Brewery passports

We do, but having to drive all over Los Angeles for a brewery not close to me isn't worth doing even with a Buy One Get One Free thing.

One thing if you live in a city with 0 traffic but out here driving , and even Public Transit where you risk your life, more that 5 miles is a fuckall PITA.

They're also usually breweries i don't care to visit.
For example: one passport has breweries 3 counties away. Kern River Brewing being one of them.

It's a great thing if you live in an area with more cows than people. Out here i wouldn't do it again. The one time u did i only went to 3 out of the 30+ or so.

 

My county has an ale trail I did a while back

 

Cool idea. Never heard of it before.

 

I think that there is one in VT?

 

It’s a great way of educating yourself with different breweries in the area. Someone states offer a free trade or a free pint after completion.

 

I am not apart of the industry, so this is all secondhand - but it seems as though a good amount of local breweries do not enjoy being apart of the craft brewery passports, 'trails' or whatever. Most of that is due to the patrons coming in being a little more onry (visiting multiple stops in an afternoon) and/or it brings customers in for a one time visit but not steady traffic.

FWIW, I participated once and thought it was fun, but I didn't see a reason to buy a new passport since it didn't really save me any money nor did it change my approach to visiting breweries.

 

Good idea. I like it! There might have been something similar to this here. I know there's always a series of pub tours with folks getting around in a party barge. If I were in Akron I'd probly give it a whirl, meet some new peeps and try loads of beers.

 

I think Grand Rapids has one that is year-round, and it seems like I've read about one for Kalamazoo and Traverse City during their Beer Week celebration. I think if you get a sign-off at each location you can get a t-shirt, or a badge/button, etc. but I don't recall if a prize is available for each of these challenges.

I don't participate because I've already been to 95% of the breweries.

 

My wife and finished the ones in Maine, Vermont and Connecticut, have all the T-Shirts haha. It was a lot of fun and had us going to breweries we may never have visited, some good some not so good. It was fun. The 3 we did were all free when we did them. (7-8 Years ago?). Good time.

 

We had one here, but it seems to have faded away after Covid. You got prizes depending on how many breweries/taphouses/beer spots you hit. i wasn't really into it because I didn't need another bottle opener, silicone pint glass, or other random geegaw.

 

I've done a few. IMHO the Bend Ale trail is one of the best. Most of the New England states had them for a while. CT stop giving out swag... MASS never honored it passport... VT is solid, reasonable, and resets yearly. NY's is continuing and cumulative... decent swag. I've done portions of NH and ME, but never enough to get anything. Flagstaff used to give you a commerative glass if you went to all the breweries in town, not sure if they still do. I recall doing a few others, but don't remember the details.

 

Yeah it's definitely more of a tourist-centric concept. We have Asheville Ale Trail. They used to be more active, like someone else said, pre-COVID. Now they post on fb regularly, but otherwise have very little presence.

 

I am also in the Akron / Summit County area (Portage Lakes actually), and have done these "passport" brewery things in the past.....kinda fun, and some nice "prizes / incentives" etc....

I have been to most all of the ones listed on this years "tour", so I will not be participating per se, but I do visit a number of the ones in Summit County on a fairly regular basis anyway.....cheers!

 

Never done a beer one, but I completed the Northern Neck/Washington's birthplace AVA trail years back with my ex.

They're a fun way to check out places that you normally wouldn't go to, and give you a bit of a sense of purpose on a day off you'd probably fritter away anyhow.

 

Always attempt the Cleveland one, just never get far enough. And the one covering the entire state, which is even worse in terms of progress.

Also the tour at the Lizard on occasion, which is functionally the same thing confined to one location.

 

Here in Wisconsin, my girlfriend (now fiancée) and I have done the "Reel Craft Pass." We greatly prefer flights to BOGO pints, so we stopped getting the passes.

Most breweries would work with us, taking the cost of a flight off our bill of two or more flights. We end up spending more with flights anyway. But it was a pain asking all the time.

So now we just go where we want without worrying about a pass.

 

We have one in Dayton, OH that around 1500 people finish each year. (I think that's the number. I read it last year.) One of the breweries for 2026 was new and not yet open to start the year. I was the first passport they stamped during a soft opening in February, so I'm reasonably certain I was the first one to complete the passport. Please contact me here for media/convention inquiries or if you just want to bask in my glow.

 

I must compliment you on keeping a low profile, staying humble, and still mucking about with us commoners.

Cheers!