Best beer drinking area in the US.

45 minute drive? Let's use a 45 minute walk radius. Either way, PDX still wins.

 

Under a shade tree sitting in an Adirondack chair in my back yard.

 

For me, it has to be Chicago. Great breweries and beer bars abound. Couple that with excellent public transportation and you've got a beer nirvana.

 

OK, I'll go with the City of Portland Oregon. A 45 minute drive from the center of town not only covers the whole city, but a fair bit of the outlying area.

If we use a 60 minute window, you get out to Hood River, and 90 minutes gets you to Tillamook.

 

45 minutes? Hmmm, 45 minutes from here I have Bacchus Brewpub, Underground Coffee and Ales, Hudson Aleworks, Equilibrium, Rushing Duck, Newburgh Brewing, Hudson Valley Brewery, Plan Bee, Schatzi's, Mill House Brewing, Suarez, Sloop, Half time Beverages, North River, Arrowood, and Rough Cut Brewing.

I are spoiled.

 

Bend, Oregon is great, but a 45 minute drive isn't necessary for a great area to drink beer. Same for Asheville. Also, I can drive 10 minutes to downtown Greensboro and walk easily to Gibbs 100, Little Brother Brewing, Natty Greene's, Joymongers and Preyer Brewing Co. It is all very pleasant with some fine bottle shops nearby. Each brewery is very different.10 years ago this would have been hard to imagine. Good local craft brew is alive and well, in many locales. BTW, Boston is a great place to drink, and to drink in History writ large....

 

I was just going to say...wherever I stop to drink some beer because i'm THAT cool.

 

There are some kick ass bars in the 5 boroughs.

 

I'm not sure, but what I am sure about is that it's definitely not Boston.

 

Providence ain't bad. Proclamation, Tilted Barn, Long Live Beerworks, Buttonwoods, Trillium Canton, Castle Island, Grey Sail all within 45 min.

 

You got the wrong back yard and type of chair but otherwise I agree.

 

I feel very fortunate to have so many high quality beers available to me in Southeastern PA. When Hill Farmstead returns to the area it will be even better.

I will be visiting Portland, OR in a few months and while I have not been there yet this area gets my vote. Hopefully I will have more to report after my visit.

Cheers!

P.S. The fact that we have Russian River beer in SEPA is a plus.

 

The detroit area has a lot of nice breweries and taprooms. Haven't visited for beer yet, but soon I will. They have some bigger names in Founders, Odd side ales, the jolly pumpkin, dragonmead, atwater and numerous smaller breweries and surely a couple bigger names I missed. Plus nice taprooms like hopcat (100 taps) Maybe not as scenic as california, but that's a bit of a long drive for me.