Brewery Bucket List/Your Best Brewery Experience

This list is surprisingly excellent. I'd remove Baladin, Rockmill, Monhegan, and J Wakefield (they're all unproven at this point) and replace them with Logsdon (awesome saisons with the brewer on his farm at the foot of Mt. Hood...best beer experience ever for me), Alpine (dive bar atmosphere with excellent food and friendly people), Weihenstephan (oldest brewery in the world), Hill Farmstead (craft beer Mecca), Drie Fonteinen (on par with Cantillon, in my opinion), Westvleteren (no explanation necessary), and New Glarus (amazing setting, amazing people, amazing beer). Yes, I added three in addition to replacing those four to bring it to fifteen total.

I love this article mostly for including OEC, though. I cannot recommend OEC enough. I haven't been there, but I have had several beers from them, and they've all been complex and masterful. These guys are worthy of hype similar to Tree House, Tired Hands, Hill Farmstead, Jester King, etc. and I really hope people start realizing it.

 

I've been to Tired Hands a few times (it's less than a mile from my school), but honestly I preferred my times this summer at Cellarmaker Brewing Company in San Francisco. Their mind-blowingly juicy pale ales and IPAs made me realize I knew nothing about hoppiness and hop flavor. And that was awesome.

 

Best brewery experience has to be Cantillon.. Followed closely by Russian River and Firestone Barrelworks.

 

Fantastic List in the link. I do believe this topic was breached recently, but no matter.

Best brewery experiences have included Logsdon and Ale Apothecary. There is something about rural breweries that make it taste that much better.

 

Best Brewery Experience:
1. New Belgium
2. Cigar City
3. New Glarus

Bucket List (honestly I get excited to visit any brewery I've never visited but these are at top of my want list):
Dogfish Head, Bells, Founders, Surly, 3 Floyds

 

First year I went to PtY release with a couple of buddies and we sat outside. Best way to enjoy that release. Inside is crazy and packed. Outside is chill and relaxed. As for local breweries Oregon is great with providing chill atmospheres and many times you can shoot the breeze with brewers. Very few brewery experiences beat talking to a brewer and having him taking a pull off the tank and trying a beer before it gets released to the public.

 

Best Experience is The Old Alchemist- simply because it was my first beer excursion and it was announced the brewery was closing so I really took it in
Bucket List is Toppling Goliath and Russian River

 

Great Topic! I have been a lot more into this than whale hunting the past few years.

My realistic bucket list for the next few years.
1. Tired Hands
2. New Glarus
3. Allagash
4. Ommegang
5. Founders
6. Southampton
7. Half Acre
8. HopCat
9. Kuhnhenn
10. Fatheads

My lifelong bucketlist would include Cantillon, Drie Fonteinen, Alesmith, Lost Abbey

My top 3 Brewpub Experiences

1. Russian River- http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/863/?view=ratings&ba=PittBeerGirl
2. FiftyFifty- http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/14936/?view=ratings&ba=PittBeerGirl
3. Jackie Os- http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1432/?view=ratings&ba=PittBeerGirl

Honorable Mentions for- The Brew Kettle-Strongsville OH; Barleys- Columbus OH; Bullfrog- Williamsport PA

 

I think for me would Russian River, Drie Fonteinen, Goose Island and Rochefort. I was lucky to cross off a couple recently when i went to Westvleteren and Cantillon. Next trip Ill see about hitting up Rochefort and Drie Fonteinen and one last trip to Westvleteren and Cantillon.

 

I want to drink from all 7 trappist breweries, and Westvleteren is the only one that you can't get in the states.

 

I just recently had a great experience at Half Acre. It is more of a couple hour party than a tour which gives you plenty of time to enjoy the beer, check out the facility, and hear about the brewery. I liked this concept because it didn't feel rushed. Oh, and the 3 full beers I got to drink were great as well.

 

I am crossing one off my bucket list over Christmas this year – headed to Germany to visit family, and dedicating a day to seeing Aecht Schlenkerla's brewery in Bamberg. Gonna be drinking some serious Rauchbiers that day

 

We're up to 10 Trappist breweries now.

 

This is probably mine. I was there a few weeks after it opened. I was a long trail, magic hat guy until walking into that brewery. At that point it was factory sterile and you got 1 sample of heady. There was only 1 counter and very little else. That sample blew my mind as well as just walking into it with the smell. Absolute heaven.

 

#1 on the "breweries I wouldn't mind visiting before I die list" is a night at the Black Bull Inn and Hotel in Coniston.

 

I can't add very much to anyone's bucket list, because I agree with them all. I will say that my experiences at DFH have been awesome. The staff is passionate about what they are doing and that passion creates a very fun and informative time. I even met Sam briefly as he was walking out the door and we were coming in. Very hippie-esque vibe and that's right up my alley. Plus, you never know when they're gonna bust out BA WWS....

 

Bucket list is not much different than everyone else's I reckon with Westvlteren on top, followed by Chimay , Abbaye de Notre-Dame d'Orval, Rochefort and Dupont. Figured that would be all I could do in Belgium before being asked to leave the country but the minimum of where I'd have to go.

Realistically, I'd love to get to Ommegang, Anchorage Brewing (for no other reason than to visit my old stomping grounds again....) and 3 Floyds (think we'd hit it off real well with all the metal-ness).

Best experiences, for better or worse, revolve around food (as in I really enjoyed having a bite to eat at the locations as well as having a great time with the members of the brewery) - Arcadia and Bells. Both had great food and "trip over themselves to show you a good time" employees. Close third is Dark Horse, where the place was exactly how I felt it should have been. Like what a brewery would be like if Jax from SOA ran the place....plus there was all the metal-ness...


Best non-food related experience brewery would have been back in like '95 when me and about half my softball team toured the Weinhard's brewery in Portland. We had traveled down from Anchorage for a tournament and needed to fill some time. We hit this place just for the beer opportunity and were given the tour by a nice yet jaded elderly dude. At the end of the tour he just led us into the tasting room and said "Here's what you guys probably came here for. Just be gone before the next tour, in half an hour." He just left us there. Needless to say, we spent the next 29 minutes killing it. Great time.