Local Brewery Poll

I live about 45 min southwest of Atlanta, so I may be being a little liberal with my 'hour or less'...but I can think of the following that hit right at, or close to the hour mark..

Sweetwater
Red Brick
Red Hare
Wild Heaven
Orpheus
Burnt Hickory
Three Taverns
BlueTarp
Monday Night

 

there are now more than 3,000 breweries in the U.S. - where do you think they are? where people live! (except Hill Farmstead of De Garde, lol)

 

5 in Columbia, MO where I live. 3 are production and 2 are brewpubs. Plus, one brewpub in Jefferson City puts me at 6 total. I can't think of any others within 1 hour over me. Although, the Public House in Rolla is close.

 

Using Google Maps, from my house, I have 8 breweries within an hour of me, and 1 slated to open. Although I would only choose 2-4 of them to ever have a drink at/from..
1. Sante Adairius Rustic Ales (My Favorite)
2. Alvarado Street Brewery & Grill (2nd Favorite, up and coming brewery that's local-ish)
3. Discretion Brewing (Just found out about them today, need to check them out)
4. English Ales Brewery (Average beer, nice little place)
5. Monterey Coast Brewing (meh)
6. Peter B's Brew Pub (meh)
7. Carmel Valley Brewing (A 'Brewery' that only makes 1 shitty beer, don't think there is an actual brewery you can visit.)
8. Hollister Hills Taproom & Brewery (Another 'Brewery' that only makes one beer, haven't tried it or been there)

Slated to open (that I know of):
1. Brewery Twenty Five (If the owners are who I think they are, this is going to be a fantastic brewery! Great people)

 

Definitely more than 10 for me- to the south and east there are NYC, Westchester and Long Island, to the north is the Hudson Valley, to the west is NJ. A metric shitton, really- and overall the quality seems to be pretty damn high to boot!

 

Fortunately, I also keep track of this, and I happen to use the standard of a one hour's drive from the Twin Cities, specifically from the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. Below is my list, excluding the four Granite City locations ("fermenteries") but including Rock Bottom Minneapolis (I'm not sure why that would be excluded; it brews beer on site for commercial sale). Nine of them are in Wisconsin. I'm not including brewing companies without physical breweries (client brewers) or multiple brewery sites from a single brewing company. moto-i brews only sake, and Minnesota Harvest Orchard has made graff on its winery license. Schram also operates on a winery license but brews beer as well. A few of the more remote locations may well take a little over an hour to reach if you strictly obey the speed limit. 13 of these are brewpubs, and 39 of the non-brewpubs have commercial taprooms. All of these are currently open (or, in a couple cases, closed for winter but reopening in spring). I wouldn't be surprised if I'm missing a few; I would be surprised if I'm missing more than a few.

1. 612 Brew, Minneapolis
2. Badger Hill Brewing Company, Shakopee
3. Bang Brewing Company, St. Paul
4. Barley John’s Brew Pub, New Brighton
5. Bauhaus Brew Labs, Minneapolis
6. Bent Brewstillery, Roseville
7. Big Wood Brewery, White Bear Lake
8. Boom Island Brewing Company, Minneapolis
9. Brady’s Brewhouse, New Richmond WI
10. Burning Brothers Brewing, St. Paul
11. Dangerous Man Brewing Company, Minneapolis
12. Das Bierhaus, Menomonie WI
13. Dave’s Brewfarm, Wilson WI
14. Day Block Brewing Company, Minneapolis
15. Eastlake Craft Brewery, Minneapolis
16. Enki Brewing Company, Victoria
17. Excelsior Brewing Company, Excelsior
18. Fair State Brewing Cooperative, Minneapolis
19. Flat Earth Brewing Company, St. Paul
20. Fulton Beer Company, Minneapolis
21. Great Waters Brewing, St. Paul
22. HammerHeart Brewing Company, Lino Lakes
23. Harriet Brewing Company, Minneapolis
24. Hayes’ Public House, Buffalo
25. Herkimer Pub & Brewery, Minneapolis
26. Hudson Brewing Company (American Sky), Hudson WI
27. Indeed Brewing Company, Minneapolis
28. Insight Brewing Company, Minneapolis
29. Lazy Loon Brewing Company, Chaska
30. Lift Bridge Brewing Company, Stillwater
31. LTD Brewing Company, Hopkins
32. Lucette Brewing Company, Menomonie WI
33. Lucid Brewing Company, Minnetonka
34. LynLake Brewery, Minneapolis
35. Maple Island Brewing Company, Stillwater
36. Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery, Minneapolis
37. Minnesota Harvest Orchard, Jordan
38. Montgomery Brewing Company, Montgomery
39. moto-i, Minneapolis
40. Northbound Smokehouse Brewpub, Minneapolis
41. NorthGate Brewing, Minneapolis
42. Oliphant Brewing Company, Somerset WI
43. Pitchfork Brewing Company, Hudson WI
44. Real Deal Brewing Company, Menomonie WI
45. Red Wing Brewery, Red Wing
46. Rock Bottom, Minneapolis
47. Rush River Brewing Company, River Falls WI
48. Schram Vineyards Winery & Brewery, Waconia
49. Sisyphus Brewing, Minneapolis
50. Sociable Cider Werks, Minneapolis
51. Steel Toe Brewing Company, St. Louis Park
52. Summit Brewing Company, St. Paul
53. Surly Brewing Company, Minneapolis
54. The Freehouse, Minneapolis
55. Theodore Fyten Brewing Company, St. Paul
56. Tin Whiskers Brewing Company, St. Paul
57. Urban Growler Brewing Company, St. Paul
58. Vine Park Brewing Company, St. Paul
59. Waconia Brewing Company, Waconia

 

I live near portland, i think i win there is probably 60+ breweries within a hours drive. #beervana

 

Live outside of Boulder. There are 185 breweries within an hour of me. 75 within 1/2 hour.

 

I'm in northern Orange County, east of LA. Lots of options around here due to being a major metropolitan area.

 

10 and 8. Very close to Downtown San Diego. To be fair, some are probably a bit over an hour but a good amount 10 for sure meet this list. http://www.westcoastersd.com/sd-brewing-industry-watch/

 

Not yet, but I may go for lunch on Friday. It opened last weekend. I tried a couple of their beers at Wolpertinger at UCBC...they were pretty good.

 

Too much trouble to figure out. Any other BAs in Somerset County know the answer?

 

Maybe some day. Now according to the BA, Oregon has the highest per capita, then Vermont. Some places with high population are under represented, such as LA and NYC due to high rent/property costs. There are more breweries on the west side of MI vs the east, though there are more people on the east side.

 

In southwest Michigan, I could easily be at way more than 10 in less than an hour, and it is hard to keep up with the upstarts.
This area ROCKS!

 

Lexington, KY. 7 within the area. I believe there is 1 more opening up that I know of...

 

Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa, where the Mississippi River runs east to west, we have Bent River, Blue Cat ,Radicle Effect, Great River, Granite City, & Front Street, plus a distillery. With Backpocket and Iron Spike, less than an hour away and 2 new brewpubs on the way.

 

I live in Austin, Texas. Our beer scene is booming right now and going to continue to grow!

 

I had no idea there were this many...counting my home, my girlfriend's home, and my college, there's a lot, and there would be even more if the 1 hour radius were expanded even to 1 1/2 hours, as that would include Wilkes-Barre, Rochester, and a few more population centers. There's a fair amount of overlap between the 3 circles, but still. I should really plan a beer tour of all these this summer...

From my home:

• Endless (Montrose PA)
• The North Brewery (Endicott NY)
• Galaxy (Binghamton NY)
• Water St. (Binghamton NY)
• Binghamton Brewing (guess)
• Farmhouse (Owego NY)
  
• Nimble Hill (Tunkhannock PA)
• 3 Guys and a Beer'd (Carbondale PA)

From my girlfriend's home:

• Railhead (Hornell NY)
• Keuka Brewing (Hammondsport NY)
• Finger Lakes (Hammondsport NY)
  
• Abandon (Penn Yan NY)
• Four Mile (Olean NY)
• Ellicottville (duh)
• Naked Dove (Canandaigua NY)
• Twisted Rail (Canandaigua NY)
• Nedloh (Bloomfield NY)
• CB Craft Brewers (Honeoye Falls NY)
• Two Goats (Burdett, NY)

From my college:

• Yorkholo (Mansfield, PA)
  
• Horseheads Brewing (Horseheads NY)
• Split Rock (Elmira NY)
• Upstate (Elmira/Horseheads NY)
• Birdland (Horseheads NY)
• Market St. (Corning NY)
• Bullfrog (Williamsport PA)
• Abbey Wright (Williamsport PA)

I have no idea how many, if any, are opening in these areas in the next year, but I bet there are at least a few in each major area.

 

I've lost count in San Diego county. I think north of 70 operating with god knows how many more slated to open.

 

Within an hour's drive? Wow, I don't even know... I've only really paid attention to the "within maybe half an hour" radius as far as what I'd consider really-local.

I know Lexington has two that I'm aware of, Blue Lab and Devil's Backbone. And then there's Wild Wolf in Nelson County, that's probably within an hour, or if not within an hour then close. And I know Roanoke is about an hour's drive away from here if I take the interstate, and there's several breweries that I'm aware of in that area--I could think of two or three off the top of my head, but a quick Google search suggests there's either 8 or 9 (one listed as "permanently closed" so I'm not sure whether to count it.)

So... that's at least 11. Possibly more if there's any others in the about-an-hour-away range that I'm missing.