I've been really enjoying smaller brewers local to me, with some surprisingly great beer coming from Cedar City in Lebanon TN, Stoke Haus who has the best BBQ in the city and probably the best flagship hazy now as well, and now Middle Ground, which is a very small operation only two years old in Murfreesboro 10 minutes from me. I just added both Stoke Haus and Middle Ground, but after a great experience at both breweries, I was thinking about my personal favorite tiny operation beers. Stoke Haus Premium is an incredible hazy I wish could be as ubiquitous as something like Xul's Paper Crowns in Nashville, and Middle Ground's flagship cold IPA really blew my mind, as well as their fantastic black IPA. So the question is, what is everyone's favorite hyper local beer? What's the best tiny underrated brewery close to you that you swear should be the next big thing (or kept quiet so you can enjoy cheap great pints)?
Honestly, I’m in San Diego (the once beer capital of America), but to me right now there isn’t anything like that here anymore. It used to be Alpine, but Green Flash ruined that (along with themselves). Maybe I’m jaded because I’m from Orange County, but right now San Diego doesn’t have a single brewery that impresses me and makes me go out of my way to score their beer. Mcilhenney? Nope. Too expensive and abeit good, they aren’t great. Cheers.
I’m not too impressed by the stuff in RI. Tilted Barn is good, but they brew mostly IPAs, which aren’t really my thing. But Fox Farm is about an hour from me. They’re absolutely fantastic.
The Milwaukee area has quite a few local microbreweries that are exceptional. My two most favorite ones are Explorium (Greendale, WI) and Eagle Park (Muskego, WI). Explorium makes an incredible Blueberry Cheesecake Sour that is one of the best beers I've ever had. Eagle Park sometimes makes an oatmeal brown ale that is out of this world. Their Oktoberfest, M.C. Hammerschlagen, is excellent as well. There are quite a few others around town that make excellent beer, but these two are more impressive to me than some of the others.
The beer scene in DFW isn’t close to when I lived in SoCal. However, two local favorites are Manhattan Project - Hoppenheimer (WCIPA) and Cowtown Brewing - Kölsch Enough.
I suppose this is like choosing your favorite child? This past weekend I attended a German Bierfest in Philadelphia and the beer I went back for several times was from East Branch Brewery- Reimer Pilsner. I suppose that is my favorite local beer at the moment. Maybe tomorrow I will pick a different ‘child’? Cheers!
In Austin Texas right now I am leaning towards Meanwhile Brewing or Pinthouse Pizza. Meanwhile covers a variety of styles well, while Pinthouse makes mouthwatering Hazy IPAs. Both are big here, but I don't know that they distribute widely.
I guess the question is everyone's favorite neighborhood beer/nano brewery. There's some big operations not within walking distance, but close enough to get there in 10 minutes, but I was looking to hear about the tiny local gems everyone loves and no one knows about.
I like German-style beers, and I'm fortunate to have a German-inspired brewery in town here called Territorial Brewing. They make a very good Maibock, which is my favorite style, but even better than it is their Helles called Kenny Lagers. I wish they'd brew it year-round but they treat it as a summer seasonal which essentially is what the Maibock also is. Summers are good for me at Territorial.
Forest and Main Second place goes to Fermentary Form, they do less styles, bot open a lot and prices are not cheap. Beers are great though. Enjoy
The most diverse brewery close to me? Gotta be Fox Farm with the many styles they do so well About ten miles further in the opposite direction is an excellent brewery.... hmm hmm Tree House perhaps you have heard of them?
Probably Final Gravity because they never seemed to get the memo that 3/4 of your beers should be hazy IPAs and stouts need to be barrel aged with a bunch of other flavors added. Well made, beer flavored beer.
I just get all the Tilted Barn beer that arent IPAs. Granted there's not much to pick from at the local stores but they do exist. Recently I got the Winter Sol (Porter), Lawn Boy (Lager), Stange Design (Koslch.) There was also a pale ale in there but I dont remember the name of it. Yeah it does suck there will be a bunch of TB beer in the cooler at a store and more than half of them will be IPAs but at least they distribute locally so you can get their beer without having to go to them directly. Winter Sol was good. I recommend that one if you can find it.
I’ve not had winter sol. I’ll keep an eye out. I too have enjoyed all their non IPAs a great deal. I was at the brewery recently and had a couple of pints of “Pooka,” their brown ale on draft. It was great.
I'm into strong dark and usually BA beers, so a vast majority of local beers don't make the cut for me. I like Covert Artisan for their strong dark beers, usually one-offs, and they're gradually increasing their distribution footprint. The brewery I think should get more attention than it does isn't hyper-local, the regional Kros Strain in Omaha. Their line of BA English Barleywines are aptly named Barrelywine, and they release several variants a year with different barreling (rum, wine, bourbon, whiskey, cognac, etc), often collab, and no add-junks. Unfortunately they don't often distribute them outside Omaha, so I have to talk the womenfolk into an occasional outlet-mall run. I also visit Wall-To-Wall liquor for their great craft selection. Actually, should do that soon.
Burghers Brewing Co. - Millvale | Pittsburgh, PA | Beers | BeerAdvocate Good balance of mostly German styles and IPAs, with some others thrown in for good measure.
I'm in the suburbs north of Philly and lucky enough to have a bunch of good local breweries around me. Human Robot, Forest & Main, and Warwick Farm just to name a few.
