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Fellow brewers,

My girlfriend and I will be taking a cross country road trip this June and my plan is to hit up as many great microbreweries as we can along the way. Below are some of our destinations. Any suggestions for places we hit up along the way?

Washington, DC
Greensboro, NC
Atlanta, GA
Memphis, TN
Dallas, TX
Albuquerque, NM
San Diego, CA
Los Angeles, CA
San Francisco, CA
Sal Lake City, NV
Denver, CO
Topeka, KS
Chicago, IL
Pittsburgh, PA

Thanks for any suggestions!
 
For DC, stop into the Capital City Brewpub and DC Brau.
For Atlanta, see whether Burnt Hickory is having a tasting on a day that you can make it. Max Lagers (try the Rye Pale Ale) and/or The Wrecking Bar are very decent Brewpubs. There are a lot of small breweries in Atlanta that are making strides in the right direction, but not much world class just yet.
Los Angeles: No idea about the beer scene, but you have to go to a particular grocery store. Galco's Old World Grocery Store. Incredible selection of rare sodas and a pretty good beer selection as well.
Denver area: Go to Fort Collins. Odells is a must, there are so many great breweries in that small town.
 
Salt Lake City is actually in Utah, not Nevada. That said, we have a few pretty good breweries here. I'd check out red rock, squatters, and epic brewing co. There's also a few really good bars that have a huge selection of beers. The bayou is one, beerhive is another, and a new one just opened that's owned by Ty Burrell, Phil from modern family, called beer bar.
 
Dallas has some decent stops. But I would highly recommend a detour to Austin. Jester King and tons of other brewers out there that are wonderful. Besides there are quite a few very different sides of Texas to see. Austin is an awesome place to check out.

Edit: like said below even instead of Dallas would be good. I don't know what all you plan on doing on your trip but aside from the great brewers in Austin there is a TON of other fun stuff to do.
 
Dallas, TX

Deep Ellum in Dallas is pretty good. I've only had experience with one other brewery in the Dallas area (and I wasn't fond of their beer) so I can't recommend any others.

Dallas has some decent stops. But I would highly recommend a detour to Austin. Jester King and tons of other brewers out there that are wonderful. Besides there are quite a few very different sides of Texas to see. Austin is an awesome place to check out.

I'll second thisisbeer's suggestion of detouring to Austin in addition to Dallas (or instead of, even) if possible. Austin is a much better beer-town, imho. A lot of great breweries and craft beer bars to explore.
 
I see that Portland, OR and Washington aren't on your list. If you're in the Pacific Northwest, it'd be easy to find some delicious stops. I.E., Elysian, Rogue, Base Camp, Fearless... Southern Oregon won't disappoint either.


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From Atlanta-Memphis, or Memphis-Atlanta. You should plan a day in Birmingham and visit Avondale Brewery, Good People Brewery- try the Snake Handler DIPA, and Cahaba Brewing- get the Kiwi Kolsch if available.

Ghost River is in Memphis, but they stopped tours due to liability issues.
 
Dallas has some decent stops. But I would highly recommend a detour to Austin. Jester King and tons of other brewers out there that are wonderful. Besides there are quite a few very different sides of Texas to see. Austin is an awesome place to check out.

Edit: like said below even instead of Dallas would be good. I don't know what all you plan on doing on your trip but aside from the great brewers in Austin there is a TON of other fun stuff to do.

No need to go to Austin for good beer (and they have some very good beer). For Dallas - Deep Ellum, Community and Lakewood. On the Fort Worth side - Rahr and Martin House. Each are excellent breweries with great beer.
 
No need to go to Austin for good beer (and they have some very good beer). For Dallas - Deep Ellum, Community and Lakewood. On the Fort Worth side - Rahr and Martin House. Each are excellent breweries with great beer.

I would have to disagree. It may be my own personal taste, but rahr and community make a lot of mediocre beers. I'm not saying you won't find good beer in Dallas, you will, and both of those brewers do make some good beer. But it's not even on the same planet as Austin. I'm not swayed by my location, I'm from Houston. Neither city can compete with some of the brews being put out from Austin. Jester King offers one of the coolest tours around. They also are doing amazing things with beer. Infamous brewing makes one hell of a cream ale you should try. There's 512, Live Oak, Austin Beerworks, hops and grain, Adelberts, and the list can keep on growing after that. It's a great beer town.
 
Plan on a central coast stop at Barrelworks (Firestone Walker's sour tasting room) at a minimum, but there are several exceptional breweries in SB and SLO counties. Looks like you're going to be taking the 101 from LA to SF, so it'll be right on your way.
 
If you're traveling from Chicago to Pittsburgh, consider stopping in Columbus,OH. Many good breweries here: Four Strings, Elevator, Barleys, Columbus Brewing Company, Seventh Son, Watershed Distillery (not a brewery, but damn good gin, bourbon, and even bourbon gin!)


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You will need several days in San Diego to see what you like.

Maybe more! Here's a few of my favorites
Ballast Point (I like the Linda Vista tasting room because the home brew shop is right there
Coronado Brewing Company (there are tasting rooms now but I still like the original pub & restaurant on Orange Ave in Coronado)
Helm's Brewing - much smaller but with excellent beers
Belching Beaver - gotta love the name and their Peanut Butter Milk Stout is superb!
Mike Hess Brewing in North Park - a unique "venue" for a brewery and some excellent beers

That's just a few of my favorites but for the record there are over 80 breweries in San Diego county now and hundreds of excellent brew pubs serving great food and local craft beers. Here's a link to a magazine that has maps showing all the places you might want to go as well as great articles on the local brewing and pub scene. West Coaster Magazine

Enjoy your trip!
 
In Albuquerque, try La Cumbre, Il Vicino, and Marble. If you detour to Santa Fe, Second Street Brewery or Santa Fe brewing are good bets.
 
In Dallas area, Lakewood and Community are both awesome. Lakewood is in Garland and they have Belgian style beers. Community is downtown Dallas and has American beers with an English influence.

The breweries are about an hour distant, but since the Lakewood tour is 12-3 pm and the Community is 2-5pm you could pull off a twofer.

In Fort Worth, the Rahr tour is VERY popular, like 1000 people on Saturday so you will be standing in line a lot. Martin House will be more like a hundred people and they have the best view of the FTW skyline anywhere.

Rahr has a Wednesday tour from 5-7 pm that is less than 200 people and one experimental beer special tasting. No music, which is a plus, the acoustics are horrible. As an added bonus the T& P Tavern is about 20 blocks away and Wednesday is $3.25 tap night. If you decide to do this, PM me or check the website, parking at the T&P is complicated. .

On a separate note:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oyste...-bee_b_5235008.html?utm_hp_ref=taste&ir=Taste
 
Here in Chicago you have a few good places to see.

Lagunitas just opened the largest production craft brewery in America on the South Side. Haven't been yet, and the tasting room isn't open yet, but I would like to visit.

Revolution, Half Acre, and Pipeworks in the city if you can. Also, DryHop is a brew pub in the city I highly recommend. Haymarket is another good choice.

Finally, try and check out Map Room, Fountainhead, and/or Hopleaf for beer bars while you're here. Those are definitely the top three.
 
Man, it would be so hard to prioritize for this trip.

For San Diego, there are a million breweries but I feel like the must visit one is Stone.
For LA, I definitely wouldn't pass up a trip to the Bruery's tasting room, so many weird and unique beers to try there.
 
Maybe more! Here's a few of my favorites
Ballast Point (I like the Linda Vista tasting room because the home brew shop is right there

That's where I get my supplies too. Was just in there yesterday

Coronado Brewing Company (there are tasting rooms now but I still like the original pub & restaurant on Orange Ave in Coronado)
Helm's Brewing - much smaller but with excellent beers
Belching Beaver - gotta love the name and their Peanut Butter Milk Stout is superb!
Mike Hess Brewing in North Park - a unique "venue" for a brewery and some excellent beers

Love these spots. Also check out Modern Times Beer, Iron Fist if you're in north county. And although I haven't been there myself (it's on the tip top of my list) check out the much fabled Alpine brewing

Also if you're driving through the Palm Springs area on your way to LA and SD, be sure to check out coachella valley brewing and La Quinta brewing
 
I live in Albuquerque, and I hope you can make it here to try our beer. Albuquerque is a hidden gem for craft brew. we have something like 16 microbreweries. my list would be as follows (in order of priority):

1) La Cumbre
2) Bosque Brewing
3) Il Vicino

though a REALLY good choice that is fairly new would be B2B. it's a brewery itself, and though I haven't tried much of it yet, what I have had so far ( coconut porter and cherry stout) has been awesome. but you have the added convenience of a huge beer list filled with only local craft brews. they have brews from marble, cumbre, vicino, and several others ( though no bosque unfortunately). you can try a good deal of beer from different local places in one sitting.
 
I can't tell if the Sal Lake NV was meant to be Utah. But if your headed to UT try to make it to Park City. Its pretty relaxed there and have two breweries that I can think of. Wasatch brewery and Squatters. I thought the beer was less than okay but its the novelty of it. Hanging out with Mormons who'll drink beer I mean.
 
I'd suggest giving Los Angeles a pass and either spending an extra day in SD or hit the Santa Rosa area heading out of SF. There are good beers to be had in LA, but on a limited time table there's better spots.
 
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