List your favorite local breweries (GABF planning)

Rather than seek out the big, popular breweries this year at GABF, I think it would be fun to check out some of the smaller breweries at the festival that brew great beer. To that end, please give your favorite local places some shine and list them here.

The list of breweries that will be at GABF this year is here, if you're wondering if your favorite local place is attending:
http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/at-the-festival/breweries-at-the-2012-festival/

I'll start:
Equinox: Ft. Collins, CO: My favorite brewery in Fort Collins, and that's saying a lot.
Funkwerks: Ft. Collins, CO: All-saison brewery from Fort Collins
Dry Dock: Aurora, CO: Many people know about this place, but they still deserve a shout out.
Ladyface Ale Companie: Agoura Hills, CA: From southern California, actually, but I visited when I saw my cousin last year and they had some awesome Belgian-style beers.

EDIT: Added locations of the breweries to make it easier to categorize them, as GABF is laid out by region.

Ranger Creek Brewing - San Antonio TX, their Dark Belgian Strong and Oatmeal Pale Ale are great.

(512) Brewing - Austin TX, they make my favorite IPA, and their Double Pecan Porter is phenomenal.

Jester King Brewing - Austin TX, make loads of great Belgian Style Ales

...Are three of my favorites, and all attending GABF

Also, not local but.... Left Coast Brewery - San Clemente, CA make an awesome IIPA called Hop Juice.

these would be some priorities if I were you:

INPO

Alesmith
Alpine
Surly
3Floyds
Cigar City
Ballast Point
Jolly Pumpkin
Kuhnhenn
Founders
Shorts
Santa Fe
Russian River
Great Divide
Avery
Left Hand
Pizza Port/Port Brewing
Ninkasi

To name a few that I really like

Thanks, guys. Since I'm volunteering, I only get a few short breaks each day to check stuff out. I'm going to hit up one region on each break.

Keep 'em coming!

Check out New Holland Brewing Co. and Smuttynose Brewing for sure.

And Founders! Almost forgot.

Living in the Metro Detroit area I am blessed with lots of awesome craft breweries here in MI. The ones I would chose from the list are...
Kuhnhenn - You have to try DRIPA (I think it won gold for IPA in the GABF last year, May have been WBC though). They also have a great Vanilla Java Creme Brule Stout.
Odd Sides - If they have the Mayan Mocha Stout give it a shot...the chilli pepper flavor will surprise you
Dark Horse - Douple Crooked Tree IPA and Plead The 5th Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout

I would think Founders and Bells are already on your list, but if not check them out!

Cheers!

Weyerbacher (PA)
Victory (PA)
Troegs (PA)
Flying Fish (NJ)

Good new ones from TX:

Deep Ellum -Dallas
Southern Star - Conroe TX
Karbach - Houston TX

All worth the time.

Hmm, no O'Dempsey's at GABF.
So, second best Georgia brewery:

Jailhouse Brewing Company, Hampton, GA

Jack's Abby Brewing out of Framingham, MA... they only do lagers, most very unique, and all delicious.

Cambridge Brewing Company : Cambridge, MA best beers in the Boston area, they just started limited bottling

link to their website
http://www.cambrew.com/

If I were pressed for time:

Foothills Brewing -Winstorn-Salem, NC

NoDa Brewing- Charlotte, NC

Lancaster Brewing Co- Lancaster, PA

buna_bere said:

cambridge brewing company : Cambridge, ma best beers in the boston area, they just started limited bottling

link to their website
http://www.cambrew.com/

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+1

Vanilla Java Creme Brule Stout sounds crazy and awesome, as do a lot of the other breweries you all mentioned. I bought a chest freezer recently in order to start making lagers, so I'll definitely be trying the lagers as well. I'm making a list of breweries and beers to keep in my back pocket, and this is great help.

Avery - Boulder, CO
Left Hand - Longmont, CO
Funkwerks - Fort Collins, CO
Renegade - Denver, CO

libeerty said:

Jack's Abby Brewing out of Framingham, MA... they only do lagers, most very unique, and all delicious.

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Do not miss jack's abbey. About half listed so far you can get at the store, JA is hard to find and amazing!

Another nod for Jack's Abby, and they do lagers, so they're near the top of my list.

I'm definitely interested in checking out the stuff that's not available at the beer shops in Colorado. I like to be able to drink some good beer, talk to the brewer, and not wait in a huge line at GABF. I still haven't gotten to try out New Glarus's beers because the line is always huge. Maybe this year I will just sneak in side "volunteer" on that island while I sample a couple of them.

When people think of Indiana, they think Three Floyd's, but try to check out:

Sun King
Triton
Flat 12
Rock Bottom College Park (trust me)
Fountain Square

Barley Browns- Baker City, OR
Hopworks Urban Brewery-Portland, OR

Its disappointing though because Mt. Emily Ale house is listed from my hometown but I can't say that their beers are great yet...

Kulshan Brewing - Bellingham, WA New brewery with great ales. I never liked wheat beer until I tried their American Wheat. Hop Heads should try their Bastard Kat IPA.

Boundary Bay - Bellingham, WA Scotch Ale (...I know anything with an off taste is tossed in a barrel and called Scotch) but theirs is dayyum tasty.

Elysian - Seattle, WA Been hooked since I started going to the pumpkin festival a few years ago. 60+ pumpkins to taste and two days of pie smelling urine....

I prefer a lot of the San Diego stuff, but I've gotta give some props to the place down the street from me:

Kinetic Brewing - Lancaster, CA - They've been open just under a year and have a respectable selection of beers. Their Rusted Gear Amber is fantastic and they're a great bunch of guys who were homebrewers a year ago. The owner was on a episode of Brew Strong last year about the logistics of opening a brewery.

chalkboardbrewer said:

If I were pressed for time:

Foothills Brewing -Winstorn-Salem, NC

NoDa Brewing- Charlotte, NC

Lancaster Brewing Co- Lancaster, PA

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+1 for NoDa Brewing. They have several excellent brews.

Gotta recommend Rahr & Sons Brewing in Ft Worth, TX, probly already on the list.

Berryessa Brewery in the Napa, Ca. area is legit! Me and a great friend of mine drove the 2 hours out there after being introduced to them at the Russian River Beer Revival, despite our hangovers and angry wives @ home.

J-Pizzel said:

Berryessa Brewery in the Napa, Ca. area is legit! Me and a great friend of mine drove the 2 hours out there after being introduced to them at the Russian River Beer Revival, despite our hangovers and angry wives @ home.

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Like Berryessa, especially their Double Tap...not hangovers and angry wives.

Yazoo located in Nashville,TN
My favorites if theirs included the "dry rye porter" and "dos perros"

Blackstone also from Nashville and worth checking out

Tighthead - Mundelein, IL
Haymarket Pub and Brewery - Chicago, Il
Ale Asylum - Chicago, IL

Some of my local favorites.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Going to second the Berreyessa votes. Their ipa is stellar, maybe even better than track 7. Living in the Davis/Sac area I am very lucky

This thread is from 2012 and the linked list of breweries is from the 2013 festival.

IMO the best Nebraska brewery is Zipline. Their Country White is excellent, among many other great beers. Also, Nebraska Brewing Company makes the best Hefeweizen I've tasted that is not made in Germany. I hope you find many great beers.