Favorite Local Beers and Breweries

They seel 22's at many local liquor stores including Wine Rack, Maplewood, Lucky and downtown SJ at San Pedro market. They might still have the saison on tap at O'Flaherty's in downtown SJ

 

I live in Ithaca so them, Southern Tier, Three Heads, Ellicottville, Middle Ages, Cortland, Omemgang, and last but not least let's not forget Saranac although it must be hard to be Southern Tier's ugly cousin.

 

In Chicago Suburbs, I have a spot for Two Brothers which is only 20 minutes from my house, so I go for dinner often, and a small brewery called Lunar Brewery, where me and my friends first go into craft beer.

 

In NE Ohio, we are blessed with Hoppin' Frog in Akron where I live....love their stouts in particular, and seasonals like Double Pumpkin and Frosted Frog Christmas, etc

Also - we have Thirsty Dog in Akron, nice Siberian Night stout and a few of their other brews are pretty tasty - i.e. Citra Dog APA, etc; also 12 Dogs of Christmas!

Further north, love some brews from Great Lakes BC in Cleveland; Ed Fitz, Blackout, Lake Erie Monster, etc.....we also have Rocky River Brewing, Willoughby, Fat Heads, Indigo Imp, and others!

Also, Market Garden and Nano-Brew in Ohio City area of Cleveland, puts out some tasty, though under-rated brews - brewmaster Andy Tveekrem formally brewed for GLBC, and DFH

All in all, the NE Ohio beer scene is pretty decent!

 

most folks here in CT will say their favorite is NEBCO. I'm soooooooo tired of them, all their hop forward beers have the same weird tasting finish. I think it's due to the water.

MY fav is Beer'd Brewing by far. all the hoppy offerings I could want.

 

Grew up in the South Bay and I must say, this place does it right. Humble people too.

 

My favorite 5 PDX places, I could name like 20 more but these are the ones I frequent the most.
1. Breakside
2. Gigantic
3. Occidental
4. Deschutes
5. The commons

 

There are 11 breweries in my little town now, and only 2-3 are worth traveling to. We have Right Brain and I like their Dead Kettle IPA, Jolly Pumpkin has many one-off brewed on premises, and Stormcloud(about 30mins away) has their 228 Tripel. The rest are just your average plain Jane beers that won't suprise you, or make you enjoy the high prices for them....

 

Another Portlander here - local faves are Breakside, The Commons and Cascade. Have not had a bad beer from any of them. Breakside's IPA is one of my favorite beers and I don't even consider myself an IPA fiend.

 

Immediately local for me would be Sixpoint, but about 50 minutes by train outside the city is Peekskill Brewery and I think their beers are tremendous. Amazeballs, Higher Standard, Eastern Standard, Vaporizer...all are really nicely done.

 

Harriet Brewing is easily my favorite, but they don't bottle or can yet: Divine Oculust, Wodan Weizen, Woluptuweiss, Dark Abbey.

Lift Bridge: Farm Girl, Commander, Irish Coffee Stout, Silhouette

Steel Toe: Dissent Dark Ale, can't wait to try their Barleywines

Dangerous Man: Chocolate Milk Stout, others.

Pour Decisions is really good and they are doing stuff that nobody else around here is.

 

O'Connor Brewery (Norfolk, VA)

ODIS - Dry Irish Stout
Great Dismal - Black IPA
El Guapo - Agave IPA

Smartmouth Brewing (Norfolk, VA)

Bedeviled - Belgium-style Golden Ale
Cowcatcher - Milk Stout
Notch 9 - Double IPA
Alter Ego - Saison

Hardywood Park (Richmond, VA)

Gingerbread Stout - Imperial Milk Stout
The Great Return - West Coast-style IPA

 

Craft beer is pretty much a brand new industry in South Mississippi (Lazy Magnolia aside). There are two new breweries here doing some excellent stuff:
Southern Prohibition in Hattiesburg: Susie B blonde ale, Devil's Harvest amber ale, Fire Ant red ale, Hipster Breakfast oatmeal stout
Crooked Letter in Ocean Springs: Mystery Romp porter, Stabello Italian lager, Crooked Hefe wheat ale

 

Wachusett - Larry

 

I consider myself pretty fortunate as I live about 20-30 minutes from The Brew Kettle (White Rajah), Fat Heads (Headhunter), Thirsty Dog (Sibrerian Night etc.), Great Lakes and Hoppin' Frog Breweries! That keeps me busy!

 

Three Heads is good - my first introduction to them was Skunk in a little tavern in Hammondsport. I like Saranac and get their beer quite often, but to call them Southern Tier's ugly cousin is quite... well... accurate. Saranac is a great gateway beer - they're definitely better than BMC but not as "extreme" as most of what we call "craft" beer, but they do make some very good solid stuff for a good price. I had their winter 12 pack recently and was quite impressed, there are some good beers in there. Ommegang is on the menu tomorrow... haven't had any of their beer yet... Got the 3 pack this week... probably going to start with Three Philosophers for dessert.

 

You can grab the Electric Tower IPA pretty much every supermarkets. Ex: Safeways, Lunardi's, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods. You'll be surprised with the selection. Also, if you are really into the local movement, I would suggest to check out Hermitage Brewery based in San Jose. Solid stuff. Speaking of which, if you are ever downtown it would be great to check out San Pedro Marketplace's Market Beer.. San Jose's version of City Beer in SF.

 

Peekskill is producing world class stuff! I love Higher Standard.

 

A couple of my favorites locally are Marshall Wharf and Oxbow Brewing. From Marshall Wharf my favorites are Cant Dog, Sexy Chaos, and Ace Hole and at Oxbow I really like their farmhouse pale ale and Oxtoberfest along with a lot of their freestyle offerings.