We as beer hunters...

From dc all the way up driving to central Vermont to stay 10 days drinking as many beers as I could and pork belly tacos. Plus numerous stops along the way.

By air, flying to Copenhagen in search of many beers plus to hopefully get a bottle of Cantillon Blaever which luckily I did.

 

Yeah, this is me. My girlfriend and I will build a weekend drive or even a vacation with brewery stops in mind. Hiking in Stowe with a stop at The Bench/Alchemist after. Tubing the Winooski with a stop at Black Back to cap it off. Or stay overs in Portland, Portsmouth, Berkshires, etc etc with concerts and new restaurant exploration. It helps that she loves the brewery experience almost as much as me, but it never feels that we're necessarily going out of our way, just that we've decided to hit the road and have some fun.

 

Side trips for beer only maybe 15 or 20 minutes out of my way... I'm over chasing beer. But if there's a beer stop I want I'll make a mental note to stop by next time I'm in the area, or try to come up with other reasons to go in addition to the beer (a good restaurant, friends/family, day-hiking trails, or some other events/attractions).

 

My longest beer only trip was a loop from central Vermont to Canton MA (3hr) to stop at Trillium. Then proceeded from there to Everett MA for a stop at Nightshift. Then proceeded from Everett to Newington NH to stop for dinner and cans at Stoneface. Then back home from there. It was a very productive trip.

 

Drove from halfway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland to Russian River and Fifty Fifty on my honeymoon.

Furthest drive for a beer release? 4 hours to bullfrog or 3 hours to Jackie Os.

 

Hero.

 

In 2011 I journeyed to the Alchemist brewpub in Waterbury Vermont from Boston maybe a week after the flood, of which I was unaware. In search of Heady Topper. 200 miles, no Heady. I did discover some other great Vermont ales.

http://www.stowetoday.com/waterbury...cle_ed419770-da2f-11e0-ac5c-001cc4c002e0.html

 

Hell, you win! My dad was an cameraman for NBC in the 60s, and when he was assigned a West Coast trip, he'd haul back a trunk fulla Coors. He didn't care for beer., but his colleagues did!

 

I have no problems driving long distances and staying overnight to judge homebrew competitions

 

Targets of opportunity.

My last two were Peoria Illinois and St. Louis Missouri.

 

I haven't traveled for work since I got into craft two years ago and am REALLY looking forward to my next opportunity so I can add a bunch of beer states and styles. With any luck, I can arrange a hotel within walking/crawling distance of a decent craft taproom.

 

I will freely admit, I took a beercation in 2016 to the NE area, specifically ME, MA, VT, NH, & RI. Got to try the HFS, Foam when it first opened, and MBC as some of the top examples. I am trying to hit all 50 states in just general travel but I admit, some of the ads in the BA mag and notoriety played a part in deciding to go to New England for sure. So Seattle to Portland, ME and the corresponding road trip around the area would be my longest hunt for beer.

Highly recommended trip btw.

 

Traveling for work is what got me ticking off breweries and states, but being retired now has given me more time to fill in the gaps between states. Let us know where you're going and we'll get you set up to minimize your crawling distance.

 

From Macon to just outside of Atlanta for Tropicalia

 

Texas has massive sprawl and too many people moving here from the coasts. Thus, there is always traffic and just getting from one end of Houston to the other can take an hour.

That said, I travel to Austin for Jester King more times then I should. HOU to ATX is about 3hrs. But JK is well worth it!

 

4 hours from south jerseyto north east PA, Stroudsburg area for various Bell's

 

This is not what we in these parts call 33. This is why I asked. Because 33 is something that would not be mentioned in BA very much, unless speaking of mass produced "just ok" kind of beer.