Beer road trips

While breaking away from daily life isn't east to accomplish in order to attend releases, I have been able to finagle a day while on vacation most every year in Michigan to hit breweries. Probably the best day I did was leaving the Ann Arbor area in the morning to go to these breweries in the following order - Founders, Bell's, Arcadia and Dark Horse. I was by myself, so the drinking was limited to say the least, BUT, tours, good food, couple growlers, swag, talking to brewers, all that good stuff. Plus I ended up at Founders while they were doing some weird running of the bulls thing with what looked to be rollerball girls. That was odd but just made the day better.

I haven't done such an elaborate one day-er since, but have hit Schmohz (sp?) and Founders before heading to northern Michigan. This year's trip is going to focus on Traverse City breweries, but I still need to figure out a way to get to Odd Side. I've really come to love their stuff.

 

Call me crazy, I am about to take a short road trip to pick up a beer I recently had that tasted putrid !! I probably should have stopped the review when I realized it had gone bad. (Live and learn... ) So in the interest of fairness, I am driving out to the brewery to get a replacement so I can review it again. This "respect beer" thing can be a bitch...

 

Pub crawls are a lot of fun, and they are also great learning experiences because they allow you to compare many beers and brewery experiences in a short period of time so that you can do a better job of rating/reviewing them. My wife and I also discovered something about ourselves too -- we had more exposure to sours on the west coast as compared to Michigan, and we learned that we like sours.

We took three weeks last summer to drive from Michigan to Northern California and then up to southern OR, then Portland and Bend before starting the 3-day the drive home. Each night on the drive out and back was a stop in a city where we could have dinner at a brewery and perhaps hit another brewery for additional beer. The entire trip allowed us to visit 40 breweries and one good beer bar.

Then last fall, we took 8 days to drive to Boston and Vermont. A lot of that time was spent visiting our daughter, so we only hit 12-13 breweries on that trip. I plan all of my trips using the Places feature plus this site: http://www.brewerymap.com/

 

I've only done one road trip for beer, it was Boston to VT for the Alchemist truck sale (focal and luscious), it was a great time despite immediately falling and being absolutely soaked while standing in line in a foot of snow. I'll be going back up for the Lawsons event Saturday, can't wait.

 

Did a Kalamazoo, MI road trip for Beer last fall. It was a riot and they have a ton of great breweries out there. Also took a road trip down to Louisville hitting a number of breweries in that area. Tons of fun!

 

my buddies and i thought it would be a good idea to hit up half acre FFF both two brothers argus and granite city in the same night dont recomend it

 

I have a feeling she'll catch on pretty quickly lol

As for me... I started small with a day trip to Denver here and there, then Idaho Springs, then a few days in Fort Collins... Then I really stepped up my game starting last year - spent a month (May) in SC for work and made several trips down to Westbrook/Coast and snuck up to Asheville. NC for a weekend during craft beer week. After that I was hooked and deadly serious... For my birthday last August I put 4,000 down from Colorado Springs -> Missoula, MT -> Seattle/Tacoma, WA -> Portland, OR -> Bend, OR. AMAZING TRIP!

 

Beer trips are great, especially if you're going someplace you'd like to go anyway. Went up to Hill Farmstead last year and stayed in the area. My wife and I loved it and are going back again this year.

 

This past summer I drove from Wisconsin out to Washington, down through Oregon, the whole of California, over through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and then back up through Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and home. All told, I hit around 30 breweries, and managed to coincidentally be around for the releases of Lady in Grey, Project Dank, and Fen Tao. Destination highlights included Logsdon, Russian River, La Cumbre, Jester King, and Firestone Walker Barrelworks. It was an absolute blast, and ever since I've been planning a similar trip to the East Coast.

 

This past summer:
Charlotte, NC --> Asheville --> Lexington, KY --> Cleveland --> FFF --> Chicago --> New Glarus/Madison --> Minneapolis (for a wedding)

*on the way back*

Grand Rapids --> Kalamazoo --> Athens, OH --> Asheville (bc it's awesome) --> Charlotte

Loved every second of it!

 

Its hard to beat California:

Russian River, Sante Adairius, The Bruery, Stone, Lost Abbey, Firestone Walker, Figueroa Mountain, Toolbox, Ballast Point, Noble Ale Works, Alpine, Sante Adairius, AleSmith, Phantom Carriage, Bottle Logic, Monkish, Three Weavers, Sante Adairius, Green Flash, Societe, Coronado, Craftsman, Cismontane, Sante Adairius.

 

For your sake I hope she won't be with you.

 

Somehow this list is about three Sante Adairiuses more impressive than it should be.

 

Been up to VT twice for beer. Headed down to VA next month as well.

 

Sante Adairius.

 

I would say it's important to keep your expectations in check - if you're planning a trip without any specific beer release date or event in mind, it's easy to be underwhelmed with the selection. The trip should be about the experience, and not finding rarities. I think there's a tendency to get excited and start to hope you'll stumble upon something unique when you're driving hours and hours. Sometimes you will, sometimes you won't. I had this experience with Founders, Bells, and New Glarus. Cool places to check out, but nothing on tap/in bottles that was too exciting.

Also, places like 3F can be difficult and disappointing if you're not prepared for the giant line. I found myself buying some beer to go and eating somewhere else in town. Just wasn't mentally prepared to wait 2 hours in the cold to check out the brewpub. Worth doing the research ahead of time to know what you're getting into.

 

Vermont is a wonderful road trip so is CT/Boston. The crucial factor is take your sweet time. =) Also don't fill up your friends trunk with ten tons of beer so that he can't get his case of heady in it.

 

I am planning a Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine road trip for August. The way I breech the subject with the wife is calling it a camping trip. We will hit the breweries for lunch and dinner and have a couple coolers for the car to keep the beer fresh until we get back home for Michigan. We will also do a lot of fun activities for her on the trip such as visiting Green Mountain Coffee, Ben and Jerry's, some cheese places, and some maple syrup farms. Plus we both love hiking and canoeing so we will do plenty of that too.

 

I don't like to say that I "plan my vacations around beer" but beer stops have definitely had an effect on my planning. Even on my honeymoon, my wife and I made time for visits to Russian River, Bear Republic, and Laugunitas. In general, we figure we have to earn our beers.....we generally plan 3-4 miles of hiking (or more) in the morning, followed by a visit or 2 to beer spots. Maybe some more hiking/canoeing after that and dinner/beers at another spot. It has made for some pretty cool traveling.

 

My wife and I were in San Diego last November during Beer Week. We hit several breweries.
Day 1: Alpine, Societe, Council, Green Flash.
Day 2: Stone, Port/Lost Abbey, Rip Current.
And then there were the bars: Hamilton's, Toronado, Small Bar, Encinitas Ale House etc.

In Asheville, a walking tour can include Wicked Weed, Burial, Green Man, Hi Wire, and Twin Leaf. Wedge is close by, and Pisgah is a short drive.