Columbus Bachelor Party

This is insane. Don’t go to 37 breweries.

Edit: sorry, that was unhelpful. I’d recommend going to Hoof Hearted - never been, but I’ve had a few of their beers.

Logistically, 37 breweries seems like an unpleasant goal for 3 days. 12 a day, half pours (yeah, right), and you’re going to have a world of hurt. Focus on the best ones, buy the guy the wooden flight thing you get from going to all 37, and bring a lot of fun west coast whales.

In my opinion, bachelor parties are best when you get to sit down, raise a glass, and tell stories. Hustling around the city to 37 breweries will get in the way of that.

Good luck and have fun!

 

Haha 37 breweries.

I'm not from Columbus but I have traveled there a number of times and have made my way around to double digit breweries and I'll tell you the ones that I still remember sticking out

Hoof Hearted, obviously, best beer I had
Seventh Son
Wolfs Ridge (I had 3 stouts there and they were all very tasty)
North High
Lizardville Beer Store (westerville) - This place had a great draft list and more bottles than you could throw an empty bottle of one of the bottles you just ordered at. For example, the draft list when I was there was Crooked Stave and 3F. Pretty great.

Now there were other places we went, but like I said, the above were the memorable ones. If memory serves, they were all close with the exception of Wolfs Ridge

 

IMO, Wolf's Ridge has both the best taproom in the city and the best taproom food in the city, so it should definitely be a priority.
Fairly close by are both Seventh Son (great space, meh beer IMO. It's also very bro-heavy. This could be a plus or minus depending on your crew) and Hoof Hearted (very divisive. Your experience will vary based on your love of NE IPAs and boner jokes. The food is supposed to be good but I've never had it).
Next door to Seventh Son is the St James Tavern, which is not a brewery but is (again, IMO) one of the best beer bars in the city. It looks like a hole in the wall from outside and has a cool dive-bar ambiance but the beer selection is no joke.
Platform also has a taproom downtown. I've been once and it's a nice space but their beer is pretty hit and miss IMO. It might be worth a stop depending on your feelings on their beers.
Wolf's Ridge is downtown and Seventh Son/Hoof Hearted are are about a 5 minute drive away (I wouldn't recommend walking it), so downtown might be a better option if these are places you plan to go.

 

You can walk from Platform to Wolf's Ridge and get a super cheap Uber to Hoof (not recommended) and walk to St James then Seventh Son.

Almost next door to Wolf's Ridge is Pins, it's a pinball arcade with duck pin bowling and other games and a lot if craft beer. It's super popular, especially with small groups.

 

Oh yeah, that game bar next to Wolfs Ridge was a lot of fun. Decent taplist, nothing mind blowing but it was like a lot of decent stuff.

Maybe it was just me but I didn't enjoy much of anything I had a Platform, I wouldn't plan on going there again personally.

 

Echo this--Wolf's Ridge is the best taproom in the city, and IMO brews the best beer. It can also serve as a good hub to get to other nearby breweries on 4th Street.

Hoof can certainly be accessed by walking from WRB (it's about a mile walk), and then Seventh Son is a little under a half-mile from Hoof. Elevator's taproom is also just down the street to the south of WRB.

As far as where to stay, I'd stay downtown. There's actually a (quite nice) Red Roof Inn right across the street from WRB, but there's also some places around the Arena District that are adequate bases of operation for a Bachelor Party. Grandview Yard is a nice place to stay, but it's kind of far from the action if most of your operation will be downtown. The campus hotels are fine if you have business on campus, otherwise, they are far away from the craft beer action of downtown.

Pins is a good place to hang-out as well, but depending on the time you go, you may or may not be able to do the bowling. Depends on what time of year you're coming to Columbus as far as things to do. Huntington Park and the Clippers are always an enjoyable afternoon when the weather is warmer, and they serve local craft beer.

Experience Columbus has a list of things around town, both year-round and events happening around the area by date: https://www.experiencecolumbus.com/things-to-do/

I went to a Columbus bachelor party where all we did was go to a sporting event, then spend the night bopping around the Columbus breweries and Short North and it was a blast.

 

Isn't Columbus Bachelor Party a Pipeworks beer?

 

From a local pov, I will tack on votes for Wolf's Ridge, Seventh Son and Hoof Hearted being my top 3 in Columbus. Nice thing about those places to is they are relatively close to each other in the downtown/Italian Village area. You also have Platform, Elevator, Barley's, North High which are all in the same general area, most of which are easily walkable.

If your group is into gaming, afformentioned Pins has plenty of duckpin bowling and pinball and is virtually across from Wolf Ridge, about a mile down the road is 16-bit arcade and barleys has a mini arcade room in their top floor, all of which serve plenty of local brew, have fun!

 

Don't skip out on Wolf's Ridge or Hoof Hearted. That's my only real advice.

Short North is a cool area to hang out at. A good mix of bars and breweries is always good, sometimes you need something a little lighter to balance out the day.

 

Yes, wolf ridge, if you find yourself near Dublin, checkout 101 beer kitchen. Pins is cool but yea, you gotta WAIT. Just go to wolf ridge and checkin 37 beers. If you use the vintage option and sip your buddies pour, you can hit that easy. First sip vintage year, second sip the base beer.

 

I will echo Wolf’s Ridge as a must place for beer/food/atmosphere. Hoof brew pub is very polarizing. I would never go back myself, but I would say add it to the list if you are downtown to decide for yourself. I think North High gets overlooked as far as beer. Stuff is all solid across the board. I like them more than Seventh Son. Platform beers are all over the place consistency wise.

Non brewery beer drinking places for me would be Bob’s Bar (It is “The Cultural Hub of the Midwest” after all), the Pint Room (killer burgers and tap list), and Winking Lizard (big draft list with a whiskey bar on the other side).

To help in tiebreaker situations, go wherever Bodhi is on tap.