Beer Road Trip Epicness!

Not in defense of ticking, but logging beers into BA or Untappd can admitted take away from the experience of sharing flights amongst a group or when you're in the midst of a marathon drinking day, so I've taken to scribbling notes on the receipt and then taking a phone pic (or the physically receipt itself), so I can remember my thoughts later.

 

Just spent 5 days and nights in Seattle during the start of their beer week with a buddy (wife and kids at home). Our airbnb was less than a block from Pine Box, Joe Joes pinball and bar, and 6 Arms brewery (McMennamins) in Capitol Hill (so we got to the first two almost nightly). At various times we hit Reuben's, Stoups, Fremont, Naked City for nanofest and for barrel aged fest, Brouwer's for stout fest, Six Gill for farmhouse/funk/sour fest, Standard, Two Beers, Schooner's Exact, Gastropod, Gordon Biersch (chain but let's their great brewer have free reign), Pike, Holy Mountain, both Chuck's Hop Spots, Elysian Capitol Hill, plus great food, the final show of Sleater Kinney's tour at Showbox, Experience Music Project, etc. (I know I'm forgetting some as I don't have my notes). My buddy even hit a Mariner's game and 6 more places in Ballard beyond what I listed.

 

Bastard....in a good way...

I'm picking up my kid up next month in Seattle. Plan to hit Fremont, but probably can get my wife to go to one or two others (Note: I have been to Pike and Elyssian). Any recommendation?

 

Do airplanes count ?

 

A Birthday trip from a few years back. Drove by some others too early in the morning.

Ft. Collins: New Belgium, Odell's, Equinox, Mayor of Old Town
Salida, Amicas
Poncha, Springs Elevation Beer Co.
Alamosa. San Louis Valley Brewing
Pagosa Springs, Pagosa Springs Brewing
Durango SKA
Cortez Main Street Brewing
Moab UT - Moab Brewing (did some hikes in the NPs)
Edwards CO Crazy Mountain Brewing
Denver Prost, Falling Rock Tophouse

 

Flew to Denver for GABF week:

Falling Rock Tap House (GABF events were pretty insane)
Avery
Great Divide
Crooked Stave (highlight of the Denver trip)
Epic
Comrade
Twisted Pine
Backcountry Pizza & Tap house
Freshcraft
Euclid Hall
GABF 2014

The day after GABF flew to San Fran:

Toronado
City Beer
Mikkeller Bar
The Rare Barrel
Russian River (2 days in a row)

 

Last year around this same time I went on a two week long road trip by myself from Atlanta to Vermont and back. During the trip I visited:

ChurchKey - DC
Tired Hands - Ardmore, PA
Tørst - Brooklyn, NY
The Pony Bar - Hell's Kitchen, NYC
Some random Gizmodo event that had a one-off beer from Sixpoint - SoHo, NYC
New England Brewing Company - Woodbridge, CT
Armsby Abbey - Worcester, MA
Jack's Abby - Framingham, MA
Night Shift's grand opening for the new location - Everett, MA
Hill Farmstead - Greensboro Bend, VT
Lawson's Finest farmers market bottle sale (first batch of Triple Sunshine) - Waitsfield, VT
Hill Farmstead anniversary shindig (Prohibition Pig, Blackback Pub, The Resevoir) - Waterbury, VT
Drove by The Alchemist, but they had already stopped doing tours at this point
Tail end of Asheville Beer Week on the way back home (Wicked Weed, Burial, Twin Leaf, Green Man, etc.)

I had not planned ahead of time to center my trip around the Night Shift, Lawson's, or Hill Farmstead events... I just got really lucky. Unfortunately, I was unable to check out Tree House or Trillium due to time constraints, but because of the aforementioned statement, I think I did alright. This was also my first time visiting NYC and Boston, so that was cool. That was a great trip and I will always remember it fondly.

 

Six Gill was a real nice beer bar with a great menu helpful staff and a patio, I think it would be very "wife friendly" as the food was great, decor nice, make mixed drinks and wine too, etc. Also it is right near some cute shops, if your wife is not into metal music (which seems to be all they play at Brouwer's) let her walk around the shops and check out the cool art in Fremont while you go to Brouwer's just a couple blocks away. Then meet up and head to Fremont which has a huge patio with water view.

Also, if you are a "ticker" at all or just like to try as many places as you can in one area, you need to go to Ballard. Literally 8-10 breweries each within a block or two of the next one. Don't know what you do with your wife or kid then.

If you have a car and you or your wife is a "foodie" or likes unusual beers maybe check out Gastropod, good-to-great and very innovative food and beers. If the wife likes cider Two Beers is even further south and serves both solid beers and ciders.

Hope that helps, otherwise definitely just look at the Seattle guide on this site which lists many restaurants with really solid beer selections, and also lists local breweries to look out for, with both those in mind you can get good food and order good local beer at the same time.

 

I keep trying to convince my wife that a brewery road trip would be awesome but she's not on board.....yet

 

@Beer21 awesome trip.. headed to Portland in a couple months. What brewery did you think was best?