the longer route through VT is justifiable.

And yes the exchange rate these days is pretty good for US travelers in Canada. I enjoyed it recently in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland!

Quebec City is also fun with some good beer options.

 

I would say San Diego, but Portland Oregon is also great.