Micro-brew Mecca

[Jughead]

Man, reading all these posts makes me want get in my van and do some brew rambling. I've got SWMBO convinced to cash in some vacation and hit the road.:rockin:

 

[carnevoodoo]

Portland has much better landscape to view. The beer options absolutley blow the others away.

I disagree with this. I think that Portland is as good as many other places in the states, but I don't think it "blows away" anyone anymore. Top 5 in the states? Yes. Top in the states? Maybe, but not with as big of a lead as it used to have. Portland has tradition behind it, and yes, it is beautiful, but in terms of JUST beer, I wouldn't say it is ahead of SD, Chicago, and a few other areas.

 

[mrgstiffler]

I disagree with this. I think that Portland is as good as many other places in the states, but I don't think it "blows away" anyone anymore. Top 5 in the states? Yes. Top in the states? Maybe, but not with as big of a lead as it used to have. Portland has tradition behind it, and yes, it is beautiful, but in terms of JUST beer, I wouldn't say it is ahead of SD, Chicago, and a few other areas.

I think tradition has a lot to do with it. I wouldn't say that Portland specifically has the best beers, but the Portland area does by far. It also has the best atmosphere for relaxing and drinking beer.

 

[dap325]

I might suggest Fort Collins. You can hit up New Belgium, Odells, Avery (Boulder), Left Hand (Longmont), and Oskar Blues (Lyons) all in 3 days easy. There is also a Budweiser brewery for your BMC friend to tour. Lots of green this time of year and it is still pretty cool.

I'd love to visit the west coast and Portland sounds like micro brew heaven, but I'd have a hard time choosing between that and Colorado. The post regarding Ft. Collins lists some damn good breweries. I'm sure a weekend in the Rockies with intentions of visiting those breweries would be nuts.

 

[boostsr20]

Thanks for the replies. In our group we have a pale ale guy, stout and porter gal, BMC chick and then me who is willing to try anything new but kind of sticks to ales mostly. It is kind of a mixed batch but all of us are interested in trying something we can not get regularly here in WV ( I will be coming back to the Fayetteville area Bad67z). SOCAL sounds fun but I have had my fill of sand and heat for the time being (no offense). But I am sure the other 3 would love to go there so I might get out-voted on this one. I never thought about Asheville though. I will have to check it out.

Keep the ideas coming and if you guys know of any places in the areas mentioned that might do tours, I would love to get on that as well.

Thanks again

If you don't mind driving in between your places Michigan has some great breweries. It would be more of a 1 brewery per day kinda thing though as they are spread out. The ones worth stopping at would be Dark Horse Kuhnhenn, Bells, Founders, Shorts, and Jolly Pumpkin, Right Brain for a smaller non distributed but awesome beer.

Look at Beer Advocates Top 50 beers and you will see that Bells and Founders both have multiples up there. Kuhnhenn has their Raspberry Eisbock up there too.


If your looking for a concentrated amount of actual breweries in one area, San Diego is by far the best place to go. Philly has some great beer bars that carry a bunch of different things. You could try NorCal around SF and hit up Russian River and Anchor.


If you do want to do the Michigan thing, there is tons of outdoor stuff to do. Traverse City area (right brain/Jolly) has lots of vineyards and winery tours (hop farms too). Shorts isn't too far from the Mackinac Bridge. Founders is about 45 minutes east of where I live which has beautiful sandy beaches on awesome lake Michigan. If your into kayaking, I can set something up for you. Depending on when you come there are always beer tents. Yes, tents setup with beer, broads, and bands. Its my job. Or some other type of event going on.

 

[JoeyLink]

Portland!!

 

[bonzombiekitty]

I have to suggest Philadelphia just because that's what I'm most familiar with

We have some awesome beer bars in the city here, a number of which serve only craft beer. There's also some great places that serve nearly nothing but craft beer; Kraftwork opened up recently and has 20 beers on tap where the only macro brew is PBR (gotta appease the hipsters in the neighborhood), and another new gem is the City Tap House which has, IIRC, 60+ taps and just set the record for the most varieties of Bells on tap at once (more than 30).

We also have several breweries in the area:

Yards
Philadelphia Brewing company
Victory
Flying Fish
Dogfish Head (in Delaware but under a 2hr drive).
Stoudts (about an hour away)
Prism (brand new)

Not to mention, we have Beer Week, which is currently happening now.

 

[smokinghole]

Don't forget about Slyfox and Weyerbacher.

 

[HoppyDaze]

So did you decide?

We are on the edges of our seats

 

[Wayne1]

Give some very deep thought into spending your three days in Colorado.

At this year's Great American Beer Fest Colorado breweries accumulated more awards than any other state! In fact, Colorado gathered six more awards than California, a state with thirty-one-million more people, and a slightly higher number of breweries. A rather gratifying accomplishment for the 38th state of the republic..

To help you find your way around, I suggest you pick up one of these.

 

[carnevoodoo]

I want to go back to the Midwest now. I want to drink the stuff I can't get here.

 

[TerapinChef]

If you've been surrounded by desert and heat for a while, I would run for northern Michigan as fast as you could. Nothing like being surrounded by tons and tons of trees and hills and rivers and lakes. And tons of good beer, and wine tastings, and nice restaurants, and great people. I've been up in TC the last few weekends and each time it's harder and harder to come home. Although we do have some really great breweries around the metro Detroit region as well.........

 

[Strave19]

I'd have to go with Portland. Or a Nor-Cal to Portland trip... (North Coast, Lost Coast, Rogue, etc... plus you get to end in Portland and go nuts at all the local breweries/pubs) but that might be tough in just 3 days with a lot of drinking... or go to Boise, ID

 

[boostsr20]

I want to go back to the Midwest now. I want to drink the stuff I can't get here.

Start Trading. I ship and recieve packages from the west coast all the time. I ship out a lot of Founders, Bells, Shorts, Dark Horse, Arcadia, etc....

 

[carnevoodoo]

Start Trading. I ship and recieve packages from the west coast all the time. I ship out a lot of Founders, Bells, Shorts, Dark Horse, Arcadia, etc....

Eh, not my thing. I don't trade, I don't rate, I don't tick. I just like to drink.

 

[HoppyDaze]

this is hilarious....

everyone thinks where they live is the micro-brew "mecca"; when there are really only a handful of places in the country who can reasonably make the claim. Dude, you should totally go to Northern Michigan over Portland or San Diego for micro-brew....

 

[remilard]

Actually Portland probably has the most stuck up defenders of any city. Most of the breweries there are meh. About 99% of the Oregon beer that anybody outside of Portland likes is not from Portland. I would send someone to the Oregon Coast first and if they want an urban setting I would send them to San Francisco first.

I lived in Portland for years, believe me, I know what it is about. I just haven't intertwined my self esteem with other peoples' impressions of the city.

 

[spatman]

another vote for portland, from someone who hasn't "intertwined my self esteem with other peoples' impressions of the city."


http://www.portlandbeer.org/breweries/

 

[Ciliorozo]

I spent the long fourth of July weekend in Denver and I must say it is a really great city for beer drinkers. I stayed downtown close to the 16th street mall (outdoor strip mall along the entire 1-2 mile stretch) where there is a free bus that goes up and down 16th street. Just jump on the bus and a lot of microbreweries are within walking distance of the cross streets. Our group visited these ones:

1. Great Divide (17th Anniversary DIPA is awesome)
2. Breckenridge (471 IPA and 2220 Red was good)
3. Wynkoop (Pale ale was really good and I had a good cask conditioned IPA off the beer engine)
4. Denver Chophouse and Brewery (Bourbon cask aged stout was great)
5. Rock Bottom (I know its a chain, but this was the first!)

If you can make the trip over to Boulder, its a beautiful drive, and you have to definitely hit Avery. Their Maharaja is one of my absolute favorite beers so being that close we had to go. I had SWMBO rent a car and we made the trip! Definitely worth it, just to see how small the operation still is and that they have been around longer than Stone and DFH! They just brew what they like and they have a heck of a barrel cellar where they do experimentation with sours, its pretty impressive. That was my favorite brewery of the trip. Talk to Phil he was an awesome tour guide and bar tender.

Then of course Ft Collins is beautiful and New Belgium is there. We didn't get a chance to make it up there, but we will plan on it next time.

Anyhow, Denver was a great city and I look forward to going back. Of course our next beer pilgrimage is Oktoberfest in September, but then the next one in the U.S. will have to be in Portland!

I don't think you can go wrong choosing either Portland, Denver, or San Diego.

 

[HoppyDaze]

Actually Portland probably has the most stuck up defenders of any city. Most of the breweries there are meh. About 99% of the Oregon beer that anybody outside of Portland likes is not from Portland. I would send someone to the Oregon Coast first and if they want an urban setting I would send them to San Francisco first.

I lived in Portland for years, believe me, I know what it is about. I just haven't intertwined my self esteem with other peoples' impressions of the city.

ha...now that is quite laughable. I couldn't disagree more. Sounds like you surrounded yourself with a bunch of @ssholes while you were here.

 

[Beernip]

How much is your group looking at doing outside of the brewery visits? This time of year I would hit up San Diego. Great beer and lots of pretty things to look at on the beach. If you want to do back 2 back brew pub tours go to Portland and take the brew bus for a ride.

 

[passedpawn]

I might suggest Fort Collins. You can hit up New Belgium, Odells, Avery (Boulder), Left Hand (Longmont), and Oskar Blues (Lyons) all in 3 days easy. There is also a Budweiser brewery for your BMC friend to tour. Lots of green this time of year and it is still pretty cool.

Isn't there also a Fort Collins Brewery

 

[HoppyDaze]

How much is your group looking at doing outside of the brewery visits? This time of year I would hit up San Diego. Great beer and lots of pretty things to look at on the beach. If you want to do back 2 back brew pub tours go to Portland and take the brew bus for a ride.

 

[remilard]

ha...now that is quite laughable. I couldn't disagree more. Sounds like you surrounded yourself with a bunch of @ssholes while you were here.

That's an easy thing to do.

Srsly, you guys are way more annoying than the San Diego people (note that the San Francisco people who actually live in the best beer city are least annoying).

It goes like this.

San Diego Guy: Hey we have the best beer.
Neutral Observer: Really?
San Diego Guy: Yeah, Stone, Ballast Point, Alesmith, Lost Abbey
Neutral Observer: Okay

Portland Guy: Hey this is beervana
Neutral Observer: Really?
Portland Guy: Yeah we have Hopworks and Roots and Alameda...
Neutral Observer: Never heard of them
Portland Guy: Well have you heard of Widmer and Bridgeport
Neutral Observer: Yeah, they kinda suck
Portland Guy: Well what about Rogue
Neutral Observer: Aren't they in Newport?
Portland Guy: But they have brewed like 4 gallons of beer at Green Dragon!
Neutral Observer: Wow, that's something.
Portland Guy: But we won an internet poll with no restrictions on multiple votes from the same IP address!
Neutral Observer: Yeah but Ashville won that this year which kinda proves how stupid it is
Portland Guy: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

 

[HeavyBrew]

+1 for Colorado. I've been to a bunch of breweries from Denver to far West by Glenwood Canyon. Avery is amazing. They have 20+ brews on tap always. They have everything from the Maharaja on tap to their Mephistopheles. The people are nice, I talked to them about homebrewing for a while and they actually listened and gave some advice! Haha. You can get 5 oz samples for like a $1 a piece too. You'll walk outta there hammered, I did..

 

[remilard]

Just Falling Rock on its own is probably better than Portland.

 

[carnevoodoo]

Just Falling Rock on its own is probably better than Portland.

That's why I think they should go to Wisconsin. New Glarus could take down Portland.

 

[Beernip]

ha...now that is quite laughable. I couldn't disagree more. Sounds like you surrounded yourself with a bunch of @ssholes while you were here.

 

[HoppyDaze]

That's an easy thing to do.

Srsly, you guys are way more annoying than the San Diego people (note that the San Francisco people who actually live in the best beer city are least annoying).

It goes like this.

San Diego Guy: Hey we have the best beer.
Neutral Observer: Really?
San Diego Guy: Yeah, Stone, Ballast Point, Alesmith, Lost Abbey
Neutral Observer: Okay

Portland Guy: Hey this is beervana
Neutral Observer: Really?
Portland Guy: Yeah we have Hopworks and Roots and Alameda...
Neutral Observer: Never heard of them
Portland Guy: Well have you heard of Widmer and Bridgeport
Neutral Observer: Yeah, they kinda suck
Portland Guy: Well what about Rogue
Neutral Observer: Aren't they in Newport?
Portland Guy: But they have brewed like 4 gallons of beer at Green Dragon!
Neutral Observer: Wow, that's something.
Portland Guy: But we won an internet poll with no restrictions on multiple votes from the same IP address!
Neutral Observer: Yeah but Ashville won that this year which kinda proves how stupid it is
Portland Guy: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

That is one broad brush you are painting with there...

You sound like a total prick; go away would you?

 

[remilard]

Yeah, and you weren't speaking in broad strokes when you said Portland's beer and scenery blow the rest of the country away.

Tell us, where have you been in San Diego, San Francisco, North Bay, Wisconsin and Michigan? I have a feeling that you don't have the experience to compare Portland beer to anything (which is true of most of the Portland beer fanboys, if you get out it doesn't seem that special anymore).