Best Transit-Friendly Beer Cities in the World?

If you want to piss half of the BAs off, post something with political content.

Cheers!

 

Cantillon, absolutely. The new Drie Fonteinen location, too. Oud Beersel and the old Drie location, too, but they require quite a few additional steps.
The Trappist breweries and other notables? I mean you can, but it's not exactly easy unless they're in another large'ish city like Bruge or Ghent. We're talking multiple trains, bus connections, and either walking or biking once you get near where you're going. I don't like driving on beer-centric vacations, but I'd have either a car or a decent bike if I was visiting some of the more rustic locations in Belgium. I went with a car and while it absolutely suuuuucked driving in Brussels, it was a lifesaver elsewhere. Next time I'm going to arrange it where Brussels is my final stop and I can ditch the car once I arrive.

 

I find Denver to be extremely walkable with lots of great beer options- beer bars, breweries, and bottle shops in downtown. That’s before you factor in any public transit to get you to other neighborhoods.

Most big cities or European cities have good public transit or are walkable and have a plethora of beer optionswhich really means the question should be “which city has the highest concentration of high quality beer options?”

 

Denver is pretty solid, but with a large asterisk. The River North part of downtown Denver is spectacular and is 100% walkable and/or accessible via the light rail system. There are a few other spots adjacent to it that are quickly reachable via buses, too. The asterisk comes when people start inquiring about high profile places like Avery, Weldwerks, New Belgium, Cannonball Creek, or even Comrade and the Bull & Bush. Basically all but maybe 15 breweries out of more than 100. While there are some heavy hitters in the River North area, most of our high profile spots aren't. The light rail is kinda limited in scope and even the places that don't seem that far require a long string of busses, assuming they even go that far. That's where we struggle a bit. Our light rail prices are really high compared to places like Portland, so a lot of people just stopped taking it...which has made it worse. Even our ride share prices have gotten comparatively steep.

 

All walkable near downtown Portland, ME:

Gritty's, Batson River, Banded Brewing, Liquid Riot, Austin Street, Rising Tide, Urban Farm Fermentary, Hi-Fidelity, Goodfire, Lone Pine, Belleflower, Oxbow, Bunker and Brickyard Hollow.

That's not including one of the best beer bars in the country, Novare Res. And a litany of other bars with excellent local tap lists.

This is all within about 1.5-2 miles from each other.

Oh, and Bissell Brothers, while not walkable, is about 2.5-3 miles away. And Industrial Avenue is about 5 miles away. Right across the street from one another is Allagash, Austin Street, Definitive, Battery Steele, and Foundation.

I'm probably forgetting some too.

 

Several years ago my wife and I were in Asheville, NC for several days and we found it very easy to walk to many breweries. I can't say much for their public transit systems, but it's a very walkable city (and dog-friendly).

 

I’d say it’s only 40%, and deep down they know they’re wrong.

Cheers!

 

But he isn't rating it on quality of beer or breweries. It's beer culture. I don't think he mentions breweries once. Denver has a handful of great beer bars downtown, adequate breweries, and bottle shops. The beer culture is great. Bringing breweries from other cities into the equation like Avery, Weldwerks, etc. makes no sense to the original question as those aren't in Denver. That being said those beers are available at beer bars all over Denver.

 

I live in Brooklyn and we sold our car. Very easy to get to countless breweries, tap rooms, beer bars, etc. via walking, bike, train or bus. This includes places in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Bronx. Also Long Island and Staten Island are easy via public transportation but take a little more time.
The beer bars have great variety due to great distribution and lots of breweries from all over come to the city for collaborations, events and tap takeovers.
Beer culture here is great too. Lots of activity on a variety of social media and I often run into people sharing great beer at bars and breweries.

 

I agree with what @Ranbot posted above as regards Asheville. There are a lot of quality breweries (taprooms) in the South Slope District all close (walkable) to each other. I am a fan of Burial.

As regards European cities, Prague is very easy to get around to the various beer related places with an excellent tram system if you prefer mass transit over walking.

Cheers!

 

Gonna be a homer here, and for a small city (90K population) Bellingham WA is very easy to get around. 14 breweries, mostly near enough to walk to, or take the local bus. very bike friendly if your into that. It's between Vancouver BC and Seattle, so if one was doing a west coast trip one could fly into PDX, take Amtrak to Seattle, then to Bham, then to Vancouver, and fly home from there. Or reverse the order.

 

Richmond, Virginia
Raleigh, North Carolina
Portland, Maine
New Orleans, Louisiana
San Francisco, California
New York, New York

Richmond, Portland , San Francisco and New York were discussed by others.

in both Raleigh and New Orleans, I walked to most places.

 

I'm curious what all you found in Nola. I was there recently and while Brieux Carre was excellent I found the general beer culture in the city to be pretty weak.

 

Because of the lack of public transportation and Houston being, in general, a pretty spread out city.

If you're staying downtown, you could position yourself to be able to hit a some within walking or short-uber distance.

Which breweries are you hoping to visit? Shoot me a message if you've got questions. I'll do the best I can to help.

 

For the SF Bay Area a good resource is www.beerbybart.com

 

One thing I’ve found with a lot of cities if you are on business travel staying at a downtown hotel right in a tourist area, there are not many top rated breweries and beer bars/restaurants generally in that area. Whether I’ve been traveling for work or on vaaction, I like to walk out of my hotel or Air B&B and find good beer bar or brewer nearby without much navigation involved. Taking an Uber a few miles away can get expensive as well.

 

There's this new technology called Taxicabs. They have their prices posted right on the door, you'll know what it costs right upfront, no matter what time of day or night. No "dynamic pricing".

 

Most downtowns are wastelands, and you can only reliably expect to find a convention center and a Ruth’s Chris steakhouse. To experience a city’s beer culture you usually have to get out into the neighborhoods where people live.

 

same