I was going to say, I went to Saratoga Springs a few months ago and it was all glass. I went Charlton a couple of summers ago and it was plastic, but everything was basically outside.
I’ve been in Vermont 15 years, and hanging around here a couple of years before that - when Alchemist (not Pro-Pig) occupied that space in Waterbury, and I’m still surprised.
Hmm, I have been to 17 if you include Stone Richmond and Lagunitas (former sites) Chicago and Charleston SC. Hill Farmstead is my favorite. Great Lakes is a sentimental choice
I've been to five of these, but what I really like are the smaller, more intimate brewpubs. I was at the original Hill Farmstead, when there were only picnic tables and a long line for growlers, and the original RR in downtown Santa Rosa, the original Troegs, etc. My fondest memories are of the smaller, more intimate places: the original Forest and Main outside of Philly, the original Yards in Philly, and best of all the tiny places where your nose is practically up against the barrels: Fermentery Form in Philly, Lake Drum in Geneva NY, Strange Craft in Denver. But they don't make the list, of course.
I have not been to a single one. I also have only been on one true vacation over the last couple decades, and that was in Hawaii, far from anything on the list. Maybe those two facts are related.
Same here. When I'm fully, "retired-retired" and take my "other 48 states" brewery tour of the US, I had originally planned on only one week in each of the leftover 48 states (Sasnak & MO off the list already), ending up in Hawaii with my friends expecting a phone call saying I'm not coming back. But at the rate good breweries have opened up in the last decade, it'll take me a month just to get out of Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, California & more so the now one-year US brewery tour has turned into....... ...."a three-yeeearr tour....a three-yeeearr tour" & Thor help me if'n I every get to Dublin. I won't be coming back after getting a job volunteering at the Guinness brewery.
I've been to just 5 of them (Tree House in Charlton, HF, Monk's, RR, and Victory) but 2 more (Tröegs and DFH) are relatively close and I've been thinking of stopping by. Of the others in the list, New Glarus has been on my list forever and I've been intending to drive there during one of my frequent Iowa visits. I need to try harder.
This to me is a really interesting list. There are breweries with lots of beer reviews and few place reviews. New Belgium had 102,000 beer reviews but only 388 place reviews. Lawson’s has 23,500 beer reviews but only 92 place reviews. Maybe it’s somewhat the mystique of a brewery, but the proximity to major population areas is factor. I think there should be an extra multiplier based on the difficulty of getting to a brewery. I live near Burlington VT, but still find the drive to Hill Farmstead a real journey.
I've been to 9 of the places in the OP - with 3 that I'd really like to get to (New Glarus, Tree House, and Three Floyds). Like @LesDewitt4beer mentioned on page one - surprised Sierra Nevada didn't make the list in some fashion. I wonder if that guy "who knows someone" could come up with a list of most rated non-breweries, since it seemed maybe only two of those made the list (if my skimming caught everything).
Maybe it might be as simple as BA users just not having the time or caring whether or not they rate the 'place' as well as the beers? Kinda-sorta like all the 'Dumcrapped' people who only give a star rating and absolutely nothing else in their check-ins to identify where they had the beer, where they bought the beer, no flavor profile choices at all and zero/zip/nada/zilch/NOTHING as far as an extensive comment telling other people WHY in the **** they gave the beer the star rating that they did. For me, after I've gone through the trouble to check-in and rate as well as give an extensive review of a beer on 'Dumcrapped', when I get over to BA to transfer my ratings (which I've recently begun to do, only another 10400 some ratings to go......start a pool on whether or not I get done by, oh, let's say 2035 shall we?), I simply don't have the time or energy to rate places. It's enuf just for me to keep rating brews, besides, I don't give a crap about the place/food/atmosphere/clientele/location/etc. It always has been & forever will be about the beer for me. If'n you've got great brews, I don't give a shit where I'm getting it from, just keep it coming.
I'm not sure what you're saying here. Are you commenting on the high number of beer reviews to the low number of place reviews? (Beer reviews will always significantly outflank place reviews because people are reviewing beer from their home after buying the beer in a store, or live at a bar while drinking it, or (sigh) while bopping aroung tasting 140 beers at a beer festival. There's only one way to review the place, you have to go to it, and as you know, a whole lot of them are not in your backyard. More often than not, the beer is accessible to you through distro, the place itself is not). Or are you commenting on the low number of Lawson's place reviews as compared to New Belgium? (You'll recall that Lawson's was only mostly available at the Warren Store for years before they put in the brewpub 7 years ago, versus New Belgium which has been open for twice that time. Also, New Belgium gets all the annual GABF 'let's do the pilgrimage up to Fort Collins' love).
