Road trip help

If you are trying to prioritize your stops in Michigan City, I would say if you're into lagers, Seedz is a must stop. If you're looking for room for the kids, Watermark has an awesome outdoor space. Transient has some solid beer amongst a bunch of overly sweet, and (formerly) over hyped stouts and IPAs. Greenbush is always busy but has mediocre beer and food and is a testament to good location and timing. Haymarket has some solid beer but is kind of non-descript otherwise. Burn Em is a cool little place on your way back to Michigan City.

 

For JWB Early 2021 started seeing it in stores

 

Sounds like a fun trip! My kind of traveling, revolves around beer!

If you are sticking to 90-you might consider at stop at Forager in Rochester MN.

If you don't mind a bit of a detour off of 90, going south off 90 to Decorah, Iowa would be well worth your stop (about an hour south). Plenty of hiking trails, tons of out door stuff, a really cool town. Plus you have Puplit Rock Brewing and Toppling Goliath.

 

AND...A few short miles down the road from Decorah sits the small town of Spillville, with the amazing Bily/Dvorak museum. Well worth a visit!

https://www.bilyclocks.org

 

If you can and choose to detour just a bit into Michigan, I second @PapaGoose03 suggestion to hit Kalamazoo. There is, of course, Bell's, but if NEIPA are your thing, then be sure to check out Wax Wings as well - they are making some of the best NEIPAs in the Midwest!

 

If you’re going to South Dakota going up 94 to Minneapolis would be out of the way, they have some good breweries though. If you stay along the I-90 route which would be more direct you’ll come across la crosse, WI home of 608 brewing which is producing solid IPAs and establishing a excellent barrel game as well, then an hour from here is forager great place to eat and drink. Right beside forager is jacks bottle shop which picks up brews from a lot of local places and Minneapolis. Jack gets stuff that isn’t distributed to the stores hyvee and Andy’s liquor in the area.

 

All of these are West of Madison WI and with good route planning you could hit many if not all. Most all are family friendly. Decorah highly recommended as a town to visit:
https://www.driftlessbrewing.com
http://www.gravityboxbrewing.com
https://www.hillsborobrewingcompany.com
https://www.facebook.com/Footjoybrewing
https://www.pulpitrockbrewing.net
https://www.pivobrew.com
https://www.karstbrewed.com

 

To avoid the boring, and heavily trafficked Ohio Turnpike patrols focusing on out-of-state license plates, stay on Ohio Route 2 west of Cleveland into Toledo. The Maumee Bay Brew Pub is in downtown Toledo.
From Toledo, the fast non-tolled ride is on US 20 (or US 20 Alternate). US 20 will get you into Michigan City, IN.

 

I guess living in Toledo for 5 years and traveling the turnpike often I would hardly call it heavily patrolled. The indiana toll road however you’ll see at minimum 3 state troopers

 

Set your cruise at 79 and you should be gtg on the Ohio Turnpike. Rte 2 is a crapshoot, if you get behind a truck you're hating life. And no rest stops. I appreciate the heck out of that on the OT. Driving back from Steeler games can require some quick nap times.

 

I don't know how you could skip Decorah but that's just me.

 

It really depends on the trip. It’s a family trip and not just a brewery tour, just wants to hit up some. Coming from MA to SD decorah is a jaunt out of the way. Sure it’s worth it with the scenery and TG and such but at the same time it’s about 3 hours out of the way. (1.5 to get there and 1.5 to get back on the interstate)

 

I was going off of "Definitely interested small places with little or no distribution that I can’t get at home.". Also, I figured if they are going to Minneapolis, they are not scared of going out of their way. I guess it depends where they are going in SD. If it's Sioux falls area, I'd do a Madison, prairie du chein, Decorah, etc route. Wake up in the morning in Madison, have lunch at Pete's Hamburger stand, shop at Stark's, head over to Decorah and check out TG and Pulpit Rock and end the day in Sioux Falls.

 

Yea, that’s one way but I hate that route And I guess it shaves off about 1.5 hours of the 3 wasted and would rather have lunch at simply than Pete’s, I get the nostalgia but did it once when I lived there never have to again. Also TG is distributing to MA might be part of the reason too.

 

I will add for NEIPAs:
https://fallingknife.beer/