What are your Top Five favorite breweries that you have actually visited?

1. Real Ale in Blanco TX. I went years ago when they were just a few tanks, a bottling line, and a tap room literally the size of a closet that they couldn't technically sell from due to antiquated beer laws. Over the years I've enjoyed watching them grow. Their operation is massive now and still growing and they have a nice tap room going.

2. Adelbert's in Austin- This place has a great vibe, good story, and a fun tour with free pours along the way. I like that they do something other than the routine lager-ipa-amber-seasonal rotation that everyone seems to do.

3. Southerleigh here in San Antonio - Built inside the old Pearl brewery, good beer selection, good people watching, cool architecture, and it's down the street from my house.

4. Flying Bike in Seattle- right near where my family lives, this place has a lot going on and it feels like an anchor for the neighborhood. All sorts of folks, good food next door.

5. Triple 7/Main Street Station in LV - Yeah the beer here isn't the best, but I've had some of the best debaucherous times here. It's inside a casino, what more could you want? You want to look at a piece of the Berlin Wall while you take a leak? They have that too!

 

1) Black Forest Brew Haus - Farmingville, NY

Great schnitzel, good brews.

2) Heartland Brewery - Union Square, NYC

This location is closed I think. Refreshing.

3) Mendocino Brewing Company - Hopland, CA

Visited the original brewpub many years ago. Since then, they have expanded nationally and might be going bankrupt. I recently tried one of their classics but it was nowhere near as good as I remembered.

4) Yuengling Brewery - Pottsville, PA

what Tony in Philly said

5) Dead Cat Alley - Woodland, CA

Visited there many years ago. This brewpub is no longer in business although there is a new one down the street (alley).

Honorable mention:

Bethlehem Brew Works - Bethlehem, PA

Probably the best of all.

 

Never been to a Stone Brewery location but long time fan of their brews, particularly their IPAs but must tell everyone how disappointed I am with their single hop variant in their most recent sampler . The Herkules IPA. Easily the worst beer I’ve ever drank in my life and that’s saying some. Long time IPA drinker and I realize some folks can’t stand them but this is a horrible, undrinkable failure from one of my fav brewers. End of rant , just wanted to warn.

 

I didn't mind it, it was definitely different. I'm actually drinking the Exalted right now which is another special hop run with Loral and Citra

I got to the Stone in the old Navy area when I was in SD... can't remember its official name. Was a lot of fun and the food was pretty decent.

 

There are 23 craft breweries here in Fort Collins, and most of them are pretty good. The ones I visit most often are....

ODells
New Belgium
Coopersmith's
Black Bottle
CB & Potts

We also have a good cidery and a couple of places that keep 100+ brews on tap.

Beer r'Us here in the Napa Valley of Beer.

 

When I was in middle school, I think (1970 or 71) I had a class field trip to the Anheuser Busch brewery in town. The brewery was only a couple of miles from my house. Of course at 13 or 14 I was not a beer drinker at the time so I didn't get to go to the tasting room. The two things I remember from that tour was 1) The canning line - a seemingly endless maze of aluminum cans pushed at high speeds along tubular raceways, on a rollercoaster ride from canning to packaging; and 2) The fact that the employees were allowed to drink beer on their breaks.

#1 was absolutely fascinating and #2 seemed, then and now, to be insane.

 

We have an A-B brewery in Fort Collins, too. One of 11 in the US. Gotta say they give fantastic tours, and you'll never have a better (fill in the name of A-B product) than you will in their tasting room. Those taps are set up as well as it's possible to install them.

 

The Straub brewery in St. Marys Pennsylvania is pretty cool. They have an ever flowing tap. It's like a sink with the water turned on, except beer comes out and you can stop in and have one for free.

 

Cigar City - Tampa
Maduro Brown Ale

3 Daughters Brewery - St Petersburg, FL
Redbender Red

Silverking Brewery - Tarpon Springs, FL
Bonefish Amber

Long Island Brewery - Riverhead NY
Celtic Ale

Blue Point Brewery - Patchogue NY
Toasted Lager Pre Anheiser Busch buy out.

 

Burial - Asheville, NC
Aviator - Fuquay-Varina, NC
Olde Hickory - Hickory, NC
Foothills - Winston-Salem, NC
Natty Greene's - Greensboro, NC

Honorable mention: Crooked Can - Winter Garden, FL (I drive by it almost every day on my daily bike ride)

Yeah, all in NC, but hey, we have some AMAZING breweries here (yes, I know, I'm not presently in NC, but I will be very soon)!

 

Grant's, Yakima WA. (RIP)
Walking Man Brewing, Stevenson WA.
Double Mountain Brewing, Hood River OR.
Deschutes, Bend OR.
Widmer, Portland OR.

 

NC is already on my to-vacation list, gonna move it up a spot or two...

 

I can only say the Smidths brewery in Northern Liberties many many moons ago. Back then there was Smidths and Ballentine's on my menu, Smidths being a "dry" beer and Ballentine being a "wet" beer. I'm more an apple pie man now

 

Only the Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado. It's really well done.

 

Modern Times SD, CA... Every beer I've had here is great and the place has a cool vibe w/ all of the old comic books covering the walls.

Lagunitas, Chicago, IL... I've been to both Chicago and Petaluma, but Chicago is cooler. I just love the trippy hallway to get to the tap room. Plus Lagunitas puts out some of my favorite beers in the world.

4 Noses, Broomfield, CO... It's my current favorite Colorado brewery and I go here quite often. It's always super f'ing busy though, so that takes it down a notch.

Rogue, Newport OR... My wife and I spent a couple nights in Newport on our honeymoon and fell in love with the place. I like that Rogue also has a distillery by the brewery for some super good times. They're pretty experimental with their beers and mostly do a good job. I've had some stinkers from them, but they're mostly on it.

Stone, Escondido CA... Probably the coolest brewery I've ever been to. Stone beers are usually great too, but I didn't love the food at the brewery. Still, it's a really neat place to go. The beer garden is the best I've seen.