Road Trip brewery visits

I'm about to go on a road trip from Chicago to Arlington, Vermont, then New Haven, CT, then down to Harrisburg, PA and back. I'm wondering if you have any suggestions as to must hit breweries along the way. Right now we're definitely going to make it to Ommegang, Cooperstown Brewery and Troegs. Any others along the way worth going to?

Check out Victory in Downingtown PA.

I would goto Victory over Troegs IMO. I think Troegs brewery is boring and has a small tasting room. I would try to stop by Bubes Brewery. This is a very cool Place ask to see the catacombs.

Burlington VT has enough brewpubs to spend a day eating and drinking your way around the town.

Go in summer, though, lots of eye candy... Even if a large percentage is "batting for the other team." [wink]

if you swing through princeton, nj area at all, drop me a line i'll grab a beer with ya, and there's a victory brewpub right in princeton too

If your heading close to Philly you have to hit up Yards. By far the best brewery tour / tasting / hang out place I've ever been on. In fact I'm going back on Jan 8th for another "tour"

Magic Hat in South Burlington. If you haven't had the #9, give it a sample.

BrewInTheFort said:

Magic Hat in South Burlington. If you haven't had the #9, give it a sample.

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+100 to this, also give everything else they have on tap a sample, or 5. endless samples.......endless

I had the pleasure of going to both Yards and Victory earlier this year, both were awesome.

I forgot Magic Hat was in this area,love #9. Sucks it's 2.5 hours from where I'm staying. Endless samples you say????

BoundForBeer said:

I would goto Victory over Troegs IMO. I think Troegs brewery is boring and has a small tasting room. I would try to stop by Bubes Brewery. This is a very cool Place ask to see the catacombs.

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Should I go to Appalachian Brewing Co. instead of Troegs?

I looked up Bubes, looks like a cool place. Can I just go drink there or do I have to go eat dinner?

Bubes has a bar too. So definitely if you are taking the trip to troges stop off at bubes its worth it just to check out the building and the old wine catacombs but im a nerd like that. I didnt like Appalachian when I went up that way but you know depending on your time troges and Appalachian aren't to far away. What I did one day was went to Lancaster from there someone told us about Bubes and I had to check that out. From there went to troges , Appalachian and then had to stop off at victory on the way home. It was a good day. if you have any questions you can PM me. good luck

Are you driving through Albany, NY? Just north of Albany is Troy. Brown's of Troy is the best brewpub I have ever been to out of 55 spread all over the country from Alaska to Florida.

If you are going through Cleveland, Great Lakes Brewery is a must stop at. Even worth going out of your way for.

I am passing through Albany, I'll definitely try and get to Brown's.

We were going to go to Great Lakes but there is a time issue. If we do the Great Lakes tour then we would get to Ommegang at 5AM and have to wait 7 hours for it to open. I think we're going to skip Great Lakes this time around and do a separate Cleveland trip later in the year since it's a lot closer to home.

You can skip Cooperstown if time requires it, but definitely don't skip Ommegang. And you won't be disappointed with Brown's. It's a great place for dinner if the timing works out.

I do this a lot so I know what you are going through to try to plan it all out. Two weeks ago we hit 9 places in 4 days from Syracuse, Oswego, back down through the Finger Lakes then home. I hope your trip is as good as mine!

Wow, 9 in 4 days is impressive. We could probably do more but we're coming through on a Sunday and most places do their tours Fri/Sat. I think I'm going to need to come back for a few weeks, I had no idea there were so many great breweries in the area.

I've never been to any of the Vermont breweries, mostly because I'm not overly impressed by any of their beer (sorry MH #9 fans, but once you realize it smells and tastes a little like shampoo, you'll never look at it the same way again), but the one I do like is Rock Art..
http://www.rockartbrewery.com/About.html
They take more chances and are far more "micro" than most of the others in the state. Plus, they took on Monster and won:
http://www.rockartbrewery.com/SAVE_VERMONSTER.html

When I was in Vermont a few months back, we went to Long Trail brewery which has a self-guided tour, but sadly you can't fill growlers there (but they do sell six-packs). It's an okay tour if you're in the area, but in retrospect I wouldn't have gone out of my way as much as we did had I known.

Regarding Pennsylvania breweries, if you're in Harrisburg anyway, definitely try Troeg's (they only offer tours on Saturdays though if that's an issue, but at least check out their brews. They always have something interesting on tap with their "scratch" brews).

Appalachian wasn't very impressive to me, but they do have excellent food and a few good brews, which Troeg's only has snack food. If you're looking for lunch while in the area, it's a good stopping point, I just wasn't too impressed by the tour.

As others have mentioned, Bube's is pretty close if you're in the area, and is worth checking out. There are a handful of other breweries in that region of Pennsylvania, but outside of those mentioned above, if you find yourself near Philadelphia-area, Victory is definitely a good one to check out. Great selection of food, beer and a decent tour last I was on it (but they have expanded since).

In Philadelphia itself there are some good breweries such as Yards, which has a fun tour and is a great place to hang out. They have lite fair for the most part, so if you're looking for a more brew-pub experience, I'd check out Nodding Head Brewery (www.noddinghead.com) which has a nice Berlinerweisse from time to time, as well as many other interesting brews. There is also a Triumph Brewery in Philadelphia that is decent, and there is always Philadelphia Brewing Company which has a few decent brews. There's plenty of breweries throughout Pennsylvania; there's a book of the various breweries but I've not even touched them all yet!

Sounds like you'll have a fun trip regardless, but hopefully from some of the feedback here you can check out websites, etc and get some good ideas.

I have never been, but have heard really great things about http://www.captainlawrencebrewing.com , in pleasantville ny. Seems like an pretty cool spot.

Wow...I can't believe that I am seeing recommendations to stop at Bube's and not STOUDT'S!....Bube's is a cool little brewpub, and worth the stop...however, you would be right down the way from Adamstown, PA and Stoudt's...great brewery philosophy, meet Eddie Stoudt (free personal tour), Pils is the best on the market, Smooth Hoperator is in a class by itself, Fat Dog is a great Imperial Oatmeal Stout.......must, must, must stop at Stoudt's

Was not impressed with Stoudts.. Sayin that I did like getting a little sauced and goin to look at the open air flea markets in the area. But im sure there is no time for that. I guess you could relate that to not caring for there beers all that much.Tho I do like there limited series most of the time. Maybe its one of the things because I cant get it all the time its the thing you crave the most.

Oh and may I also mention that Troegs and Stoudts dont let you take beer on the tour maybe another reason I didnt like these breweries. I mean come on! when I went to troegs first thing me and SWMBO did was grab a beer (of course). they where ready for the tour we got lined up and they told us couldnt bring it in. Will needless to say we never saw the brewery floor.

If you're heading to New Haven I recommend stopping in at Delaney's. Not a brewery but a vast selection (well, vast for CT ) on tap and in bottles and decent grub (http://www.delaneystaproom.com/beer.html).

Number68 said:

if you swing through princeton, nj area at all, drop me a line i'll grab a beer with ya, and there's a victory brewpub right in princeton too

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Triumph is in Princeton, not Victory, but both are winners.

marcycaulkins said:

I've never been to any of the Vermont breweries, mostly because I'm not overly impressed by any of their beer (sorry MH #9 fans, but once you realize it smells and tastes a little like shampoo, you'll never look at it the same way again), but the one I do like is Rock Art..
http://www.rockartbrewery.com/About.html
They take more chances and are far more "micro" than most of the others in the state. Plus, they took on Monster and won:
http://www.rockartbrewery.com/SAVE_VERMONSTER.html

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Rock Art is great. still trying to find some of their beer in delaware

There's some Dogfish Head Ale Houses (no brewery) in northern VA and southern MD, i believe. They have beers that you can only get on tap at Dogfish Head restaurants.

It is a matter of personal taste, and what you look for in a beer. Stoudt's worked on their German Pils for years and perfected it. There is a reason it has won 5 GABF medals. If you are a part of the "hop head" influx or the micro brew movement, then yeah, you might not like Stoudt's. They have some excellent examples of classic beer styles for the seasoned enthusiast.

That being said, Smooth Hoperator (randomly available) is a great beer for a hop lover. It is kind of an amber bock with great hop flavor. I thought they used Summit hops that played nicely.

And Stoudt's tour is awesome. It's like 10 people chatting with Ed Stoudt. If you need samples on your tour, go to a cracker factory.

cbraun77s said:

And Stoudt's tour is awesome. It's like 10 people chatting with Ed Stoudt. If you need samples on your tour, go to a cracker factory.

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You know any good ones? hows NABISCO's?

cbraun77s said:

And Stoudt's tour is awesome. It's like 10 people chatting with Ed Stoudt.

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That sounds like my kind of tour. There's only one problem again, time. We are scheduled to do the Troeg's Tour Saturday afternoon. There isn't enough time to make it to both in the same day. So given the choice between these two, is there a winner?

KU, I would go with the one that best fits your route during the trip. You'll have a blast either way.

And by the way, I am heading to South Bend, IN next fall. Any recommendations my way?

I've never been to South Bend, but if you're this close you might as well come up to Munster, IN and go to Three Floyds. And if you going to come to Munster you might as well come to Chicago where there are lots of great places to keep you occupied.

I just got back from my road trip. I made it to Cooperstown, Ommegang, Madison brewing in Vermont, Troegs and Appalachian. All places were great, thanks for all the help.

KU Brew, Kutztown or Kansas?

Kansas, Rock Chalk baby