Vacation breweries and pubs

[chazwicke]

Whenever I travel anywhere it has to involve visiting breweries, brewpubs or just plain drinking great brews. I never travel anywhere without something beer related planned. My wife and family all know and expect this. They have all been great sports about it too. When my wife and I took our first trip together before we were married she endured 24 breweries or brewpubs in 14 days. (It was San Fran., Northern CA and parts of Nevada.) We have been known to detour hundreds of miles to fit in a few more breweries. They don't seem to mind as we often take meals at these stops and in general brewpubs have fairly passable food. Some have excellent food. One of my brothers and his family also do the brewpub jogs when they travel. My 24 year old neice does too. My nephew has borrowed my brewing books and some equiptment and is planning on brewing his own. And my 20 1/2 year old son has long been drinking great brews with me in Europe and the UK as well as at home. He can't wait for his upcoming 21st B-day. I know that many of you whom have travelled to DC do the local brewery / Brickskeller/ RFD tours as I have met up with some of you. But my questions are:

When you vacation is beer a must consideration or is it just a bonus if you can get away with it and where have you been on vacation recently and what places were visited?

Where are you planning on traveling to and what breweries will you hit?

Do you ever go on beer tours solely for that reason?

What is the best trip / breweries visited?

[n0rmann]

For the past couple of years, my vacations typically involve beer-related events. I went to Cooperstown this year and went to the Belgium Comes to Cooperstown fest at the Brewery Ommegang and also made a stop at the Cooperstown Brewing Co. Also, since NY gets some beers we don't in Mass., we stopped at large liquor store to pick up some beer.

Last year, I went to both Philly and Baltimore, visiting brewpubs and beer bars, mostly a few a night. It was a fun trip.

I loved the Wharf Rat in Fells Point in Baltimore -- 17 of their own beers on tap, and not nearly as crowded as the location near the baseball park.

[steveh]

I think Lew wrote this one (http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/first-draft/2007/08/03/Maine-Craft-Beer#page1) just for you Chaz.

S.

[steveh]

My next big trip will probably be to Vegas in the fall. You know where to find me.

Otherwise, my GF and I often make weekend trips to Madison because we both like the town so much and, big surprise, there's a LOT of beer to be found!

Quivey's Grove Beer Fest nearby in October, too.

S.

[corkybstewart]

Beer is always a consideration, but not the only one. I just spent a week in Alabama, certainly not for the beer.
But I don't really get into brewery tours, they all are pretty much the same. When we went to Belgium last year, BTW that was a trip 90% for the beer, we toured 1 brewery but spent a lot of time at beer bars or stores. If you spend half a day touring a brewery you get to sample beer from that brewery but nothing else. There was a great beer store 5 minutes from our cottage that had hundreds of beers for sale lots of them sold as singles. For me that's a great way to experience the beers of an area. And with the DUI lasws getting stricter a few hours in a beer bar could easily result in a few days in the slammer. We drank at bars while walking around towns, but then we hit the stores for new beers to try at our cottage. We bought a carload of beers and took them back to the inlaws house in France and threw a big Belgian party complete with Belgian beer, sausages, and lots of different cheeses.

[HogieWan]

Normally beer is an afterthought, but once we decide to go somewhere, I check BA's BeerFly for possible detours

[Bruno_78]

Taking a beer trip next week as a matter of fact. It's become sort of an annual thing over the last few years. This year is taking me to the breweries of southern michigan. Seems there are quite a few that have crept up in the last few years.

[Robo]

We are taking a couple of vacation days in Milwaukee mostly so I can stock up on beer and possibly tour the breweries. (I say possibly only because I have been on all the tours at least once already.)

[newportstorm]

If possible, beer can factor into my vacation - visiting brewpubs or just drinking a few every night. However, some of my best vacas in life did not involve great beer (Costa Rica, Virgin Islands, SF & Napa years ago just as I was discovering better beer, etc.). There's much more to see and do in life than beer. Granted, a great beer (smuggled Ipswich ales) can make an experience (yet another wedding :rolleyes: ) better....just as a great experience (diving off cliffs at The Baths in Virgin Gorda) can make a sub-par beer (Carib) quite drinkable.

[corysdad]

My part of our vacations is searching out new beers to try and or breweries to visit. Be it pubs or micros or macros, heck, I'd tour a home brewery and have a great time. Wife and kids are very good sports also and everyone gets to pick out something to see or do.

[TrojanAnteater]

Originally posted by chazwicke
When you vacation is beer a must consideration or is it just a bonus if you can get away with it and where have you been on vacation recently and what places were visited?

Since I'm relatively young (25) I now make any vacation I go on a beer-centered visit. Whether it's up the road 3 hours to Pismo, or down south an hour to San Diego, I need to find good beer places, and if I can't hit a brewery I find a pub or some good-beer bar. Unfortunately I haven't been further north than Firestone or further south than Stone.

Where are you planning on traveling to and what breweries will you hit?

A couple friends wanted to do a rafting trip in Northern California this summer, so thankfully, just in time, I was able to get one of my buddies into good beer and now we have made it basically into a Russian River trip with a little rafting thrown in. We are going to stay in Santa Rosa and hit Russian River, 3rd Street Aleworks, and maybe for a few hours one day (it's going to be a jam-packed 4 days as it is) head up to Bear Republic.

In addition, next year is the 7th and final summer I will ever have as a college student so I plan to either do a midwest beer tour or England/Belgium/Germany before I have to hit the fun filled job world.


Do you ever go on beer tours solely for that reason?

I sure will be soon! I only hope to someday even have experienced 5% of what you have been able to Chaz!

What is the best trip / breweries visited?

All i know is it will be pretty darn hard for some trip to beat a good Lost Abbey-Stone Bistro 1-2 punch.

[ZSK]

My wife and I both look for beer destinations. We usually find out about the brewpubs or beer bars before we leave and work the rest of the trip around the beer stuff.
We've been to Bloomington Indiana, the home of Indiana University, to visit Upland Brewing and Bloomington Brewing Co. Entirely different places, beer and food wise, but both were excellent. We also visited a place called the Crazy Horse while in Bloomington. Lots of beers draft and toons bottled.
We've been to Columbus Ohio a few times, as it's close. Gordon Biersch, Columbus Brewing and Elevator brewing are all good.
We went to Louisville and visited Bluegrass Brewing Company and found it pretty good.
We've been to Indy for a visit and stopped by Ram brewery. Good Pilsner.
In the spring we visited Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountain Brewery. Excellent Christmas Ale and food.
Last, but certainly not least, we've been to Cleveland and visited Great Lakes Brewing. They have fantastic beer and a wonderful menu. There is a bar called the Green Lizard (I thnk) that had tons of draft beer and good wings.
Anyway we travel for fun, not for work so it's easy for us to pick the brewery. We are headed back to Great Lakes in the fall.
Not sure of the next new place, but I can't wait!

[M.K. Jeeves]

I always factor in the avalibity of good beer, or brewery tours when I book a vacation. Its not a major factor but it is definitely in the equation. Our two top destinations are England and Ireland, We hope to tour Scotland sometime next year.

[ratman03]

I do factor it in. I consider local beer a part of the culture, and if a place doesn't have any good beer, that tells you something about the culture.

I returned to Denver, Colorado last year and that was great for beer. Colorado is a beer mecca; there are many great brews and breweries to experience all along the Front Range, and the mountain towns usually have their own local flavors.

Two destinations in Colorado that jump to mind: In Denver, I recommend the Falling Rock Taphouse for the selection and atmosphere. In Boulder, check out Walnut Brewery.

[cul8rv8]

I have made trips specifically for beer, and have also added beer destinations to my trips. Typically brew pubs are an afterthought, as I make trip plans for other reasons. I'm kind-of a geek when it comes to trips, as I make out itineraries and what-not. Now, these itineraries are not the gospel, and there's nothing wrong with breaking away from them. But it does allow me to try and fit a brewery in here and there.

I typically will visit http://www.beermapping.com once I have my plans laid out. At this point I can see what breweries are where and map them in relation with other plans. Then I will go to BA's BeerFly to read any kind of review on the place. If it's highly rated and recommended, I make sure it fits in. If it's low, I still try to fit it into the schedule, but typically the low rated ones are the first ones to be crossed off the list if necessary.

My other thing I've started recently is collecting growlers. I have a small collection now, 12 or 13 I think. So if it's a location I don't plan on going back to anytime soon, I try to stop in everywhere to at least have one of their beers and buy a growler, even empty if necessary. I have an upcoming trip to San Diego when a friends little brother is graduating from USMC boot camp. So we are trying to fit in all of that, Sea World, the SD Zoo, the Gaslamp district, and then a couple breweries. But in the meantime, the same friend and I are trying to make a weekend trip to Salt Lake City, as we have been told by some SLC locals there are some really great brewpubs up there (which surprised me with it being the home of the LDS church).

[beerinator]

Originally posted by cul8rv8

I typically will visit http://www.beermapping.com once I have my plans laid out.

By the way, we have a trip planner now that will allow you to select brewpubs/breweries and put them in a list that will generate a link to create a point to point to point google map.

http://beermapping.com/maps/searches/daisychain.php

If you'd like a little walk through on what it does, you can read this;
http://beermapping.com/2007/07/14/build-a-beer-itinerary-for-your-next-trip/

[wortchillergoal]

Vacation wise, I guess my wife and I are boring. We go to St. Augustine to visit her parents. If we do make plans to go to another destination, beer is not a major factor. The kids entertainment is the matter of import.

I do always keep my eyes peeled for a beer stop. My wife helps along those lines as well. If we find a good beer pub or
paint store, she cuts me time to go and enjoy.

Now in St. Augustine I make it a point to hit a couple of places. They are Rendezvous and JP Henleys. This trip I also went to the Kings Head British Pub. I have for the most part given up on A1A Ale Works. The beer is not remarkable and the staff not friendly.

[newportstorm]

Originally posted by wortchillergoal
Vacation wise, I guess my wife and I are boring. We go to St. Augustine to visit her parents. If we do make plans to go to another destination, beer is not a major factor. The kids entertainment is the matter of import.

I do always keep my eyes peeled for a beer stop. My wife helps along those lines as well. If we find a good beer pub or
paint store, she cuts me time to go and enjoy.


Nah. That's the way most family vacations go and rightly so, imo. My bored 2 y.o. would/should be a bigger grumpy PITA than I would/should if no craft beer were around.

Compromise is nice, but it doesn't always work out perfectly for everyone.

[corkybstewart]

Since my parents and my inlaws are all old and in poor health, and they live too far away to visit more than once a year, we also really only take vacations to see our parents. If we can get away to find some beer that's great, but our vacations focus on the old folks.

[cul8rv8]

Originally posted by beerinator
By the way, we have a trip planner now that will allow you to select brewpubs/breweries and put them in a list that will generate a link to create a point to point to point google map.

http://beermapping.com/maps/searches/daisychain.php

If you'd like a little walk through on what it does, you can read this;
http://beermapping.com/2007/07/14/build-a-beer-itinerary-for-your-next-trip/

Now that's nice. :) Wish I had noticed that yesterday while planning the SLC trip. lol I did the same thing manually on Google. Of course, that wouldn't have filled up my boring day at work with nothing going on.