The Great American Ale Trail – Read Now and Download Mobi

For Mom and Chuck—the “Traveling Companions,” and Dad.

© 2011 by Christian DeBenedetti

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Contents

Preface by Garrett Oliver

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Pacific Northwest and Alaska

Chapter 2: California and Hawaii

Chapter 3: Colorado, Montana, and the Rocky Mountains

Chapter 4: Texas and the Southwest

Chapter 5: The Midwest

Chapter 6: The Northeast

Chapter 7: The Mid-Atlantic

Chapter 8: The Southeast

The Top Tens

Postscript

Acknowledgments

Glossary

Index

Preface

WHEN THE BOARDING PASS EMERGED FROM THE WHIRRING MACHINE AT Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, I had to admit that I was relieved. I hadn’t intended things to turn out this way, but this is what always happens, and I really should have known better. Only seven hours previously, I’d been at the pub—St. Urho’s Pub, to be precise—a slightly grubby watering hole in one of lesser-known districts of Helsinki, Finland. Finns speak a language intelligible to no one else on Earth, but that has never slowed them down, especially when it comes to socializing. So now here I was, with Markku, Jussi, Kari, and a few others, telling improbable stories. I pinged my pal Matt on Facebook and told him I was drinking his beer in Helsinki. He picked up in England and pinged me back within minutes, asking how it was holding up. The beer was beautiful, and it was a fine evening—all about the ebullient company, and the company was all about the beer. St. Urho’s has more than a dozen taps, all flowing with excellent beers, lovingly kept. I didn’t mean to stay until 3:00 A.M., but that’s what you do, and the reindeer pizza really was excellent.

I’ve been lucky enough to experience many evenings like this over the years. I started in the early 1980s in London, where I first fell in love with cask-conditioned British ale. I continued across Europe, racking up epic evenings in Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic. In those days, there was one country where great beer was not to be found, and that was the United States. I got back home from a year abroad in 1984 and found that we Americans had nothing to drink. Somehow the United States—once home to 4,000 breweries and the most exciting and varied beer culture in the world—had lost its way among the great brewing nations. Our breweries fell prey to a form of “progress” that involved removing all the flavor from one of the world’s diverse and fascinating drinks. Like many future craft brewers, I started making my own beer at home—not because I wanted to make beer, but because I wanted to drink beer. Slowly but inevitably, beer took over my life, the slope became slippery, and I slid into the mash tun. I bobbed to the surface and never looked back.

Today, out of nothing, we have built everything. The United States is now the undisputed beer capital of the world, home to the most vibrant beer culture anywhere. It is difficult to overstate how unlikely this seemed twenty years ago. A newly minted craft brewer, I traveled to Europe frequently, and when I told people that I was an American brewer, the scorn was palpable. Yes, we’ve heard of your American beer, they sneered. I protested that Americans were making very flavorful beers now, but heads shook with disbelief. Slowly, however, over the late 1990s and into the 2000s, it dawned on the rest of the world that Americans had woken up to beer, and once awake we’d gotten mighty busy.

While some built breweries, others built restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, and movie theaters around great beer. Not only did we have our own beer—we had everyone else’s beer too. The complex beers of Belgium, the fruity ales of England, the malty, bracing lagers of Bavaria, all began to flow from America’s taps. Great restaurants, once content with lengthy fine wine lists and dismissive gas-station beer lists, started to realize that industrial beer was an insult to their food and to their beer-savvy patrons. Today I can find the best beers of Belgium faster in a twenty-minute walk from my front door in Brooklyn than I could walking from Grande Place in Brussels.

Do you know beer places and beer people? You should, because beer brings on a sort of fellowship that wine rarely inspires. When you get off a plane and head into an American town, do you know where to find the best of everything, places where people speak your language? Frankly, despite having been all over the world, I can’t say that I do. But that’s okay, because we have Christian DeBenedetti to show the way. I’ve read many beer books, of course, but none that capture the spirit, the philosophy, the people, and the feeling of the American beer scene the way that The Great American Ale Trail does. This book will tell you what you really want to know—where to go, why you want to go there, how the place came to be, what kind of food they serve, what types of beers you can enjoy with it, and who’s going to be sitting next to you at the bar. At the same time, you’ll read the stories of men and women who turned their backs on lucrative careers, mortgaged their houses, and put everything on the line to follow their passions and build the kinds of places where they’d want to spend their time. Occasionally, just occasionally, until 3:00 am. So read this book, follow Christian’s well-laid path, and build your own ale trail. You’ll have your own epic evenings with good people and the world’s most exciting beverage. And if you should miss your plane, don’t worry. Another one will leave soon, and in the meantime, there is some awfully nice beer at the airport bar.

—Garrett Oliver

Garrett Oliver is the brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery and the author of the award-winning book, The Brewmaster’s Table. He is also editor-in-chief of The Oxford Companion to Beer (2011), and has hosted more than seven hundred beer events in ten countries.

Introduction

THE MOUNTAINS AHEAD ARE BRUSHED WITH CALIFORNIA CHAPARRAL and piñon juniper, bathed in low angle sunlight, but I’m pulling over in the quiet little town of Alpine, California—a forty-minute drive into the Coast Range foothills outside of San Diego-to visit Alpine Brewing Company. Now the sweet, earthy smells of steeping grains and the tang of hops envelop me. There Pat McIlhenney, a former full-time fire captain with a handlebar mustache, is leading a tour of his handmade brewhouse built in an old TV-repair shop. His operation has been racking up accolades in global competitions. “I cannot make beer fast enough,” he says, handing out samples.

Those beers are among the finest I’ve tasted anywhere: his balanced but tangy “Duet” is full of the fresh, citrusy flavors of Simcoe and Amarillo hops and a grainy, toasty backbone. Even without a bar or taproom, a stream of visitors—beer pilgrims—comes in to meet McIlhenney and buy fresh-brewed beers to go. It’s a scene I find again and again across the United States, in cozy beer bars and small-batch breweries, even anodyne cul-de-sacs. I have to wonder: Where are they going next?

There’s a genuine revolution happening in America, and I have just spent a year traveling through America to document it. Sure, the big breweries still dominate the cooler aisle, but make no mistake: small-batch “craft” beer (a term related to a brewery’s modest size and independent ownership) is roaring back. After The Great Mistake ended in 1933, only the most aggressive, consolidated companies were able to survive; beer drinkers paid the price in flavor and selection. But from the nadir of just 44 breweries by the end of the 1970s, there are now more than 1,700 from Anchorage to the Big Apple, Kona to Kentucky, approaching half the 4,000 breweries of one hundred twenty-five years ago. Meanwhile beer bars from coast to coast are bursting with selections and seasonally driven food to go with them. Bottle shops and groceries are stocking 1,000-strong lists. Simply put, we’re in the midst of a new golden age of American beer.

There’s a simple reason for this comeback: good beer is part of a good life. The late British beer writer Michael Jackson once said, “You wouldn’t walk into a restaurant and order ‘a plate of food,’ so why would you do the same with your beer?” Craft beer is about originality, flavor, and complexity derived from the many malts, hop varieties, yeast strains, water sources, even oak barrels a brewer can use, no matter where they live.

A wonderful thing happens when you travel with beer in mind: the world opens up in a more friendly way. During my travels, I met hundreds of dedicated, inspiring American brewers, barkeeps, chefs, and beer lovers, every one in love with the art and science of brewing. There’s a bit of luck and joy in all this, but a lot of hard work: it’s impossible to keep up, because new kettles are boiling in almost every single state.

Think of this book as a mere starting point, a preview of what’s out there for you to discover. Wander, but bring a map, too: in this book, spots are organized in clusters, generally speaking, but not always. And talk to people: in every single one of the places in this book, you’re going to meet pilgrims hitting the road for the love of beer. You’re not likely to meet warmer and more friendly people. And along the way, I hope The Great American Ale Trail will help posit a new definition of craft beer: The growing love of artisan-made brews isn’t because beer is becoming more like wine. It’s becoming more beer-like. Brewing goes back to our Founding Fathers, and eons earlier, when Sumerians recorded beer batches as prayers in clay tablets. We’re tapping into something ancient, something necessary. To the lucky ones who know, it makes perfect sense. And I hope that with this book, you’ll begin your own search. The only question is: Where to go first?

—Christian DeBenedetti

Portland, OR, 2011

The
PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
and ALASKA

Oregon

THANKS TO A BAND OF BOLD BREWING PIONEERS STARTING IN THE late 1970s and early 80s, the entire state is blessed with hoppy wonders, with Portland as its shining beer capital. Today, there are no less than forty breweries and counting in the small city of 600,000 known to many as Beervana. Some say it’s the rain driving drinkers indoors; others point to the tough, timber-country ingenuity and independent spirit ingrained in the gene pool. Either way, craft beer is so popular throughout the state, you can pick up an artisan brew at the gas station.

The history of this good-beer revolution is well documented, but suffice it to say that Portland embraced craft beer early, becoming the brewing epicenter of the Northwest—and arguably the entire United States and even the world—by being both aggressively provincial and always innovative. With access to top-quality grain and regionally grown hops (and relatively inexpensive real estate), brewers thrived amid a population that loves to drink beer as much as it loves to climb, ski, surf, roast fair-trade coffee, build exotic bikes (and ride them around naked—why not?), and forage for mushrooms. It didn’t hurt that in the 1970s and 80s the Oregon wine country emerged as a world-class destination amid the stirrings of Oregon’s gourmet-inclined Slow Food movement. Throughout the state, from tiny upstarts to established regional and national brands like Widmer, there’s no town too small for an excellent brewpub these days. With snowy peaks, smart cities, and verdant forests, what other excuse do you need to visit?

ITINERARIES

Portland

APEX

1216 SE Division St. • Portland, OR 97202 (503) 273-9227 • apexbar.com • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

Built in a small industrial garage-like space by former New Belgium Brewing sales representative Jesse McCann, Apex is a squeaky-clean beer bar, which perfectly captures the lifestyle of Portlanders circa 2012: single-speed bike parked out front, barrel-aged Belgian ale in hand. Smoking? Never—that’s so last year. Table service? Nope, stretch those legs. (Dogs, kids, and credit cards are also ixnayed.) But lest the scene sound too doctrinaire, it’s ideal on a sunny day when you can bike there (you can even borrow a lock from the bar’s own stash), grab a taco from the little place next door (no food is sold at the bar), and maybe shoot some pinball. Easy does it, except for the blaring heavy metal.

PHILOSOPHY

Serious about beer—intense, even, but not joyless. “I’ve been told I keep my beer too cold,” says McCann, speaking of scolds, with a wry chuckle. But there are beers that are simply better cold—ice cold—especially when it’s 95 degrees in the shade (rare in Portland, but not unheard of ). So, thank heavens for one little nod to an older, less uptight mode of beer drinking: amid the list of esoteric brews is a lone “Cheap, Cold” Hamm’s can for $2.50—a nice, if ironic, touch.

KEY BEER

McCann brings in bonafide rarities and displays an impressive forty-two-tap selection on a flat screen TV over the bar, so simply peruse the fast-changing list, try some samples, and engage the beer experts at work behind the bar. There are beers here no other bar in Portland can even think about getting, like Moonlight’s Working for Tips, a garnet-colored 5.5% ABV ale spiced with redwood tips instead of hops that’s only seldom spotted outside of the Bay Area.

HORSE BRASS PUB

4534 SE Belmont St. • Portland, OR 97215 • (503) 232-2202 horsebrass.com • Established: 1976

SCENE & STORY

It was with heavy but grateful hearts that thousands of fans (present company included)—including some from abroad—turned out for the wake to honor Horse Brass founder Don Younger in January of 2011 when he died at age 69 from complications related to being a wise, hard-drinking old buzzard. To hear the gray-bearded, long-haired, raspy-voiced Don tell it between puffs on his ever-present smoke, he woke up one day smarting from a big night of beer (and whiskey, which he loved dearly) and discovered he had bought the bar with his brother Bill, the late Bill Younger.

What happened next helped make Portland the great beer town it is. Bringing in scores of rare and hard-to-find beers, and championing the first efforts of the brewers in town, the Youngers’ Horse Brass became one of the most famous and respected beer bars in the land. While Don drove a gray ’72 Rolls around town, he did it in a T-shirt. And there was something else about Don: without fanfare, he loaned or simply gave money to a number of earnest young Portlanders trying to get a leg up in beer, in life—Duane Soreson, founder of Portland’s famous Stumptown Coffee Roasters, for one—and never made a fuss about it.

PHILOSOPHY

Generous and communal. The motto of the Horse Brass (“If it were any more authentic, you’d need a passport . . .”) is apt, because it looks as if it were airlifted stick by stone out of old London. But Don also loved to say something a bit cryptic, too, something worth considering only with a beer in hand. “It’s not about the beer. It’s about the beer,” he’d say, and then order you another round—on the house.

KEY BEER

There are fifty taps and seventy-five bottled selections, but before you drink anything else, order Younger’s Special Bitter on cask (Y.S.B.), named for Bill, who died first, and raise a toast to the Youngers.

DETOUR

OREGON BREWERS FESTIVAL

Summer is the ultimate season here, and no weekend says it better than the one known locally as “brewfest”—the OBF, or Oregon Brewers Festival, at the end of July—when upwards of 60,000 revelers gather in the city’s sprawling Tom McCall Waterfront Park under massive, beer-filled open-air tents, and, every ten minutes or so, spontaneously start cheering like fans at the Super Bowl, glasses held high. 2012 marks the festival’s 25th year.

Chalk the good cheer up to the setting: With the city and its Willamette River as a backdrop, some eighty breweries from around the country show up to pour their latest. Live bands jam on stages as local-fave restaurants like Horn of Africa proffer healthy, spicy, beer-friendly fare. Trading wooden nickel tokens for tastes, imbibers mingle good-naturedly, old friends reunite, and, as the sun goes down, those cheers grow longer and louder, and, well, a heck of a lot more infectious. When the kegs run dry—sic transit gloria mundi—downtown taprooms fill with beer lovers celebrating the bounty until the wee hours. (www.oregonbrewfest.com)

THE GREEN DRAGON BISTRO & BREWPUB

928 SE 9th Ave. • Portland, OR 97214 • (503) 517-0660 pdxgreendragon.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

The Green Dragon (named for Boston’s historic public house frequented by Paul Revere and his fellow Sons of Liberty) is a curious beast with a few tricks up its sleeve. There’s brewing equipment in the back, but it’s rarely steaming; (part of it is reserved for infrequent, pub-only beers and part for local home brewers when they have the time).

On its third owner—Oregon’s Rogue Ales (a large Oregon brewing company) took over a few years ago—the Dragon’s inner southeast Portland location and claim to one of the largest walk-in coolers in Oregon (ask for a tour, especially if glow-in-the-dark stars on the wall and rows of cold kegs set your heart racing) was an attractive purchase. Adjacent to an army green Quonset hut with bar offices (and a secret mini-arcade with pinball machines), the interior is a roomy warehouse-like space with two bars and an all-ages dining area. The entire place is supplied with beer from the “front” and “back” bars comprising fifty taps in all (there are forty-nine bottled beers for sale as well). But weather permitting, the place to be is the huge patio, strung with lights and shaded by a big tree. The beers aren’t all from Rogue, either, and the selection changes daily. Count on a solidly contemporary mix of craft brews from around the country and sometimes Europe. When hunger hits, the best eats on the menu are the french fries (ask for a side of mac-and-cheese sauce) and buffalo blue meatballs (deliciously deep-fried upon special request).

PHILOSOPHY

As Samuel Johnson said, “Where secrecy begins, vice or roguery is not far off.” Hmm—is that a bad thing?

KEY BEER

Twirling your mustache, ask about Tap 19, the “secret” tap, always reserved for rare beers (like Cantillon Lou Pepe kriek), and never advertised. But it’s so secret, the servers may not even know what’s on it. Delicious.

CASCADE BREWING BARREL HOUSE

939 SE Belmont • Portland, OR 97214 • (503) 265-8603 cascadebrewingbarrelhouse.com • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

Pucker up, Portland. To the truly devoted beer geeks, tart, barrel-aged beers are the next IPAs, and brewer Ron Gansberg—a veteran of the wine industry and residencies with both BridgePort Brewery and Portland Brewing Company—is Stumptown’s master sourpuss. His award-winning wine-, whiskey-, and port-barrel-aged Belgian-style brews crackle with acidic notes and woody tannins that blur stylistic lines (and go nicely with cheese).

In the summer of 2010, Gansberg opened this 6,000-square-foot facility with barrel-aging rooms and sixteen taps, including at least two directly from the barrels. It was the country’s first bar dedicated to sour beers, which begged the question: In the land of hops, wouldn’t an IPA bar make more sense? Not so fast. Despite an uninspired food menu (so far) the bar is normally busy if not packed, and a May 2011 Saison Fest kicked off another new tradition for beer festival-packed Portland.

PHILOSOPHY

“Bring your A-game,” says Gansberg. “If a beer isn’t really making a statement, then it’s really hardly worth our time to brew.”

KEY BEER

Cascade Apricot (usually around 8.5% ABV) is a crisp, tart ale that goes through sixteen months of lactic fermentation and then spends four months resting on Washington State apricots in French oak wine barrels. Cascade has a huge lineup of beers, but this is consistently the best.

HAIR OF THE DOG BREWING CO.

61 SE Yamhill St. • Portland, OR 97214 • (503) 232-6585 hairofthedog.com • Established: 1993

SCENE & STORY

Once housed in a pub-less, ramshackle warehouse space in deep southeast Portland, the venerable Hair of the Dog operation has a new house. Its new home is much more user-friendly: the inner southeast industrial district, a chic mixed-use area of start-ups, farm-to-table eateries, and loft spaces in converted meatpacking and produce warehouses. There, founder Alan Sprints and family have set up shop in an airy space brightly painted in hues of teal, gray, and green around a polished eight-tap central bar. Off to the right side of the room is a little open kitchen where Sprints (a trained chef ) himself does a lot of the cooking, like a recent dish of beer-braised beef served with whole grain mustard and spring greens.

PHILOSOPHY

Innovative and community-minded, Sprints was among the first brewers in the country to adopt the use of bourbon and whiskey barrels to age his beers, some of which are variations of long-forgotten styles like . Sprints got the idea from legendary Portland beer writer Fred Eckhardt, who happily scored the first bottle.adambier, a type of strong aged ale from Dortmund, Germany

KEY BEER

Sprints made his name with Adam and Fred (named for Eckhardt) and other big, boozy brews numbered for the purpose of cellaring; vintage bottles are available at the taproom (batch #1 of Adam is $75 for 12 ounces). But today his Blue Dot double IPA is setting a lot of tongues (or tails?) wagging. It’s 7% ABV and often near perfect, with waves of sweet, grapefruity hops and a crackingly dry, bitter finish.

HOPWORKS URBAN BREWERY

2944 SE Powell Blvd. • Portland, OR 97202 • (503) 232-4677 hopworksbeer.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

San Francisco native Christian Ettinger found his beer inspiration in Cologne, Germany, touring the city’s famed Kölsch producers and hanging out in atmospheric bierstubes during college. Back in the states, he attended brewing school through the Vermont-based American Brewers Guild, and then honed his skills in a Eugene brewpub and Portland’s Laurel-wood Public House.

Ettinger opened his kid- and bike-friendly brewpub in Southeast Portland (often called simply H.U.B.), using organic grains and innovative green-brewing practices like biodiesel to fuel the kettles, eco-friendly building materials, and both CO2 and heat recycling. Recently, Ettinger has embarked on a fairly extensive barrel program at the brewery, opened a new bar in northeast Portland (Bikebar, summer 2011), and continues to sponsor a hugely popular party, Biketoberfest, at the brewery in September.

PHILOSOPHY

Ettinger keeps it simple. “Any [one] can throw a wall of ingredients at something and come up with a bold flavor, and some people will like it. I love simplicity. If it isn’t simple, skip it.”

KEY BEER

An homage to the birthplace of the Pilsner style, the ample but not heavy Czech-style H.U.B. Lager (5.1% ABV). “It’s the most rewarding beer to make,” says Ettinger, “because it’s so simple and so stark. There’s little body to hide behind; there’s no formidable hop character to hide behind. That beer has to be made perfectly every time.” So far, so good.

SOUR POWER 101

INSIDE THE ART of SOUR, BARREL-AGED BEERS

To speak beer-ese in Portland, or just about anywhere else these days, you’ve got to know what makes sour beers pop the way they do. Simply put, they’re made by fermenting beer with a complex grain bill (for long, slow, layered fermentations) with Lactobacillus and/or other super active yeasts (sometimes wild rather than lab-cultured) and aging them in oak barrels that once contained wine, port, sherry, absinthe, rum, whiskey, or bourbon, occasionally with certain fruits or nuts added. After a period of three months to three years in the wood, the acidified brews are blended with one another in a stainless steel tank to taste, at which point fresh fruit additions or special brewers’ sugars are occasionally added again. Lastly, they’re kegged or bottled like Champagne, with a cork and wire cage. Executed well, these acid-forward ales echo the heft of certain big wines (meaty tannic reds, bright whites, and tawny old ports), and pair well with rich foods like cheese, charcuterie, and pork belly. One look at the beer lists in Portland’s top restaurants confirms: sour is the new black.

LAURELWOOD PUBLIC HOUSE & BREWERY

5115 NE Sandy Blvd. • Portland, OR 97213 • (503) 282-0622 laurelwoodbrewpub.com • Established: 2001

SCENE & STORY

Now with a handful of convenient locations (including the Rose Garden, where the Portland Trail Blazers play, and the Portland International Airport’s concourses A and E), Laurelwood was Portland’s first certified-organic brewery, and also made a smart business decision in a town with big numbers in the stroller department: kids’ areas. Ingenious! The adults found the beer irresistible (still do), and three years after opening, Laurelwood landed the coveted Best Small Brewpub and Best Brewer Award at the World Beer Cup 2004 and the second annual National IPA competition in 2009. These are not easy awards to win.

The main location is an old converted dinner theater; instead of floor lights, stainless conditioning tanks light up the room, and the food is filling, a mix of pub favorites like nachos and garlic fries with healthier options like wraps and spinach salads.

PHILOSOPHY

Green, but not obnoxiously so, and actively kid-focused: young parents themselves, founders Mike De Kalb and his wife made sure to put quality play spaces in all their properties.

KEY BEER

The tasty, pungent Workhorse IPA was the big winner in 2009, and it’s still pouring on the hops, with three separate dry hop additions in the fermenter (7.5% ABV). Also, don’t miss the coppery flagship beer, Free Range Red.

BELMONT STATION

4500 SE Stark St. • Portland, OR 97215 • (503) 232-8538 belmont-station.com • Established: 1997

SCENE & STORY

Founded by Carl Singmaster and the late, legendary publican Don Younger of The Horse Brass in that bar’s tiny adjacent alleyway in southeast Portland, Belmont Station was an idea far ahead of its time. With thousands of imported beers, glassware, and other beer-related gifts, it was a hit with locals who would wander in after a pint and perhaps a chat with the irascible, inimitable owner Don Younger, who died in 2011. (Disclosure: By the good graces of Younger, I worked at Belmont Station briefly in its earliest days, helping ship beer, which it no longer does. I was enormously grateful for the gig.) Since then, the shop has moved a block north to Stark Street and has expanded to include its own bar with 16 taps, 1,200-plus bottles stored behind UV-filtered light, regular tastings, and brewmaster appearances. They even hold their own festival in July: Pucker Fest is a weeklong celebration of sour beer.

PHILOSOPHY

Know thy beer. Belmont Station’s employees know a ton about beer and are glad to share their wisdom, sans attitude.

KEY BEER

The best beer is the one you taste fresh off one of the twenty taps as you wander the aisles, which is a lot of fun. Simply put, the selection here is incredible: up to date, varied, well cared for, and organized.

UPRIGHT BREWING CO.

240 N. Broadway, Ste. 2 • Portland, OR 97227 (503) 735-5337 • uprightbrewing.com • Established: 2009

SCENE & STORY

You know you’re in a serious craft beer town when NBA fans cram into your subterranean taproom for every home game and sip barrel-aged beers before heading to the stadium. Alex Ganum’s Upright Brewing Company is located a few paces from the Rose Garden arena, home of the Portland Trail Blazers. Ganum moved to Portland (he’s from Michigan originally) for culinary school but fell in love with the beer scene instead. After an internship at the celebrated Ommegang brewery in Cooperstown, New York, he drew up plans for Upright, and these days his beers are all over town, and his brewing capacity is maxed out.

Still, the brewery (named for Charles Mingus’s stringed instrument) remains low-key, with just six wall mounted taps, a couple of picnic tables, and barrel racks of aging ales to admire as you sip away. Be sure to check out the open steel fermenters behind glass. The five year-round beers are Four (4.5% ABV; light/wheat/lightly sour), Five (5.5% ABV and markedly hoppier), Six (spicy and caramel tinged at 6.7% ABV), Seven (8% ABV and floral, aromatic), and the delicious, draft-only Engleberg Pils (5.5% ABV). My advice: order a tasting tray and try every one.

PHILOSOPHY

Urban farmhouse—Ganum’s beers exhibit the spice and earthiness of styles Portland brewers haven’t explored much until now: Belgian saison, bière de garde, and other, sometimes wild barrel-aged experiments resulting in funky, sour, earthy ales. But rather than just try to mimic Low Country classics, Ganum is also stretching out with experiments that place these beers firmly in Oregon soil.

KEY BEER

Upright’s April seasonal is Gose (5.2% ABV), based on a near-extinct German style developed in Leipzig, which incorporates salt and ground coriander seeds. The result is an unfiltered wheat beer with a cloudy yellow color and appealingly tart, dry finish. The beer put Ganum on the podium at the 2010 World Beer Cup in Chicago.

WIDMER GASTHAUS PUB

955 N. Russell • Portland, OR 97227 • (503) 281-3333 widmerbrothers.com • Established: 1984

SCENE & STORY

Kurt and Rob Widmer are the paradigmatic home-brewers-gone-pro, with a handsome bierstube (across from the big brewery HQ) and a national brand built by their American-style hefeweizen, a cloudy gold refresher. Their Gasthaus (which in German means “inn” but is really just a brewpub) is a Portland institution. With fifteen taps, you can try all the beers in their catalog, which has taken a turn for the more adventurous lately, keeping pace with Portland’s many beer innovators.

Credit goes to the brothers for not forgetting their roots: they’ve sold enough beer to be playing Baccarat in St. Tropez, but instead, the Widmers still hang out at home brew meetings and keep an eye on their pilot brewery, where Widmer sponsors a project called Collaborator with a local home brewing group (“The Oregon Brew Crew”), started in 1998. About four times a year, a member’s recipe gets selected for a run on the big boys’ equipment under pilot brewer Ike Manchester’s watchful eye. Then beer goes on tap at select area pubs, and can even hit the big time: Snowplow, a 1998 Collaborator beer, was tweaked in 2004, released commercially, and won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival.

PHILOSOPHY

“Keep learning,” says Manchester, who works closely with the brothers. “You can’t know everything there is about brewing. When it comes down to the beer, it’s always evolving. It’s a living thing.” Refreshing words.

KEY BEER

Manchester loves brewing (and drinking) the nutty, limited-production Alt Bier (5% ABV) on tap at the Gasthaus. Because it was the Widmer Brothers’ first recipe, and was also a favorite of the late, legendary beer writer Michael Jackson, the beer is a cult classic in Portland.

SARAVEZA BOTTLE SHOP & PASTY TAVERN

1004 N. Killingsworth St. • Portland, OR 97217 (503) 206-4252 • saraveza.com • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

With the exception of one ill-fated USFL (United States Football League) team, the Portland Breakers, Portland has never had anything approaching professional American football to cheer about (the MLS Timbers, on the other hand, are a different story). So it is incredibly refreshing to walk into Wisconsin native Sarah Pederson’s northeast Portland shrine to the Green Bay Packers and beers of every era. Overhead, check out the vintage signage and bottle cap murals as intricate as any ancient Roman mosaic—and settle in for some down-to-earth conversation, or take in a gridiron game on TV. Before you head out, take a little shopping spree through the 250-plus international beers in cool old green vintage coolers. Saraveza—a play on Pederson’s name and on the Spanish word cerveza, for beer—has nine beers on tap, homemade soups, and those made-from-scratch pasties—try the Nater, a delicious blend of braised beef, potato, carrot, rutabaga, and onion. It doesn’t matter if you’re not into rushing stats and field goal attempts; you’re just here to soak up some good old-fashioned, unironic Midwestern hospitality.

PHILOSOPHY

Pederson has assembled the best bar staff in Portland, helpful and open-minded, a major selling point in the occasionally too-cool-for-school city of “Beervana.” Brewers and purists might cringe at the thought, but certain bartenders here (Jonathan Carmean, to name the starting quarterback) are experienced and confident enough to hand you a blend of tap beers of different origins and profiles. Want a little more zing and hops in your malty Belgian tripel? Done.

KEY BEER

The beer list is superb; up-to-the-second, heavily local on draft and Low Countries-focused in the coolers, as good as it gets. Look for complex, handmade beers from Block 15, in Corvallis, Portland’s Upright, McMinnville’s Heater-Allen, Hood River’s Logsdon, and Boneyard in Bend. Or, to go Saraveza native, don’t be afraid to order the pride of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an icy-cold mug of Hamm’s (4.7% ABV).

GET FRESH with your ALES

Every fall in the Pacific Northwest, America’s cradle of hops production (second only to Germany), ripened hops’ tall, leafy trellises begin to sag with the weight of millions of flowers. On the best back roads, the air in Oregon’s Willamette (say “Will-am-ett” dammit) is redolent with the grapefruity smell of the delicate pinecone-like flowers, which are soon picked, dried, and packaged.

But not all hops make it to the temperature-controlled storehouses where they’re monitored to avoid spontaneous combustion (true!). Some are hauled off the lines and added directly into unfermented beers in nearby breweries, creating a fresh—and fleeting—genre of beer, interchangeably referred to as fresh-hopped or wet-hopped. Brewers in the south of England have long called them harvest ales, always an excuse for a roaring party. (Portland’s first big fresh hop festival kicked off in 2010.)

How it works: Working with growers, brewers time their arrival to a farm to coincide with a batch of beer nearing the boil stage. Then they race back and plunge the flower cones directly into what’s called the whirlpool step. In the best years, this translates into pure brewing magic, with floral aromas that hit your nose within milliseconds of cracking a finished beer open.

The only drawback to fresh hop ales? Now you see them, now you don’t. Brewed only in the fall, these beers don’t age or travel well. What’s more, they tend to drain from kegs faster than Keystone Light at a tailgater. Fresh hop ales are catching on around the country, but Oregon leads the pack, with fifty-seven different commercial fresh hop ales in 2010. Look for them from Laurelwood, Deschutes, and Full Sail on tap (and sometimes bottled, like Deschutes’ Hop Trip). Whatever you do, don’t miss the freshest beers of the year.

BAILEY’S TAPROOM

213 SW Broadway • Portland, OR 97205 • (503) 295-1004 baileystaproom.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

Unlike hilly Seattle, Portland’s downtown is wonderfully walkable, with airy park blocks leading from the river nearly to the West Hills and Forest Park (a must for city dwellers in need of a quick urban escape). Located within walking distance to the iconic Powell’s Books and several of Portland’s better boutique hotels, Bailey’s Taproom has high glass windows and a streamlined, almost minimalist interior, keeping the focus on craft beer. There are twenty taps and ninety-nine bottled selections (bringing a certain song to mind), all specializing in Oregon’s diverse craft beers, with occasional forays outside the borders into California and Washington, and cask tappings on Mondays.

During the week and on sunny afternoons there’s a constant crowd of beer lovers, but it’s seldom slammed to the point of “no-thanks . . . let’s bail.” With lots of small festivals throughout the year, it’s one of downtown’s best beer bar, if a little noisy (thanks to all that glass).

PHILOSOPHY

Efficient. While there’s no food, the owner of Bailey’s ingeniously struck a deal with Santeria, the excellent Mexican joint across the street adjoining the venerated Mary’s Club (Portland’s oldest strip joint). Simply call up to order (menus are kept behind the bar), and Santeria will deliver the goods directly to your table (try the tinga with anything).

KEY BEER

Silver Moon Bridge Creek Pilsner, from Bend (4.7% ABV) would make the ideal companion to some spicy Mexican food.

BRIDGEPORT BREWING CO.

1313 NW Marshall • Portland, OR 97209 • (503) 241-3612 bridgeportbrew.com • Established: 1984

SCENE & STORY

Richard and Nancy Ponzi, a local winemaking family, and Karl Ockert, a UC Davis-trained brewmaster, joined forces on the 600-barrel Columbia River Brewery, built in a three-story, century-old former rope factory in what would become a part of Portland’s chic Pearl District. Renamed Bridge-Port Brewing Company in 1986, it was among Oregon’s very first craft breweries and is now distributed in eighteen states. Now part of the Gambrinus family (the Texas-based importers of Corona and owners of Trumer, Spoetzl, and Shiner Bock), the beer is still good with strong one-offs and seasonals, and the old brewpub pizzeria got a multimillion dollar makeover in 2006, complete with its own bakery.

PHILOSOPHY

British-style beers with Northwest attitude and hoppy character.

KEY BEER

Introduced in 1996, BridgePort IPA (5.5% ABV) was a game-changer in Portland, with a jaw-tingling array of five different hops. Look for that and the old classic, the softly malty Blue Heron Pale Ale (4.9% ABV), first brewed in 1987 for the Audubon Society and named for Portland’s official bird.

HENRY’S 12th STREET TAVERN

10 NW 12th Ave. • Portland, OR 97209 • (503) 227-5320 henrystavern.com • Established: 2004

SCENE & STORY

The bar area of Henry’s is built in the former powerhouse section of the historic Blitz-Weinhard Brewery, which stopped making beer in 1999 after the brand was sold off to Miller. The beers are still brewed under Miller’s watch in various locations, including by Full Sail Brewing in Hood River, and the renovated building has been transformed into stunning, environmentally-friendly mixed retail and office spaces. As for the bar, Henry’s has a multilevel, flat-screen-equipped 100-tap bar, upstairs lounge (former hops storage), and fine dining area (once the brewhouse section), all tastefully appointed in comfortable banquettes, sleek metal stairs, and artful lighting.

PHILOSOPHY

It’s too slick and sceney for many Portlanders’ tastes—less fleece, more Diesel—but where else are you going to keep your beer cold on an iced rail embedded in the bar, take in the game on a massive overhead screen, and nibble on insanely decadent Gorgonzola fries?

KEY BEER

Oakshire Amber (5.4% ABV) is nutty and slightly sweet, with only the faintest note of citrusy hops.

HIGGINS RESTAURANT & BAR

1239 SW Broadway • Portland, OR 97205 • (503) 222-9070 higginsportland.com • Established: 1994

SCENE & STORY

Located just off the leafy park blocks in downtown Portland, Higgins is a restaurant in two parts; one, a white tablecloth dining room with an open kitchen; two, a warm and inviting beer café/bar with a deep list of Belgian and craft beers and mouthwatering appetizers. How do a fresh saison beer and a warm tart of leeks, oyster mushrooms, and cave-aged Gruyère served with hazelnut and fennel salad sound?

Find a reason, if you need one. James Beard Award–winning chef Greg Higgins and co. will cook your socks off. You could, for example, head there after a concert, or an art opening at the Portland Art Museum, a couple of blocks away. You don’t need a reservation to walk into the bar on a random night, and you’re likely to meet a local brewmaster refreshing at the bar, talking shop with the knowledgeable—and ultra courteous—staff.

PHILOSOPHY

As ambitious and eco-minded as they come. Higgins is an ardent champion of local purveyors, and that includes brewers, of course. Long before it was fashionable, Higgins worked with Hair of the Dog brewer Alan Sprints on a beer made with organic kabocha squash (4.5% ABV and called Greg), and promoted a series of elegant beer and brewmaster dinners with the likes of Pike Brewing Company.

KEY BEER

Beer steward Jason Button looks after the 10-tap, 100-bottle list, packed with unusual domestic and European choices. But sometimes an easy local sipper is the way to go. “Come summer, with sweet corn and peppers coming in, we like to steam clams in Kölsch,” he says. “Double Mountain in Hood River makes a nice one. So: steamed clams, sweet corn, peppers, and a Kölsch for yourself. Always hits the spot.”

GOOSE HOLLOW INN

1927 SW Jefferson St. • Portland, OR 97201 (503) 228-7010 • goosehollowinn.com • Established: 1967

SCENE & STORY

Of course, Portland’s love for craft beer runs so deep that a light-hearted tavern keeper with a thing for the good stuff got himself elected Mayor from 1984-1992, coinciding with the Rose City’s embrace of microbreweries.

Former Portland Mayor Bud Clark did a lot of great things for the city, not the least of which was opening Goose Hollow, a thoroughly unpretentious and cozy little spot in the neighborhood of the same name.

Inside is a timeless tavern with old-timers (and Clark himself, some days) chatting amiably and an excellent pub menu as well, with dishes. The patio outside is one of the best outdoor drinking spots in all of Portland, ideal for a pre-Portland Timbers game warm-up, as it’s no more than five minutes by foot from the soccer stadium. Clark brags Anheuser-Busch honored the Goose in the 1970s for serving the most beer per square foot in America, which seems about right.

PHILOSOPHY

Old school, with better beer. Today the tavern still has its old wood beams and bric-a-brac charm, but the beer list has considerably evolved.

KEY BEER

Sip on the latest local brews from Hopworks Urban Brewery, Terminal Gravity, and Deschutes, for starters. With a Reuben sandwich to eat and the sun dappling over your picnic table, you might just miss the first half of the game. Wait, what game?

Astoria

FORT GEORGE BREWERY & PUBLIC HOUSE

1483 Duane St. • Astoria, OR 97103 • (503) 325-7468 fortgeorgebrewery.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

Astoria, positioned at the mouth of the Columbia River as the Oregon Coast’s northernmost town, began as an outgrowth of Fort Clatsop, the settlement established by Lewis and Clark upon reaching the Pacific. For years, Astoria was a roughneck port—in the 1920s it was deemed the most dangerous town in America because so many unsuspecting tavern goers were shanghaied onto fishing vessels never to be seen again. Today, the town is still a bit gritty, a mosaic of nineteenth-century canneries, warehouses, and craftsman homes but with an indie rock appeal. Visitors should check into the eighteen-room Commodore Hotel, which was recently renovated with a Wes Anderson–like attention to detail, plus, it’s walking distance to Fort George Brewery.

Brewery founders Jack Harris and Chris Nemlowill, too, have a near-obsessive attention to detail, and took over the derelict Fort George building they’d first toured in late 2005, which was built on the site of the city’s old fort and a healthy spring. After opening in 2007 to steady crowds, the duo arranged to buy the whole block with help from a city loan. Today, there’s an open-air, multilevel deck, and space for artisan craftsmen (a glassblower, a metal smith), and other community-centered draws. The twelve-tap brewpub is classic Northwest, with heavy exposed beams and big windows looking out to the streets. Order up a fresh beer and some house-made sausages or perfectly ungreasy fish-and-chips, and you’ll taste the wisdom of their plans.

PHILOSOPHY

Classic local brewpub, with big ambitions (hence a new canning line added in 2011). And they love their stouts: February is always “stout month” featuring their own stouts on tap and a bunch of guest handles, concluding with a stout-and-oyster pairing dinner.

KEY BEER

Vortex IPA (7.7% ABV), served right out of a mason jar, honors the original brewhouse, which was transported through a tornado en route to Oregon from the Midwest. Now available in sixteen-ounce cans, it’s a juicy twister of lemon, grassy hops, and sweet, fruity graininess.

DETOUR

THE GOOD BEER COAST: THE BEST BEER AND SEAFOOD ON THE NORTHERN OREGON COAST

No trip to the Oregon coast would be complete without a serious seafood and beer fest, and there’s no more classically Oregonian place to do it than Jetty Fishery, a ramshackle seafood shack and campground on Nehalem Bay just north of Rockaway Beach on Highway 101 (800-821-7697; crab from $9 a pound). If you’ve got the time, rent a boat and go out with some crabbing pots to get your own haul ($75 for two hours, up to five people), then have the guys at the pier clean and cook it on the spot while you swig post-expedition brews. Short on time? There’s plenty pre-caught grub, too. Grab a sixer of Anchor Steam or Kona Longboard Lager, some hot sauce, and paper napkins from inside the little store, then sidle up to the old yellow picnic tables outside by the water’s edge and a fire pit while you wait for fresh-as-fresh-gets grilled oysters, steamed clams, and mussels, or Dungeness crab boiled in Nehalem Bay seawater. Word to the wise: try to go on a midweek afternoon. Weekends get crowded and crazy, especially when the owners fire up their 10,000-watt karaoke system for locals, RVers, and assorted campground yahoos.

After Jetty Fishery, head up to Manzanita, nine miles north on Highway 101, a 564-person town that used to be just a blip on the map. Perhaps because of this anonymity, Manzanita has started to draw in creative types, just as Big Sur, California, did back in its heyday, and its got a peaceful, progressive vibe. Down on the main drag of Laneda Avenue, pop into the relaxed San Dune Pub (503-368-5080; sandunepub.com) and sip a juicy, intense Inversion IPA from Deschutes with an oyster po’ boy and warm up by the fireplace.

North of Manzanita, 101 unwinds like a wire, bending around headlands and plunging into cathedrals of Sitka spruce and Douglas fir. Empty beaches emerge unexpectedly, the most striking of which is at Oswald West State Park (503-368-3575). The sandy stretch has become famous for its protected break, and you’re likely to see some surfers braving the frigid waters. The short wooded path down to the beach is worth the trouble, without question.

After a day of crabbing, surf scoping and beach walking, you’ll be ready for some sea-borne comfort food again before long. And if Manzanita is Oregon’s Big Sur, then Cannon Beach, ten miles north, is its Carmel, a stretch of Cape Cod–style homes with not a chain store in sight. It’s also home to Bill’s Tavern & Brewhouse (503-436-2202), a sunny and cheerful spot with bright murals on the walls and a good, pet-friendly patio. Wind up your afternoon with some fresh, flaky beer-battered halibut fish-and-chips and a pint of fresh-brewed beach beer, like the Duck Dive Pale Ale (4.8% ABV). Mission complete.

Bend

DESCHUTES BREWERY

1044 NW Bond St. • Bend, OR 97701 • (541) 382-9242 deschutesbrewery.com • Established: 1988

SCENE & STORY

Making their debut in 1988 at Gary Fish’s little Bond Street brewpub in Bend, the beers were good—really good. There was—and still is—something ideally calibrated about Deschutes’s juicy, quaffable Mirror Pond Pale Ale. Is it the prismatic Cascade hops, perfectly applied? Jubelale, a malty and warming winter seasonal, was also an instant smash hit in bottles (the first Deschutes beer packaged in glass). It seemed the brewery would never be big enough for demand. Sure enough, the latest in a series of expansions was announced in 2011.

Today, Deschutes has also opened an upscale brewpub in Portland’s swank Pearl District—often packed and playing host to a summer street fair and high-profile cooking events. They’re expanding the little old Bond Street pub too. From ski-bum hangout to industry heavyweight the company is (currently ranked around fifth in the land for sales volume), Deschutes has come far.

PHILOSOPHY

Success hasn’t come at the expense of quality. The more states that pick up the beer (some twenty at this stage), the more brewers seem freed to experiment on the side with barrel-aged stouts like The Abyss and sours like The Dissident, a Flanders-style oud bruin aged in oak barrels with cherries, both of which are excellent.

KEY BEER

Deschutes has pulled off some exceptional Belgian styles here and there, but their area of domination is truly in the British-style ales, IPAs, porters, and stouts. Black Butte Porter deserves a victory lap. It’s a little-known fact that Guinness Extra Stout debuted under the brand Extra Superior Porter and remained so for forty-one years, a stronger, darker version of the dark-hued London-born drink. Today the style has taken on many forms of its own around the world, from purist English versions to fiery Baltic variations and American riffs that incorporate peppers and sour notes. In Deschutes’s formula, tangy Northwest hops come to the fore with finesse, balancing its cocoa, coffee, and toffee notes from its blend of roasted malts. And, at 5.5% ABV, it’s a touch lighter than the old Extra Superior.

AN OREGON BREWER’S MANTRA,
APPROPRIATED

“I come from the West where the illimitable mountains lift up their heads . . . where in a civilization founded on the mine and the camp, we believe that the saloon and the theater has as good a right to be open on Sunday as the church and the school . . . where we think that it is the right of every American to go to hell and be damned if he wants to. That is not humor—it is the truth.”

—Oregon writer and soldier
C.E.S. Wood, 1852–1944

Corvallis

BLOCK 15 BREWERY & RESTAURANT

300 SW Jefferson Ave. • Corvallis, OR 97333 (541) 758-2077 • block15.com • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

Housed in the historic corner building that used to be the Gazette-Times newspaper office, Block 15’s name comes from its address (or block number) from the early days of Corvallis. It’s a small brewery, relatively speaking, but it holds a lot of significance locally as a popular watering hole, with fourteen taps (seven rotating), two floors, and room for about 120 imbibers. There’s a appealing menu of fare like house-smoked pork shoulder, burgers, and crispy fries. It’s also a rallying point for the fermentation science majors at Oregon State University, who get their own dedicated tap to showcase experimental brews. Suddenly, Corvallis has a bigger beer scene. “We’re in our own little island,” says brewer and co-owner Nick Arsner, “but we’ve got a great little beer culture growing here in Corvallis.”

PHILOSOPHY

Nonconformist. Given that Corvallis is something of a conservative town, with endless acres of corn, hops, and locals in big pickup trucks, Arsner’s cutting a different track. “I love the art in barrel aging and mixed fermentations rather than kicking out IPA,” he says. There’s even a cool ship in the works, which would be among the first in the country.

KEY BEER

Pappy’s Dark, brewed with six different Belgian and British malts and aged in nine- and ten-year-old bourbon barrels, is a velvety, deep, and rich beer with flavors of bourbon, caramel, and woody vanilla (10% ABV).

Enterprise

TERMINAL GRAVITY BREWING CO.

803 SE School St. • Enterprise, OR 97828 • (541) 426-0158 terminalgravitybrewing.com • Established: 1998

SCENE & STORY

East of the Cascades, dense Douglas fir forests yield to rolling hills of wheat, with narrow ribbon roads connecting small towns like Enterprise (population: 1,000). After a series of brewing jobs big and small, brothers-in-law Steve Carper and Dean Duquette moved back there to launch their own operation, Terminal Gravity (a brewing term for the end of fermentation). This is pristine Wallowa County mountain country, spitting distance from Kokanee salmon-filled Wallowa Lake, one of America’s only true glacial lakes, and the Hells Canyon recreation area, a major adventure-travel hub. And what’s a spin through the great outdoors without a beer to cap off the journey?

PHILOSOPHY

Live life to the fullest. Carper and Duquette’s brewery is a treasure, a quaint yellow-painted, Craftsman-style cottage with a few tables and stools inside and three acres of grounds outside where travelers meet to drink beer on the porch, play volleyball, and toss horseshoes—then stand around a roaring bonfire: the definition of summer itself.

KEY BEER

Terminal Gravity IPA, the tangy and ultra bitter bottle-conditioned beer that made this tiny brewpub regionally famous (6.9% ABV).

Eugene

NINKASI BREWING CO.

272 Van Buren St. • Eugene, OR 97402 • (541) 344-2739 ninkasibrewing.com • Established: 2006

SCENE & STORY

Back in 1994 the irrepressible Jamie Floyd was just slinging hobby home brew for University of Oregon parties. After graduation he considered academia but scored a gig manning the kettles at Steelhead Brewery in Eugene instead. Now Floyd has a staff of three dozen, and a 90,000 barrel-capacity brew house, not to mention a rabid fan base. In part by harnessing the power of community involvement through the arts and social networks (the company boasts a massive Facebook presence, and has both an iPhone and iPad app) and guerilla marketing (at night, for example, with the Ninkasi logo “Bat Signal” spotlight), the firm has all but conquered Oregon. Next up, the world?

Ninkasi’s new tasting room and outdoor patio features year-round beers, seasonals, and occasional limited specialty releases on tap, and big summer block parties are guaranteed. For edibles, there’s a limited menu of large soft brewery-dough pretzels, pasties, and soup.

PHILOSOPHY

“We make beer geek [approved] beer, but we don’t make beer for beer geeks,” says Floyd. “We encourage everybody [to drink beer], not just the super nerdy 1 percent.”

KEY BEER

The intensely bitter and tangy Total Domination IPA (6.7 % ABV) is one of the top-selling twenty-two-ounce beers in the state.

Hood River

DOUBLE MOUNTAIN BREWERY & TAPROOM

8 4th St., No. 204 • Hood River, OR 97031 • (541) 387-0042 doublemountainbrewery.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

After hiking waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge you’re going to have a wicked appetite, so get yourself to Double Mountain to set things right with a fresh pint and tasty pizza. Named for a local viewpoint where you can see both Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams (two of the many impressive Cascade Range peaks), the family-friendly brewpub was founded by Full Sail brewery alumnae Matt Swihart and Charlie Deveraux who met working in production and began a series of tactical brainstorms masquerading as long nights of drinking. Pinned with demand immediately after opening, Double Mountain pub is close to Full Sail and Hood River’s main drag, with a cool sage-green interior, living room couches, off-beat local artworks, and the odd live band.

PHILOSOPHY

Hop lovers to the hilt, Deveraux and Swihart (who handles the brewing duties) go for huge additions of whole flower hops and minimal handling of the beer, for a powerful but not overly aggressive character, followed by long conditioning rests and no filtration.

KEY BEER

The 6.5% ABV India Red Ale (“I.R.A.”), a scarlet, malty beast with the hop profile of an IPA, is a good match for the piquant pepperoni pizza. Or take a pull off The Vaporizer, a dry, golden-hued pale ale with Pilsner malt and Challenger hops, grown in Washington’s Yakima Valley (6% ABV).

FULL SAIL BREWERY & TASTING ROOM & PUB

506 Columbia St. • Hood River, OR 97031 • (541) 386-2247 fullsailbrewing.com • Established: 1987

SCENE & STORY

Early settlers here braved Hood River’s wind tunnel conditions, and the fruit orchards they established thrived and made it famous. Fast forward two hundred years: today, the quaint Columbia River-side town of 6,500 located an hour east of Portland still boasts the same majestic views of Mt. Hood and fertile fruit trees. But thanks to that steady wind, it’s now regarded as one of the world’s top destinations for windsurfing and kite boarding. Since 1987 it’s been a beer town, too, home to the once-tiny, now huge Full Sail, where you can drink a beer and watch the speeding sails embroider the waves. (This is preferable to attempting actual windsurfing, which, for most of us, becomes an infinite wipeout.)

PHILOSOPHY

Progressive and green-minded. In 1999 Full Sail became 100 percent employee-owned, and employees work four 10-hour days to save resources (and make the most of powder days up on Mt. Hood and winds on the Columbia, no doubt).

KEY BEER

If you’re visiting in the fall (a beautiful season to be in the area), look for the fresh hop ales—there’s often two or three on at a time, made with huge quantities of just-picked hop flowers. “To get a comparable extract out of the hop (compared to the dried version), you have to use about five times the amount, and when you add that much more, you get more of a green, chlorophyll, leaf, and vegetative matter flavor,” says Full Sail brewmaster John Harris, who has made many in his day. The rest of the year, try Full Sail Amber, the company’s flagship and Oregon’s first craft beer in bottles, which came out in 1989 and won a gold at GABF the same year. It’s 5.5% ABV and on the sweet and malty side, with a light touch of Mt. Hood and Cascade hops.

DETOUR

FACE FALLS FIRST: OREGON’S WATERFALL-FILLED COLUMBIA GORGE

The Columbia Gorge—a short drive east from Portland on highway I-84 toward Hood River—is braided with postcard cataracts that lure masses. Multnomah Falls, at 620 feet, is the nation’s second highest waterfall after Yosemite. Hike eight hundred feet up to stroll past the more serene Weisendanger and Ecola falls, invisible from ground level. Marginally tougher to reach (but far lesser known) is Oneonta Gorge, a gloamy slot canyon lined with neon-bright lichens accessed by fording a logjam (one that, thankfully, turns back Fast Food Nation) merely a quarter of a mile away. (www.oregon.com/hiking)

LOGSDON ORGANIC FARMHOUSE ALES

785 Booth Hill Rd. • Hood River, OR 97031 • (541) 490-9161 farmhousebeer.com • Established: 2011

SCENE & STORY

Plenty of American brewers these days claim to brew “farmhouse” ales (meaning the refreshing, yeast-driven beer that was traditionally brewed in the Belgian and French countryside for local consumption) but there’s just one problem: no farmhouse. Not so for Oregon’s Dave Logsdon, who was the founding brewmaster of Full Sail, and went on to found Wyeast Laboratories, a hugely successful wholesale and retail yeast company for the wine and beer industries. With a partner, experienced brewer Charles Porter, Logsdon opened the brewery on his family’s beautiful working farm outside of Hood River, complete with a big red barn (where the kettles, tanks, and barrels live), pets, horses, and highland cattle, in 2011.

PHILOSOPHY

Purist, with hometown allegiances. “How do you make a farmhouse beer if you’re not in a farmhouse? That’s a really important part of the definition for me,” says Logsdon, who has imported schaerbeekse kriek (cherry) trees from an orchard in East Flanders to use in barrel-aged beers, including a planned Cascadian Red, named for the Pacific Northwest region. The ingredients are all certified organic (as in the home-land). With his wood-aged beers, he’s going for a smidge less sourness than some of the more intense Belgian ales: “I try to create a lot of maltiness to carry the acidity but also to keep the acid in check, so it makes it a nice drinking beer—tart and thirst quenching at the same time.”

KEY BEER

Seizoen Bretta (8% ABV), a traditional malty, yeasty saison with an addition of Brettanomyces adding fruity notes, acidity, and woody, earthy, almost leathery notes.

Oregon City

HIGHLAND STILLHOUSE PUB

201 S 2nd St. • Oregon City, OR 97045 • (503) 723-6789 highlandstillhouse.com • Established: 2006

SCENE & STORY

Themed “Hibernian” (Irish), English, and Scottish pubs can be tiresomely phony. Not this one. Though it’s hardly old, this bar has all the character and patina one would expect from the real McCoy (i.e. Glasgow’s Pot Still bar), with one of the best—if not the best—selection of whiskey in the Portland area. Overlooking Willamette Falls, it’s a charming two-level warren of rooms built into a 1920s gas station building, all dark wood paneling and few right angles, with an impressive deck outside. Families can gather downstairs; the adults-only upstairs “snug bar” is exactly as it should be: cozy and embracing. When you go, you’re likely to meet the owners Tammy and Mick Secor—that is, unless they’re off on their twice-annual Scotland distillery touring adventures, especially in Islay.

PHILOSOPHY

Classic Highland pub—friendly, warm, and comfortable. Thanks to its distance from Portland (about 15 miles south), it’s a bit of a sleeper.

KEY BEER

It’s especially rare to see Scottish brewery Belhaven’s Twisted Thistle IPA (5.3% ABV) or the Wee Heavy (6.5% ABV), so do your duty and try them out. There are a total of twenty taps and seventy-five bottles to choose from, with added treats like Full Sail’s Bump in the Night Black IPA on cask.

Pendleton

PRODIGAL SON BREWERY & PUB

230 SE Court Ave. • Pendleton, OR 97801 • (541) 276-6090 prodigalsonbrewery.com • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

Most of the time there’s an inversely proportional relationship between average belt buckle size and the number of craft brews available in any given town. Located in the home of the massive annual Pendleton Round-Up rodeo, Prodigal Son is helping turn those numbers around. Tucked in on a main drag among dive bars, the brewpub is the work of three friends who grew up in Pendleton, left town, and then came back to get serious about brewing (hence the name). The brewpub is a big and open space with tall ceilings, concrete floors, exposed wood beams, exposed air ducts, and a weathered brick wall on one side of the pub that has an old ad painted on the surface. It’s also family friendly with a theater room off to the side of the pub with a large screen and theater seating. Head brewer Brian Harder used to brew at Rogue in Newport and was mentored by John Maier, which means he’s got the experience he needs to make it as a craft brewer in a cowboy town.

PHILOSOPHY

Conservative, for now. They’re making fairly standard ales by Portland or Seattle standards, but that’s what the market demands, says Harder. It’s only a matter of time before the big belt buckle crowd comes around, growlers in hand.

KEY BEER

The 7.5% ABV Bruce/Lee Porter is as big and roasty and rich as cowboy coffee—but tastes a whole lot better.

Troutdale

McMENAMIN’S EDGEFIELD

2126 SW Halsey St. • Troutdale, OR 97060 (503) 669-8610 • mcmenamins.com • Established: 1991

SCENE & STORY

For those who live in the Northwest, the McMenamin Brothers’ quirky empire of fifty-nine (and counting) inns and brewpubs in artistically converted old churches, schools, theaters, utility buildings—even a lighthouse—are everyday neighbors, seldom spoken of with much passion anymore. It’s all too easy to forget that the Dead Head brothers Brian and Mike were right there at the start of things, though, with the Widmers and Ponzis of BridgePort in lobbying the Oregon state legislature to legalize brewpubs.

The fact is that while the beer and food are indeed unremarkable, most—if not all—of their loving, Age of Aquarius–inspired restorations, earnest local history murals, and other psychedelia-tinged whims will stand the test of time. The bars might serve only McMenamins’ beer—often uninspiring—but the quirks and design are worth celebrating. Edgefield, a sprawling 74-acre Works Progress Administration compound built in 1911 just outside of Portland—is the jewel in the crown, with a 100-room inn, brewery, distillery, winery, movie theater, multiple bars, concert stage, and rambling grounds complete with gardens and a par-3 golf course. (What else? Oh, yes, a resident glassblower, naturally.) On a warm summer night, you can’t do much better than strolling around the grounds with a beer in hand, ducking into the cigar-friendly Little Red Shed, a tiny, candle-lit ten-seat hide-away built in the farm’s former incinerator, now covered with creeper vines.

PHILOSOPHY

“Welcome to The Kingdom of Fun.”

KEY BEER

On a hot day, the raspberry sweet-tart 4.4% ABV Ruby does the trick, getting plenty of zing from 42 lbs of berries in every small batch.

BEST of the REST: OREGON

THE 5th QUADRANT and SIDE BAR

3901 N Williams Ave. • Portland, OR 97227 • (503) 288-3996 • newoldlompoc.com

The 5th Quadrant is one of New Old Lompoc Brewing Company’s four locations, all of them worth a stop. The late Don Younger (of Horse Brass fame) was an early partner, and at the original NW 23rd Avenue location, now called the New Old Lompoc, the sun deck is an ideal spot for one of their ultra-hoppy, assertive beers like Proletariat Red (6.2% ABV). Meanwhile the newer 5th Quadrant has a bigger brewery system, slicker dining area, and an attached barrel-tasting room.

THE VICTORY BAR

2509 SE 37th Ave. • Portland, OR 97202 • (503) 236-8755 • thevictorybar.com

A diminutive but perfectly thought-out beer bar out in neighborhoody southeast, Victory (established in 2007) has six taps and sixty bottled selections from Oregon and around the world. Food options go the tapas route, from soup to clams, burgers, and some very tasty spaetzle. A recent gem on tap: the funky, bready, and sour Moinette Brune (8.5% ABV) from Belgium.

CALDERA TAP HOUSE

31 Water St., No. 2 • Ashland, OR 97520 • (541) 482-HOPS • calderabrewing.com

Green-minded Caldera, which sold its first beer in 1997, was the first microbrewery on the West Coast to can its beer, starting in 2005, a line of fragrant whole-flower hopped beers best sipped on their huge, sun-dapped deck overlooking a creek right in the middle of Ashland. Head brewer Todd Kemp is going for “a clean, accurate representation of the style, and a true expression of the ingredients used to make it,” he says. His Caldera IPA (6.1% ABV) is excellent, deep amber-hued with a thick, eggshell white head of foam.

10 BARREL BREWING CO.

20750 High Desert Ln. • Bend, OR 97701 • (541) 585-1007 • 10barrel.com

In addition to Deschutes, the granddaddy in town, there are six or seven other breweries in Bend. Among the best of those is 10-Barrel, opened in 2006 with innovative beers like S1NIST0R Black Ale (5.4% ABV), made with special dehusked German black malt meant to impart color without astringency. Try this sleek, modern spot with polished cement floors and garage doors opening to patio seating for enjoying a pizza (pesto, chicken, prosciutto) and a couple light-bodied, fragrant summer ales by the fire pit, an idyllic spot on a clear, chilly night in Bend.

THE BIER STEIN BOTTLESHOP & PUB

345 East 11th Ave. • Eugene, OR 97401 • (541) 485-BIER • thebierstein.com

A central meeting place for Eugene beer fanatics since 2005, the Bier Stein has ten taps and over a thousand bottled selections from all over the world and a small menu of salads, sandwiches, and soups. Owners Chip Hardy and his wife, Kristina Measells, cultivate close relationships with breweries and distributors to get specialty bottles and drafts. The only thing you won’t find? B.M.C. (meaning Bud, Miller, Coors) and 40 oz’ers.

CHATOE ROGUE

3590 Wigrich Rd. • Independence, OR 97351 • (503) 838-9813 • rogue.com

Independence, Oregon, was once known as the Hop Capital of the World, and the land there is still embroidered with huge stands of trellised hops supplying brewers in Oregon and beyond. Chatoe Rogue is essentially a compound in Independence consisting of forty-two acres of proprietary hops surrounded by cherry and filbert orchards; a 100-year-old, five-bedroom farmhouse available for rent as accommodation; and a small tasting room containing Rogue’s Farmstead Nano-Brewery operation.

BREWERS UNION LOCAL 180

48329 East 1st St. • Oakridge, OR 97463 • (541) 782-2024 • brewersunion.com

You don’t need a union card to get in to this atmospheric brewpub established in 2008. You just need a thirst for some ultra-traditional British-style cask-conditioned beer, which brewer-owner Ted Sobel spares no effort to create, store, and serve. Out of the best traditional ingredients and gear, such as Maris Otter malts and torrified wheat, the resulting bitters, stouts, and a traditional ginger ale come in around 3% to 5.5% ABV, matching the English-type pub fare.

THREE CREEKS BREWING CO.

721 Desperado Ct. • Sisters, OR 97759 • (541) 549-1963 • threecreeksbrewing.com

If your trip to Bend from Portland takes you through Detroit Lake on the Santiam Highway, aka Highway 20—and it should, as it’s an incredibly pretty drive in good weather—you’ll pass through the historic town of Sisters (population: 1,700). Just south of Sisters, this big, comfortable log cabin–like brewpub opened in 2008 amid a stand of Ponderosa pines. A combination family restaurant, beer bar, and brewery, it’s got ten decent—sometimes good—taps. Try the 5.8% ABV Firestorm Red if Rudolph’s Imperial Red (8.6% ABV) isn’t on. With good burgers, sandwiches, steaks, and a sunny patio, it’s a great stop to make before the long trek back to Portland after a fun weekend in Bend.

Washington

SIP ON THIS: WITHOUT WASHINGTON’S CRAFT BEER REVOLUTION, Starbucks Coffee might never have gotten off the ground (read on to see why). The fact is, Washington’s beer history goes all the way back to the 1850s, but it’s the last couple of decades that tell the most about this beautiful and diverse state’s beer potential and how it’s now a part of daily life for many living here. With a gold mine of hops from the Yakima Valley (the country’s biggest hop-growing area and second largest in the world, after southern Germany), this was fertile ground for Red Hook, the first microbrewery to make a major impact in the early 1980s. In converting beer drinkers from the classic, if underflavored Northwest beers like Rainier and Hamm’s, newcomers like Red Hook, Pike, Hales, and later pathbreakers have carved out quite a legacy. Now Seattle is a genuinely great beer bar town, and all around the state new breweries are popping up. So what if it rains all the time?

ITINERARIES

Seattle

BEVERIDGE PLACE PUB

6413 California Ave. SW • Seattle, WA 98136 • (206) 932-9906 beveridgeplacepub.com • Established: 2003

SCENE & STORY

If for nothing else, step inside this West Seattle landmark beer haunt (on the corner of California and SW Beveridge Place, hence the name) to check out the 11-foot-high, 20-foot-wide back bar, a turn-of-the-twentieth-century showpiece salvaged from a defunct Kent, Washington tavern called the Buzz Inn. At first, its three mirrored archways and gorgeous carvings were stained a deep brown (thanks to a century of cigarette smoke), but after three months spent cleaning the patina, a sumptuous cherry-stained tiger maple was revealed. A local metalsmith provided a custom tap tower and today the 25-tap, 100-plus selection of bottles draws a steady crowd of loyal locals.

PHILOSOPHY

Owner Gary Sink was inspired by a trip to the British Isles; the bar exudes community with couches, books, darts, a few (but not too many) TVs, well-maintained pool tables and retro video games—Tron, anyone?

KEY BEER

The list focuses on Washington crafts and international bottles, with casks frequently. Look for the orange-hued Manny’s Pale Ale (5.4% ABV) from Georgetown Brewery, which is slightly sweet and honey-ish, but balanced perfectly with fresh, floral hops.

BIG TIME BREWERY & ALEHOUSE

4133 University Wy. NE • Seattle, WA 98105 (206) 545-4509 • bigtimebrewery.com • Established: 1988

SCENE & STORY

Smack in the middle of “the Ave” in the U District in Seattle (University of Washington), Big Time is more relaxed-but-thirsty grad student than college-frosh-getting-sloshed. With its faded wood walls and shuffleboard, it’s a sure bet in the area for good beers and a good bite (try the pizzas). Brewer Bill Jenkins left in 2011, handing the reins to Drew Cluley, former head of Pike’s operations—no remedial student of the brewer’s arts.

PHILOSOPHY

These guys are big-time hopheads. There are up to four house IPAs on tap at any given time, with dozens of recipes in the brewer’s logs.

KEY BEER

Old Sol is beer of the wheat wine style, which is something like an English-style barley wine but made with a majority of wheat, giving the beer some softness on the palate. Released on the summer solstice each year, it’s spicy and fulsome at 10% ABV, but disappears all too quickly, like summer in the Pacific Northwest.

BROUWER’S CAFÉ

400 North 35th St. • Seattle, WA 98103 • (206) 267-2437 brouwerscafe.blogspot.com • Established: 2005

SCENE & STORY

Owners Matt Bonney and Matt Van De Berghe have created a beer fortress of sorts, with a dark and somewhat castle-like interior featuring a parlor-level balcony curling around the main bar floor and some heavy chandeliers. The sixty-four taps and 300-plus bottled selections are stored with care and served in beer-specific glassware, but it’s the policy of using a new piece of serving tube for every new beer on tap that shows how far Brouwer’s goes to present craft beer at its best. The food is hearty, stick-to-your-ribs fare like croquettes, mussels, and a spicy lamb burger with fries (and go for a side of roasted garlic to take your taste buds even deeper).

PHILOSOPHY

You know you’re in a Belgian beer shrine when you’re greeted by a heraldic metal lion symbolizing Belgium and the Netherlands on the door, while inside there’s a replica of the Mannekin Pis, a Brussels sculpture of a boy playfully taking a wiz that has come to symbolize the carefree joie de vivre of Belgian café culture.

KEY BEER

Orchard White, a 5.7% ABV witbier (unfiltered wheat-based beer doped with coriander and other spices) from Orange County, California’s cult-hit The Bruery, is light on the tongue, with hints of dry apple flavor. It’s one of the most interesting and versatile beers to come along for some time, and would make a good start before heading into bigger beers and barley wines, which are a specialty here.

CRUNCH TIME

Local potato chip guru Tim Kennedy introduced Tim’s Cascade Style Potato Chips—the ultimate beer snack—in 1986, giving them a signature crunchiness that may be audible from space. With their classic oldtimey red-and-white bag, they’re easy to spot, too, but even easier to eat in embarrassing quantities. Don’t pass them up, especially the sea salt and vinegar or jalapeño flavors, and wasabi for the brave. timschips.com

COLLINS PUB

526 2^nd Ave. • Seattle, WA 98104 • (206) 623-1016 thecollinspub.com • Established: 2003

SCENE & STORY

Downtown Seattle’s Pioneer Square area can sometimes feel like a drab warehouse district, even a bit sketchy at night. Thankfully, the Collins Pub, fourth-generation local Seth Howard’s craft beer shrine in the historic five-story brick Collins Building, is a welcome oasis, especially on weekends when the workweek happy hour crowds have dispersed and it’s warm enough to take a seat on the enclosed sidewalk patio. There are twenty taps and more than sixty-five bottles, and amid the exposed brick dating to the 1890s, hardwood details, a heavy hanging mirror flanked by hand-blown glass-and-metal sconces, cozy booths, and way-above-average pub fare, it’s easy to see an evening or afternoon disappear in a hurry.

Carnivores must try the lamb chops or hand-formed Collins Burger with Oregon Tillamook cheddar cheese while the fresh ling cod fish-and-chips, fried with a Chuckanut Pilsner beer batter, is a strong option, too. For the best service, sit at the bar, and be sure to come long before the 2 a.m. posted closing time; it often closes much, much earlier, around 11 p.m.

PHILOSOPHY

Affordable gastropub meets private beer bar.

KEY BEER

Dogfish Head Palo Santa Marron (12% ABV), a rich stout aged in Paraguayan wood related to frankincense, crude-oil-black and milkshake creamy.

ELYSIAN BREWING CO.

1221 E. Pike St. • Seattle, WA 98122 • (206) 860-1920 elysianbrewing.com • Established: 1996

SCENE & STORY

Which came first, the age or the wisdom? The original Elysian location represents the paradigmatic brewpub—exposed beams, polished cement floors, high industrial ceilings, and walls lined with gleaming brewing tanks in a ninety-year-old converted warehouse. (There are two other newer locations: Elysian Fields, a large brewpub in the Stadium District, and Tangletown, a smaller location in South Greenlake, with at least one more location in planning stages.) Behind it all is founding brewer Dick Cantwell, born in Germany and raised in the United States, who has led the Seattle firm to scores of awards by doing what he has always done best: brew a massive array of styles with sure-handed skill. With sixteen taps including two guest beers, you can try a serious slice of the Cantwell oeuvre here, from the well known to the obscure.

PHILOSOPHY

Collaborative. In 2008 Elysian began an exchange program of sorts (“collabeerations”) with New Belgium Brewery resulting in the Trip Series of experimental beers like a Black Belgo IPA and a juniper-infused ale, for which brew houses, knowledge, and manpower are exchanged in order to keep things fresh and innovative.

KEY BEER

Like Boston Lager, the Wise ESB (a reference to the Goddess Athena, and Elysian’s first beer) shows a lot of malty backbone, a grain-given sturdiness that’s typical for the style. But alas, ESBs also occasionally suffer from a cloying, fruit-like sweetness. Not so with the Wise: Its drier profile makes it far more quaffable in high volumes, which, frankly, has its own intrinsic wisdom. Even better, there’s an overlay of mellow spiciness derived from three different kinds of tangy Northwest hops, making it perfect for fall’s cool nights (5.9% ABV).

HALE’S ALES

4301 Leary Wy. NW • Seattle, WA 98107 • (206) 706-1544 halesbrewery.com • Established: 1983

SCENE & STORY

Like many Americans, Mike Hale tasted his first old-world craft beer in college while traveling abroad, and studied its curious properties with a deep and abiding conviction. About ten years later, still searching for the flavor and fired up by stories about Jack McAuliffe’s efforts down at New Albion in California, he relocated to southern England in 1982, volunteered at Gale’s Brewery and Guinness, and within a year of returning home to the Seattle area, he’d founded Hale’s Ales.

The new little brewery was immediately hit with demand. After a few expansions in different locations over the years he settled on the current 17,000-square-foot location between Fremont and Ballard (in an old hose manufacturing plant) and opened a brewpub and beer garden to go with his new bigger brew house. It’s got a wide-open feel with views directly into the operations area, complete with mirrors angled for views into the open fermenters.

PHILOSOPHY

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing,” Hale says, speaking about quality brewing practices. And to keep things running smooth with his accounts across the Pacific Northwest, Hale also restored a beautiful red double-decker bus and outfitted it with a draft bar, hot water, bathrooms, and plush club seating. Don’t be surprised if you see him, Red Baron–style in the cockpit, the engine juddering away and the passengers raising toasts. It’s a beautiful sight, but alas, not one he can legally open to members of the public. It must be used for “educational purposes” only. Isn’t school great?

KEY BEER

Hale’s 5.2% ABV Pale American Ale set a new standard in the Northwest when it was released, but it’s the smooth, sessionable Cream Ale; grassy, grainy Kölsch; and recent spate of double IPAs like Supergoose (7.5% ABV) that are the ones to try.

LATONA PUB

6423 Latona Ave. NE • Seattle, WA 98115 • (206) 525-2238 3pubs.com/Latona.html • Established: 1987

SCENE & STORY

With its corner spot and high, wide windows, the Latona looks inviting from the outside, but it’s the warm service, approachable clientele, and healthy but hearty pub fare (served on classic Fiesta ware plates) that really set this beer bar apart. The menu reaches for a culinary grace note or two without grasping, and the beers (ten on tap, thirty bottled) are fresh thanks to quick rotations and a steady, curious clientele.

PHILOSOPHY

Reverential. “The beer brewed in our own backyard is created by some of the most talented, creative people in the world,” write the owners on the website for the Latona and their two other Seattle pubs, Hopvine and Fiddler’s Inn. “At our pubs, we want to present to you the closest thing to what the brewers create. We take care of the beer we pour.”

KEY BEER

With its light-bodied notes of coffee and bitter chocolate, Big Time Brewery’s Coal Creek Porter (4.5% ABV) would go nicely with the green chile chicken quesadillas.

NAKED CITY BREWERY & TAPHOUSE

8564 Greenwood Ave. North • Seattle, WA 98103 (206) 838-6299 • nakedcitybrewing.com • Established: 2009

SCENE & STORY

Owners Don Webb and Donald Averill were home brewers with a common dream of opening their own breweries when they met and joined forces. Webb is a major film buff, hence the noirish theme running through the signage and art in the place; Naked City came out in 1948 based on the iconic book of New York real-life crime photos of the same name by Arthur Fellig, aka Weegee, in 1945 (check out the big framed movie poster for it). In filmmaking terms, Webb and Averill were thinking in big-budget 70mm Technicolor; in the end, budget constraints were more along the lines of an indie production, though hardly Spartan. They installed a 3.5-barrel system (about a hundred gallons) and a 24-tap bar, curated a vegan-friendly menu with sandwiches and starters like white truffle pâté and landjäger, a dried German sausage. It’s a simple, smart arrangement.

PHILOSOPHY

Respect greatness, in beer or film form. Instead of reality shows and sports, the TVs show iconic old films; the taps are dedicated to craft beers made in small batches.

KEY BEER

Local and regional breweries like Snipes, Chuckanut, and Schooner Exact dominate the list; try Naked City’s the Big Lebrewski, a 12% ABV Imperial Stout with blockbuster levels of roasted malt.

THE PIKE PUB & BREWERY

1415 1st Ave. • Seattle, WA 98101 • (206) 622-6044 pikebrewing.com • Established: 1989

SCENE & STORY

Located in the Pike Place Market area, the pub is a multilevel, brightly painted beer lover’s warren of three bars chockablock with a truly impressive collection of breweriana. The story this collection tells is the story of Charles and Rose Ann Finkel, who founded Pike after helping launch the American craft beer scene through Merchant Du Vin, a gourmet food, wine, and beer importing company they created in 1978. Through that pathbreaking firm, the Finkels introduced American palates to extraordinary beers never before tasted on these shores, including such iconic brands as Orval and Rochefort of Belgium, Samuel Smith’s of Yorkshire, England, and Ayinger of Bavaria, Germany, all of which are considered classics of European brewing traditions.

Along the way, Finkel emerged as a talented graphic artist, designing beer labels for U.S. markets and eventually several books about beer and design. The Finkels opened Pike, their dream brewery, in 1989, and quickly accrued a trove of brewing industry medals and thirsty accounts. By 1997 they sold the brewery and import company to an unnamed investor, but longed to be back in the beer fold, and bought the brewery back in 2006.

PHILOSOPHY

The warm and charming Finkels are both conservationists and foodies, involved with Salone del Gusto (the biannual Slow Food convention in Turin, Italy), and they’re ambitiously ramping up both the beer and food options in their brewpub accordingly.

KEY BEER

While Pike’s excellent Pale, IPA, XXXXX Stout, and Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale made the company famous, new releases such as Pike Dry Wit are gaining notice from the likes of legendary Chez Panisse chef, Alice Waters. It’s a wit, or unfiltered, Belgian-style white beer spiced with Nugget and Cascade hops, dried orange peel, coriander, chamomile, and organic lavender (5% ABV).

QUINN’S

1001 E. Pike St. • Seattle, WA 98122 • (206) 325-7711 quinnspubseattle.com • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

There are times when the only question is this: Where to find a great burger? For those moments of doubt, this Capitol Hill eatery a block off of Broadway created the secret answer, only available by request and “never, ever” printed on the menu: the Ultra Burger. A hefty, hand-formed patty of natural, barley fed beef, the Ultra could include—in addition to foie gras and “depending on the chef’s mood,” says manager Reagan Vaughn of chef-owner Scott Staples—oxtail, braised short rib, or whatever he feels like.

For $30, this beauty comes piled with beef-fat fries topped with fontina fonduta cheese and demi-glace—a highbrow poutine. Pair this with a great fresh beer and life, for a moment, is complete. The cool, 1900s converted-loft feel of the place, with its big windows, only enhances the effect. Beyond the Ultra, there’s roasted bone marrow (a specialty), slow-roasted pork ribs, Idaho trout, and beer-battered fish-and-chips, among other seasonally driven dishes. Order the marrow and at least one Ultra Burger for the table.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is short—order wisely.

KEY BEER

There are fourteen taps and seventy bottles featuring the latest Elysian, Maritime Pacific, Odin, and Naked City brews, cask-conditioned ales, a wide selection of Trappist ales, and burger-friendly nectars like Russian River’s Pliny the Elder.

Woodinville

RED HOOK BREWERY & FORECASTERS PUBLIC HOUSE

14300 NE 145th St. • Woodinville, WA 98072 (425) 483-3232 • redhook.com • Established: 1981

SCENE & STORY

Red Hook is one of the cornerstones in the church of Pacific Northwest craft brewing, but there was little hope things would go as incredibly well as they have. Founders Paul Shipman and Gordon Bowker started out inauspiciously with a Belgian ale brewed in a converted transmission shop in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Locals dubbed it “banana beer” and fewer than 1000 bbl sold in year one. But Blackhook Porter and Ballard Bitter, released in 1983 and 1984, respectively, changed them from laughingstock to growing concern, and in 1987 the E.S.B. (Extra Special Bitter) became a clarion call to beer drinkers around the region. Bowker went on to found a little coffee shop called Starbucks, and today the brewery is a huge national brand with three plants and national distribution through Anheuser-Busch, an arrangement that irks some craft beer industry watchers and no doubt fills others with envy.

The Woodinville operation is a big draw for Seattleites and area beer lovers for the al fresco movies and concerts, $1 tours of the brewery, and a bite in the brewpub (Warning: hit-or-miss food; slow service). The best way to visit is on bike. Each year the Haul Ash Tour de Brew commemorates the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. It’s a round-trip ride from the brewery in Woodinville to Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood—where it all began—along the verdant Burke-Gilman Trail.

PHILOSOPHY

Loosely? “Ya sure, ya betcha,” as the Ballard Bitter labels once read in homage to the area’s Scandinavian roots. These are clean, malt-forward beers taking off on British styles (mostly) with admirable fresh Pacific Northwest hop character.

KEY BEER

Just as good as it was back in ’87—if not better today—the 5.5% ABV Redhook E.S.B. is a throwback to the English Extra Special Bitters, redolent of toasted malt with a pleasant sweetness and the tang of four hop additions. In 2009, the beer took a gold at the Great American Beer Festival, proving it’s a still a benchmark beer twenty-two years after the first batch.

Tacoma

PARKWAY TAVERN

313 N. I St. • Tacoma, WA 98403 (253) 383-8748 • No website • Established: 1936

SCENE & STORY

Sometimes little old bars open since the 1930s with no website translate as: cool spot/bad beer. Not so with the Parkway. Its home of Tacoma (located down I-5 a bit between Seattle and Olympia) has a proud beer history, with no fewer than eight breweries up and running between 1888 and Prohibition. Built upon the restoration of lawful beer drinking in what appears to be a converted old shingled house in a quiet residential neighborhood, the Parkway Tavern is a retro gem with a beer list very much of the moment.

As for the bar itself, I’m sure you’ve heard those stories that begin “there used to be a beat-up old drop ceiling in here. We pulled it down and found this . . .” Which, when you look up, turns out to be acres of gorgeous stained wood. That’s the Parkway’s thirty-plus tap front room, with mahogany paneling, cherry wood tables, and polished bar. There’s also a working fireplace and a game room of sorts in the back where guests play pool, darts, shuffleboard, and pinball (yes!). And don’t leave without a visit to the Zebra Room. You’ll know it when you see it.

PHILOSOPHY

There’s an old bar sign that reads “THE LIVER IS EVIL . . . IT MUST BE PUNISHED,” but with the excellent beers on tap here, you’re more likely treating yourself with kid gloves. There are multiple festivals and tasting events here year-round for barrel-aged beers, barley wines, and IPAs.

KEY BEER

This would be the perfect place for the roasty but unpunishing Moylan’s Dragoons Dry Irish Stout (5% ABV), or perhaps a fresh Russian River tap, as they’re frequent.

Bellingham

CHUCKANUT BREWERY & KITCHEN

601 W. Holly St. • Bellingham, WA 98225 • (360) 752-3377 chuckanutbreweryandkitchen.com • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

Founder Will Kemper tells the story of walking into the old Rainier brewery (now shuttered) in Seattle to ask the brewmaster how he might get started in the trade. The brewer told him he’d have to have been born into it. Wrong answer. Kemper armed himself with the top degrees in brewing (which would lead to eventual teaching appointments in California and London) before going on to found the influential Thomas Kemper brewery (a venture which was later sold to Pyramid). He became a globetrotting consultant, setting up or running scores of breweries in Mexico, Europe, and in Turkey before making his most recent move, to Bellingham, where he set up this technically advanced brewery with an off-kilter name. Today the little seventy-five-seat Chuckanut brewery (built in a converted waterfront warehouse) is a sunny affair with six rotating taps, buttery walls and a gleaming, fully automated brewhouse. Kemper’s latest venture was honored with best brewer and small brewpub of the year in 2009 at the Great American Beer Festival, which just goes to show: You can’t keep a good brewer down.

PHILOSOPHY

Clean, controlled, and mostly true to established styles, Kemper’s operation is one of a variety executed with a true perfectionist’s eye for detail. There’s an open kitchen with a wood-burning oven for preparing pizzas and tasty, healthy food to pair with his beers.

KEY BEER

Try the pale golden Kolsch, with a refreshingly light, herbal, hay-like taste and crisp finish (5% ABV).

DETOUR

THE ULTIMATE ALE SAIL SCHOONER ZODIAC • 1221 Harris Ave., PNB 2 • Bellingham, WA 98225 (206) 719-7622 • schoonerzodiac.com

Washington’s Puget Sound is known for roving pods of killer whales and soaring bald eagles, craggy remote islets with sleepy sea lions, bobbing otters, barking harbor seals, and the occasional humpback. It’s also home to a handful of breweries accessible by sea. What better way to tour them than on a majestic 127-foot topsail schooner built in 1924? Three times each summer, Schooner Zodiac sets sail from Bellingham on a four-day, three-night adventure tour with steaming breweries in the looking-glass every day, including but not limited to stops at Snoqualmie Brewery & Taproom, Chuckanut Brewery & Kitchen, and Port Townsend Brewing Company. In between brewery tours, the skilled onboard chef keeps your belly full, fueling afternoon kayak excursions among forested islets and sessions spent learning the ropes, hauling sheets and lines, and generally earning a bit of ale (dispensed freely when the anchor’s down). At last, it’s time to home brew some “Schooner Rat IPA” under the stars with noted Northwest brewers—if you’ve got the energy to stay awake. From $775 per person all-inclusive.

Mukilteo

DIAMOND KNOT

621-A Front St. • Mukilteo, WA 98275 • (425) 355-4488 diamondknot.com • Established: 1994

SCENE & STORY

The merchant ship Diamond Knot sank in 1947 a quarter mile from Port Angeles in 135 feet of water carrying precious cargo: an estimated 5.7 million cans of choice Alaskan canned salmon. Insurers said it was a lost cause, but crewmen and locals jury-rigged a vacuum system to hoover the edibles out of the ocean, and the successful mission came to symbolize local, er, can-do spirit. When home brew buddies and coworkers at Boeing Bob Mophet and the late Brian Sollenburger decided to launch a self-distributing brewing company without quitting their day jobs—they were discouraged, too. But they channeled the fabled can-rescue operation, took over a converted transit building garage that once housed a pub, and started brewing big beers with boatloads of Northwest hops in every batch. Just fifteen years later, the business has grown to include this location, a gloriously funky spot with sawdust on the floors and crowds of locals, a second brewpub, and a third establishment, a beer bar.

PHILOSOPHY

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

KEY BEER

The big, burly, and pungent Diamond Knot IPA put these Boeing cabin boys on a down-wind run. Look for dry-hopped versions with Simcoe, and the Shipwreck XXXIPA, an Imperial IPA with a leviathan’s bite.

Stevenson

WALKING MAN BREWING CO.

240 SW First St. • Stevenson, WA 98648 (509) 427-5520 • No website • Established: 2000

SCENE & STORY

Just across the river in Washington from the Oregon beer-blessed town of Hood River in the scenic Columbia Gorge this small-town brewpub has a bevy of tanks shoehorned into a back room, twelve taps, lots of wood paneling, and a collection of bottle openers on a vertical wood beam next to the cash register. The pub fare is heavy on pizzas, and the patio is great in the summer, with live music in a grassy little garden area. In homage to the legendary Sasquatch, there’s an ambulatory theme to most of the beers (Jaywalker; Old Stumblefoot; Pale Strider). And there’s just something to love about a place where the bathrooms are themed “Readers” and “Dreamers.”

PHILOSOPHY

Big beers with big feet. Higher-than-usual alcohol and hopping rates define most of the Walking Man beers, which vary in drinkability. The brewery also hosts the Sasquatch Legacy Project, a yearly charity brew by recipients of the Glen Hay Falconer Scholarship named in honor of the late influential Oregon brewer.

KEY BEER

Knuckle Dragger, an American Pale Ale of 6.5% ABV, is a malty, hoppy citrus bomb that would send Big Foot into naptime in no time.

BEST of the REST: WASHINGTON

PYRAMID ALEHOUSE

1201 1st Ave. South • Seattle, WA 98134 • (206) 682-3377 • pyramidbrew.com/alehouses/seattle

The original location of Pyramid’s minichain of vast beer bars (est. 1994), this Alehouse is located right across from the Seattle Mariners’ Safeco Field (and just a block from Qwest Field, where the Seattle Sounders MLS soccer team plays) and features eight taps plus a few bottled releases to tide you over before the big game (or after) in the beer garden patio or spacious interior. The best matchup: pizza and some Uproar Imperial Red (7.3% ABV).

THE STUMBLING MONK

1635 E. Olive Wy. • Seattle, WA 98122 • (206) 860-0916 • No website

This tiny little corner beer bar on Capitol Hill has twelve taps and fifty bottled selections, and better yet, no loud music or TVs. Nor is there a menu of food (unless you count potato chips as food), but you can order in. In classic dive bar fashion, you come here for board games like Scrabble, Connect Four, and Battleship. It gets cramped and sweaty. But this is a dive bar that also happens to boast a great list of beers, from the exotic sours of Portland’s Cascade Barrel House to Belgium’s iconic pale ale with Brettanomyces, Orval (6.2% ABV).

ÜBER TAVERN

7517 Aurora Ave. North • Seattle, WA 98103 • (206) 782-2337 • uberbier.com

There’s a reason locals talk of the Über warp—time disappears when you step in the door. Opened in 2006 with 17 taps and 150 bottled brews (heavy on the Belgians and upstart regionals like Black Raven and Beer Valley, of Ontario, Oregon), this idyllic little Green Lake–area beer bar is neither dive nor stuffy beer snob perch, with cool neon signage outside and a rapidly rotated beer list within its cobalt blue walls (and I have to mention the gas-flame fireplace table). Look for Anacortes Brewery’s Locomotive Breath, a bold, barrel-black Imperial Stout (8.5% ABV).

BOUNDARY BAY BREWERY & BISTRO

1107 Railroad Ave. • Bellingham, WA 98225 • (360) 647-5593 • bbaybrewery.com

Bellingham, the college-y “City of Subdued Excitement,” got quite a bit more buzz in 1995 when this standout brewpub came online. With twelve taps, nine bottles, and two casks at any given time (plus a hearty menu of burgers, beer-barbecued pork, smoked salmon chowder, mac-and-cheese, and fish tacos), this large brick neighborly hangout has scored high marks thanks to beers like Inside Passage Ale (an IPA of 6.4% ABV) and the outdoor patio and grassy beer garden, hosting live music and spontaneous hula-hoop contests.

THE NORTH FORK BREWERY, PIZZERIA, BEER SHRINE & WEDDING CHAPEL

6186 Mt. Baker Hwy. • Deming, WA 98244 • (360) 599-2337 • northforkbrewery.com

True to its name, this quirky destination (est. 1997) along the Mount Baker Highway about thirty minutes from Bellingham has a whole lot of love going on for one place. With just five taps from a tiny little 3.5 bbl system, it may look a little like Navin R. Johnson’s family home from The Jerk, but that’s exactly why you’ll want to make the drive. Where else can you hang out in a log house with ninety years’ worth of beer bric-a-brac, drink nano-brewed beer (try the 11% ABV Barleywine to steady those nerves), eat pizza pie, and get hitched?

EVERYBODY’S BREWING

151 E. Jewett Blvd. • White Salmon, WA 98672 • (509) 637-2774 • everybodysbrewing.com

Established in 2009 with sixteen taps (up to nine of their own) Everybody’s has a 26-foot-long handcrafted bar, wood banquet tables, and idyllic views of Mount Hood across the Columbia Gorge in Oregon. Remember, you’re in hop country, so order the Country Boy IPA (6.2% ABV) and head out to the porch.

Idaho

Victor

GRAND TETON BREWING CO.

430 Old Jackson Hwy. • Victor, ID 83455 • (208) 787-9000 grandtetonbrewing.com • Established: 1988

SCENE & STORY

Grand Teton Brewing Company was actually founded seventeen miles away from Victor, in Wilson, Wyoming, as Otto Brothers’ Brewing in 1988, by Charlie and Ernie Otto. It was the first modern microbrewery in the state, and represented the first malt beverage production permit in Wyoming in thirty-five years. Eventually changing their name and relocating to beautiful Victor in 2000, the brothers have embarked on a few interesting firsts.

One, they claim to have reintroduced the sixty-four-ounce growler into modern use after an offhand comment by their father, who recalled using lidded tin pails in Germany to transport beer. And more recently, they created an all-Idaho beer, using only ingredients grown or sourced from within the state. The uncommon Zeus and Bravo hops were grown in southwest Idaho, the barley was grown and malted in the southeast, and the water came from a spring in the Tetons. If you’re anywhere near Victor and the Grand Tetons, you can get a taste of this brew at their quaint little taproom (no edibles) seven days a week.

PHILOSOPHY

Progressive. The brewery has worked with fifty charities in the area, and the beers keep getting more innovative with each batch.

KEY BEER

There are five year-round beers, including the flagship, Bitch Creek Extra Special Brown (6% ABV), which has nutty, cocoa-like flavors mingling with a lightly hoppy finish. But look for the Cellar Reserve brews, like a recent imperial Pilsner, Persephone (8.75% ABV).

BEST of the REST: IDAHO

BITTERCREEK ALEHOUSE

246 N. 8th St. • Boise, ID 83702 • (208) 429-6340 • justeatlocal.com/bittercreek

Opened in 1996, this Boise standby is plushed out with dark woods and leather and stocked with thirty-nine taps from Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Colorado, and California (and a small selection of regional bottled beers). They’ll throw a cask on the bar on occasion, and the pub grub ranges from sandwiches and burgers to fish-and-chips, Alaskan salmon, Idaho pork chops, and a BBQ plate. Look for the Terminal Gravity Breakfast Porter (5.7% ABV), especially if you’re in the place for your first meal of the day.

LAUGHING DOG BREWING

55 Emerald Industrial Park Rd. • Ponderay, ID 83852 • (208) 263-9222 • laughingdogbrewing.com

A very dog-friendly brewery with very hoppy beers, Laughing Dog is a chilled-out, home-town, family kind of place. Established in 2005, production is up to 4,500 bbls, and the tasting room has twelve taps, with a few goodies stashed away. Look for Dogzilla (6.9% ABV), considered one of the earliest India Black Ales (aka Black IPA), brewed with Simcoe and Cascade hops, pale and Munich malts, and black barley.

Alaska

FOR A CITY THAT CANNOT BE ACCESSED BY ROAD—TO GET TO THE STATE capital of Alaska, you must fly or arrive by boat—there have been a lot of firsts here. The state’s first big gold strike, in 1880, was close by. About a century later, the state struck gold again, in say, drinkable form. In 1986, Geoff and Marci Larson founded Alaskan Brewing Company—Alaska’s first brewery since Prohibition—in Juneau.

In all seriousness, consider a midwinter visit, not only to coordinate with the Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival in Anchorage, held in mid-January, but also to get a sense of the authentic character—and characters—of the place. The millions of cruise ship passengers trundling ashore all summer long to gawk at glaciers and buy a plastic king crab refrigerator magnet have no idea what local dwellers are really made of. It’s in the winter you discover that even mild-mannered locals like Donovan Neal—comptroller of Alaskan Brewing Company—moonlight as alpine guides, leading winter climbs (and ski descents!) of Cascade volcanoes. You see the Larsons (of Alaska Brewing Company fame) and their neighbors up near the Eaglecrest ski area on Douglas Island, just across the channel, with huskies and malamutes volunteer training for catastrophic avalanche victim recovery. The sheer 3,576-foot face of Mount Juneau looms immediately behind town, and a 1962 slide took out seventeen houses. National Geographic later pronounced it the city with the highest avalanche danger in America.

You won’t miss the sun and you sure won’t miss the crowds. And you’ve got incredible powder to ski; a mid-January weekday run to the excellent Eaglecrest ski area (a 20-minute drive) can mean lift lines in the single digits—as in you and a buddy. And most of all, you’ve got great fresh beer to drink in atmospheric old bars like the Alaskan (since 1913) and the Imperial (1891). Gold rush, indeed.

ITINERARIES

THE ALASKAN BREWING CO.

5429 Shaune Dr. • Juneau, AK 99801 • (907) 780-5866 alaskanbeer.com • Established: 1986

SCENE & STORY

Geoff and Marcy Larson met while bouncing around in various national parks jobs in the late 1970s. “I was hitchhiking across the country during a summer off college and ran out of money in Montana,” recalls Geoff, who was previously somewhat more stably based in Maryland. He met Marcy, a Florida native with a photojournalism degree, while both were working in Glacier National Park, where the two embarked on a “summer romance gone really wild,” recalls Marcy. Geoff went back to finish his five-year chemical engineering degree in Maryland and started home brewing; Marcy decamped to parts north. “I came up here to work in Glacier Bay, and just fell totally in love with Alaska,” she recalls. “It was just so big, so wild, and so untouched.” The letters and phone calls began.

By 1981, they were reunited in the Klondike State, Marcy working nights as an auditor in the Department of Revenue, and both dreaming full-time about opening a brewery for the locals, who seemed interested in high-quality imported brews but had no local options. “All the beers people were drinking were really oxidized. Alaska got the remnants,” Marcy says. “But fresh beer—it was like, ‘Yeah! This is great stuff! We need this up here.’” A big Anchorage-based German brewery built during the pipeline years called Prinz Brau had gone under in the late 1970s; the Larsons felt they could succeed with something more, well, Alaskan.

They decided to go for it themselves. With “no experience and no money of our own, nothing whatsoever” as Marcy recalls, and after thirteen stressful months of raising loans from various friends, family, and locals, the Alaskan Brewing Company became the sixty-seventh operating brewery in the United States and the only one in Alaska. It was 1986. The early days were rocky; Alaska’s economy was in the tank, and skeptics said they’d soon go under.

Not so fast. In 1988, Alaskan won the consumer preference poll at the GABF, and sales were rocketing. Today it’s the twelfth largest craft brewery out of some 1,700 in the country (and still employee- and local investor-owned), manufacturing over 100,000 bbl per year. The first brew (now the flagship) was their Amber, based on a 1907 purchase order for altbier ingredients a local collector had preserved from a long lost area brewery. Smooth and full of caramel malt goodness, with a compelling if faint noble hop spiciness, the die was cast.

Today the brewery offers five year-round beers, including the Amber and two seasonals (Summer Ale, a superb Kölsch-style brew, and Winter Ale, spiced with spruce tips, after the brewing methods used by Captain Cook to combat scurvy among his crew). A special edition beer, Alaskan Smoked Porter, is an intense, collectible brew that has spawned scores of imitators among domestic brewers. Lastly, there is the Pilot series of experimental and specialty styles like barley wine and Baltic porter, and occasional Rough Draft brews, small batch riffs from Pilot batches for local distribution. All of them are made from water out of Juneau’s glacier-fed aquifers. The tasting room is a charming affair, with free tours, nine taps, and cool old photos and memorabilia from the early days, all of it thanks to one hot, dusty, inspiring summer in Montana.

PHILOSOPHY

High quality, eco-friendly, and unpretentious. “You have to make the best beer you possibly can for a whole variety of reasons,” says Geoff. The brew house utilizes a number of sustainable practices, such as the country’s first CO2 recovery system (which has become more common these days), a mash filter press (a system common in Belgium which reduces water and grain consumption without compromising beer quality), and a spent-grain dryer to prepare brewery by-products for shipping down to farms to use as feed in the lower 48.

KEY BEER

Alaskan’s 6.5% ABV Smoked Porter, introduced in 1988, is a rauchbier, or traditional German “smoke” beer, made by smoking brewers’ malt over alder wood branches, which is done by hand in small batches in Juneau. True to its name, it’s got all the spice and char of a campfire, with appealing cocoa and chocolate notes. Alaskan’s is one of the first brewed successfully outside of Germany, and is one of the winningest—if not the winningest—beers ever at the GABF.

DETOUR

ALASKA’S BEST LATE NIGHT SHACK: PEL’MINI 2 Marine Wy. • Juneau, AK 99801 • (907) 463-2630 • No website

Who needs a menu? At Pel’meni, a hole-in-the-wall Russian café in the classic old blue Merchants Wharf building down by the water, there are really only two choices—beef or potato (you want both). When you walk in, it’s just five little tables, a small counter, and a wall of vinyl records with an old record player spinning tunes (recent cut: Sérgio Mendes and Brasil ’66’s “Agua de Beber”). What you get for a few dollars is a Styrofoam box of piping hot, tortelloni-like Russian dumplings called pelmeni. Once steamed, they’re zipped around in a hot pan with butter and served with a dash of vinegar, cumin powder, fresh cilantro, a dollop of sour cream, and Sriracha sauce. There may never be a better late-night snack. And thankfully, it’s open after the bars close. (A word to the Juneau authorities: never, ever tear down the Wharf building or close this effortlessly perfect place.)

THE HANGAR ON THE WHARF

2 Marine Wy., No. 106 • Juneau, AK 99801 • (907) 586-5018 hangaronthewharf.com • Established: 1996

SCENE & STORY

With its location convenient to everything in the Merchants Wharf building, the bright, clean, and crisply run Hangar is a beloved local watering hole and tourist favorite during the season. It’s got an airplane and seaplane theme thanks to the building’s 1940s tenant, Alaska Coastal Airlines, but isn’t kitschy or overdone. Overlooking the channel with huge glass windows and outdoor seating, it makes an ideal spot for an afternoon beer and a bite as the seaplanes buzz in and out and the big ships dock (it’s just as convivial in the quiet winter, as well). There are some twenty taps and seventy bottled beers, with a surprisingly deep collection, and a solid menu of sandwiches, wraps, and fresh local seafood dishes like King crab legs, oysters, prawns, and salmon. Try the Cajun Caesar wrap with blackened salmon.

PHILOSOPHY

Cheery waterside seafood palace meets craft beer bar.

KEY BEER

Much of the lineup of Alaskan’s beers are available, including whatever’s freshest and the Rough Draft releases, and there are a number of good Pacific Northwest craft brews as well.

THE ISLAND PUB

1102 2^nd St. • Douglas, AK 88824 • (907) 364-1595 theislandpub.com • Established: 2005

SCENE & STORY

Across the Gastineau Channel from Juneau lies Douglas Island, a 77-square-mile tidal isle with a sandy beach made of mine tailings. It’s the home of the long disused Treadwell mine, largest in the world in its day, and the vastly underrated Eaglecrest ski area, which has 1,400 feet of vertical (40 percent of it expert) served by four double chairs. But perhaps best of all, it’s home to the Island Pub, the ultimate après-ski pizzeria. With open seating, large picture windows, and a sleek square center bar area, it’s surprisingly contemporary, but entirely inviting. Built in what was once “Mike’s Place,” a quaint former dance hall dating to the 1930s, it’s updated now, but make sure to stroll around and look at the historic photos of patrons sashaying over the wood floors.

PHILOSOPHY

Quintessentially local. Six of the pizzas on the menu are the handiwork of area residents who competed for the honor of having their own pizzas on the menu for an entire year.

KEY BEER

There are nine taps and twenty-five bottled selections, including the local treats, of course: the Sitka spruce-tip-spiced, 6.4% ABV Winter Ale from Alaskan, in season, makes a great match for meaty, zesty pizza.

HAINES BREWING CO.

Southeast Alaska State Fairgrounds P.O. Box 911 • Haines, AK 99827 • (907) 766-3823 hainesbrewing.com • Established: 1999

SCENE & STORY

Fans of Paul Wheeler’s beer used to traipse through tidal bogs and dense forest to try his beers at his house. Since 1999, the bright-eyed brewer—who sports a beard that would have made Walt Whitman jealous—has been operating a little 3.5 bbl brewery in another out-of-the-way location—inside a quaint Old West general store building on the “Dalton City” set for the movie White Fang. It’s a short seaplane or ferry trip from Juneau. The ideal visit would be at the end of May, during the Great Alaska Craft Beer and Home Brew Festival, held on the Dalton City site at the Southeast Alaska State Fairgrounds.

PHILOSOPHY

Big, brawny, frontier beer, no apologies. There’s even a “no cell phones” sign in the taproom. These beers deserve your undivided attention.

KEY BEER

Wheeler’s beers are excellent, especially DMMDI IPA (Devil Made Me Do It IPA; 6.66% ABV), Black Fang Stout (9% ABV), and Captain Cook’s Spruce Tip Ale, an homage to Cook’s method of brewing without hops—as well as to Wheeler’s former job as a forester.

Anchorage

Life in Alaska has never been easy, but beer helps, especially if you don’t have to import it. Stoked by home brewers who could make beer affordable by brewing it at home rather than paying for cost-prohibitive beer shipments, the craft beer scene in Alaska is hitting a rolling boil. While Alaska’s capital, Juneau, has the state’s oldest bar and first craft brewery, Anchorage is pulling its weight in the beer department with a slew of high-quality brewpubs, beer bars, and the annual Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival, held in the icy depths of mid-January. But isn’t it cold at that time of year? Yes. It’s bleakly, face-numbingly, eye-frostingly cold, though locals walk around in windbreakers and wonder aloud how warm it seems. But it gets dark so early. (Yes; all the more reason to make hay while the sun shines and then go drink delicious beer.)

Fact is, the winter weather in Anchorage doesn’t stop locals from gathering, much less going mountain biking (with snow tires!) along the water with views of Mount McKinley (elevation: 20,320 feet) or even across a frozen lake, with the soaring Chugach peaks behind town. Nor does the drop in the mercury stop brewers from showing up with their best stuff—high-strength, cellar-worthy barley wines are popular up here—especially during the festival. A midwinter visit to Anchorage is all about the camaraderie of the state’s growing brewing scene: for the annual Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival, some fifty breweries band together, including twenty-plus operating in Alaska—and about two thousand locals a night don their finest going-out-on-the-town clothes, making it fun and unexpected—kind of like mountain biking in January.

ITINERARIES

WINTER WARMER

The Great Alaskan Beer & Barley Wine Festival, started in 2005, is held every January, traditionally in downtown Anchorage’s Egan Convention Center. Brewers compete for medals and bragging rights in the Barley Wine category and mingle with about two thousand fans a night. Do as the locals do and hang out in the Alaska end, where just about every single commercial brewery in Alaska has a booth with fresh beer. There’s a Connoisseur Session on the final afternoon, for which the brewers present beers they used to hide under the tables. Highly recommended for tried-and-true craft beer lovers. For info: auroraproductions.net/beer-barley.html

ANCHORAGE BREWING CO.

717 W. 3rd Ave. • Anchorage, AK 99501 • (907) 360-5104 anchoragebrewingcompany.com • Established: 2011

SCENE & STORY

With a projected annual output of just 360 barrels a year, Alaska’s newest brewing project is the vision of Gabe Fletcher, formerly the soft-spoken head brewer at Anchorage’s Midnight Sun who is credited with improving the brewery’s fortunes early on. It’s also the most unusual brewing operation to come along in Alaska since that day in 1986 when Geoff and Marcy Larson dared to open Alaskan Brewing Company, now one of the biggest breweries in the country in a state formerly without craft beer.

Fletcher works in tandem with another Anchorage brewer, Sleeping Lady Brewing Company, by brewing his own batches there and then gravity-flowing the wort (unfermented beer) straight down through the floor and into a steel tank of his own for primary fermentation. Later, he racks (transfers, in brewers’ parlance) the ales into a collection of French oak barrels for aging, during which time they accrue interesting acidic angles, tannins, and vanillin from the wine-soaked wood. After a period of time, he blends, then bottles the Belgian-style brews before refermenting them in the bottle according to the méthode champenoise. It’s a simple, immaculately clean operation, one in which he anticipates installing some kind of tasting area. For all those who can’t make the trip to Anchorage, Fletcher’s beers became only the third brewery on American soil to be distributed by the Shelton Brothers, America’s most adventurous importers of specialty, small batch, and farmhouse ales from around the world.

PHILOSOPHY

Flanders on the Klondike. This is innovative, Belgian-style brewing in the heart of wild Alaska—as unexpected as they come.

KEY BEER

Fletcher debuted his Anchorage Brewing Company at the 2011 Great Alaskan Beer & Barley Wine Festival with Anticipation, a superb double IPA (9% ABV), though it was more a test run (not barrel aged in the cellar), and began releasing his main line of six distinct beers in 2011. These included the intriguing Love Buzz Saison, brewed with rose hips, peppercorns, and fresh orange peels, then dry hopped in the pinot noir barrel with Citra hops, and bottled with a cork-and-cage, in the manner of traditional Belgian beers.

DETOUR

MEET ME ON THE BEER FRONTIER The Great Northern Brewers Club and Brewers Guild of Alaska Annual Meeting

For a small group of Alaskans, there’s an eagerly anticipated event that takes place each year at the Snow Goose Brewing Company’s early 1960s ballroom. Amid giant tapestries hung from the wood-paneled walls (polar bear, grizzlies, a unicorn), the Great Northern Brewers Club—a statewide organization founded in 1980 that appears to consist partly of fur trappers, Woodstock time-travelers, and Carhartt-clad loggers—calls itself to order, and simultaneously hosts the Brewers Guild of Alaska for its only meeting of the year.

This is a beer thing of course, so it’s not exactly solemn. The hundred or so home-brew club members—some of whom were said to have bush-planed in from the interior—bring potluck dishes of chili (and one labeled simply “moose”) and coolers with beer, and gather around in circles of folding chairs.

I crashed the 2011 meeting, during which Jim “Dr. Fermento” Roberts (head of the state brewers’ guild, a separate entity, and a local beer authority for the Anchorage Press and the California-based Celebrator Beer News) took the little stage in a plaid shirt, khakis, and a pair of spectacles to read Important Announcements, which he unfurled like a scroll to the floor. It was a warm welcome to just about everyone in the room, including two “Beerdrinkers of the Year” (a contest held each year at Wynkoop Brewing Company in Denver), representatives of most of the Alaska-based breweries, and the keynote speaker, Sierra Nevada’s Ken Grossman. Dr. Fermento wound it up five minutes later with the admonition “Drink responsibly; throw up strategically—make it count,” which provoked a laugh because Fermento seems about as wild as a ceramics teacher.

The introductions complete, Fermento passed around a Victoria’s Secret shopping bag; this was to collect donations for an injured community member. Next was Ken Grossman’s absorbing I-was-a-home-brewer-too-talk; you could have heard a pin drop. For the rest of the night, Grossman, Alaskan Brewing Company founder and Guild “Lead Berserker” Geoff Larson, Fermento and others mingled as a few Big Lebowski–era John Goodman types in hunting vests and trucker hats discussed delicate brewing experiments gone amok in one breath, and tropical illness and Thailand’s phallic shrines the next.

Things were just warming up when the band took the stage. Clad in a Hawaiian shirt, Tom Dalldorf, publisher of the Celebrator, gamely led his Rolling Boil Blues Band in a rendition of “Home Brew,” to the tune of Clapton’s “Hand Jive.” As I wandered around and sampled beers of varying ambition—from good IPA to stout and then one Pilsner that tasted, well, a little like cat pee smells—I got the sense that if it weren’t for this club, there would be no surging Alaskan brewing industry today (and thus no Guild), and that certain Alaskan citizens might never venture out of their snowbound cabins in the dead of winter, if not for the chance to toast each other’s hard work—and share some of that tasty moose.

HUMPY’S GREAT ALASKAN ALEHOUSE

610 West 6th Ave. • Anchorage, AK 99501 • (907) 276-2337 humpys.com • Established: 1994

SCENE & STORY

The twin sister to Humpy’s in Hawaii, Humpy’s is Alaska’s most serious beer bar, but is by no means pretentious. It’s named for pink salmon, a species also known as humpback salmon because the spines of the males eventually bend (developing a hump) from the effort of chasing females upstream and back to their birthplace every summer. And it’s consistently busy, especially in the summer, when cruise ships bring hordes of tourists in and out of ancient fjords, so there’s really no time for attitude here.

It’s a casual place inside, with padded booths and octagonal bar and a back patio for King crab feeds in season. Founder Billy Opinsky is thoughtful and polished, and stands somewhat apart in the land of unironic trucker hats and foot-long beards with his passing resemblance to a young Al Gore. Deeply involved with Alaska’s nascent craft beer scene from its early days, he has stocked the bar with fifty-five taps and fifteen bottled selections, with about half of the tap row consisting of beers from the state. The bar is known for good live musical performances from local and touring acoustic acts, and for unusual beer-tasting events during the big festival in January. For a dinner in 2011, Opinsky laid in aged rarities including beers from Cantillon, Gouden Carolus, and a Thomas Hardy Ale from 1996, which gave locals a chance to try beers seldom available anywhere.

PHILOSOPHY

For beer lovers, by beer lovers. This is a classic good beer spot with no extraneous frills.

KEY BEER

Ask what’s freshest. A dependable tap is Midnight Sun’s coppery Sockeye Red IPA (5.7% ABV), with a powerful, fragrant, and spicy hop character.

BEERS with YEARS

An aged-beers dinner might sound like a lark, but it’s not only wine and whiskey that can benefit from a bit of cellar time. Good beer is universally drinkable the minute it leaves a brewery, but, like a good dry-aged steak, time can add new layers of complexity to the biggest brews with a higher alcohol content—roughly 2.5 times stronger than your average supermarket lagers. (Which don’t improve with time. Hence their “drink by” dates. Chug away.) There’s an array of styles that lay down well, including imperial stouts, English-style barley wines, Belgian lambics and other sours, as well as barrel-aged and other strong beers. Alcohol by volume needs to be in the area of 9 to 10 percent to give the beer any chance of improvement, and the cork or cap should be in good shape to avoid oxidation, which gives beer a wet cardboard taste. Ultraviolet light must be avoided to spare a beer from the skunk effect, a more serious problem with green or clear bottles (as opposed to brown ones, which filter UV light).

With the exception of sour-style beers, which ought to have little hop character, the process of aging mellows bitterness and aroma while deepening and accentuating malt characteristics, drying out the last molecules of fermentable sugars and sometimes adding an acidic, vinous note that can pair well with desserts or certain rich poultry and beef dishes. Some ageable beers are aged in the brewery before being released; Sam Adams’s Utopias, a rare port-like concoction, contains a blend of barrel-aged beers up to sixteen years old. Aging beers simply requires patience, the proper setting: a cool, dark place, and an open mind.

MIDNIGHT SUN BREWING CO.

8111 Dimond Hook Dr. • Anchorage, AK 99507 (907) 344-1179 • midnightsunbrewing.com • Established: 1995

SCENE & STORY

Under the watch of brewer Gabe Fletcher for twelve years, Midnight Sun emerged as Alaska’s most innovative brewery, and built a strong reputation in the Pacific Northwest for big, interesting beers. New brewer Ben Johnson has a tough act to follow, but he’s got plenty of training and a huge standing army of dedicated fans. And with a new brew house and “the Loft”—an upstairs area with some fifteen to twenty taps, sleek metal tables and chairs and polished cement floors—MSBC remains a top draw for beer travelers (and locals) every day of the week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Note: Alaska state law forbids breweries without certain licenses from staying open past 8 p.m. or serving individuals more than thirty-six ounces, but package and growler sales help take care of that wrinkle.) Call for detailed directions or a map, as the brewery can be tricky to find.

PHILOSOPHY

“We make a lot of crazy stuff,” says Midnight Sun owner Mark Staples. “We always try to avoid what everybody else is doing; we didn’t brew an amber for like ten years because Alaskan Amber dominated this market. Every brewer that works for me started on the bottling line and washing kegs. Not one of them is some fancy brewer from some school. As a result, our beers are a little bit unique. We just brew what we feel like brewing.”

KEY BEER

There are ten year-round offerings, including the flagship Sockeye Red IPA (5.7% ABV), four seasonals, five special edition beers, and several other one-offs and collaborations to try. Try the clove-y, creamy, Belgian-style dark Monk’s Mistress and Arctic Devil, a nutty, warming, complex barley wine (typically around 13% ABV) that has cleaned up in the medals department at the Great Alaskan beer festival for years.

GLACIER BREWHOUSE

737 West 5th Ave., No. 110 • Anchorage, AK 99501 (907) 274-2739 • glacierbrewhouse.com • Established: 1997

SCENE & STORY

Glacier BrewHouse enjoys a superb location downtown and seems disconcertingly like just another high-end brewpub chain at first glance. But tastes of the beers (especially stronger styles, including eisbocks and barley wines, head brewer Kevin Burton’s passion) prove you’re in a special place. There’s an expansive menu of good food here, and a huge array of beers available, from clean interpretations of classic styles like IPA and stout, to wilder, bigger beers fermented in “the wall of wood,” Burton’s basement stash of fifty wine, bourbon, and other oak casks from around the world. The yearly highlight is Burton’s Twelve Days of Barley Wine, leading right up into the Christmas holiday, with a different pair of aged barley wines on offer in the brewpub each day.

PHILOSOPHY

Ambition is its own reward. “You’re always striving for that perfect one,” says Burton, who mentioned Thomas Harvey and J. W. Lees as exemplary barley wines. He was the first to start barrel aging in Alaska.

KEY BEER

Big Woody, an annual vintage-dated barley wine release. Using pricy English floor-malted barley and aged in various oak barrels including Jim Beam and Napa Valley wine barrels for a minimum of a year, it’s intensely malty with notes of vanilla, wood, cherry, and toffee, and usually about 11% ABV.

SNOW GOOSE RESTAURANT & SLEEPING LADY BREWING CO.

717 West 3rd Ave. • Anchorage, AK 99501 • (907) 277-7727 alaskabeers.com • Established: 1996

SCENE & STORY

The Goose, as it’s known, was one of the early brewpubs to fire up the kettles in Anchorage, and sits atop a former Elks Lodge. In addition to some impressive quilt work by founder Gary Klopfer’s wife adorning the walls, it features some casual upscale tables on the lower level with a sizeable pub area upstairs furnished with booths and a central bar area. It’s up there that a huge attached deck overlooks Cook Inlet and Mount Susitna, aka the Sleeping Lady, with still one more deck one floor up, solely for the use of drinking beer, which is exactly the thing to be doing here around sunset on a clear evening.

PHILOSOPHY

Beer first, ask questions later. “When I started out, I wasn’t planning to do a restaurant; I only wanted to make beer,” recalls Gary Klopfer, the former home brewer who founded the Goose. “The place was laid out exclusively for brewing,” (and by extension, not as much for offering a culinary experience, though the food and service have shown improvement). This is your ideal spot for beers on the deck in the fresh air.

KEY BEER

The brewery offers eight year-round beers on tap and five specialty brews. It also has one cask-conditioned ale at most times, hand pumped directly from a firkin. The flagship is Urban Wilderness Pale Ale (4.9% ABV), a daytime-drinking, English-style session ale with moderate, grainy sweetness and a touch of tangy hops.

BEST of the REST: ALASKA

THE IMPERIAL BILLIARD & BAR

241 Front St. • Juneau, AK 99801 • (907) 586-1960 • No website

Opened in 1891, the Imperial is Alaska’s oldest continuously operating tavern but doesn’t go the old-timey route, having been buffed to a shinier condition in recent years. The bar offers ten taps, another eighteen in bottles (mostly macros), and a limited pub menu. Inside, it’s low-lit with occasionally loud music and a chilled out local crowd. You’re here for the history, the scrappy pool games, the locals drinking Alaskan and Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale.

THE ALASKAN HOTEL BAR

167 S. Franklin • Juneau, AK 99801 • (907) 586-1000 • alaskanhotel.com

Built in 1913, this is the bar where you go to “drink with an Alaskan at the Alaskan.” But it’s not the tourist trap one might imagine from that old chestnut of a phrase, nor from the spindly Victorian-era balustrade, weathered felt-pattern wallpaper, or corny wrought iron park lantern next to the parlor stairs. Instead, local rabble and well-heeled citizenry alike gather around the old antique bar without going all Wyatt Earp, to name one former carouser in town. They’re bobbing heads to an acoustic ballad courtesy of the open mike and drinking the lemony, coriander-kissed Blanche de Chambly, a 5% ABV witbier on tap from Quebec. How gunslinger is that?

CAFÉ AMSTERDAM

530 E. Benson Blvd., No. 3 • Anchorage, AK 99503 • (907) 274-0074 • cafe-amsterdam.com

Established in 1999 in a little mini mall, this charming European-style beer bar has one of the state’s all-time great beer lists, with seventeen taps and a hundred bottled selections, especially strong in Belgians, Alaska-born microbrews, Trappist ales, cask beers, and meads. It’s a popular spot for revelers after the Barley Wine Festival as well.

BEAR TOOTH THEATRE PUB & GRILL

1230 W. 27th Ave. • Anchorage, AK 99503 • (907) 276-4200 • beartooththeatre.net

The latest member of the Moose’s Tooth Brewing Company (which includes a pizzeria pub; moosestooth.net) and a brewing company headquarters, the Bear Tooth combines a sleek, remodeled concert and film venue (featuring headline acts from the lower 48 and both first run and 3-D movies) and a cool little glass-and-brick enclosed bar and eatery. The brews are standard but far from disappointing; try the hazy orange Fairweather IPA, 6.1% ABV and strongly redolent of graham crackers and grapefruit.

CHAIR 5

171 Linblad Ave. • Girdwood, AK 99587 • (907) 783-2500 • chairfive.com

The Aleyeska Resort, opened in 1954, is a classic expert ski area with a reputation for steep terrain and flinty locals. And Chair 5, established in 1983, is Girdwood’s après-ski beer playground, with twenty taps and forty-nine bottles of Alaskan and lower 48 specialty beers from Deschutes to Sierra Nevada, Midnight Sun, and Kona.

DENALI BREWING CO. & TWISTER CREEK RESTAURANT

13605 E. Main St. • Talkeetna, AK 99676 • (907) 733-2536 • denalibrewingcompany.com

The gateway to Denali National Park, little Talkeetna (population: 960) is both a stopover for climbers headed to Mount McKinley and a destination in itself for its excellent fishing and whitewater rafting. Denali Brewing Company’s light, silky, black, and roasty Chiuli Stout is fast finding fame in Anchorage beer bars, but there could be no better place to drink it than on the sunny patio of the log cabin–style Twister Creek restaurant.

SILVER GULCH BREWING & BOTTLING CO.

2195 Old Steese Hwy. North • Fairbanks, AK 99712-1023 • (907) 452-2739 • silvergulch.com

Built in the historic mining town of Fox in 1998, Silver Gulch is one of the largest breweries in Alaska and as of 2011 the furthest north. The corrugated metal exterior gives it the look of a farm facility, but the interior is spacious and cleanly furnished with lots of dark-wood tables, chairs, and booths. In addition to the brewpub’s own ten taps there are around 100 to 125 international beers available in bottles, including a surprisingly deep collection of rare British, German, and Belgian beers. It’s hugely popular with locals so make a reservation ahead of time to secure a spot; try the 5.8% ABV Coldfoot Pilsner, a hybrid of German and Czech styles.

CALIFORNIA
and
HAWAII

California

IT’S GOSPEL AMONG CRAFT BEER FANS THAT MODERN AMERICAN microbrewing was born in Sonoma County at John “Jack” McAuliffe’s New Albion Brewing Company in 1976. That ragtag operation didn’t last long, but McAuliffe’s English-style ales, some with whole peppers in the bottle, did leave a gigantic impression on locals like Ken Grossman, who was on his way to starting what would become Sierra Nevada. And that was almost ten years after Fritz Maytag, another ambitious beer lover, took over the foundering Anchor (of Steam Beer fame) and began to burnish that old company’s shine.

Today, what is happening throughout the state is nothing short of revolutionary: like Napa’s wine boom in the 1970s, and Sonoma’s in the 1980s, there are now pockets of brewing innovation dotting the entire state. From airy coastal beer gardens in San Diego to chic gastropubs in San Francisco and barn-like wine country hideouts in the North—and even throughout Los Angeles—the entire freewheeling, sun-bleached state has good beer to discover. There are nearly a hundred breweries in California, far too many to take in on a single trip. That shouldn’t stop you from trying. Maybe it’s the sunshine, or the sea, or the good vibes from the Golden State’s surfer days and Beatnik nights, but California has always been an inspiring place to travel and, now more than ever, it’s one of the world’s finest places to drink delectable craft-brewed beer.

ITINERARIES

San Francisco/Oakland

MAGNOLIA BREWING CO.

1938 Haight St. • San Francisco, CA 94117 • (415) 864-7468 magnoliapub.com • Established: 1997

SCENE & STORY

Some places just get it right. Magnolia, on the corner of Haight and Masonic, is one of them, and should be your first stop in the Haight, for brunch and a breakfast beer. The carefully aged patina of the place (faded paint, antiquely sconces, padded black leather booths) exudes cool, but the menu is generous. Start with the crispy pork belly served with baked beans, fried shallots, and a poached egg. It makes the ideal base for a beer tasting. Owner and founding brewer David McLean’s recipes manage to be inventive, fresh, flavorful, and artfully balanced, qualities that can be elusive in the anything-goes world of today’s craft beer scene.

PHILOSOPHY

Quirky and classic. Freshness is paramount, and the servers know how to recommend beers to pair with Magnolia’s seasonal, market-driven menu.

KEY BEER

Kalifornia Kolsch (4.8% ABV), Dave McLean’s take on the northern German classic style, all bright, golden hues and lip-smacking finish. It’s the ultimate breakfast beer, as light and bright on the tongue as a good Mimosa. McLean serves it in the proper glass, called a stange, or “rod,” a slim ¹⁄5 liter (6.8 ounces) that is only .04 inches thick, akin to the heft of a champagne flute, easy (and soon empty) in the hand.

THE CHURCH KEY

1402 Grant Ave. • San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 986-3511 • Established: 2009

SCENE & STORY

A sly little space in North Beach with exposed brick, understated décor (retro wallpaper inside; no sign outside except the symbol of an old key), and a quiet loft upstairs, the Church Key draws a cool crowd, and its beer menu is one of the smartest in San Francisco. Beer hunters will find rarities they’re after, such as Firestone Walker’s Oaktoberfest, a barrel-aged märzen-style beer (a clean, coppery German style of lager), and an unusual black India Pale Ale from Stone Brewery in San Diego. The bartenders are knowledgeable, but not obnoxiously so, and the music (by DJ, on vinyl) hits the right notes. Should hunger arrive, as it always does, there’s a great pizzeria down the block (Golden Boy Pizza; 542 Green St.; 415-982-9738) and the Church Key owners don’t mind if you bring it in and eat right there.

PHILOSOPHY

Call it the David Bowie of beer bars. This is the place to find genre-benders that push the envelope in terms of stylistic interpretation, defying easy categorization. And it’s stylishly understated, an elusive quality in beer bars.

KEY BEER

Two dollars gets you a “mystery beer,” but this is usually a can of bland American lager. Better with your pizza would be the ultra-rare hybrid-style Belgian IPA called XX Bitter from Brasserie De Ranke (6.2% ABV), which has a melony roundness but finishes dry and bitter, with an herbal afterglow.

TORONADO

547 Haight St. • San Francisco, CA 94117 (415) 863-2276 • toronado.com • Established: 1986

SCENE & STORY

Further down the Haight into the Fillmore, Toronado abides. It’s been open for over twenty years, and has the dust and clutter to show for it, but what’s more important is behind the bar. Or behind the antlers, tap handles, and other ephemera . . . somewhere. Despite its tiny size, you’re not likely to find many better, more well thought-out beer lists (including rarities and aged beers) anywhere in California. It’s one of those bars that emit a tractor beam for serious beer lovers, and, one day, they find it. Some never seem to leave, growing long beards and huddling over their barley wine with contented grins. True, certain bartenders seem to ignore you if you ask for the wrong beer, or one they don’t have. And the crowds, during special cask nights and tastings, resemble a rugby scrum. But in the end it’s worth it. Beer lovers the world over know Toronado, and to visit it is to enter into a kind of covenant with them.

PHILOSOPHY

Drink big or go home. All the great Northern, Central, and Southern Californian beer makers are represented here, with special focus on barley wines and other high-alcohol styles. Order with authority.

KEY BEER

Publication, brewed by Vinnie Cilurzo at Russian River in Sonoma County (with input from Toronado founder David “Big Daddy” Keene, among other noted publicans), is a 8% ABV golden ale finished with brettanomyces, resulting in an earthy, funkified hybrid of traditional Belgian saison and strong golden ale.

ANCHOR BREWING CO.

1705 Mariposa St. • San Francisco, CA 94107 (415) 863-8350 • anchorbrewing.com • Established: 1896

SCENE & STORY

Founded as Anchor in 1896, this is a shrine for any self-respecting beer pilgrim for one reason: the brew house. It’s a thing of exquisite beauty, all gleaming copper kettles and creamy tile work; to tour the facility and see the brewers working in their white work suits (in the un-hippified fashion of traditional German brewers) is to see a true classic in action. Facing closure after a string of half-interested owners from the end of Prohibition to 1965, this brewery found new life in the hands of a young Stanford graduate named Fritz Maytag (great-great grandson of the man who founded Maytag appliance company), who bought it in 1965 and helped kick-start the American craft beer revolution. Anchor is famous, of course, for Anchor Steam Beer, a kind of ale-lager hybrid also known as California Common. There’s no steam used in the brewing process; the word refers to the hissing sound old wooden kegs used to make when aging.

Maytag developed several beers before selling the company in 2010, including Old Foghorn, a viscous, almost brandy-like barley wine; a Christmas ale with a secret yearly-changing recipe; and a light, brightly spiced summer wheat beer, among others. He also added a microdistillery, with house-made gin and rye whisky, and tirelessly publicized America’s craft brewing revolution. One of the best brewery tours in America, it’s not to be missed.

PHILOSOPHY

Old-world sophistication with quiet, unpretentious skill. Let us hope the new owners, the entrepreneurs who created Skyy Vodka, will do right by its proud heritage.

KEY BEER

Liberty Ale (6% ABV) was first brewed in 1975 to commemorate the ride of Paul Revere. It has a Champagne-like dryness and aromatic, crisp finish that goes well with local foods like Dungeness crab and sourdough bread.

DETOUR

BRIAN HUNT, MOONLIGHT BREWING COMPANY Windsor, Sonoma County • www.moonligh tbrewing.com (no tours or tasting room at present)

Almost as soon as I’d arrived in the Bay Area I began hearing about a man named Brian Hunt of Sonoma County’s Moonlight Brewery in the hushed, reverential tones normally reserved for exiled Tibetan leaders. He doesn’t allow visitors. He’s like a mad scientist. He brews the best beer in the whole Bay Area. He’s really cranky. No one visits Brian Hunt.

The last statement is basically true. But because I had some help from my friend Sean Paxton, aka the Homebrew Chef, I had the chance to meet the man behind Death & Taxes, a silky 5% ABV black lager on tap in San Francisco’s best beer bars. And while I don’t recommend driving up his dirt road outside the hamlet of Windsor unless he’s expecting you, he’s not the crank some had made him out to be.

No indeed. What I found at Moonlight was sort of everything and nothing I’d been expecting, a crucible of California’s future brewing ingenuity and a potent symbol of its roots. His brewery, founded in 1992, is tiny, packed improbably to the ceiling of a former tractor barn. Steel tanks called grundies precariously crowd around the kettles and tables strewn with tools and parts.

And in the middle of it all, Hunt—a graduate of UC Davis’s fermentation science master’s degree program and a self-described dropout from the industrial brewing world—holds court on his creations with a combination of pride and prejudice (toward those who would classify his beers in rigid styles, mainly). He’s Moonlight’s only full-time employee, and brews about a thousand barrels per year, available in only about seventy-five locations around the Bay Area, which he personally keeps supplied. In any case, we tried his whole repertoire, retiring to a set of Adirondack chairs near some anemic-looking hop trellises. Lambs baa’d in the distance. This was a farm brewery if there ever was one. Hunt’s beers were a revelation: some rock solid classic, others wildly inventive, nearly all delicious.

What Hunt is trying to do, in his own cantankerous way, is shake things up. He bristles at the notion his beers can be classified into set styles, scoffing at what he considers hidebound conventions of acceptable brewing norms. He’s the guy who stands up during brewing conferences of industry types and asks the probing questions everyone’s thinking but don’t quite have the guts to ask.

First came the jet black Death & Taxes, which is as light as an American canned lager like Budweiser but vastly more flavorful, bursting with tangy hops and roasted malts. Then we moved on to a spicy, clean Reality Czech and bready Lunatic Lager, another black lager called Bony Fingers, and an IPA-like offering, Twist of Fate California Style Bitter.

But with the next beers Hunt veered into terra incognita. Hunt is doing something few brewers in America would ever consider: making completely unhopped beers, to test the possibilities of using other plants to spice and balance flavors. It’s a bit like attempting to make gin without juniper, but to the 54-year-old provocateur, such rules mean nothing. We tasted his Artemis, an ale spiced with mugwort, bee balm, and wild bergamot that tasted a bit like pencil wood (in a good way). Working For Tips, an ale spiced with redwood needles, was one of those beers you don’t forget—ever—and its garnet color had me mesmerized.

By that point I was beginning to believe what I’d heard in all those San Francisco beer bars. We finished with what Hunt called a “Norwegian farmhouse beer” by the name of Uncle Fudd, named for a song lyric Johnny Cash made famous (“The Tennessee Stud”). It’s ale made with rye grain and branches of the Thuja tree, a cousin of Western Red Cedar. The result? At that hour of the day, after tasting about a dozen of Hunt’s concoctions, my palate was fairly shot. But there was something intangible in that beer, like the others, something compelling, if radically unfamiliar. Maybe, as Hunt might say, it’s just moonlight. Who knows what he’ll come up with next? This is brewing as alchemy. Hunt’s mystic approach, otherworldly skill, and mischievous persona give Moonlight an inescapable aura. Look for it.

LA TRAPPE CAFÉ

800 Greenwich St. • San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 440-8727 • latrappecafe.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

Amid the tacky red sauce joints of North Beach, there’s a salve for the soul at the corner of Mason and Greenwich: a broad list of good Belgian ales and an array of classic Belgian dishes, like moules à la bière and well-made waterzooi, a seafood stew made of manila clams, mussels, and shrimp served over a piece of grilled sea bass. Skip the blah upstairs and immediately head to the subterranean bowels for 19 taps of beer and a 250-plus bottle menu, the best possible antidote to Fisherman’s Wharf tourist overload. It’s also right on the Powell cable car line, for an escape up into Chinatown or up over the hill toward Market Street and the Ferry Building, and some of San Francisco’s best beer bars and breweries.

PHILOSOPHY

La Trappe proclaims a zero-tolerance for the plastic kegs some bars and breweries have been using for convenience, believing them to have adverse effects on beer.

KEY BEER

On draft, North Coast La Merle (7.9% ABV) is a Californian take on the Belgian style of saison. The Fort Bragg brewer’s version is wheaty and hazy gold with a lemony, slightly herbal kick.

ZEITGEIST

199 Valencia at Dubose • San Francisco, CA 94103 (415) 255-7505 • zeitgeistsf.com • Established: 1986

SCENE & STORY

Zeitgeist is a biker-style dive bar with decaying, red-shingled walls, razor wire fences, and a vista of a highway overpass. On entering, it is normal for most to feel somewhat apprehensive. Then you scan the beer list of more than forty taps, pick out something inordinately good and cheap, and amble outside on a vast patio with picnic-style tables lined up in the gravel. On warm nights the garden fills up with lanky bike messengers, big-bearded musicians, and energetic beer fanatics taking advantage of the reasonable prices and cheap burgers and dogs off the grill.

PHILOSOPHY

Officially, it’s “Warm Beer and Cold Women,” but it’s not all really so bad. Don’t take photos, though, of anyone or anything but your own friends. You can get the boot for that.

KEY BEER

Moonlight Death & Taxes Black Beer—inevitably.

21st AMENDMENT

563 2nd St. • San Francisco, CA 94107 • (415) 369-0900 21st-amendment.com • Established: 2000

SCENE & STORY

It would be all too easy to dismiss this brewery on the basis that they make a popular canned beer intentionally laden with chunks of watermelon and contract brew some of their beer (in general, this means using excess capacity in other companies’ breweries rather than brew and ship from a single location to save money). But freewheeling founders Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan—who met in a brewing class at UC Davis—are producing a whole range of great beers in cans, and their huge, loft-like brewpub and beer garden complex in San Francisco’s South Park area (south of Market Street, a couple of blocks from the San Francisco Giants Stadium) is the kind of place anyone would feel at home drinking some flavorful, expertly made beers.

PHILOSOPHY

Freedom to brew. Named for the constitutional amendment that abolished Prohibition, 21st Amendment embodies good-natured fun, and the cans (their only packaging) have inspired names and label art.

KEY BEER

21st Amendment Back in Black IPA combines the evergreen pine of ample hops with the dark cocoa and coffee flavors (and onyx hue) of darkly roasted barley. Also known as Cascadian Dark Ale and Black IPA, this style—India Black Ale—is the latest brewing to be recognized by the Association of Brewers, and in 2010, 21st Amendment released the first year-round version available in cans, their chosen packaging. It’s got all the vintage attitude of AC/DC’s Bon Scott in his prime, but not so much bite you can’t have more than one.

THE ALEMBIC BAR

1725 Haight St. • San Francisco, CA 94117 (415) 666-0822 • alembicbar.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

The Alembic isn’t a beer bar per se, but it is the brainchild of Magnolia’s David McLean, so it has a considered list and the décor—a warm, dark, enveloping interior and exposed-bulb lighting—to go with it. San Franciscans have come to expect nothing less from the hirsute Deadhead-turned-craft-beer-lover, who has been working on a brewery project in the Dogpatch neighborhood as well (to alleviate shortages of beer and lighten crowds, which may have the opposite effect). The Alembic has ten taps and thirty bottled selections, many hard-to-find-Belgians, and high-end gastropub fare like sweetbreads, duck kebabs, and foie gras.

PHILOSOPHY

Neo-nineteenth-century urban chic meets locavore food and drink.

KEY BEER

Beer cocktails have been around for a long time now, but recently have been getting more attention. Most interesting for beer lovers here is a pair of cocktails using beer: the Vice Grip, a mixture of coffee-flavored rum liqueur and red wine topped with foam made from Marin Brewing Company’s Point Reyes Porter, a smooth, rich sipper; or the tart-sweet Pale Horse, made with cachaça, lemon, and caramelized pale ale syrup.

THE MONK’S KETTLE

3141 16th St. • San Francisco, CA 94103 • (415) 865-9523 monkskettle.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

Monk’s has something of the classic beer bar feel—dark woods, low light, sparkling clean glassware—but the menu is tuned in to the “delights and prejudices” of ambitious farm-to-table cooking more than most (to borrow a phrase from the title of one of James Beard’s classic books). Expect house-cured ham and hand-ground sausage, braised pork belly and beef cheek, and suggested menu pairings from the 24 tap, 180 bottle list, with a special stash of vintage beers stored in a temperature-controlled cellar ($25 to $60 and up, depending on size and year).

PHILOSOPHY

Seasonality is everything: the small, producer-driven beer list morphs with the calendar, just like the heirloom fruits and vegetables.

KEY BEER

Burning Oak Lager, a German-style black lager of 5.2% ABV from Linden Street Brewery in Oakland, is nearly opaque, with notes of char and smoke mingled with a faint sweetness and light spicy hops.

THE TRAPPIST

460 8th St. • Oakland, CA 94607 • (510) 238-8900 thetrappist.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

Sometimes the best bars are in the most unlikely places. Just a short hop east across the bay on the BART train delivers you right down the block from The Trappist. Despite the somewhat forlorn downtown Oakland location, it’s the kind of bar you’d plan a vacation around. You’ll feel it when you walk through the “front bar” door and enter a narrow space with exposed brick, gorgeous dark wood trim, white and black tile floors, and vintage lighting. Then you consider the 28 rotating taps, with another 100 to 130 bottled selections. Once you have a beer in hand, it’s time to wander back past barrels on end (ersatz tables), the stained glass doors leading to the bathrooms, and into the warmly lit “back bar,” with deep green trim, wainscoted ceiling, and a lovely old bar of its own.

Back in front there’s a line of smiling faces at the bar, and perhaps a great California band’s song playing—the rootsy anthem “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros on a recent visit—and you realize this is exactly where you want to be.

PHILOSOPHY

Belgian beer, speakeasy style.

KEY BEER

Moonlight’s Reality Czeck, a 4.8% ABV Pilsner, which may not be Belgian style but it’s very rare and very good, like this bar.

WINE COUNTRY

ANDERSON VALLEY BREWING CO.

17700 Hwy. 253 • Boonville, CA 95415 (707) 895-2337 • avbc.com • Established: 1987

SCENE & STORY

By all means if you get the chance, “jape” on down to the verdant farm-country town of Boonville to enjoy one of America’s most distinctive breweries. Jape? Yep. That’s the word for “drive” in Boontling, the folk language of this old farming community, said to have been developed by isolated farmers in the area’s early sheep and hop fields. Few use the dialect now, but you might be able to find some locals to teach some choice phrases over some bahl hornin (“good drinking”) at Anderson Valley Brewing. The partially solar-powered brewery itself is a down-to-earth affair, quaint and unpretentious, located on a farm with its own well, livestock, tasting room, and 18-hole Frisbee golf course. But inside the brewery are some of the most beautiful brewing kettles in the United States, polished to a mirror finish, and tours are a popular primer for the twelve-tap tasting room. In 2011 the brewery celebrated the fifteenth annual Legendary Boonville Beer Fest (held at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds), with over fifty California breweries and thousands of thirsty fans.

PHILOSOPHY

Traditional, unpasteurized brewing using well water rich in bicarbonates, pristine practices in the brew house, and a sense of humor everywhere outside it.

KEY BEER

With the soaring ascent of IPAs and Belgian-style beers over the last few years, an uncommon but essential beer style has slipped off the radar: the humble amber. This is too bad. Unpasteurized and never sterile-filtered, AVBC’s flagship Amber (5.8% ABV and brewed under the watchful eye of respected industry veteran Fal Allen) has a lively kick and caramel-kissed smoothness, not to mention a glowing garnet color that’s as attractive as the copper kettles inside the brewery. And don’t miss the mahogany-hued Brother David’s Double, a rich and malty Belgian-style ale melding cavalcades of malt flavor with a bracing 9% ABV.

DETOUR

THE RUSSIAN (RIVER) REVOLUTION

If there is one brewery that defines the changing American craft beer landscape of late 2011, it is Russian River, led by the affable Vinnie Cilurzo and a lineup stretching the parameters of American tastes for beer.

The son of winemaker parents, Cilurzo could have his own winery by now, a patch of heaven near Temecula, California, where he worked in the cellar during harvests as a boy. “Pretty much all I’ve done in life is fermentation,” he says. But it wasn’t winemaking that got him excited during his college years. It was brewing beer.

By 1997 Cilurzo had brewed enough in his free time to score a job running Korbel Champagne Cellars’ fledgling beer division, Russian River. But soon Korbel, like so many other Johnny-come-latelies, facing a looming industry-wide downturn, planned to drop the line. Cilurzo decided to buy the division out, firm in the belief that beers like Blind Pig, a 6.5% ABV Double IPA he’d come up with in 1994—the nation’s first such concoction—would find its fans. “We didn’t do any market research,” he claims. “We just believed passion would carry us through.” Cilurzo scraped up investors and reopened Russian River in 2004. Good move: Soon the craft beer market had returned to double-digit growth and Cilurzo was dominating prestigious tastings. Today fans of his best-known beer, Pliny the Elder (a resinous double IPA of 8% ABV, brewed once a year) line up—quite literally by the hundreds, for days—to take home a few bottles before it’s gone.

Aside from Pliny, most of Cilurzo’s beers are fermented in French oak barrels for up to two years. They’re fermented using wild yeasts and rogue bacteria (that give the beer funky flavors more commonly found in rare cheeses), then wire- and cork-topped to create an ironclad seal for vigorous natural carbonation in the bottle.

And they’re incredibly rich, complex, and drinkable. But his mad scientist approach—he adds volatile bacteria like Lactobacillus and Pediococcus to certain creations—has its risks. Brettanomyces, the wild yeast strain with a leathery, earthy-sour profile used in certain Russian River beers and some of Cilurzo’s Belgian inspirations, can run amok, altering fermenters, pumps, and hoses for good, and must be carefully quarantined. “It’s like playing with fire,” Cilurzo says. “You know how a dog can sniff out a person who’s afraid? With Brett, bugs, and critters, if you’re afraid of it, it’s going to bite.”

These days Cilurzo is busy overseeing the new Russian River brew house, a $2.5 million showpiece that tripled capacity, but one that, at a maximum capacity of 7,000 barrels a year, keeps Russian River firmly in rebel territory. “I don’t think we’ll ever be mainstream,” he says, “but I never say never.”

RUSSIAN RIVER BREWING CO.

725 4th St. • Santa Rosa, CA 95404 • (707) 545-2337 russianriverbrewing.com • Established: 1997

SCENE & STORY

The little brewpub in downtown Santa Rosa where Russian River sells its beers directly and a vast menu of Italian-American pub grub isn’t long on atmosphere, and you can’t tour the brewery (for now at least), but it is still a top stop for beer travelers in wine country. There are fifteen beers on tap, eight bottles to go, occasional live music performances and other beer-related events, and dependable crowds on weekend nights. Lunchtime and Sundays are quieter; order the $15 sampler immediately to taste everything.

PHILOSOPHY

Belgian beers and a laid-back West Coast attitude.

KEY BEER

Sour, fruit-enhanced Belgian-style beers run the gamut from offering a nice, mild, back-of-the-tongue zing to the sort of full-on, face-contorting shock human taste buds seem designed to avoid. Supplication (7% ABV) is complex, woody, tart, and fleetingly sweet, infused with the juice of whole sour cherries while aging in pinot noir barrels. It’s one of those beers referred to as a “life-changer.”

LAGUNITAS TAPROOM & BEER SANCTUARY

1280 N. McDowell Blvd. • Petaluma, CA 94954 (707) 769-4495 • lagunitas.com • Established: 1993

SCENE & STORY

Suddenly, Lagunitas is everywhere. In 2011, the makers of some of America’s cleanest-tasting and most distinctive Pilsner and IPA announced $9.5 million plans to quadruple capacity to around 600,000 bbl/yr, putting them in the league of Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams), Sierra Nevada, and Goose Island. In the meantime, for the last two years their headquarters on the outskirts of sleepy Petaluma has turned into a circus—literally.

For the “Beer Circus,” a series of raucous parties held in the spacious new beer garden outside the brewery, the fun-loving owners have gone more Burning Man than Bozo, with crazed looking stilt-walkers, burlesque, the “R-Rated Marching Band,” and a bondage demonstration for good measure (all fairly tame, actually, and the beer garden is understated and quite stylish). Should you miss the big top (the parties always sell out in advance), visit for a brewery tour and then beers on a warm night under the stars with live music (roots, rock, and reggae, of course, offered about five nights a week during the warmer months). And with the Bay Area, redwood forests, and the Point Reyes National Sea Shore within easy reach, Lagunitas makes a great place to cap off an idyllic Golden State adventure. Brewery walking tours are free Wednesday through Friday at 3 and 5 p.m.

PHILOSOPHY

Hippietarian with a great sense of humor. Amid the Great Recession of 2010 and 2011 their contribution to gross national happiness was a protest beer called Wilco Tango Foxtrot, or WTF for short, “a malty, robust, jobless recovery ale.” Back in 2005, founder Tony Magee (a sometime reggae band member) was hit with a potentially ruinous one-year license suspension for an employee caught smoking some of California’s largest cash crop on-site during a sponsored “420” party (the cops were undercover for weeks). On appeal, the sentence was cut to three weeks, and Lagunitas used the ban time to install a massive new bottling line.

Their dues to society paid, they later dared the regulators to approve a new beer called Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale, printed with some choice anti-establishment Benjamin Franklin verbiage and pointed mockery of the agents who had been unable to get anyone to sell them any pot—it was, naturally, always offered for free.

KEY BEER

Lagunitas Pils Czech Style Pilsner (6.2% ABV) is on the verge of becoming a new standard, a go-to beer suited for all occasions. And it may have a goofy name, but their Sonoma Farmhouse Hop Stoopid Ale (8% ABV) is a serious beer in the Double IPA style (aka Imperial IPA), with cavalcades of tangy West Coast hops “for those mornings when you have to cut right to the chase.”

Chico

SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO.

1075 E. 20th St. • Chico, CA 95928 • (530) 893-3520 sierranevada.com • Established: 1980

SCENE & STORY

These days Sierra Nevada’s beers are easy to find, but not long ago, out in the fertile farm country of the northeastern Sacramento Valley in Chico, home brewer Ken Grossman—on an obsessive quest for the perfect pale ale—was the only one drinking them. While roasting his grains at home, jury-rigging brewing equipment out of fish tanks and washer-dryers (for an ill-fated experimental malting operation), and squeaking out rent as a bike shop repairman, he dreamt of bigger things: real brewing kettles, the copper kind. He had a long way to go and little money. In 1976 he opened a home-brew store “to feed my hobby, really,” Grossman recalls.

Grossman doggedly kept home brewing, keeping meticulous notes, dreaming big. Inspired by Anchor and New Albion, he wrote a business plan with a partner in 1978, then hit up the banks, who weren’t the least bit interested. To get started, “I spent all my savings, all my business partner’s savings, and the savings bonds my grandfather had given me for school,” Grossman recalls. Finally, with the help of family and friends, Sierra Nevada (named after the mountain range), brewed its first batch, a stout; the first pale came a few days later. (A dozen batches went down the drain until he arrived at a brew he was happy with.) And with his young daughter in the passenger seat, Grossman delivered the first pallet of Sierra Nevada beer from the back of a beat-up one-ton ’57 Chevy pickup.

The pale ale he labored so long to get right struck a chord, and today, the piney, balanced brew is widely imitated, and one of the two best-selling craft beers in the United States, next to Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Grossman, who was fifty-seven in the end of 2011, got those gleaming copper kettles, to say the least. Production stands around 765,000 bbl ( just under 24 million gallons) a year for a variety of styles, all of them excellent, and the awards wall is running out of space.

Tours take in lovely trompe l’oeil murals in the brew house from a glassy elevated platform and other marvels no other American brewery can boast, like one of the largest private solar arrays in the country, utilizing heliotropic cells. There is nothing unconsidered, dusty, or out of place; the scope is awe inspiring, and the rows of 25,000 gallon conditioning tanks lined up in majestic symmetry are a sight to behold.

Today, the operations take up fifty acres, with estate-grown hops and a 35-acre barley field. The taproom and restaurant has its own organic herb and vegetable garden the size of a Walmart. The brewery’s own cows are fed partly on healthful spent grain from the brewing process, and the restaurant and taproom cook over almond wood fires. The bright and comfortable eatery is full of art nouveau stylings, stained glass, and brilliant copper trim work. And no matter what beer you try, from the lightest Summerfest lager to the Estate line (using all ingredients from the property) and high-octane barley wines and collaboration beers, the beers are all superbly crafted (try the too-often overlooked Porter, for example). After a bite, visitors can catch concerts in the state-of-the-art concert venue, or catch a ride on a kooky (but highly enjoyable) pedal-powered, stereo-equipped rolling tap-mobile. It’s a brewmaster’s dream come true.

Of a company that does all this for its fans without spending a dime on shameless TV advertising, there’s little left to say but “Thanks. What are you brewing next?”

PHILOSOPHY

Pioneering, eco-conscious, and consistently delicious, Sierra Nevada’s beers are made with fanatical attention to detail and a generous, family-driven spirit.

KEY BEER

The beer that changed everything is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It’s still brewed with whole Magnum, Perle, and pungent Cascade hop flowers, giving it a satisfying bite and grassy, floral nose. It’s easy to forget that it’s bottle conditioned, meaning each individual bottle is carbonated by means of tiny additions of yeast and brewer’s sugar—an insanely difficult thing to pull off on such a large scale.

Paso Robles

FIRESTONE WALKER BREWERY

1400 Ramada Dr. • Paso Robles, CA 93446 8 (805) 238-2556 firestonebeer.com • Established: 1996

SCENE & STORY

Run by former Marine Corps captain Adam Firestone and his brother-in-law, British expat David Walker (a former high-tech entrepreneur), Firestone is located in somewhat of a flavorless industrial area just outside town. There is a good-sized tasting room and gift shop with dark wooden tables, but the most interesting action is amid the fifty-barrel brew house and its extensive barrel program; you’ll want a tour. There’s also a restaurant in Buellton (near Santa Barbara) with high-end fare and fresh Firestone beers.

PHILOSOPHY

Experimental yet restrained. The brewery uses a variation on something called the Burton Union System, a Rube Goldbergian contraption developed by the British that links oak barrels with a yeast-collecting network of troughs, resulting in extraordinarily soft, smooth beer. Marston’s, in England’s Burton-on-Trent, is the classic example of a brewery making beer in this fashion, and explains it all by means of a three-hour tour. You won’t need quite that much time at Firestone Walker, and the beer at the end is more interesting across the board.

KEY BEER

The pale ale has been around so long it’s almost retro. But don’t pass it up. Building on the tradition of great California pale ales started by Sierra Nevada, Firestone Walker’s Pale 31 has racked up scores of accolades. It combines the subtlety of a great British ale with the fragrant bite of American hops craft beer lovers have come to expect.

Los Angeles and Surrounding Areas

Until recently L.A. (like New York), was a craft beer Mojave Desert. But thanks to the arrival of several craft breweries plus some beer-savvy chefs, a nascent beer culture is changing the entire timbre of the L.A. food-and-drink scene. Angelenos (like Portlanders, Denverites, and even New Yorkers before them) have embraced craft beers, all the better when made with locally foraged ingredients like so many snap peas, heirloom pork bellies, or pinot noirs. Instead of the coolly manufactured glam of, say, Spago, a more communal, unshaven, nose-to-tail chic is all the rage now.

Food carts are going upscale; local coffee roasters and farmer’s markets are multiplying. And yet, there are only a few local breweries—so far. In a city with 9.8 million people (compared to, say, Portland, Oregon, which has 583,000 people and around 35 breweries), it’s only a matter of time before Tinseltown gets the beer bug in a bigger way.

BOUCHON

235 N. Canyon Dr. • Beverly Hills, CA 90210 (310) 271-9910 • bouchonbistro.com • Established: 2009

SCENE & STORY

Order beer in a chic Thomas Keller Beverly Hills bistro? Absolutely. “A beer mood is different than a wine mood,” explains Head Sommelier Alex Weil, adding that recently the restaurant added two proprietary beers, Blue Apron and White Apron, from New York’s Brooklyn Brewery and Santa Rosa’s Russian River, respectively. “A lot of bistro food is based in a beer culture,” says Weil, a novice home brewer himself. “We have dishes like the classic moules frites or fried green tomatoes with shrimp and corn relish and a tomato salsa verde. We cook with beer all the time here,” he adds. What’s more, customers are also starting to order beers from the three-tap, ten-bottle list based on the reputation of brewers, rather than saying they’d like something, say, light or not too hoppy. “People are gravitating toward the producers,” Weil explains.

PHILOSOPHY

Visionary. Says Weil, “We still have the question, ‘don’t you have anything normal?’ But we’re not wanting to serve ‘regular’ beer. We want to push the envelope. We’re going to lightly force change through the absence of choice.”

KEY BEER

To start a meal, try White Apron, a dry, herbal, aromatic pilsner style made by Russian River (5.5% ABV). When it’s time for rich meats or cheeses, select the 7.2% ABV Blue Apron, Brooklyn Brewery’s offering, formerly only available at Per Se in New York and redolent of dark fruits (dates, figs), orange peel, and spices.

DETOUR

PROFILE: MARK JILG CRAFTSMAN BREWING COMPANY 1260 Lincoln Ave., No. 800 • Pasadena, CA 91105 • www.craftsman brewing.com

Pasadena’s Mark Jilg is as likely to expound on the paradox of being an artisan brewer in the middle of Tinseltown as he is to offer an impromptu lecture on the tendency of hops to spontaneously combust (true story). About fifteen years ago, Jilg left his job as an analyst for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to make beer instead, founding Craftsman in 1995. Today, his tiny brewery, in an unassuming industrial park about 40 miles from Disneyland, produces beers that are defiantly pushing the outer limits, too, with Valencia orange rind, Cabernet grapes, white sage, and Brettanomyces. “There are a lot of people that are focused on food culture here, savoring wine and so on. But they haven’t considered beer, so when they taste something like mine, it blows their mind,” he told me.

His best-selling beer reflects craft brewing’s return to America’s pre-Prohibition beer landscape: 1903 is a 5.9% ABV lager using a proportion of corn in the mash (as lagers of that era did, adding body and a certain corn flakes–like flavor profile), bittered with Nugget hops and finished with late additions of Mt. Hood to add a nice delicate hop presentation and aroma.

Jilg doesn’t have a taproom or take visitors—it’s basically a one-man show in a 2,500-square-foot space—so look for the beer on tap at good L.A. beer bars like Laurel Tavern and Lucky Baldwin’s in Pasadena. Jilg hasn’t started bottling, but if he does, the whole operation ought to blast off. His delivery van may be a green 1946 M-15 Studebaker, but the beer is next generation.

LAUREL TAVERN

11938 Ventura Blvd. • Studio City, CA 91614 (818) 506-0777 • laureltavern.net • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

With its simple black façade, hardwood floors, exposed brick walls, pressed tin details, and L-shaped bar, this San Fernando Valley bar looks almost too perfect—like a movie set instead of a real, live, breathing beer bar. But it’s definitely the real deal. With sky blue metal stools along the bar, Edison lighting, and an artful food menu, there’s little not to like. The short but sweet menu is based around beer-friendly foods like prosciutto and burrata, chorizo fondue, roast marrowbones, a bratwurst plate, and a famed burger with white cheddar, arugula, and caramelized onions. As for the beers (sixteen on tap, no bottles), most are California taps, with a pair or three for East Coast treats like Allagash and Dogfish Head. Word to the wise: avoid weekend nights, or come in very early to get in position for the best people-watching.

PHILOSOPHY

Craft beer gets its SAG card.

KEY BEER

Craftsman Heavenly Hefeweizen for starters (4.7 % ABV), which has the lively spice and ample heft of authentic German hefeweizen. “I think it’s completely misunderstood in America,” says Craftsman brewer Mark Jilg, citing Widmer and Pyramid brewing companies by example, whose hefeweizens are markedly less spicy. “We’re going for a dry, crisp beer, with a clovey, banana-like estery palate. And we encourage people to lose the lemon slice.”

TONY’S DARTS AWAY

1710 W. Magnolia Blvd. • Burbank, CA 91506 (818) 253-1710 • tonysda.com • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

This dive bar reborn as an eco-friendly, full-on craft beer palace has forty taps of hard-to-find beers and a no-bottle, no-can policy—the conservation ethic runs deep. The main menu item is gourmet sausages (with vegan options, too); beers are organized into IPA and “Not IPA.” Both categories are filled with exceptional beers from the likes of Stone, Alpine, AleSmith, Bear Republic, and Russian River. In 2011, founder and owner Tony Yanow organized the “colLAboration” series of pop-up beer gardens around L.A. with Verdugo and the Surly Goat’s Ryan Sweeney, among others, bringing craft beer to the streets of Los Angeles. A new classic bar—and likely, a new tradition—was born.

PHILOSOPHY

“All Craft, All Draught, All California.”

KEY BEER

Stone’s Smoked Chipotle Porter (6% ABV), which is sable black and laced with spicy, rich notes of pepper and smoke.

THE SURLY GOAT

7929 Santa Monica Blvd. • West Hollywood, CA 90046 (323) 650-4628 • surlygoat.com • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

When you tire of dodging the beautiful people who cram the streets of Hollywood, sipping beer under the mounted head of a mountain goat named Gus starts to sounds a whole heck of a lot better. Luckily, this nearly unmarked beer bar has a sweet rotating list, solicitous bartenders, leather seating, and a couple of old arcade games and a foosball table to keep things on the lighter side. There are even a few screens with a rotation of retro movies (Star Wars, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off); if you get hungry, you can bring in food from the BBQ place next door, to name one option. There are twenty-seven taps and a cask beer, with genuinely rare bottles to choose from as well (ask for the leather-bound list). This is a spin-off of local beer maven Ryan Sweeney, who opened Verdugo Bar and helped propel Los Angeles’s interest in craft beer into what it is today: a genuine movement.

PHILOSOPHY

Not particularly surly, really. Just remember the usual Friday and Saturday night caveat—you might have to wait to get in.

KEY BEER

Sour beers are showing up all over the place, taking beer drinkers on mouth-puckering rides of various intensity. Marrón Acidifié is the result of a rare collaboration between Florida’s Cigar City and the Bruery in Orange County, and the Surly Goat has put it on draft. Dark with whiffs of roasted malt, woody vanilla, balsamic, and cranberry, it’s tart—but not eye-wateringly so.

VERDUGO BAR

3408 Verdugo Rd. • Los Angeles, CA 90065 (323) 257-3408 • verdugobar.com • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

A complete renovation of a 1930s bar known for being quite sketchy—in a neighborhood that still is, so heads up—the Verdugo Bar has no windows and just a simple old glass, black lettered sign-light reading “cocktails.” It’s not much to look at, but then you walk inside to its serpentine, dimly lit bar, low couches, DJ in a booth, and epic beer list. There’s a California-centric twenty-two-tap row, eighty-five bottles, and one cask to choose from, all served at the proper temperature and in the right glass, never sloshed on the bar. Thanks to L.A. craft beer scene maker Ryan Sweeney, a Certified Cicerone (one step down from beer’s equivalent to Master of Wine), things are looking even better already.

Once you’ve got your beer, step outside to the patio and picnic table area. On the best weekend afternoons at 3 p.m., you’ll find a “patio session” in progress: as the DJ spins, a chilled-out crowd lounges in the sun enjoying some of the city’s best gourmet food carts like the famous Grill ’Em All (burgers) and Danky’s Döners (kebabs and sandwiches).

PHILOSOPHY

Beer, booze, and beats.

KEY BEER

Stone Cali-Belgique IPA (6.9% ABV). This San Diego-brewed, Belgian-accented ale has the best of both worlds, with a peach-like graininess and citrus-y tang of three varieties of West Coast hops plus the peppery earthiness of Belgian yeast.

BLUE PALMS BREWHOUSE

6124 Hollywood Blvd. • Los Angeles, CA 90028 • (323) 464-2337 bluepalmsbrewhouse.com • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

While Hollywood these days is full of reality show losers, tourists, and plastic surgeons, it’s not all bad. Eight blocks from the Walk of Fame and adjacent to the historic Henry Fonda Theater is one of the city’s best beer bars, with a strong, constantly rotating, and California-focused tap list of twenty-four (plus ninety bottles and a cask), a tradition for brewmaster appearances and beer dinners, and a good and none-too-pricey food menu. It’s got Prohibitionera terrazzo floors, high ceilings in ruddy red, wide wooden beams, oversize mirrors, and some living palms, giving it a nice touch of Old Hollywood ambiance.

PHILOSOPHY

Retro look, today’s beer.

KEY BEER

Sudwerk Lager, a German helles-style beer from Davis, California, is a classic choice—light, grassy, grainy, and bright on the tongue but not without a malty backbone (4.9% ABV).

EAGLE ROCK BREWERY

3065 Roswell St. • Los Angeles, CA 90065 • (323) 257-7866 eaglerockbrewery.com • Established: 2009

SCENE & STORY

Jeremy Raub, a former film music editor, and his father, Steve, an ex-Navy man and dedicated home brewer who taught his son to brew, overcame a mountain of red tape delays in order to get their 15 bbl brew house open in 2009, making it the first brewery in Los Angeles proper in some sixty years. Its ultraclean, organized taproom has been busy ever since, giving tours (Sundays only, 12 to 6 p.m.). As at Verdugo, food trucks are often on hand to provide the sustenance.

PHILOSOPHY

“Beer for the People” is the slogan, and the Raubs play with a neo-revolutionary theme in beer names like Manifesto and Solidarity. The beers are technically vegan (in avoiding fining, or clarifying, agents from animal products), and run the gamut of styles, from English mild to American wild, with some experimental ingredients (rose petals).

KEY BEER

Solidarity Dark Mild (3.8% ABV) is a light, chocolaty, grainy-tasting British session beer, meaning it’s low in alcohol and meant for sustained periods of beer drinking without intoxication.

THE BRUERY

715 Dunn Way • Placentia, CA 92870 • (714) 996-6258 bruery.com • Established: 2008

THE BRUERY PROVISIONS

143 N. Glassell • Orange, CA 92866 • (714) 997-2337 brueryprovisions.com • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

A few years ago, Patrick Rue was reluctantly headed for a law career, but the trouble was, beer brewing was the only thing that held his attention. With his nose buried in a home brewing book his wife bought from a 99-cent bookstore, Rue was soon blowing off homework to craft dozens, even hundreds of batches. “I’d brew almost every weekend and during the week when I was ‘studying,’” Rue recalls. In other words, he was preparing for a different kind of bar.

After taking a massive leap of faith with family and personal investments, one of the more successful American breweries of the last decade was born. Rue and head brewer Tyler King hew mainly to Belgian brewing traditions, which, generally speaking, tend to produce beers that are spicier, more intensely flavored, and higher in alcohol content than their American counterparts, and often bear the tannins and acids from wood barrels and wild yeasts. They’re wild, but often delicious and food friendly. The hype surrounding the beers has been surprisingly loud, cranking up even higher after a dominant showing in the 2010 World Beer Cup in two hotly contested categories with sixty-eight runners up in all.

Visitors to the brewery in Placentia encounter a bland exterior (with a taco truck if you’re lucky), but inside, there’s a brighter space, with yellow and sage walls and a small tasting bar area next to fermenters and stacks of oak barrels. This is also the site of beer release parties, like one in October 2009 he might prefer to forget. The plan was to release 2,400 bottles of an onyx-black, 19.5% ABV, bourbon-barrel-aged stout called Black Tuesday, and seven hundred people showed up to buy it, causing a minor melee when supplies ran out, which left about seventy-five people empty handed. “It was insane,” Rue recalls. “We heard some people flew in to get it. It’s almost embarrassing.” The 2010 event was a somewhat smoother affair, only crashing the website.

The Bruery Provisions in Orange is a bottle shop with thirty taps and around five hundred bottled selections to choose from, along with $3 tasting flights—a great deal. There’s a large tasting area, and busy calendar of events (talks, tastings, classes, etc.), but beer isn’t the only draw: There’s also a dizzying array of cheese, charcuterie, chocolates, coffees, olive oils, marmalades, and other edibles.

PHILOSOPHY

Unorthodox. Since its inception, The Bruery has released around eighty-five beers conjured out of such ingredients as Thai basil, pasilla chiles, and purple mangosteen, some of the concoctions only dimly recognizable as beers to the layperson. To make his award-winning Autumn Maple, Rue roasts yams on a barbecue until they are soft and sugary, then smashes them up and adds them to a mash tun, the brewer’s tank used to extract fermentable sugars that normally come entirely from grain.

KEY BEER

Orchard White and Black Tuesday have made the biggest splashes, but try the Humulus Lager to really shock your expectations. It’s a superstrong lager (in the bock territory, at 7.2% ABV), aromatically hopped like an IPA.

Southern California & San Diego County

That an area often associated with surfing and skateboarding should turn out to be one of the country’s top craft beer destinations comes as a surprise to many. But it’s absolutely true: There are more than thirty top-tier brewing companies in the entire Southern California region now, and dozens of excellent beer bars. From crisp, refreshing lagers to pungent IPAs, Belgian ales, and even porters and stouts smoked with chipotle and other peppers, the brewers’ bold creativity stems from the area’s lack of brewing history. There are no expectations to live up to and no pressure to follow rules.

GREEN FLASH BREWING CO.

6550 Mira Mesa Blvd • San Diego, CA 92121 (858) 622-0085 • greenflashbrew.com • Established: 2002

SCENE & STORY

In the tradition of other San Diego County breweries, Green Flash could not be in a more flavorless location, an industrial warehouse space. No matter—even if the walls are adorned with little more than dry-erase boards, the beers are anything but bland, and it’s busy every weekend starting at 4 p.m., when space is made available on the bottling floor (Fridays 4 to 8 p.m; Saturdays 12 to 5 p.m; Sundays 12 to 4 p.m.). Standing around tasting amid the tanks and malt mill and bottling line, it’s easy to chat and mingle with other beer lovers who have made the trek.

PHILOSOPHY

Hoptopian. The best-known beers of Green Flash are by turns pungent, dank, grassy, piney, and bitter. If that’s your thing, this is your place. Lately though, the brewery has been doing a number of Belgian-style beers, including Bière De L’Amitié, a 9.5% ABV collaboration strong pale ale with Brasserie St. Feuillien in southwestern Belgium.

KEY BEER

West Coast IPA gets most of the love, but the fiery Hop Head Red (6% ABV), a copper-hued amber dry hopped with Amarillo, is a fun beer to drink and would go well with pepperoni pizza.

PORT BREWING CO./THE LOST ABBEY

155 Mata Way, No. 104 • San Marcos, CA 92069 (800) 918-6816 • lostabbey.com • Established: 2006

SCENE & STORY

Port Brewing Company and its Belgian-beer-influenced Lost Abbey line of beers are produced under the watchful eye of award-winning brewer Tomme Arthur, founding brewer of Pizza Port, and one of the first American craft brewers to employ barrel aging. The operation is based in an industrial space on the northern perimeter of San Diego County (one that used to house Stone, which outgrew the space and moved a few miles down the road).

One of San Diego county’s biggest beer traveler draws, Lost Abbey (as most refer to it now) has a spacious tasting room stacked high with oak barrels and kegs on end with grain or brewers’ sugar sacks for cushions at the 42-foot bar. In just six years, it’s won over a hundred medals and awards in the competitive craft brewing world and become a real draw for travelers who come to taste, trade stories, and leave with rare bottles in tow. On the weekend there are free informal guided tours, but the main thing to do is sample. There are twenty taps at all times with at least sixteen different beers available to take out in bottles. The scene has real energy and buzz. “It’s like Sonoma County in the late 1970s,” says tasting room manager Sage Osterfeld, who grew up in a winemaking family. He walked into Tomme Arthur’s brewhouse one day and decided to stay for good.

PHILOSOPHY

Belgian-style beers with cork-and-wire cage and a medieval theme running through the label art and brew names.

KEY BEER

Ask for Duck Duck Gooze, a wild yeast beer of 5.5% ABV made of a blend from young and older barrel-aged ales. But it’s extremely rare, so you might have better luck with Bourbon Barrel Aged Angel’s Share, a beer on the other, less acidic, but no less interesting end of the flavor spectrum (12% ABV). In distillers’ parlance, the “angel’s share” is the proportion of precious spirit lost to evaporation in the barrel. This barrel-aged brew marries the woody, vanilla-laced smokiness of a classic sipping bourbon to a rich, port-like beer.

PIZZA PORT SOLANA BEACH

135 N. Highway 101 • Solana Beach, CA 92075 (858) 481-7332 • pizzaport.com • Established: 1987

SCENE & STORY

There are now three other Pizza Port locations (San Clemente, Carlsbad, and Ocean Beach), but this one—founded by siblings Vince “Vinny” and Gina Marsaglia, who sold its first beer in 1992—is the original, smallest, and to many, the best. Located in an unassuming stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway with the beach close enough to smell but not see, Pizza Port combines two very elemental things: great pizza and great beer. The inside is cozy and cheerful, and if you sit to the right of the tap row, you can look down into the sunken brewing area to watch the action unfold.

PHILOSOPHY

Pizza and beer, good times are near.

KEY BEER

The rich, dark, and coppery Sharkbite Red (6% ABV) is the big seller here—it goes well with spicy pizza dishes—but try the seasonal as well.

STONE BREWING CO. & WORLD BISTRO

1999 Citracado Pkwy. • Escondido, CA 92029 • (760) 471-4999 stonebrew.com • stoneworldbistro.com • Established: 1996

SCENE & STORY

Founded in San Marcos, Stone moved to its present location in 2006, and it’s more or less a Disneyland for beer lovers. First they built a sprawling eco-friendly compound, complete with a natural-boulder-tunnel-like entrance, an acre of gardens, and a huge roof solar array, cutting the power usage considerably. Then there’s a chic, glassy, 12,000-square-foot restaurant looking out on the gardens and a patio of reclaimed bricks (with side and outdoor bars, for overflow).

The eatery has a central U-shaped bar area with 32 drafts and 120 bottles from Stone and other excellent domestic and international craft breweries. It’s all laid out around an island of boulders and bamboo growing from a bed of river rocks in the center of the room, which has nice old weathered wood tables for a counterpoint. The menu is long, using only local and organic vegetables and breads, hormone-free and natural meats. The spicy duck tacos, made with chile de árbol and the brewery’s Levitation Ale-infused barbecue sauce, will require quantities of cold beer close at hand—they’re fiery.

PHILOSOPHY

Righteous. Brewing-wise the beers are always well put together, if on the intense side (with notable exceptions). For the most part, Stone Brewing’s “extreme” beers are like standard ales in overdrive, with a side dish of attitude. (These are the guys who brought the beer-drinking public “Arrogant Bastard” ale, after all.) Steve Wagner, Stone’s brewmaster, has spent years creating radical riffs on traditional styles: aggressively hopped ales fermented to a high alcohol percentage, usually around 7% ABV and sometimes nearly double that. But getting customers soused isn’t the point; the point is creating complex layers of flavor through long, robust fermentations with a rich mix of grains and huge amounts of resiny, fresh, green hops.

KEY BEER

Until Levitation Ale came along, the unspoken rule on Stone brews was this: don’t drink them before dusk unless you have time for a nap. These beers are tasty; they’re also tranquilizing. Like any beer from Stone, Levitation is loaded with grainy, fruity malt flavors and topped off with a sturdy dose of fragrant hops. At 4.4% ABV, though, this is a beer you can have a few of over the course of a Saturday afternoon without a lawyer present.

THE TAP ROOM

1269 Garnet Ave. • Pacific Beach, CA 92109 (858) 274-1010 • sdtaproom.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

It’s refreshing when a neighborhoody, sports barrish, Fridays-full-of-drunk-people-half-your-age-and-a-DJ bar also happens to have a genuine connoisseur’s list. Is the food great? No. But with an impressive, local-heavy tap row of thirty-two handles, this Pacific Beach (PB) taproom is the best in San Diego for local beers, and would make a good stop after hiking Torrey Pines or hitting the waves. You can check the website’s “live list” which shows exactly which beers are on on any given day, what percentage of beer is left, and what’s on deck.

PHILOSOPHY

Localista, but friendly. Lately the bar has been sponsoring ”L.A.B. nights” (Local Art & Beer), bringing together hip young artists and area craft brewers.

KEY BEER

Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, at 7% ABV, is becoming a local standby, with pungent layers of grapefruit and pine needle flavors atop a base of pale, Pilsner-like malt.

ALESMITH BREWING CO.

9368 Cabot Dr. • San Diego, CA 92126 • (858) 549-9888 alesmith.com • Established: 1995

SCENE & STORY

AleSmith, one of San Diego’s early breakout successes—four hundred medals and counting!—has stayed small as others in the area (i.e., Stone) have grown at an incredible rate. But founder Peter Zien is content to keep production where it is (around 1,000 bbl per year), so the little brewery and taproom remain almost a homespun affair, little more than a rectangular room in an industrial park with a walk-in cooler and the brewing tanks off to the side. This is a good thing; beer is the sole focus, and it’s no less of a draw for beer travelers (Saturdays get busy). No matter when you seek it out, though, you’re likely to meet fellow beer lovers there, who, having trekked from across the country, or even from abroad, are eager try every last beer on offer. There are free tours on the last Saturday of each month; call ahead.

PHILOSOPHY

“Hand Forged” is the MO officially, and it fits nicely with AleSmith, a small, solid operation with consistently high quality in American interpretations of British and Belgian styles, primarily.

KEY BEER

Speedway Stout, at 12% ABV, is already a huge beer, carbon black and dense with coffee, chocolate, and roasted malt flavors. The barrel-aged version takes it to 11, with even deeper notes of vanilla, oak, espresso, and caramel, having lived in wood for a full year.

BALLAST POINT BREWING CO./ HOMEBREW MART

5401 Linda Vista Rd., Ste. 406 • San Diego, CA 92110 (619) 295-2337 • ballastpoint.com • Established: 1996

SCENE & STORY

Ballast Point Brewing Company, ranked as the top small brewery in the country in 2010, started with a home brewer’s dream. Jack White opened his little home brew shop in 1992, and soon a community of home brewers eager to try his beers helped him think even bigger. By 1996, White was ready to install a 15 bbl brew house, and Ballast Point was born. Today there’s a newer, larger Ballast Point location, but Homebrew Mart retains the charm (and the original brewing equipment, still in use) of the early days in San Diego’s beer revolution.

Brewmaster Colby Chandler is playing around with barrel aging, Belgian-style sour beers, and wild yeasts. These vinous ales overlaid with hints of oak and brandy are blended on site, with production so small-scale that most of these beers are rarely seen outside of San Diego County. Try the full Ballast Point line in the back of the store at the little tasting bar, with the barrel projects available on occasion. It’s the best-kept secret for finding—and sharing—beer knowledge in San Diego.

PHILOSOPHY

Beer creates community.

KEY BEER

Ask about the barrel aging projects. And the flowery, tangerine-y Double Dry Hopped Sculpin IPA (7% ABV) offers an aromatic blast of citrus and flowers.

HAMILTON’S TAVERN

1521 30th St. • San Diego, CA 92192 • (619) 238-5460 hamiltonstavern.com • Established: 2006

SCENE & STORY

Almost end to end, San Diego’s 30th Street has turned into a craft beer lover’s avenue in recent years, with Hamilton’s anchoring the quiet, residential southern reaches near the southeast corner of Balboa Park. Formerly a dive bar known as Sparky’s, and site of the oldest liquor license in San Diego (first listed around seventy-five years ago), Hamilton’s is the brainchild of owner Scot Blair, who cleaned it out, hung the ceiling with a wild collection of tap handles, and added a sandwich and burger café next door.

There are 28 taps, 150 bottled options, and 2 cask on all times, with a strong focus on California specialties like Russian River, AleSmith, and Firestone Walker, and a few especially interesting choices from small European brewers.

PHILOSOPHY

Come on in. Hamilton’s is a friendly neighborhood bar with a superb beer list and great food next door. Herman Hamilton, a teetotaling elderly U.S. Marine who lives in the neighborhood and for whom the bar was named, despite having no taste for drink, is said to have spent a fair amount of time visiting and telling stories with the bearded Blair and his friends, who keep the bar hopping—but seldom slammed to the point of annoyance.

KEY BEER

Brasserie Ellezelloise’s Quintine Blonde, an 8% ABV Belgian strong pale ale on the sweet side, with honey, bread, and herbal notes.

ALPINE BEER CO.

2351 Alpine Blvd. • Alpine, CA 91901 (619) 445-2337 • alpinebeerco.com • Established: 1999

SCENE & STORY

From downtown San Diego, it’s about a forty-minute drive into the Coast Range foothills on Interstate 8 toward Yuma, Arizona, to get to Alpine Brewing Company, where Pat McIlhenney, a former full-time fire captain, and his son Shawn built their own little corner of heaven: a small-production brewery and BBQ café in an old TV- repair shop, with copper-sided kettles running a few times a week. Or at least, that’s how it was supposed to be. Now, thanks to the fast-spreading fame of their IPAs in particular, they’re brewing and bottling practically dawn till dusk, adding fermentation tanks and a cold storage room and a BBQ café next door to boot. All of it was built by hand.

It seems to be working. “I cannot make beer fast enough,” says the elder McIlhenney. His twelve tap and eight bottled brews enjoy cult status, heightened by their rarity—and a slew of laurels, like a gold in 2010 in American-style strong pale ales for O’Brien’s IPA, beating fifty-eight other contenders. Simply put, you have to drive up to Alpine or—at the very least—find a great beer bar in San Diego County to drink the good stuff.

PHILOSOPHY

The McIlhenneys keep it simple: “Drink Alpine Beer or Go to Bed!”

KEY BEER

Duet IPA (7% ABV), full of the fresh, floral flavors of Simcoe and Amarillo hops, two rare varieties.

THE LINKERY

3794 30th St. • San Diego, CA 92104 • (619) 255-8778 thelinkery.com • Established: 2005

SCENE & STORY

You know you’re in a good spot when you can not only eat house-cured bacon as part of your meal, but take some home with you after dinner as well, since it is sold separately to take home by request. The bacon in question is Berkshire pork from Eden Farms, a nearby co-op of independent farmers raising hogs with pedigree, and it’s the source of the kitchen’s ham, sausage, and charcuterie. The handmade, organic approach applies to everything else as well, from wine (forty by the glass, many biodynamic small producers) to garden vegetables to house-baked bread, mustard, sauerkraut, and ice cream. If the place had room for a brewery they might make beer, too, but with San Diego’s embarrassment of riches in the craft brew department, no need.

What is needed is time, and a sunny day: with the big garage-style doors open and breezes blowing in, you’ve got the ideal atmosphere for tasting some meticulously thought-out food and a slew of fresh, well-kept beers from five taps, a cask or two, and about thirty bottles, all of them excellent. You can get four 5-ounce pours of anything on draft for $14, a great way to find your keeper.

PHILOSOPHY

Idealistic. In addition to all the food-sourcing policies, the bar made headlines in 2008 when the New York Times addressed its no-tipping policy (although 18 percent is added to every check and distributed evenly among staff ), which is meant to encourage better overall service and less distracting competition among servers.

KEY BEER

There are a lot of good beers on the list, and a fast rotating draft selection of mostly locals. But it’s not everyday you find Russian River Consecration, a dark Belgian-style ale fermented with wild yeasts and aged with currants in cabernet barrels (10% ABV). Don’t miss the chance to try it.

THE BLIND LADY ALEHOUSE/ AUTOMATIC BREWING CO.

3416 Adams Ave. • San Diego, CA 92116 • (619) 555–1234

blindladyalehouse.com • Established: 2009

SCENE & STORY

Trained master brewer Lee Chase helped launch Stone Brewing Company into orbit before freeing himself up to consult and help create San Diego’s cavernous Blind Lady, a gourmet pizzeria and beer bar with communal seating, its own little nanobrewery setup, and reruns of Michael Jackson’s much-loved television series, The Beer Hunter. Just like at the Linkery, they go to great lengths to use local, certified-organic everything, whether it’s peaches from San Diego’s Adams Avenue Farmer’s Market or sausage and charcuterie from San Diego Meat Company (cheese, with the exception of the mozzarella, comes from Italy). The thin crust pizzas are the main attraction but mussels and fries with seasonal dipping sauces (like a recent trio: Meyer lemon-horseradish aioli; tuna aioli; curry ketchup) get high marks for inventiveness and taste.

PHILOSOPHY

Fair and square. As for the beer, you can be certain that what you order is in good shape, thanks to Chase’s attention to proper beer service, a borderline obsession one wishes would catch on far more widely. What it means: kegs are underneath the clean, carefully maintained taps, without long lines to a cellar in which beer would sit for days. Then the servers use clean, rinsed, never-chilled glassware every time (rinsed to rid the glass of Health Department-mandated sanitizer in solution, which inevitably has dried in the glass; never chilled because a freezing pint kills head and aroma). Last key factor: the fair pour. You’ll always get one here, and with a head on the beer when appropriate. Sad fact: Carry around a measuring cup and you’d likely find a troubling number of bars using “cheater pints” with thick glass bottoms or merely smaller volumes.

KEY BEER

Chase has brewed up four beers on his system so far: Automatic (a coriander-spiked, 5.6% ABV Belgian pale ale), Chocolate Rain Oatmeal Stout, Sex Panther Strong Pale Ale, and Imperial Coffee Brown. Why not try them all?

TORONADO

4026 30th St. • San Diego, CA 92104 • (619) 282-0456 toronadosd.com • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

Cleaner and less cluttered than its parent bar in San Francisco, Toronado San Diego is about one thing, and one thing only: craft beer. A small, narrowish bar in North Park, it has a world-class selection of taps emanating from a metal-plated wall in the corner. The beer list skews toward SoCal brewers like AleSmith, Lost Abbey, Pizza Port, Alpine, and Green Flash, with some Belgian left fielders like De Landtsheer for good measure. The goods are routinely fresh and served in the right glass by someone who knows what they’re talking about, and there’s a nice little patio out back should crowds get to be a bit much for the stools and small high tables. No matter what, it’s worth a trip for anyone looking for a great selection in a relaxed atmosphere.

PHILOSOPHY

Unpretentious excellence. While it can surely happen, attitude is not generally served up at Toronado. It’s just a great place to have a beer, try something new, and meet or make friends.

KEY BEER

Alpine’s California Uncommon (5.7% ABV), Pat McIlhenney’s version of “steam” beer, the sort of lager beer fermented at warmer temperatures that Anchor made famous. It’s got a wallop of hop character and a soft, caramel malt base for harmony.

BEST of the REST: CALIFORNIA

CITY BEER STORE

1168 Folsom St., No. 101 • San Francisco, CA 94103 • (415) 503-1033 • citybeerstore.com

In this little hole-in-the-wall SOMA bottle and draft emporium (inspired by wine shops and organized by style rather than brand) visitors sip fresh, ultra-rare domestic and imported craft beers and snack on artisan cheese plates and freshly baked breads. There are six taps for growlers and more than three hundred bottled beers to mix and match. Opened in 2006, it has become a key gathering place for San Francisco craft beer fanatics.

BEER REVOLUTION

464 3rd St. • Oakland, CA 94607 • (510) 452-2337 • beer-revolution.com

This combination bottle shop and craft beer bar opened in 2010 has quickly become an anchor of east Bay Area drinking culture, despite its humble location and pallid fluorescent lighting. All five hundred selections are available to take home—or pop open right here for a mere dollar (compare this to the average wine corkage fee of $15 to $25). Then there are forty-seven drafts to choose from and a sunny patio for al fresco tastings. Add in correct glassware for every beer, appearances by notable brewers, and afternoon barbecues, and you have all the makings of the ultimate craft beer party. Look for Marin Brewing Company’s San Quentin Breakout Stout (7 % ABV) with creamy flavors of dark chocolate, vanilla, espresso, and bourbon.

ALBATROSS PUB

1822 San Pablo Ave. • Berkeley, CA 94702 • (510) 843-2473 • albatrosspub.com

Being the oldest pub in town all too often means having a selection that could use some dusting off, too. And while the Albatross is Berkeley’s oldest pub—it was founded 1964—it’s hardly old-fashioned in the beer department. In between contests of skill in the wood-framed dart alleys or a game of dominoes, sip such treats as North Coast Brewing Company’s silky, espresso-like Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout (9% ABV), a craft beer classic.

TRIPLE ROCK BREWERY & ALEHOUSE

1920 Shattuck Ave. • Berkeley, CA 94704 • (510) 843-4677 • triplerock.com

A pilgrimage to Triple Rock is a trip into American craft brewing’s earliest days: When it opened in 1986 after a lengthy battle with town officials (who feared a factory), it became just the fifth brewpub in the United States. (Today it’s the last remaining of those five still owned by the founders.) The interior has all the warmth and wear of a much older establishment, in fact, with wood paneling, ochre walls, framed brewery posters, and a beautiful, wide old bar. Behind all the nostalgic décor, though, is some of the most sophisticated brewpub equipment anyone had seen in the United States back when the company was founded. It is still a winning setup, and today the Triple Rock is just as welcoming as ever, though with far better beer and a full menu. Try the Dragon’s Milk Brown Ale (6.5% ABV) with toffee, smoke, and floral notes that work well together.

HOPMONK TAVERN

230 Petaluma Ave. • Sebastopol, CA 95472 • (707) 829-7300 • hopmonk.com

Built in a gorgeous old stone barn–like structure and lined with hundred-year-old salvaged Douglas fir floors, this spacious brewpub (est. 2008) features house ales among the sixteen taps and a hundred bottled selections including a swath of Russian River, Sierra Nevada, and Anderson Valley beers. The menu features beer-focused cuisine, such as charcuterie plates, cider-braised salmon, and hot beer sausage. If you haven’t found it yet, this is the place to try Russian River’s superb Temptation, a 7.25% ABV blonde ale aged in Chardonnay barrels with a touch of Brettanomyces yeast.

BEAR REPUBLIC

345 Healdsburg Ave. • Healdsburg, CA 95448 • (707) 433-2337 • bearrepublic.com

Racer 5 is an American-style IPA of 7% ABV that, over the past few years, has zoomed into the best beer bars in America based on its incredibly floral aroma alone. It’s a reliably delicious beer, top in its class at the 2009 GABF, and now produced in a much bigger brewery nearby that isn’t open to the public. But the family-owned brewpub where it was born—decorated with memorabilia of auto racing—shows off what founder and head brewer Richard Norgrove has in the engine next, including one-offs in the original brew house.

WURSTKÜCHE

800 E. 3rd St. • Los Angeles, CA 90013 • (213) 687-4444 • wurstkucherestaurant.com

Located in downtown L.A.’s arts district, Wurstküche (est. 2008) peddles grilled sausages made with ingredients such as chile de árbol, rubbed sage, rattlesnake, chipotle, and cinnamon; and Belgian fries with toppings (truffle oil, tzatziki, bleu cheese with walnuts and bacon). The refreshment: twenty-four import and craft beers including caramelly Sticke (“secret”) beer from Zum Uerige brewery in Dusseldorf, brewed only on the third Tuesday of January and October.

FATHER’S OFFICE

1018 Montana Ave. • Santa Monica, CA 90403 • (310) 393-2337 • fathersoffice.com

Even without table service and a strict no-substitutions policy, Father’s Office has been Santa Monica’s best-known beer ’n’ burger destination since it opened in 2000, making it hard to get in at times. (Note: There’s a second, larger location in Culver City.) The culprits: thirty-six top-shelf taps and a sweet bottle list; chef-founder Sang Yoon’s Office Burger, consisting of juicy dry-aged strip steak, Maytag blue cheese, Gruyère, arugula, and apple-wood bacon; and a steady stream of beer-loving celebrities like Brooke Shields.

NEIGHBORHOOD

777 G St. • San Diego, CA 92101 • (619) 446-0002 • neighborhoodsd.com

Conceived as a hybrid of the traditional Japanese izakaya and a London gastropub, the small, contemporary Neighborhood (est. 2007) makes the otherwise touristy Gaslamp Quarter worth a trip. The beer list (twenty-seven taps and forty bottles) is excellent, with sought-after double IPAs like Port’s Mongo. Stave off hunger with eclectic choices like pink-salted deviled eggs, steak tartare, steamed pork buns, and ribs braised in Stone Smoked Porter.

SMALL BAR

4628 Park Blvd. • San Diego, CA 92116 • (619) 795-7998 • smallbarsd.com

Opened in 2009 by Scot Blair of Hamilton’s, this local lives up to its name in size, but not stature, with forty-two up-to-the-minute taps and a “handful” of bottled options (mostly local and Californian, with some European delicacies for good measure), served in a dimly lit bar painted floor to ceiling in red and black. Sustenance arrives in the form of chile verde, Wagyu beef sliders, and buttermilk fried chicken.

O’BRIEN’S PUB

4646 Convoy St. • San Diego, CA 92111-2315 • (858) 715-1745 • obrienspub.net

An unassuming soccer bar located in an anonymous strip mall next to a cluster of car dealerships, O’Brien’s has white plastic patio chairs, drop-panel ceilings, and a bar decorated with unfinished wood shingles. But as the self-proclaimed “hoppiest place on earth” it also boasts serious craft beer cred: twenty hard-to-get taps, eighty obscure and collectible bottles, regular casks, beer release parties for the likes of Lost Abbey, and the bragging rights to O’Brien’s IPA, a world-class example of the style originally brewed for the bar by Alpine.

Hawaii

BACK IN THE LATE-1960S “TINY BUBBLES” ERA OF DON HO—AND THE last days of surfing pioneer Duke Kahanamoku—the Hawaiian Islands’ beloved beer was an inexpensive industrial lager called Primo, which lacked much flavor but dated all the way back to 1898. The nostalgic brand withered away over the next couple of decades as corporate owners (Schlitz, then Stroh, then Pabst) moved production to the mainland and scrimped on glass and ingredients, none of which have ever spurred much of a luau.

These days, craft beer is surfing its own wave in the islands, brewing the freshest beer they can for the breezy beaches of the fiftieth state. It’s not at all easy to brew in paradise—there are no malt houses or large hop suppliers, for starters—but that’s not keeping craft beer from finding a home, their taprooms full, and their kegs running dry.

Maui

MAUI BREWING CO.

910 Honoapiilani Hwy., No. 55 • Lahaina, HI 96761 (877) MAU-IBRE • mauibrewingco.com • Established: 2005

MAUI BREWING CO.

Kahana Gateway Center • 4405 Honoapiilani Hwy., No. 217 Lahaina, HI 96761 • Established: 2009

SCENE & STORY

What’s paradise without incredible beer? Exactly. When you tire of nearby Kaanapali Beach (if such a thing is possible), skip the tiki drinks and head for a taste of the best beer in the islands. Known by its unmistakable cans (especially the retro hula girl on Bikini Blonde Lager), Maui Brewing is the only microbrewery on Maui; in many ways it could be the natural heir to Primo, only with a far better beer, but the focus is more on quality than quantity. Founded by the outgoing Garrett Marrero and Melanie Oxley, Maui Brewing Company is nevertheless finding a bigger audience with each batch, having made four hundred barrels by the end of year one . . . and eleven thousand a year later in 2010, with double that planned for 2011 and 2012, putting their capacity on par with or ahead of Kona Brewing Company, part of the Anheuser-Busch-distributed Craft Brewers Alliance (which also includes Redhook, Widmer, and Goose Island).

There’s a tasting room at the brewery location, but the newer brewpub—a sleek, modern space with high ceilings and large U-shaped bar island—is a little more accommodating, open every day of the week from 11 a.m. to midnight. The pub serves Maui’s three year-round beers, all of them good: Bikini Blonde, Big Swell IPA, and the award-winning CoCoNut Porter—a far better beer than it sounds. Then there are ten more taps of brewpub-only and experimental offerings, a small number of which make their way to the Left Coast on occasion. Marrero, from San Diego originally, features guest taps like Stone alongside his own brews. Recently, Marrero’s experiments included a collaboration brew with Pizza Port and brown ale made with a famous local ingredient: the sweet Maui onion.

He sees it as part and parcel of a holistic, back-to-the-land lifestyle. “In these days of mass production of sub par, unnatural products, we need to get some attention back on knowing where your food and drink comes from,” says Marrero. “It is sad to see local farms across the country closing at an alarming rate when they really are the backbone of fresh, local, organic, and natural food products. It’s also fun to see people’s faces when you say ‘Hey, try my Maui Onion Beer,’ and they look at you almost cross-eyed: ‘Onion in beer? Weird . . . I have to try that!’”

PHILOSOPHY

Marrero preaches a mantra of environmental responsibility and stewardship, supplying local farmers with spent grain, growing hops at a local farm and in Lahaina (which will help reduce the impact of shipping hops from the mainland), making bio-diesel from kitchen by-products in the pub, and using photovoltaic panels to capture solar energy. “Hawaii is generally associated with tropical fruits, nuts, and flowers, and we try to draw from what the ‘aina (“land”) provides to make innovative and fun beers,” says Garrero. “We take traditional, sometime old-world styles, and give them new life or dimension by adding these agricultural products to the brew.”

KEY BEER

While it sounds like it might taste like a mouthful of Coppertone, Maui’s CoCoNut Porter, at 5.7% ABV, is actually a silky, slightly sweet delight, a blend of coffee and cocoa flavors mingled with hand-toasted coconut and a dash of spicy hops to balance it all out. Drink it in a sunny place—preferably Maui.

Big Island and Oahu

KONA PUB & BREWERY

75-5629 Kuakini Hwy. • Kona, HI 96740 (808) 334-2739 • konabrewingco.com • Established: 1994

KOKO MARINA PUB

7192 Kalaniana‘ole Hwy. • Honolulu, HI 96825 (808) 394-5662 • konabrewingco.com • Established: 2003

SCENE & STORY

Established in 1994 by father-and-son team Cameron Healy and Spoon Khalsa, Kona Brewing Company is now the thirteenth largest craft brewery in the United States and owned by the Craft Brewers Alliance. Kona’s head brewer moved on as of summer 2011; most of the company’s beers sold on the U.S. mainland are contract brewed in New Hampshire and Portland, Oregon and distributed by Anheuser-Busch. The brewpub in Kona, built on-site a few years later, brews 2,000 bbl a year for locals; the Honolulu location is a bar and eatery. Beer travelers can count on a fresh and relaxing beer in the Kona location with its verdant patio and menu of hand-tossed pizzas, sandwiches, salads and pupu plates (appetizers). Free tours are also offered, and there’s a cool little growler station for beer to go. The larger Koko Marina spot in Honolulu overlooks a placid bay of boats tied up to the piers and has a spacious indoor taproom.

PHILOSOPHY

Easy in the islands. They’re obviously not too worried about being a contract brewing company, despite the stigma it creates in the eyes of diehard craft consumers. As long as the local beers stay high quality and hopefully even innovative, they’ll draw beer lovers of all stripes.

KEY BEER

Da Grind Buzz Kona Coffee Imperial Stout (8.5% ABV) is a winter seasonal brewed in Kona that’s made with coffee beans grown, harvested, and roasted in nearby Holualoa. It’s as aromatic as a freshly iced espresso but creamier on the tongue and black as ancient lava.

Best of the Rest: Hawaii

HUMPY’S BIG ISLAND ALEHOUSE

75-5815 Ali‘i Drive • Kailua-Kona, HI 96740 (808) 324-2337 • humpys.com

Sister bar to craft beer maven Billy Opinksy’s famous Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse in Anchorage, Alaska, Humpy’s opened in 1994 right across the street from the water, overlooking a couple of slender palms and the Pacific. There’s ample outdoor seating (though it can get a little windy), a sports-bar-like interior (read: plasma screens), and a vast menu of options, from ten-ounce burgers, local grilled and fried fish, and Hawaiian pork platters, to a full list of pizzas. And the beer? It’s only the best beer selection on the Big Island (twenty taps and around twenty in bottles). Order a local Hawaiian variety, naturally, whatever’s on and especially fresh.

COLORADO
MOUNTAIN
and the ROCKY
MOUNTAINS

Colorado

ASK ANY BEER LOVER TO NAME THE BEST BEER STATE IN AMERICA, and, depending on their zip code, you’ll soon be besieged with per-capita statistics and other “inside baseball” minutiae, a puffed chest conversation brewers and industry watchers refer to as “the arms race.” The fact is, there’s room for more than one Super Power on Craft Beer Planet.

From the leafy streets and sunny taprooms of Fort Collins to the cavernous barrel-aging rooms in Boulder, sleek gastropubs in downtown Denver, and wood-stove-warmed, log cabin–like Rocky Mountain brewpubs, there are scores of beer-friendly spots and some of the country’s most scenic drives between them. Denver alone merits a stop in this state: the mile-high city is home to the Denver Beer Fest, a ten-day annual craft beer festival culminating in the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), the world’s largest mass beer tasting (for number of beers on offer—more than 2,000) and America’s largest beer festival of any kind. Denver is also the only major U.S. city since Colonial times to be governed by a brewmaster in chief, John Hickenlooper. No beer lover should miss making a good long visit, especially during the Denver Beer Fest and GABF, to see—and taste—what all the fuss is about. After visiting Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins, head West into the Rockies and then South to Durango, a 450-mile epic of 11,000 passes, atmospheric taprooms, and thirst-stoking outdoor options.

ITINERARIES

Fort Collins

NEW BELGIUM
BREWING CO.

500 Linden Street • Fort Collins, CO 80524
(970) 221-0524 • newbelgium.com • Established: 1991

SCENE & STORY

Maker of the craft brew smash Fat Tire Ale, New Belgium is the largest craft brewery in Fort Collins and the third largest in the United States. As the story goes, Jeff Lebesch started the brewery with his then-wife (and current company CEO), Kim Jordan, after discovering the incredible array of beers lovingly and idiosyncratically produced in Belgium while touring that country on his mountain bike in 1989. No visit to Colorado’s breweries would be complete without a tour here (it’s popular, so plan to reserve two to three weeks ahead), followed by beers in the airy, sleek taproom, the “Liquid Center.”

While the nave-like brewing hall feels like a cathedral, with creamy, colorful tile work around the bases of the kettles, the beating heart of this operation is in an unassuming corner of a storage warehouse behind the taproom, where sixteen massive fouders—French oak fermenters—stand in a tower of amber-hued wood and iron bands. There, New Belgium ages ales into vinous liquids for later blending, some exuding aromas that are the products of alcoholic compounds called esters. Though fruit is not always present, the beers aged in this way can exhibit aromas of pineapple and tangerine, as well as chewy red wine–like tannins, and a flavor like sour cherries.

New Belgium has been a pioneer in introducing Americans to the Belgian styles called Flanders Red and Oud Bruin (“Old Brown”) of which the crowning example is generally thought to be Belgium’s Rodenbach Grand Cru, reddish ale aged in huge oak vats and later blended with younger beer to round out the acidic flavors created by prolonged exposure to wood. New Belgium’s Belgian head brewer, Peter Bouckaert, worked for Rodenbach for years, and he’s considered a true master of barrel aging. This is not how all New Belgium beer is brewed, but it’s how the best and most interesting ones are matured, sometimes with additional fruits in the tanks.

PHILOSOPHY

Outside magazine has named the employee-owned company one of the “Best Places to Work” in the United States, and it’s easy to see why. There’s a sense of institutionally mandated fun here: the Tour de Fat is an annual bike festival celebrating zero-emissions commuting, with a concert on a solar-powered stage and beer served in compostable cups. There’s a company climbing wall and foosball table, a slide from the second to first floors, and even an on-site dirt bike track. All employees earn a new cruiser bike after one year at the company; after four more they’re taken to Belgium to follow in the founder’s footsteps.

KEY BEER

Fat Tire Amber Ale, a biscuity tasting brew of light to medium body, made New Belgium a national player, but the company’s more adventurous, smaller release concoctions, such as La Folie, New Belgium’s version of Rodenbach, are the ones to seek out. Now marketed through the brewery’s Lips of Faith line, La Folie is a landmark, polarizing beer—it’s uncompromisingly tart, with a bracing flavor profile that can sucker-punch the unprepared. But to the initiated, it’s nothing short of nectar.

COOPERSMITH’S

5 Old Town Square • Fort Collins, CO 80524
(970) 498-0483 • coopersmithpub.com • Established: 1989

SCENE & STORY

Next to posters from the Denver Beer Festival going back to 1990, the décor at the easygoing CooperSmith’s, located in downtown Fort Collins, includes a photo of a pub regular posing on Mount Everest’s summit—sure evidence you’ve arrived at a sturdy corner of the universe. The exposed brick walls, wooden booths, and a historic, dark, polished bar only reinforce that sense of solidity. Menu options are no less impressive: the High Plains Barbecue Brisket Sandwich is delicious, with zingy spice. There’s also a pool bar across the walkway from the original pub, with twelve tournament-size billiards tables and other games.

PHILOSOPHY

Early brews mimicked traditional English ales, but over time CooperSmith’s has incorporated elements of German and Belgian brewing. “At this point,” says head brewer Dwight Hall, “we’re brewing distinctly American beers, but we do not brew to style. We try and create harmony in the glass.” And CooperSmith’s isn’t just about beer; the bar carries one of the largest single-malt Scotch selections in all of northern Colorado, in addition to a good selection of blended Scotches and bourbons.

KEY BEER

There have been about seventy-five beers in the CooperSmith’s repertoire, with fourteen at a time on tap. Try the 6.8% ABV Punjabi Pale Ale, a slightly pungent APA (American Pale Ale), bittered with grapefruity Cascade hops. “It’s our best-selling beer,” says Hall. “It was originally inspired by the English IPAs, but it has evolved over the years and has its own distinct character.”

DETOUR

THE BIG ONE: ANHEUSER BUSCH, FORT COLLINS 2351 Busch Dr. • Fort Collins, CO 80524-9400 • (970) 221-0922 www.bud weiser.com

A tour of Anheuser Busch’s plant in Fort Collins is a stop I unironically recommend for all craft beer lovers. Blasphemy, you say? Not at all. In fact, this is a stop worth making for one simple reason: perspective. Touring this maze of robots churning out millions upon millions of identical beers is a look at beer making’s outer technological frontier. Take the “Beer-master” tour ($25) and you’ll see massive brewing kettles that look like something out of the movie Independence Day. You’ll gape at a canning line churning out Bud Light at a rate of 33 cans per second. Brewers are technical people by nature, and there are many who speak of factories like this with a begrudging reverence. They might not want to make beer the same way, but the sheer mechanical ingenuity is something to behold, even if the end result is akin to “wet air” as the famous 1987 Atlantic article, “A Glass of Handmade,” by William Least Heat-Moon attested so memorably.

And yet wandering through the futuristic forest of stainless tanks, myriad pipes, conveyor belts, and grated stairways you’ll taste something quite remarkable: unfiltered Bud Light. Yes, it’s made of 40 percent rice. Hop character: nada. But after the so-called beechwood aging (it’s real wood, I can at least tell you that much), and before filtration and pasteurization has rent the last of any remaining flaws asunder, Bud Light has an appealing flavor, surprisingly full bodied and slightly sweet. It’s a treat to try beer at this stage of the process. Germans and Czechs have been releasing beers in this state for eons, calling them by various names including kellerbier, zwickelbier, and, in the case of the fabled Mahr’s brewery of Bamberg, Germany, ungespundet hefetrub. For the record, I suggested that the manager pitch a commercial version of unfiltered Bud to her superiors. (I can see the commercials now.) But I’m not holding my breath. We don’t really need another ersatz-craft beer from corporate bean counters. But with Bud Light Golden Wheat suddenly a national brand, maybe Bud “Kellerbier” doesn’t sound so crazy, after all.

ODELL BREWING
COMPANY

800 East Lincoln Ave. • Fort Collins, CO 80524
(970) 498-9070 • odells.com • Established: 1989

SCENE & STORY

Odell was the second craft brewery to open in Colorado (after Boulder Brewing Company), starting with a little five-barrel brewery in a 1915 grain elevator. Early on, founders Doug Odell, Wynne, and Corkie Odell maintained a draught-only focus while struggling to keep up with demand. So they added a bottling line in 1996, which effectively supercharged the marketplace for their beer. Flash forward to 2011, and the brewery is currently making about 45,000 brewers’ barrels (or bbl.; one barrel equals 31 US gallons) of beer, sold throughout the middle of the country in nine states.

With live music every Wednesday, the sunny taproom (and outdoor patio) is one of the most popular destinations for beer lovers in Fort Collins. Best of all, success hasn’t spoiled the makers of the popular Scottish ale called 90 Schilling. There’s a warm, family-friendly feel to the place, which makes more sense when one learns that in all, there are five married couples (some of whom met here) who work together at the brewery. Which is a sizable chunk of the staff. It might be the happiest place in America.

PHILOSOPHY

Fortunately, the original five-barrel system remains in use for special one-offs, in which the beers depart from standard English ales and head into parts unknown, but not unappreciated. One such recent brew was Angry Robin, an English strong ale aged in merlot barrels and spiked with a dash of brettanomyces bacteria, giving it a barnyardy kick.

KEY BEER

Every fall, Odell releases a one-off beer aged in American oak barrels, echoing the old-world techniques over at New Belgium, though on a much smaller scale. Woodcut Nos. 1, 2, and 3 were all variations on the theme of strong ale aged in oak, which adds layers of vanilla-like woodiness to the brews. No. 4 was a strong amber lager. These beers are beautifully labeled and corked in 750-milliliter bottles, and may be available in limited quantities at the tap room. Otherwise, try any other barrel-aged “pilot system” beers, such as the earthy, acidic—and interesting—Brett Porter. These are brewed on the original 5 bbl (about 350 gallons) system that started it all.

Longmont

LEFT HAND
BREWING CO.

1265 Boston Ave. • Longmont, CO 80025 • (303) 772-0258
lefthandbrewing.com • @lefthandbrewing • Est: 1993

SCENE & STORY

Housed in an old meatpacking plant in an industrial area of Longmont, Left Hand has slowly grown from a raggedy upstart into a world-class small brewery. It all began when head brewer Eric Wallace, who had traveled around the world tasting beers while in the air force, joined up with his college friend Dick Doore, who was a home brewer. In the first year, the guys took home a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival. They grew in a sustainable fashion, and eventually morphed into what is now a very laid back—but not lazy—brewing company. “It’s kind of an after-work place,” says Wallace. “We get engineers from all these tech companies and biotechs around here, bicyclists, arborists, and painters.”

Originally called Indian Peaks Brewery, for a nearby mountain range, Wallace and Doore’s brewery was forced to change names after a branding dispute with another company. They settled on Left Hand, after an Arapahoe word (“Niwot”), which was the name of a chief who spent winters nearby on the banks of the St. Vrain River. And then there’s a more, shall we say, colorful connection: Curtis Green, the early sausage maker tenant of the building, lost his right arm in the grinder one day.

PHILOSOPHY

Left Hand isn’t trying to outgun other companies in the IPA arms race—they’re not heavy-handed with the hops. “Our brewing approach is all about balance,” says Wallace. “When we started, we were brewing beers that we wanted, that we weren’t really finding out there in the marketplace. We’re still out there exploring flavors and styles that we like. Overwhelmingly, we’ll always fall back to balance. In the end, is it drinkable? Does it have complexity, depth? And that balance? It’s all about the flavor.”

KEY BEER

Left Hand Polestar Pils. In the push to brew ever stronger, stranger beers, the subtle pilsner often gets neglected. That’s too bad, because a great pilsner is a thing of beauty—an alcoholic beverage that is somehow more refreshing than a glass of ice water on a Death Valley afternoon. Like the best American micros, Polestar also stands out for its perfect use of hops; it’s brewed with three varieties, which together lend a powdery floral aroma. While it’s only occasionally available, Left Hand Smokejumper Imperial Porter is also worth seeking out. Next to your dog, a smoked beer (made with wood- or peat-fire smoked malt) may be the ultimate fireside companion. Left Hand’s is a briny, coffee-black 9.2% ABV beast of a beer that calls to mind bacon. Even better, Wallace and Co. donate proceeds from this rare, hand-smoked seasonal to a scholarship fund for the children of smoke jumpers killed in action.

Return OF THE Can

There was a time when only cheap beer came in cans. . . . Even so, the aluminum can, introduced to this country’s beer drinking public in 1935, became iconic—even if the beer it contained was often unremarkable. Quality notwithstanding, the cssffft sound that issued forth upon opening each new can was a harbinger of good things, especially on a hot summer day.

But today the humble can is new and improved and experiencing a renaissance: since the release of Dale’s Pale Ale in a can in 2002, dozens of American microbrewers have started packaging their finest stuff in aluminum. Thanks to special linings, there’s no interaction whatsoever between the metal and liquid. More importantly, there’s less “head space” between the top of the can and the brew, meaning less beer-spoiling oxygen remains in contact with the beer. What’s more, cans offer benefits that bottles don’t: harmful UV light rays are blocked, sparing the beer from the dreaded “skunk” effect (avoid green and clear beer bottles when you can; brown glass blocks more UV rays). Today, well over a hundred American craft brewers have adopted cans. They’re easier to carry (especially on camping trips), less likely to break and cut someone, and more quickly cooled. Crack one open as soon as you can.

OSKAR BLUES
HOMEMADE
LIQUIDS & SOLIDS

1555 S. Hover Rd. • Longmont, CO 80501
(303) 485-9400 • oskarblues.com • Established: 2009

SCENE & STORY

Think: bayou-on-the-Front-Range. Equal parts shiny taproom, soul food smorgasbord, and juke joint blues bar, this excellent spot is a must for anyone on the Colorado ale trail. The smell of apple-wood smoke greets you before you reach the door; that’s thanks to the “Midnight Toker,” an in-house smoker used for slow smoked North Carolina–style BBQ pork, spare ribs, beer-can chicken, salmon, and turkey. Inside, there’s a mouth-watering display of shrimp and other shellfish, scores of interesting pieces of folk art from the Deep South, and the sounds of good music, including live blues, alt country, rockabilly, and bluegrass five nights a week. “We made a commitment early on that we were going to do good music,” says founder Dale Katechis of the atmosphere. “We weren’t just going to book $200 ‘Mustang Sally’ bands.” There’s even a line of Oskar Blues hot sauces, based on five different beers. Try the Ten FIDY Imperial Stout version, made with the world’s hottest pepper, Bhut Jolokia, or “ghost chile,” if you dare.

PHILOSOPHY

A rising tide lifts all ships. This Oskar Blues location features scores of guest taps from other Colorado and American brewers, making the forty-three-tap pub a great place for an all-Colorado beer tasting.

KEY BEER

The clean and crisp Mama’s Little Yella Pils, at 5.3% ABV, makes a great quencher for spicy ribs and other dishes they do so well here. But don’t miss other OB rarities like Smoke on the Water, a lightly smoked, 7% ABV winter warmer.

OSKAR BLUES
TASTY WEASEL
TAPROOM

1800 Pike Rd., Unit B • Longmont, CO 80501
(303) 776-1914 • oskarblues.com • Established: 2009

SCENE & STORY

The Tasty Weasel is a cozy little taproom within the massive new Oskar Blues brewing facility, a behemoth headed toward a 70,000bbl annual capacity. Expect an industrial yet intimate setting (corrugated metal walls, folk art) popular with beer fanatics and locals, an up-close view of massive, beer-filled fermenters, cool music on the hifi, British-style casks called firkins, and oak-aged beer tappings on Tuesday and Friday nights.

PHILOSOPHY

No risk, no reward. “I grew up in the restaurant business and I always had a dream of opening my own restaurant, and Lyons seemed to be about the riskiest place to do it,” recalls founder Dale Katechis. “When I moved there it was Mayberry in the mountains.” That roll-the-dice business model has proved a savvy strategy, but the results have presented challenges of their own. “It’s just 100 percent growth year after year,” he says of the entire operation. “The job now is holding on to the culture and the soul and why we started doing it, and in business sometimes that’s hard.” The Tasty Weasel—and for Katechis, commuting between parts of the factory on a BMX bike—is part of that quest to maintain that fun-loving culture at the heart of Oskar Blues.

KEY BEER

This would be the place to sample the successful 10.5% ABV Ten FIDY, a roasty, fulsome Russian Imperial Stout, or better yet, the oak barrel-aged Ten Fidy, which is quite rare. The wood imparts rich notes of vanilla and caramel.

Lyons

OSKAR BLUES
GRILL & BREW

303 Main St. Lyons, CO 80540 • (303) 823-6685
oskarblues.com • Established: 1997

SCENE & STORY

The old mining town of Lyons, (population: 1,500), sits at the confluence of the St. Vrain North and St. Vrain South Creeks, just about twenty miles from Rocky Mountain National Park. Surrounded by reddish sandstone peaks, it’s an outdoor lover’s paradise, and it’s also known for an amazing music scene, with the annual Rockygrass Bluegrass Festival held every summer and regularly drawing such luminaries as David Grisman and Tony Rice. The Grill & Brew is the town’s social hub, with its Southern-themed, forty-five-tap bar, dining room, and outdoor patio overlooking the little brew house building and a barn that has been converted for special events and parties. On a good summery night the patio is the place to be, sipping some fresh craft beer in the breeze.

PHILOSOPHY

“We’re all hop heads,” says Eric Huber, head brewer at the Lyons location. “We do love classical styles, we do love a lot of what the other guys are doing, but it’s about what we want to drink ourselves. We’ve got a clientele who loves what we’ve been doing, and we’ve been training them to drink the hoppy beers we’ve been drinking for years. The best way to find out if it’s a great batch is put it on and see what the local boys think.”

KEY BEER

Dale’s Pale Ale, 6.5 % ABV. Initially laughed off, Katechis’s delicate craft beer packaged in aluminum cans was an unlikely success. For one, Katechis didn’t live in Portland or Seattle, where craft is king. He lived in the Deep South. “In 1989 or 1990, there were not too many home brewers in Auburn, Alabama,” he says. “Actually, I knew of one—and that was me.” He had developed a recipe for Dale’s Pale Ale, an extremely hoppy, astringent beer, almost IPA-like, outside of the style guideline of a pale ale, which evolved with his first hired brewers. And the rest, as they say, is history.

North Boulder

UPSLOPE
BREWING CO.

1501 Lee Hill Rd., No. 20 • Boulder, CO 80304
(720) 379-7528 • upslopebrewing.com • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

In a generic North Boulder strip mall, some enterprising, beer loving, home brewing friends have built a booming little business. The tiny taproom is decorated with photos of the brewery’s fans drinking Upslope brews in the wilds of Colorado and beyond. The founders themselves, a garrulous bunch, are quick to recount close scrapes from the early days, coping with limited space, little money, harsh winter temperatures, and other setbacks. But like the Flatiron Mountain images that decorate their cans, things are looking up for Upslope.

PHILOSOPHY

Upslope’s MO is simple. Great craft brews should be canned and ready to rock at a moment’s notice. “We’re all about drinking our beer, not just in a pub, but on the side of a mountain,” says assistant brewer Alex Violette. “It’s a completely different experience. Take it rafting with you. Get out there and have fun with it, you know?” Better yet, it’s easier to leave no trace with canned beer: crush up the cans and pack them out. The approach also makes sense from a business standpoint. The same amount of beer weighs about 40 percent less in the can than in a bottle, and stacks more efficiently in a truck, making it a more energy-efficient product going out of the brewery, as well.

KEY BEER

Upslope’s beers are firmly in the middle of the typical Colorado beer lover’s palate, with big, malty, hop-accented beers that finish clean. Their marquee beer is Upslope Pale Ale (5.8% ABV). “It’s brewed in the tradition of American-style pale ale except for one different aspect: we use Patagonian hops,” says Violette. “They add a little bit more of an earthy-spicy flavor to our pale ale. It’s also a very approachable beer, not over-the-top hopped. It’s something that’s really easy to drink on a warm summer day.”

Gunbarrel

ASHER BREWING
COMPANY

4699 Nautilus Ct., No. 104 • Boulder, CO 80301
(303) 530-1381 • asherbrewing.com • Established: 2009

SCENE & STORY

One might be forgiven for driving straight through the Gunbarrel area northeast of Boulder, packed as it seems with featureless business parks and endless cul-de-sacs. But it’s inside one of those sleepy turnabouts where business partners Steve Turner and Chris Asher have created Colorado’s first all-organic brewery, turning out supremely fresh, delicious brews for a small but rapidly growing clientele. It’s easy to miss, hidden behind hedges, and a no-frills affair, but worth the effort to find.

PHILOSOPHY

“Boulder is an organic Mecca for everything else,” says brewer Chris Asher, “but no one was doing [organic] beer.” The Massachusetts native had taught himself to brew during college at Wesleyan, even leading classes on campus for home brewing, then completed stints at Golden City Brewing in Golden and an MBA in his spare time before teaming up with Steve Turner, who had a decade of brewing and sales experience in the busy Colorado brewing scene. Though they knew Boulder, with its multiple craft breweries, would be a crowded market, they also correctly sensed an opportunity, and invested in a fifteen-barrel brewery. Smart move: within seven months of opening in late 2009, Asher Brewing was ready to expand, welcoming a growing stream of visitors, landing their beer in area accounts in neighboring towns, and drawing up plans for both canning and bottling.

KEY BEER

While Asher occasionally offers up rarities like a recent 7.4% ABV Fun Barrel Kriek, a dark ale aged with sweet and tart local cherries in wood barrels, the standard is Tree Hugger Organic Amber, a cleanly made, full-bodied 6.0% ABV sipper that showcases Asher’s balanced use of American and New Zealand hops. It’s a nice twist on an amber style, which has always been very, very popular in Colorado, at least since the ascent of New Belgium’s Fat Tire Amber Ale on the national beer scene.

Boulder

AVERY
BREWING CO.

5763 Arapahoe Ave., Unit E • Boulder, CO 80303
(303) 440-4324 • averybrewing.com • Established: 1993

SCENE & STORY

Like many brewing companies in Colorado and beyond, Avery is built in a rather bland industrial park. But once inside, you find a beautiful seventeen-spigot taproom manned by a chipper, beer-savvy staff. Adam Avery, who started the brewery with his chemist father, is among the best known of Colorado brewers; his beers have always been big in malt and hops. A great many visitors have passed through, but no one can top the Beer Lover in Chief, President Barack Obama, who once visited the taproom. Perhaps he wanted a taste of the 8.75% ABV Ale to the Chief, a special 2008 election season double IPA (it’s long been retired, alas). Elected to office or not, the most discerning beer geek couldn’t fail to be impressed by the barrel room, so take a tour if one is available.

PHILOSOPHY

Avery’s public pledge is to make “big, artful beers” and brew with “utter disregard for what the market demands,” while searching out fans with “equally eccentric palates.” Judging from their jump from small-time roots to national distribution, it seems to be a useful set of guiding principles.

KEY BEER

Keeping pace with the popularity and possibilities of barrel aging, there are several high-acid beers, too, aged in oak, which are sporadically released in miniscule quantities. Easier to find and diabolically strong at 15.1% ABV, Mephistopheles offers a taste of the awesome power that a beer can unleash—but be careful, you may not be able to feel your taste buds for an hour. This cinder black brew is rich and roasty with flavors of coffee and rum-soaked black cherries, with a velvety smoothness that lures you back sip after sip. It’s hell to brew no doubt, but heaven to drink.

BOULDER BEER
COMPANY

2880 Wilderness Pl. • Boulder, CO 80301 • (303) 444-8448
boulderbeer.com • @boulderbeer • Established: 1979

SCENE & STORY

Opened with a homemade, one-barrel system (thirty-one gallons) by two University of Colorado physics professors, David Hummer and Randolph “Stick” Ware, in a goat-shed outside of town, BBC became the first microbrewery in Colorado and was among the first to open nationally—they were granted the forty-third license to brew beer in the United States. The two friends even consulted the Coors family, who, according to Ware, called them “crazy,” but early supporters included famed beer writers Michael Jackson and Fred Eckhardt, joining a nascent groundswell of beer drinkers ready for sweeping change in the beer aisle. While Hummer and Ware ceded financial control of the brewery to the Rock Bottom chain in 1990, the Boulder beer scene had been well launched, and their brewpub became an institution.

With the Flatiron Mountains rising behind Wilderness Square, the brewpub taproom is a popular spot, with free tours of the brewery offered daily. Should they be full, you can settle for the view of the bottling line from the taproom.

PHILOSOPHY

While the policy of offering a generous sample of beer with a tour of the brewery speaks to the overall relaxed feel of BBC, the company works ceaselessly to keep up with the ever evolving tastes of the American beer lover.

KEY BEER

The easy-sipping, 4.9% ABV Singletrack Copper Ale, an APA launched in 1990, helped establish BBC as a major regional brewery. Today, its piney, copper-hued Hazed & Infused APA (4.85% ABV) is leading the company’s charge throughout some twenty states.

THE KITCHEN &
THE KITCHEN
UPSTAIRS

1039 Pearl St. • Boulder, CO 80302 • (303) 544-5973
thekitchencafe.com • Established: 2005

SCENE & STORY

A farm-to-table restaurant catering to Boulder’s most discerning foodies, there’s always something cooking at the Kitchen seven days a week, from classes to winemaker and brewer dinners, “community hours” that offer discounted dining, and other charming gastro pursuits.

Chef-owner Hugo Matheson expanded his busy restaurant in 2005 to include the “Upstairs,” a candlelit and fireplace-warmed wine bar area above the restaurant with a deep wine cellar. Soon after, bar manager Ray Decker overhauled the beer list, giving it star treatment and including a number of vintage and rare beers. Beer is served with care here and food pairings are readily suggested. It’s one of Boulder’s most assured restaurants, with knowledgeable, attentive service. It also commands higher prices than some craft beer lovers will be accustomed to paying. But with award-winning chefs at the stove, it’s a refreshing change from the usual pub grub, and perhaps the ultimate way to cap off a trip to GABF in Denver.

PHILOSOPHY

Sunset magazine named it “The West’s Greenest Restaurant” in 2008, praising Chef Hugo Matheson’s fare and eco-friendly approach. And beer steward Ray Decker has assembled a superb, international beer list to complement the cuisine, with special attention to Belgian ales and American path-breakers like Michigan’s Jolly Pumpkin.

KEY BEER

Ask Decker or a server to recommend beers with your meal, as all the menus and lists change constantly. A reddish, Belgian-style farmhouse ale like Jolly Pumpkin’s La Roja (recently sampled here) or a barrel-aged beer from Norway’s HaandBryggeriet or Belgium’s Drie Fonteinen would complement many of the Kitchen’s richer dishes.

WEST END
TAVERN

926 Pearl St. • Boulder, CO 80302 • (303) 444-3535
thewestendtavern.com • Established: 1987

SCENE & STORY

Boulder has become a craft brew capital with Avery, Oskar Blues, and Upslope breweries, just to name a few. But there’s a deep craft brew passion in select bars as well. At the multilevel West End Tavern, New York-born chef-proprietor Chris Blackwood brings a touch of down-home Southern soul to upscale Boulder, with a vast tap list heavy on local brews and a great bourbon list to boot. The upstairs taproom is airy and modern, with metal tables and chairs and sight lines out to the sky, but it’s the rotating tap list filled with craft rarities and two outdoor decks that really draw in the locals, especially the brewers themselves, like Upslope’s cofounder Matt Cutter.

PHILOSOPHY

There’s no telling what will be on tap at the West End, because the list is constantly changing, but expect to see local and West Coast beers heavily represented.

KEY BEER

Look for regional specialties like Avery’s Dugana IIPA (8.5% ABV), a big, floral, resinous brew. Other recent taps featured Colorado brews including Odell Double Pilsner and Great Divide Belgica, in addition to West Coast cult beers from Russian River, Lagunitas, Stone, and Port.

THE MOUNTAIN
SUN & THE
SOUTHERN SUN

1535 Pearl St. • Boulder, CO 80302 • (303) 546-0886 mountainsunpub.com • Established: 1993

Southern Sun: 627 S. Broadway • Boulder, CO 80305 (303) 543-0886 • mountainsunpub.com

SCENE & STORY

A relaxing Boulder standby, the Mountain Sun expanded by popular demand with a second brewpub, the Southern Sun, in 2002. (There’s also a related pub in Denver, the Vine Street Pub.) None other than GABF founder Charlie Papazian is a fan of the trio, especially the Southern Sun location, which has Flatiron mountain views. “It’s a cool beer scene,” he says. “It’s all about the beer and a place to meet friends—smaller and more intimate [than the Mountain Sun]. It gets crowded so get there early.”

PHILOSOPHY

“There will never be televisions at our pubs because we want our guests to meet and discuss the world in which we live or simply to play Scrabble,” reads the company’s website. There you have it.

KEY BEER

Try the hop bomb of an India Pale Ale known as F.Y.I.P.A. (about 7.5% ABV)e.

Denver

THE GREAT
AMERICAN BEER
FESTIVAL

Sep. 29–Oct. 1 (for 2011; future dates vary)

Colorado Convention Center 700 14th St. (near intersection of Colfax and Speer Blvds.) Denver, CO 80202

Tickets from $20 (for designated drivers) to $55 per session
(303) 447-0816; greatamericanbeerfestival.com

SCENE & STORY

What do you get when you take 50,000 beer lovers, 500 breweries, over 2,000 of their latest creations, and mash them all together for three sunny fall days in Denver? The Great American Beer Festival is what you get, and this bacchanal has reached its 30th year as of September 2011. What started with just a few friends from small breweries and about forty on the list is today the mother of all beer festivals.

It’s also a significant event for the brewers that submit beers for judging, culminating in the all-important Saturday afternoon medal announcements that generate roars of approval and surprise. The atmosphere is nothing if not raucous at times—crowds can get boisterous, loud, and drunk, but it’s unforgettable to weave through the seemingly endless aisles of smiling brewers, servers, and beer fanatics celebrating the mighty abundance of it all. Wacky costumes? Yep. Silent disco? Definitely a hot spot. It can be a bit dizzying at first, but after a few tastes, the entire thing seems like the smartest festival ever created, as long as you pace yourself.

“If you’ve never been to the beer festival before,” says GABF founder Charlie Papazian, “it’s very important to remember that it’s not a sprint, it’s not a marathon—it’s a 100-mile run. Or, actually, a 2,200-beer run.” The savvy taster arrives early for each session and comes with a plan, having studied the layout of the exhibitor hall, which is organized geographically beneath a massive banner of the late British beer writer Michael Jackson, aka The Beer Hunter, whose thoughtful gaze should inspire considered sampling. And yet, without fail, a few minutes into any of the sessions (ticket holders should carefully study the hours, which are posted online and supplied at sign-in), all plans for quiet discovery seem to go out the window as the biggest assemblage of beer in the world works its magic on the crowd.

Still, many brewers are on hand to dispense beer from behind the taps, and it’s amazing to see how many innovators have come in person to share their favorite creations. The key strategy, beyond that of all-important moderation, is to coordinate meals and hydration throughout the festival to avoid overdoing it, and to pick a hotel that’s close to the convention center so you can recharge your batteries easily for sideshows like the Silent Disco or the after-session pub crawls to Wynkoop, the Falling Rock Taphouse, Euclid Hall, and others, where many of the brewers themselves gather to catch up.

PHILOSOPHY

From end-to-end, GABF is a celebration of everything that craft beer has achieved in the United States—the vibrancy, the variety, the quality, the fun, and ambition behind it all. What’s missing is adequate space for food vendors whose ambitions equal that of the brewers. One solution would be to dedicate an entire row to food carts, the gourmet type that pack in customers in New York City and Portland, Oregon. But no matter what, it’s impossible not to come away awed at what America’s small breweries have achieved, and with a broad smile on your face.

KEY BEER

They’re all key. The question is, which one will you try next?

HIGHWAY to ALE

Mercator has his world map, but true beer lovers will fall in love with the ultimate map of Colorado’s beer scene, the Beer Drinker’s Guide to Colorado. The 27 x 40-inch topo chart can be ordered flat and folded, laminated, or rolled, and includes over 120 destinations, with a table for computing driving distances and $150 worth of coupons for beer and free glassware. From $12.95 plus shipping; beerdrinkersguidetocolorado.com; (719) 636-3565.

WYNKOOP
BREWING CO.

1634 18th St. • Denver, CO 80202
(303) 297-2700 • wynkoop.com • Established: 1988

SCENE & STORY

The Wynkoop as it’s sometimes known is a vast, three-story bar with acres of pool tables on the second floor and an inviting downstairs area. The place holds a special place in Colorado beer history: Colorado Governor (and former Denver Mayor) John Hickenlooper was part of the vanguard that made it Colorado’s first brewpub. (The company recently returned the favor by brewing him an “InaugurAle” for his January 2011 swearing-in.)

Housed in a massive brick fortress known as the J. S. Brown Mercantile Building (built in 1899), Wynkoop has preserved many vestiges of an earlier time without devolving into a kitschy tourist trap, which easily could have happened. It’s the home of monthly poetry and science enthusiast meetups (known as “Café Scientifique”), comedy and burlesque shows, beer dinners, and the Beer Drinker of the Year contest, which is a bit more serious than it sounds. This is a very nice place to meet some local beer lovers, or simply enjoy a beer and catch a game.

PHILOSOPHY

Wynkoop feels traditional, local, and a bit roadhouse-esque inside, utterly Western. The owners have long taken great pains to reduce their carbon footprint. It’s a no-frills, friendly operation, with malt-forward beers that are generally well made and quite sessionable.

KEY BEER

Railyard Ale, at 5.2% ABV, is a straightforward, copper-hued session beer somewhat similar in flavor to an Oktoberfest or Märzen-style beer, but with a more fruity finish that takes it in another direction. Like many Rocky Mountain brews, it’s more on the slightly sweet, malty side, good for extended pool games. Hop heads will want to try Mile Hi-P.A., an American IPA, and Mister Fister, a Double IPA (also known as IIPA), both of which are well-made, big, brassy beers with ample but not too much bitterness.

DETOUR

CHARLIE PAPAZIAN

Not many brewers are asked for their autograph. But not many brewers have résumés like Charlie Papazian’s: The University of Virginia-trained, former nuclear engineer heads up the Brewers Association (an industry group representing some 1,000 of America’s craft breweries), launched the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in 1981 and Zymurgy magazine, and authored the home brewers’ bible, The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, in 1984 (now sailing beyond 25 reprintings, 3 editions, 1.2 million copies). He’s been permanently elevated to beer demigod, a signer of autographs, a coveted snapshot.

Papazian, for all the hype going on in and around what he’s helped create, has a quiet, humble, and considerate air. As he speaks about the Colorado scene, he’s struck with what seems like genuine wonderment, a wide smile always on his face. He wouldn’t look out of place in a cassock, but he’s wearing a simple cotton dress shirt. “When I first came here in 1972, there was no beer scene other than the Coors brewery,” he recalls. “Now we have 100 breweries in the state, and I hear there are 20 more on the way. We could have 140 before long. But it all started back in 1978 with the Boulder Beer Company. They were one of the first ten microbreweries in the United States, the first in Colorado.”

It didn’t exactly take off like wildfire. “Things were slow to start,” says Papazian. “But then a guy named John Hickenlooper, then mayor of Denver, changed a law to permit brewpubs in Colorado. After that law changed, [Hickenlooper] started the Wynkoop brewery down here in Denver, and the success of that place really opened up peoples’ eyes to what beer could be, what beer culture could be, and what the beer community could be. At the time the whole concept of beer other than light lager was a long conversation with every beer drinker. And not every beer drinker was willing to try something new.”

Today Denver’s beer scene is indeed enviable. “The community is tight, they help each other out,” says Papazian. “And I would guess that half of the 3,400 volunteers at the GABF are avid home brewers. It’s that homebrew community. We started back in the 1970s, one batch at a time, making friends. That’s what got things going. And we’re still on a roll. And if you’re involved, the next friend you make here could be a brewer, too, and the start of another community. There could be double the number of breweries here than we have already.”

Looking back on all the good he’s done for Colorado beer, Papazian remains humble—and deeply honored. “A lot of people come up to me at the festival and say they wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t read my book five years ago, or twenty years ago, and it’s cool to meet people that are so satisfied with their jobs. It makes me feel like I’ve made a difference in peoples’ lives. I’ve been blessed with many things, and that’s one of them. They’re thankful for something I shared with them, and they’re trying to share it back with handshakes and a smile—and a beer!”

Denver

BRECKENRIDGE
BREWERY &
BAR-B-QUE

471 Kalamath St. • Denver, CO 80204
(303) 573-0431 • breckbrew.com • Established: 1996

SCENE & STORY

Ski bum Richard Squire started Breckenridge Brewery in the ski area of the same name in 1990, and his timing couldn’t have been better. Coloradoans were going gaga for craft ales, and by 1992 business was booming enough to expand into Denver, where he added a second and then a third outlet for his Avalanche Amber and other brews. (There’s another pub in Grand Junction as well, which opened in 2004.)

The Denver Brew and BBQ outpost is located a short drive from the downtown center in an arty, civic-minded area known as the Golden Triangle, which gentrified during the first Colorado craft beer boom years from 1994 to 1996, when growth rates topped 50 percent. It’s home to the production facility for Breckenridge Brewery’s bottles and kegs. The airy taproom adjoining the production side serves up a soul food menu with items like hickory smoked pork ribs and pulled pork that earn good, sometimes even rave reviews.

PHILOSOPHY

Breckenridge beers, like many in Colorado, tend to be malt-forward and down the middle in terms of hop bitterness. But that’s why they work well with this kind of food. What’s more, the hickory used on the meats is presoaked in the brewery’s oatmeal stout, a nice touch.

KEY BEER

Avalanche Amber, at 5.41% ABV, is on the mild side for Colorado craft beers these days, what with all the imperial IPAs and other strong beers afoot. Still, made with a blend of pale and caramel malts, it’s a workable foil for the tangy flavors of barbecue. The seasonals and “small batch” series, such as the 471 IPA, are also worth seeking out.

THE FALLING
ROCK TAPHOUSE

1919 Blake St. • Denver, CO 80202
(303) 293-8338 • frth.com • Established: 1997

SCENE & STORY

The designated after-GABF victory hall for hordes of visiting brewers and their fans, “The Falling Rock” as most simply call it, is among the most respected (and most visited) beer bars anywhere. Walking distance from Coors Field and the convention center, it’s ideally located in LoDo (Lower Denver). From the spacious outdoor patio to massive tap row of hard-to-find crafts from the United States and abroad (75 handles, give or take), deep bottle list of rarities (130-plus), and pool-table-equipped, college-party-time basement, it can be a lot to take in at once. Service has been—predictably for such a shrine—a bit of a crap-shoot, but let’s face it: You’re here for the beer. Locals sometimes line the bar and get first dibs, but once you make yourself at home, the experience can measure up to a slice of craft beer heaven. There are over 2,000 empty bottles decorating the walls, some comfy leather couches, one or two giant screens, forests of tap handles arrayed in endless rows, gloriously dilapidated bathrooms, and a pervasive sense that the world would be a much better place if we all could simply set aside our differences and try an amazing brew from some far away corner of the world.

PHILOSOPHY

As officially stated, it’s “No Crap on Tap,” and the list generally feels well curated, with a wide geographical and stylistic selection on offer, from mellow session beers to the most cultish, extreme, sour, smoked, and otherwise funked-out brews in the world.

KEY BEER

Certain imported beers seem to show better in the bottle than on tap, so, agitated crowds not withstanding, ask for a few samples before you take the plunge, or at the least, what’s freshest. Staffers sometimes announce a “Blue Light Special” style, which means that something rare and tasty is about to start pouring, so listen up.

A recent winning choice: Boulevard Tank 7 Saison, out of Kansas City. The exceedingly clean and crisp tasting Trumer Pils from Berkeley, California seems to be a semi-permanent tap.

DETOUR

CHRIS BLACK, Proprietor, FALLING ROCK TAPHOUSE

When it comes to craft beer in Denver, Falling Rock owner Chris Black is both king and court jester. The taphouse is a monument, he says, to his friends who love beer as much as he does. He seems to feel like he was born for the job. “When I was in high school I went away to Europe for five weeks and found out what beer was supposed to taste like, at least for that time,” he says. “And when I was in college, at University of Texas in Austin, there was a very early beer bar there called Maggie May’s. I ended up hanging out there so much they gave me a job,” he recalls. After a post-college stint for an importer and several more years of tending bar, working in breweries, beer bars, and for distributors large and small, he borrowed money from his father to open The Falling Rock, starting the work in 1996.

“My goal was to make this one of the top beer bars in the United States within five years, and the best way to do that was to tell all the beer journalists who come here from all over the world every year for the beer festival who have no place to go. So that’s what we did. We built a place for everybody. I built my own favorite place to hang out.” It wasn’t an overnight success. “We were very cash poor, but we did everything ourselves and it didn’t really matter. As this area has grown, and we got a baseball team that started winning, the business has really grown, and the Great American Beer Festival has been a huge part of it. Here we are thirteen years later. I’m seeing all my friends every year, welcoming them into my place to have a good time,” he says. “The highest compliment is when someone brings their mom in. If it’s cool enough for your mom, and you like hanging out here too, I think it’s kind of an okay place, right?”

The endeavor has been fruitful, to be sure, but its success, Black says, comes at a price: “The hardest thing about this job is this week,” he says of the Great American Beer Festival every fall, when Falling Rock bursts at the seams every day. “Physically and mentally, it’s completely exhausting. I average five hours of sleep for over two weeks. It’s a double-edged sword.” Black, who wears a goatee and a contented grin, indulges in the odd cigar, and takes great pleasure in a good bottle of red wine when the workday is done, brief though the respite may be.

EUCLID HALL
BAR & KITCHEN

1317 14th St. • Denver, CO 80202 • (303) 595-4255
euclidhall.com • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

In bringing her new restaurant Euclid Hall to Denver’s tourist and foodie district, Larimer Square, noted Denver chef Jennifer Jasinski has also brought craft beer directly into the heart of the city’s food scene. Craft beer lovers laud this development: surely other restaurants in the area will need to step up their approach, which ought to have a ripple effect. Once home to a Masonic lodge, the Colorado Women’s Relief Corps, and a high-end brothel (among other organizations, some more dubious than others) the centrally located, two-story brick building is both a bit dramatic and immediately welcoming. On entry one is greeted with a massive chalk-board overflowing with edible ideas. There, Jasinski’s open kitchen feeds the cozy downstairs area while a wide staircase leads upstairs to more gastropub tavern tables.

Upstairs or down, the hand-cranked sausages, poutines, and schnitzels shine, and the pickle assortment is a must-order: one pickle is infused with hops. Mustards are also hand-ground and house cured; you can’t throw a napkin without hitting some sort of high-low riff like the gourmet corn-dog and chicken-and-waffle plate. For the beer-obsessed, there’s PEI mussels steamed in New Belgium Tripel, beer-battered cod, and an ice cream dessert made with Guinness. It’s a fun menu and environment, both resolutely urban and yet down to earth (a credit to the unpretentious staff), and it’s often very, very busy. One of the axioms of Euclidean geometry is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, which is a fitting assessment of Euclid Hall itself. Its food menu or beer list are both excellent on their own, but taken together, you have something approaching ideal.

PHILOSOPHY

The motto is “Crafted. Not Cranked Out.” The canned and bottled beer list is divided into somewhat kooky categories (arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, quantum mechanics) meant to relate to complexity of flavor, but there’s no extra credit for only drinking from the complicated end of the spectrum.

KEY BEER

Make sure you eyeball the “Very Special Brews” list, though be prepared for some sticker shock. On a recent visit, Port Brewing Company’s Older Viscosity, an American Strong Ale, was going for $36.95 for a 375-milliliter bottle. On the standard can and bottle list, Del Norte’s Mañana Amber Lager is a solid, food-friendly choice (way up in the “easy” arithmetic section, a bit unkindly, as it happens—it’s not easy to make). And Durango’s Steamworks makes the smooth, tasty house beer on draught, Euclidean Pale Ale (5.5% ABV).

Rocky Mountains Region

WILD MOUNTAIN
SMOKEHOUSE &
BREWERY

70 E. First St. • Nederland, CO 80466
(303) 258-9453 • wildmountainsb.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

About seventeen miles west and 3,000 feet higher in elevation than Boulder, tiny Nederland—an old Ute Indian trading post turned silver mining town (population: 1,700)—is home to a lot of hippies, mountain bikers, and “the Frozen Dead Guy,” aka Bredo Morstoel, a Norwegian whose body has been kept at -60°F by the townspeople for more than twenty years (long story), making him something like the town father. It’s also home to a reasonably priced little beer and barbecue getaway very much worth a drive out of Boulder.

With well-made beers, a mountain view from the back patio, and high marks for its soul food (especially the hardwood-smoked ribs and wings, and the sweet potato fries), Nederland’s little brewery would be worth visiting on its own accord, but there’s still another reason people flock there, in late summer: NedFest, a three-day roots music festival that has welcomed such iconic artists as the mandolinist David Grisman, Cajun jammer Dr. John, and “newgrass” aces Yonder Mountain String Band. And because the town legalized marijuana for those over twenty-one (the first Colorado town to do so), there’s a lot of people with the munchies about.

PHILOSOPHY

Beer and barbecue go together like peanut butter and jelly, right? This is a restaurant dedicated to the relatively simple mission of making great beer for great barbecue and vice versa.

KEY BEER

There are always four house brews on tap; try the Brewski Sampler (samples of four draughts and a guest tap for $5.95) to see what’s freshest. The house brew Otis Pale Ale has been a standby, and the bottle list has included selections from Russian River, Lost Abbey, Stone, and Left Hand.

THE GOLD PAN
SALOON

103 N. Main St. • Breckenridge, CO 80424 • (970) 453-5499
thegoldpansaloon.com • Established: 1879

SCENE & STORY

This swinging door saloon has the enviable distinction of having the longest continuously operating liquor license west of the Mississippi. It also has a wide, old classic bar, a bunch of taxidermy elk heads, foosball, flat screens, some decent pool tables, and the addictive ring game, an iron loop on a string one tries (and tries and tries) to land on a hook, with limited but eternal-glory-giving success.

PHILOSOPHY

While Breckenridge—or “Breck,” as it’s often called—has a lot of good, even excellent restaurants, this has not traditionally been one of them. Until recently, it wasn’t the place to find much in the way of craft beer, either—Coors Light was the brew of choice. These days, there are five taps, and you can at least get 1554, an excellent schwarzbier from New Belgium. And there are still further signs that the old Gold has picked up the scent of craft beers for good: Last year the pub convened its second annual Beer Fest, with about thirty beers on offer, including the superb Trumer Pils from Berkeley, California, and Alaskan Brewing Co.’s Winter Ale.

KEY BEER

Many a local will still order that light lager, whatever it is, but ask the bartender what’s freshest. In a bar like this, it can be the safest bet to stick with something that’s very cold and very light unless you can get a sample first to make sure the beer is in good shape.

BRECKENRIDGE
BREWERY & PUB

600 South Main St. • Breckenridge, CO 80424
(970) 453-1550 • breckbrew.com • Established: 1997

SCENE & STORY

Breck was fortuitously founded beneath a soaring peak which would later become one of the top ski areas in North America, with steep, exposed, and sought-after black diamond runs like the Lake Chutes. Runs like those wild steeps were the first love of local Richard Squire, who, when not skiing, was home brewing, and doing it very well, as it turned out. As the state’s craft beer industry fired up, Squire saw his chance and took it; today Breckenridge beers are available in more than twenty-five states. The original location of the Breckenridge family of brewpubs (an aggressive expansion strategy was scaled back in the late 1990s), this spacious spot has mustard yellow and deep red walls, with metal railings and plenty of space, giving it a somewhat modern feel. The hearty fare, if nothing really adventurous, is just right for après-ski. Score an outside table with a view of the peak (and those Lake Chutes), and the picture is nearly complete.

PHILOSOPHY

Squire had a dream: ski all day and drink great beer every night. That about covers it, doesn’t it? Still, there are more wines than beers on the menu, which, for a Colorado craft beer pioneer, is inexcusable. It will take more innovation from this company to keep pace with the fast-evolving craft beer drinker who spends his or her days shredding the fine local powder and looks for sublimity in the glass, too.

KEY BEER

Trademark Pale Ale (5.7%ABV) is a clean, floral APA (American Pale Ale) with a faintly sweet body and easy, grassy hop bitterness, making it a great match for the upscale pub grub on offer. The 7.85% ABV 471 Extra E.S.B., part of the small batch series, deftly blends a roasted and slightly sweet caramel character with astringent hops.

Aspen

ASPEN BREWING
COMPANY

304 E. Hopkins Ave. • Aspen, CO 81611
(970) 920-2739 • aspenbrewing.com • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

Two friends not too far out of college to be irrationally optimistic about starting a brewery opened Aspen Brewing Co. in a cluttered old architect’s studio, decorating the place with hand-carved tap handles, Tibetan prayer flags, maps, and other brick-a-brack. Former Keystone Light drinkers, the roommates had discovered the incredible spectrum of flavors in craft brews on tap while going to school in Boulder. They started home brewing, and, dreamed they could bring the movement back to Aspen, local craft brewing pioneer Flying Dog having long departed. The optimism was well founded: their first batches blew out in a matter of days, a scenario they clearly still regard in awe.

The duo moved quickly to auger into Aspen’s social fabric, contributing to charities, bringing in a new brewer and partner, and scouting property for the next level—they were already thinking bigger. “We’re not just punks out of college,” says Duncan Clauss, one half of the founding team. Today, the crew has graduated to a shiny taproom closer to Main Street and the Hotel Jerome, and to the well-heeled tourists that flock to Aspen practically year-round.

PHILOSOPHY

“We weren’t interested in trying to wow people or reinvent the wheel,” says head brewer Rory Douthit, a New Englander who took over the brewing duties in the spring of 2010. “We want to make great versions of styles that people will drink and drink often.”

KEY BEER

The big, juicy, American-style India pale ale known as Independence Pass (7.5% ABV) is a grassy, floral blast of Cascade, Palisade, Columbus, and Simcoe hops, with a foundation of sturdy malt.

DETOUR

CRAFT BEER, GONZO STYLE

THE WOODY CREEK TAVERN

2858 Upper River Rd.• Woody Creek, CO 81656 • (970) 923-4585

The saying “Good people drink good beer” is not one of the best-known lines from the writer Hunter S. Thompson, whose seminal work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas scorched the pants off the literary world in 1972, but it is—obviously—one of his best. And, although traveling in the usual manner of Dr. Gonzo is not even remotely recommended it is a good idea to visit his two most famous old haunts, one in glitzy Aspen, and one right outside it in a dustier spot.

Start at J-Bar, a Victorian gem with a marble floor and tin ceiling in the lobby of the Hotel Jerome in Aspen proper. This watering hole started hydrating silver miners in 1889 and later became the preferred liquid-rations stop for 10th Mountain Division soldiers-in-training during World War II. Thompson used the place as his headquarters for his campaign for sheriff in 1970, running on his “freak power ticket” with a pledge to regulate illicit drug sales, replace the city streets with dirt, and, more than anything else, as he would later write, prevent “greedheads, land-rapers and other human jackals from capitalizing on the name Aspen.” (He lost by only four hundred votes.) For years after, Thompson was a regular here, stopping by after the post office to eat, drink, and read his mail, generally making less of a scene than on the drunken night when he duct-taped fellow partier Bill Murray to a chair and pushed him into the hotel pool, nearly drowning him. The first of Thompson’s two memorials was held here after his death in 2005; behind the bar today, there’s a print of the poster Thompson and artist Tom Benton created for the sheriff’s campaign with its iconic double-thumbed fist clenching a peyote button. On tap, look for locally brewed Aspen Brewing Co; for dinner, there’s a good half-pound burger. Good enough for government work, as they say, even if you’re not running for sheriff with a head full of high-grade smoke.

Thompson loved the area outside of town, too, which he first visited in 1961. While Aspen itself was (and still is) full of private jets and Hollywood types, Thompson’s chosen corner of the woods, Woody Creek, was and is a lot grittier. “He could walk naked on the porch of his mountain house, take a leak off the porch into a blue toilet bowl with a palm tree growing out of it, and squeeze off a few .44 slugs at some gongs mounted on the hillside. He could chew mescaline and turn the stereo up to 100 decibels without pissing off the neighbors,” writes Paul Perry in his book, Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson. Fans of the writer (who coined another personal favorite, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”) will deeply enjoy making this pilgrimage, deeper into Gonzo territory.

The Woody Creek Tavern, founded in 1980 by theoretical physicist, spark-plug fortune heir, and longtime HST neighbor George Stranahan, resides up a curling canyon road about eight miles outside the town of Woody Creek. There’s not much to see besides; as a local bumper sticker puts it, Woody Creek consists of “a bump, two dips, and a rumble strip.” No matter; not only is this glorious dive Thompson’s most celebrated watering hole (and a shrine with innumerable photos and tributes adorning its walls), it’s also a business intertwined with Colorado craft beer history and even a thread of statewide politics.

Stranahan, a tireless entrepreneur, opened Aspen’s first new brewery in a century in 1991, naming it the Flying Dog after a piece of folk art he’d seen on a wild-haired trek to the Baltoro Glacier in Pakistan. By 1994, the business was booming, so he moved operations to Denver and installed a 50 bbl brewing system (a.k.a. brewhouse), collaborating on a bottling plant with John Hickenlooper (Hickenlooper, creator of Wynkoop’s Railyard Ale, would go on to become mayor of Denver, and then governor of Colorado in early 2011).

Flying Dog is now based in Maryland, but the Woody Creek Tavern, festooned with American flags, prized by the locals (the “Woody Creatures”), and flanked by a trailer park, isn’t going anywhere. With its walls shimmering with thousands of Polaroids and margaritas as strong as mescaline, nor will you.

Ouray

OURAY
BREWERY

607 Main St. • Ouray, CO 81427
(970) 325-7388 • ouraybrewery.com • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

In a town built at elevation of 7,800 feet and ringed by peaks so high its long been touted as the Switzerland of America (population: 900), it’s fitting that the Ouray Brewery feels like a vertical affair, with a ground floor taproom leading up to a brewery and dining room mezzanine, and finally a stunning rooftop deck from which to view a cathedral of soaring 14ers (14,000-foot peaks) including Hayden and Whitehouse Peaks. The taproom has a modernized mountain house feel, with exposed beams, track lighting, and a row of heavyweight bar swings hanging from the ceiling. Once a trinket shop and home of a local newspaper, The Ouray Plaindealer, 607 Main is now one of the most bustling watering holes in Ouray.

But it’s not just beer: founder Erin Eddy also organizes the annual Ouray Ice Festival, a world-famous ice climbing weekend held every January in the Ouray Ice Park, a daredevil’s playground formed each winter when the city runs gushers of water into Uncompahgre Gorge that promptly freeze in place. More than 3,000 alpinists, gear heads, and assorted outdoor mavens pile into town to watch and compete in climbing competitions. After climbing hundred-foot spires of ice or tightrope walking the gorge on a nylon slack line, you can imagine one might develop a bit of thirst; so it’s a good thing there’s plenty of local beer.

PHILOSOPHY

Eddy’s m.o. is straightforward. “Consistency is the philosophy I’m trying to follow. Same four beers on tap at all times. Never run out of beer. Never run out of food. Never give bad service. Hire the best people, and make sure they follow the vision I have.”

KEY BEER

San Juan IPA, with a ruddy copper hue, ample, citrusy hop bite, and medium body is the local favorite.

DETOUR

OURAYLE HOUSE BREWERY 215 7th Ave. • Ouray, CO 81427 (970) 903-1824 • ourayle house.com • Established: 2005

Getting to the tiny mountain town of Ouray takes some doing. Wedged beneath a scrum of jagged San Juan Mountain passes, it’s a solid two-hour drive from Aspen or Durango. But for the love of beer, you should go.

I did, en route to Durango from Aspen, but almost made the mistake of merely passing through. In fact, I’d been hearing about this town for ages—there’s a world-famous ice climbing festival every winter, and in summer, tourists flock to ride the Durango-to-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Train as it chugs up and down the 10,000-foot passes. At the time of my travels, though, I wasn’t even aware there were breweries in Ouray, having made my plans at the last minute. But its main street, lined with historic, wind-whipped façades, was too pretty to pass up. Sure enough, you can walk right into a saloon that opened in 1891, at the Old Western Hotel, and salute the portrait of “Juanita” on the floor, painted by an itinerant artist for the princely sum of a few beers.

Ask around where to get a good, locally brewed beer, as I did, and eventually some Good Samaritan will point you to the Ourayle House, across the street from the 1891 Historic Western Hotel and tucked into an old garage building. There, with a mangled whitewater kayak hanging on a makeshift fence, stands the brewery, a “one man, one dog” operation, as the owner himself has dubbed it.

Reaching the front door, a hand-lettered chalk sign welcomes with: IT’S NOT THAT WE DON’T LIKE KIDS, BUT WE DON’T DRINK BEER AT YOUR CHILD’S DAY CARE EITHER. Below that: AMAZINGLY, WE ARE OPEN. And, SORRY, WE DON’T TAKE CREDIT CARDS. IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S US. And, hilariously, right below that: WELL, MAYBE IT’S A LITTLE YOU.

Steel your confidence and walk into the company also known as (literally) Mr. Grumpy Pants Brewing Co. (Welcome! “Welcome” being a relative term, says another sign) and grab a stool as locals turn to see what the cat dragged in. Discarded ice axes, crampons, and carabiners hang willy-nilly on the split and varnished salvage timber walls. A woodstove crackles in one end of the room. Signs, all hand scrawled in chalk, peek out from every corner. There are no TV screens, no gleaming copper brewing tanks, no chef walking around in a toque and whites. Ramshackle rocking chairs and tattered decks of cards are more the style here. To a certain kind of beer drinker—present company included—it practically doesn’t even matter what’s on tap, because the place just feels like a little corner of heaven.

On one evening I found the owner, James “Hutch” Hutchison, sliding side to side behind the bar on a kind of zip-line barstool with an impish grin. After studying land-use planning and the somewhat vague-sounding major of environmental economics, he began building the brewpub. It’s a Reinhold Messnerian hideaway, cranky and cabin-like, sure, but also idealistic, big-hearted, and honest about what matters. If a kayak is missing, reads one totem, the river is up and no one’s here. We’re in a meeting. And, on another one, Due to factors beyond our control, major powder days may result in brewery closing at any time. I imagine Hutch chuckling as he locks up the brew house after a dump of snow to head out backcountry skiing. What’s best about Ourayle is how merrily unconcerned Hutch is about it all. “You move down here for the lifestyle, not for the job,” he explains. “I love that we have seven months of winter, three months of company. You’re just nestled into the Rocky Mountains. People have said it looks so claustrophobic, like Mother Nature is giving you a big hug.”

Call it a bear hug. It’s the sort of town and place I felt I could disappear in for a while, though I know I would be all too conspicuously visible at the Ourayle House, drinking beer with Hutch and throwing a few darts over pints of ale. “This is where the misfits kind of fit in,” says Hutch. “It’s real casual—you can bring your own food, you can cook here, every restaurant in town will deliver here,” he says with a cheeky grin, “with the exception of the girl across the street. She has a lot of young European waitresses working for her, and apparently they never make it back.”

The fact is that this is what matters in a small town: fresh beer, and no Big Country attitude. And while Ourayle House might not have cultivated the time-consuming brewing techniques of, say, Avery, or the polish and feel-good politics of New Belgium, there was something about it that night that made me feel I might well have found the best brewpub in the world. Hutch was sliding side to side on his bar swing, clutching a giant bierstein from Munich’s Hoffbräu Haus, a couple of regulars hooting and egging him on. “I didn’t move here to see how much money I could make, or to see how much beer I could make,” he said. “And I didn’t come to Ourayle looking for a nice place to live—I was looking for a nice place to die. I get to kayak, I get to ski, snowboard, mountain climb; there’s unbelievable cycling out here. You know, I brew beer when I just have to come up with money for a new toy, basically, to support what I really want to do. It’s rewarding—I’ve done a lot of brewing, too, and I really love it.”

I loved it, too, and paused for a few more minutes to hang out with Hutch and have a few sips of his Biscuit Amber, a malty, copper-hued brew that really needs to be consumed whilst seated in a rocking chair by the woodstove. This was one of the places I was looking for, long before I knew I was looking for it. But for me it was also time to make the white-knuckle drive to Durango over Red Mountain (see “The Million Dollar Highway,”). On the way out, I told Hutch I’d be back and paused to contemplate one last sign. It read, YOU HAVE THE FREE WILL TO FOLLOW YOUR DESTINY HOWEVER YOU CHOOSE. If the good-beer life be a choice, as it was for Hutch, then I’m in.

The MILLION DOLLAR HIGHWAY

US Route 550 snakes between Montrose and Durango, Colorado; up, through, and over Ute Indian country, the Uncompahgre Gorge, several historic towns, and a spate of precipitous passes. The Million Dollar Highway is the route’s most famous section; Russian immigrant engineer Otto Mears somehow managed to build this 23-mile stretch between Ouray and Silverton, a tortuous curlicue of switchbacks following old stagecoach routes and mining roads (and lacking almost any guardrails above the plunging ravines).

It’s a wonder he ever finished. Soaring skyward through a series of tight turns overlooking void-like chasms, the road tops 11,018-foot Red Mountain before easing—mercifully—down into Silverton. No one’s sure if the Million Dollar nickname comes from the richness of those mines, now quiet, or the quality of the views. And while this particular road is the only direct route between Ouray’s excellent breweries and Silverton and Durango beyond, it’s not a drive to be taken at night, or in a gutless car, or with even the slightest buzz from one of Ouray’s excellent local watering holes. On a good day, it’s a white-knuckler; in darkness and driving sleet (as I drove it) it’s a roll of the dice.

Durango

DURANGO
BREWING CO.

3000 Main Ave. • Durango, CO 81301
(970) 247-3396 • durangobrewing.com • Established: 1990

SCENE & STORY

Just the third brewery established in the state of Colorado, Durango Brewing Company’s taproom is located perfectly for the local après-skiers headed back to town from Durango Mountain Resort, aka DMR, who huddle around its U-shaped bar. It’s worth noting that the resort was founded under the name Purgatory, after a group of Spanish soldiers who got lost and perished exploring the area, and for a flat area near the base of the mountain where later miners without money for a toll road would find themselves stuck. It’s also famed for ample snowfall (260 inches per year), so locals ski religiously, and drink with gusto. The taproom was recently (and tastefully) remodeled after a freight train car, channeling Durango’s narrow gauge railway history, but despite all the lore it doesn’t feel cheesy. There’s a consistent local crowd, especially on Bluegrass Wednesdays, and tourist season brings more thirsty travelers.

PHILOSOPHY

With the exception of a big, Belgian-style ale brewed for the company’s twentieth anniversary with pilsner malt, Saaz hops, local honey, orange peel, and coriander (ask if they have any bottles left), the beer menu is made up of familiar styles (wheat, amber, winter). Beer geek culture isn’t the same up in the mountains; many higher altitude locals seem content with a 1980s-style lineup of brews, and beer snobbery of any kind is likely a form of cool-guy Kryptonite. But one guesses they could fire up the slightly soporific atmosphere with some more risk-taking beers, and likely will. If you brew it, they will come.

KEY BEER

Derail Ale, DBC’s 8.5% to 8.7% ABV ale, has varied over the years but hit high points in 2007 and 2008 with category wins at the Great American Beer Festival. It’s low in hop character for an American–style IPA, but high in alcohol for a standard English–style IPA. As such, it’s a bit of a hybrid with ample grain-given fruitiness.

CARVER
BREWING CO.

1022 Main St. • Durango, CO 81301
(970) 259-2545 • carverbrewing.com • Established: 1988

SCENE & STORY

The second oldest brewpub in the state (Wynkoop of Denver opened just slightly earlier), Carver Brewing opened up along Durango’s main drag downtown in the waning months of 1988, expanding a bakery operation that had begun as a small family business in Winter Park. The original brewing equipment has an unusual story: it came from a brewery in Milwaukee that had just burned down. “There was a paint store next door to this brewery called Century Hall, and the gentleman who owned the paint store was losing his shirt and decided to set the whole thing on fire,” says head brewer Erik Maxson. “It jumped the building, burned down Century Hall, and for whatever reason those folks decided not to rebuild or not to reopen.” The Carvers had found their gear, and brought it home to Colorado.

The brewpub became the first new brewery in the Four Corners region since Prohibition, and soon a treasured part of the downtown scene, unassuming and family friendly. Weather permitting, the patio out back is a great place to sip a brew. “This is the ‘Cheers’ of Durango,” Maxson told a reporter from the Durango Herald.

PHILOSOPHY

Named Durango’s “Green Business of the Year” in 2010, the company uses solar panels to help heat brewing water and the restaurant. Despite the advancements, there’s a certain humility about Carver’s that is refreshing. “We’re just [serving] good honest food made from scratch, and good honest beer without an overabundance of processing, and hopefully a comfortable place for people to hang out,” says Maxson. As for the beers, Carver’s approach is straightforward: “My philosophy is to utilize the four ingredients that make up beer, and have fun, and try not to get so twisted around things that aren’t our concern,” says Maxson.

KEY BEER

The Iron Horse Oatmeal Stout, an opaque, roasty sipper, is dependably good. Carver’s beers have gotten more adventurous over the years, incorporating cask conditioning and lesser-known styles (such as Baltic porter and braggot, a beer made with honey) so be sure to ask what’s on and try whatever’s freshest.

STEAMWORKS
BREWING CO.

801 E. 2nd Ave. • Durango, CO 81301 • (970) 259-9200
steamworksbrewing.com • Established: 1996

SCENE & STORY

Originally built in the 1920s, the home of Steamworks Brewing Company—Durango’s fourth brewery—had long been used as an auto dealership. There were cement floors, a large showroom, and a large, half-shell-like ceiling structure overhead. “There were literally GMCs and Cadillacs and Jeeps parked here,” says cofounder Chris Oyler of the space, which now sports rows of taps, tables, stools, and brewing tanks instead of cars. Oyler—and a cadre of some forty-seven initial investors—felt the building’s industrial look was a good one for craft beer. “Having those cars parked here, I knew that the floors could hold some weight. I knew it was a solid building,” he recalls. At the time, though, the exposed wooden truss beams supporting the roof were hidden above old dusty ceiling tiles. “We started pulling them down and looking up at the rafters, and we were like ‘Wow, this is gorgeous.’” It is indeed.

PHILOSOPHY

Durango’s soft water—low in magnesium, calcium, and other minerals—is ideal for brewing, requiring little or no adjustment during the brewing process (a luxury not all brewing towns enjoy). The company specializes in lagers, and despite the difficulty of brewing those well, there’s an ease about the place. “These are beers you can sit down and have more than one or two of,” he adds, mentioning the company’s Colorado Kölsch by way of illustration. That approach has worked, at least in terms of growth; today, Steamworks has a busy canning program, widening distribution.

KEY BEER

Steam Engine Lager (5.65% ABV) is technically a California Common, the beer style made famous by Anchor Steam. And like that classic brew from San Francisco, it’s technically a lager brewed at warmer temperatures, with a slightly more fruity profile than standard, cold-fermented lagers. Also worth trying, particularly on a hot summer day, is the 4.85% ABV Colorado Kölsch—a lightly bittered golden ale with a touch of biscuit-like sweetness in the body and a crisp, dry finish.

SKA
BREWING CO.

1022 Main St. • Durango, CO 81301
(970) 259-2545 • carverbrewing.com • Established: 1988

SCENE & STORY

With a brand-spanking-new, $4.8 million, ultra eco-friendly facility just south of Durango and an everybody-into-the-moshpit image—a breath of fresh air, what with all manner of fusty, dusty Da Vinci Code self-seriousness running rampant through craft brewing—Ska is a fun brewery to visit, because when it comes to brewing, they’re not goofing around. A visit to the sunny taproom (and the gleaming silver Airstream trailer taco truck outside, Zia Taqueria, which sources beef from local ranchers; 970-247-5792) may be the highlight of any beer lover’s visit to Durango.

PHILOSOPHY

The well-meaning hell-raisers behind this company, a group of Colorado locals who, one fateful day, decided to home brew because they weren’t of legal age, have recently graduated to regional microbrewery status, a fact that still seems to give them a case of the giggles. They’re known for pranks on other brewers (like producing a twenty-minute spoof of the Discovery Channel’s Brew Masters show, starring their friend, Dogfish Head brewery founder Sam Calagione), and make the festival rounds with a posse in tow.

KEY BEER

Ten Pin Porter shows off Ska’s more serious side: it’s a fulsome, roasty black brew of 5.5% ABV with flavors of cocoa, coffee, and molasses in admirable balance.

MAGIC BUS

Why drive? It’s far safer and more fun to leave it to the professionals. Tour de Brews is a new tour service offering guided, four-hour tours of Durango’s four area breweries in a classic blue 1979 VW passenger bus nicknamed “The Dude.” At $85 per person, the reservation-only service includes a commemorative pint glass, four 4-ounce tasters in each location, bartender gratuities, a snack at one brewery, a brewery passport to keep, and a knowledgeable, non-drinking tour guide/driver. Dude! Tour de Brews; 970.426.1441; tourdebrews.com

PAGOSA SPRINGS
BREWING CO.

118 N. Pagosa Blvd. • Pagosa Springs, CO 81147
(970) 731-2739 • pagosabrewing.com • Established: 2006

SCENE & STORY

Heading east out of Durango toward New Mexico via Pagosa Springs, Colorado, on US 160 to US 84E affords one of the greatest drives in the United States—make it in daylight after leaving Ska and Zia Taqueria so you can see what’s around you. On arrival to Pagosa Springs Brewing Co., it’s easy to see why this small seasonal resort town is such a haven for vacation-home owners and skiers. Soaring peaks ring the town; Wolf Creek, just a short drive away, is a world-class powder skiing destination. And Tony Simmons’s brewpub and beer garden is ideally located right off the highway coming into town. Since the day it opened, it’s changed the drinking scene in this very beautiful place, and beyond.

“I don’t think we realized how successful we were going to be at the time,” says Simmons, who is the owner and head brewer. “We started off really as a beer bar with very limited food, and as we’ve bootstrapped our way through this it’s evolved into a full-service, made-from-scratch menu, and that’s really helped tremendously as our business has grown.” “Evolved” is putting in mildly: in just five years, Pagosa Brewing Company has garnered an incredible twenty-four medals at the GABF and other competitions, a testament to Simmons’ in-depth training at the Siebel Institute in Chicago and Munich.

The HQ is a rustic affair. “Our building was actually a garage,” he recalls. “It stored a couple of cars and it had a wood shop, but it really had no significant power, and there was no water or plumbing. That was a big investment to get it ready for a brewery.” Today it maintains a down-to-earth feel, with a lazy, expansive beer garden (10,000 square feet, with some fifty tables, heat lamps, and fire pits) and a folksy kitchen-in-a-trailer set up. The trailer kitchen is cranking out interesting, well-made food, from wild-caught Alaskan salmon and local grass-fed Angus beef burgers to pizzas and even soups spiced with hops.

PHILOSOPHY

“We’re really proud of the fact that we don’t filter any of our beers. It’s all natural and I think it shows.” Simmons is an energetic presence in the Colorado beer scene and eager experimenter; to date he’s released some forty different brews. A contest sponsored by the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary (a consortium of academic historians and museum curators) in 2006 inspired him to brew a batch of “Poor Richard’s Ale,” a coppery, low-hopped, Colonial American brown ale utilizing corn and molasses which was meant to approximate what Franklin would have enjoyed in the pubs of the day. A prestigious panel of brewing industry judges (including descendants of Franklin himself, “The First American”) picked Simmons’s recipe, which was served at the gala event in Philadelphia and was later brewed by more than a hundred commercial brewing companies in thirty-five states and some three thousand home brewers around the country.

KEY BEER

Every visitor should try the Poor Richard’s and Kayaker Cream Ale, the brewery’s top selling and most sessionable beer. It’s a crisp, light-bodied Helles lager tailor-made for hot summer afternoons. When the sun drops and the air cools off, try one of Simmons’s heavier-bodied brews, such as the Coconut Porter. “That was a real honor,” says Simmons. “Other breweries have tried to [brew the style], but we’ve been really fortunate in being able to dial it in. People go crazy for it.”

BIG BEERS,
BELGIANS &
BARLEY WINES

Vail Cascade Resort & Spa • 1300 Westhaven Dr.
Vail, CO 81657 • High Point Brewing (organizer)
(970) 524-1092 • bigbeersfestival.com • Established: 2000

SCENE & STORY

Every great day of skiing is best capped off with a good beer. So why not a hundred? For the last eleven years, a brother-and-sister team of beer lovers have put on this weekend of tasting, beer dinners, a home brew competition, informational brewmaster seminars, and, for those who can peel away from the action inside, skiing the world-class terrain of Vail. The eleventh annual Big Beers, Belgians & Barley Wines festival, held in 2011, featured a hundred top brewing companies (mostly from the United States, and a handful from Europe), most of which sent their founders and head brewers along. Which means for the festival attendee, it’s a chance to meet some of the most well known brewers in the land over a beer in an intimate but not too crowded environment. Chris Bauweraerts of Belgium’s Brasserie La Chouffe, Avery’s Adam Avery, Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione, Boulevard’s Steven Pauwels, Allagash’s Rob Tod, and New Belgium’s Peter Bouckaert (among other luminaries) all held court in 2011.

BEST of the REST: COLORADO

FUNKWERKS

1900 E, Lincoln Ave.• Fort Collins, CO 80524 • (970) 482-3865 • funkwerks.com

In 2010, award-winning Colorado home brewer Gordon Schuck and his beer-obsessed accountant friend Brad Lincoln opened this small, all-organic brewery in Fort Collins after meeting at Chicago’s Siebel Institute to make saison beers, also known as farmhouse ales, starting with a tiny system and quickly ramping up production. Try the Funkwerks Saison (6.8% ABV), a tawny, grassy sipper with a clean, dry finish.

THE YAK & YETI

7803 Ralston Rd. • Arvada, CO 80002 • (303) 426-1976 • theyakandyeti.com

Nepalese chef Dol Bhattarai specializes in “mountain food for mountain people,” and the house beers are made to go with his amply spiced cuisine. Try the Chai Stout, which tastes of cardamom, cocoa, and ginger.

THE TWISTED PINE

3201 Walnut St. • Boulder, CO 80301 • (303) 786-9270 • twistedpinebrewing.com

While only distributed in four states, Twisted Pine, established in 1995, casts a tall shadow thanks to a series of big wins at the Great American Beer Festival and a slew of well-regarded beers and experiments including Ghost Face Killah, a pepper beer made with Bhut Jolokia, a pepper that is also known as “Ghost Chili” and is six times hotter than a habañero. An excellent representative brew is the fifteenth anniversary Hoppy Knight India Black Ale (7% ABV), a fulsome, piney sipper.

FRESHCRAFT

1530 Blake St., Ste. A • Denver, CO 80202 • (303) 758-9608 • freshcraft.com

Iowa born and bred brothers Jason and Lucas Forgy present a super eclectic menu (from tacos to barbecue to French) and a vast beer selection with twenty rotating taps and over a hundred bottles; go during the “Beer Session” happy hours (3 to 7 p.m. daily) for discounts on sandwiches and 5.5% ABV-and-below draft beer pairings.

DRYDOCK BREWING CO.

15120 E. Hampden Ave. • Aurora, CO 80014 • (303) 400-5606 • drydockbrewing.com

Established in 2005 and connected to the Brew Hut, a home brew shop, Dry Dock anchors an otherwise flavorless suburban strip mall. The nautically themed Dry Dock has hauled up a treasure chest of top brewing awards and widespread praise. A boost from Obama stimulus money (allowing an expansion, which was later followed by another), helped to propel it to national prominence in a short time, even ranking as “Small Brewing Company of the Year” at the 2009 GABF. For kicks, they’ve been known on occasion to serve beer from tapenhanced hollow watermelons and a 208-pound pumpkin. Good brews include U-Boat Hefeweizen, a sessionable 4.3% ABV traditional German-style wheat beer with a spicy, aromatic nose and overtones of vanilla, and Alexander Nevesky Russian Imperial Stout, a 9.5% ABV feast of huge roasted chocolate and coffee flavors.

COLORADO BOY PUB & BREWERY

602 Clinton St. • Ridgway, CO 81432 • (970) 626-5333 • coloradoboy.com

Brewing industry veteran Tom Hennessy’s 25-seat brewpub in a converted 1915 drugstore in tiny Ridgway—the northern entrance of the San Juan Skyway Drive—is cozy but updated with pastel orange and green walls, craftsman light fixtures, an antique bar, and art on the wall.

The inspiration for it all came from travels abroad. “My wife and I were hiking in Scotland,” he recalls, “and I fell in love with the small breweries up there. This is my sixth brewery and smallest by far. Probably my most fun one also.” In terms of styles, he’s determined to run against the big malt/big hop Colorado current: “I want to go the opposite way most others are going. My passion is to brew session beers true to style. Our pub is about conversation, not how much hops are in the beer.”

GRIMM BROTHERS BREWHOUSE

547 N. Denver Ave. • Loveland, CO 80538 • (970) 593-2636 • grimmbrosbrewhouse.com

Grimm Brothers, one of the latest additions to Colorado’s incredible craft beer scene, draws on Teutonic aesthetics and the wicked fun of Grimm’s fairy tales.

Little Red Cap is a fine version of altbier (a German style of ale conditioned at cooler temperatures, made famous in Düsseldorf). Snowdrop American Pale Wheat Ale is a brew style predating the Reinheitsgebot, or German Beer Purity Law of 1516, and contains wheat, oats, honey, and molasses.

Montana

THE BEST WAY TO DISCOVER MONTANA’S BURGEONING BEER CULTURE is to follow all or part of the Montana Beer Trail, dotted with twenty-three (and counting) breweries along some seven-hundred miles of the state’s most scenic rural and wilderness areas including Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, the Bitterroot Valley historic mining rail, and ghost towns, not to mention trout-filled rivers like the Yellowstone and Gallatin.

When you do go, one of the first things to know about Montana, an idyllic state with pure water, some of the finest barley in the nation, and a per-capita brewery density among the highest in the United States, is that for some reason, it has maddeningly confusing alcohol laws that conspire against craft brewers. Brewpubs are technically disallowed, as is production of more than 10,000 barrels (a beer barrel contains thirty-one gallons), unless they close their taprooms. At the same time, microbreweries may not sell more than forty-eight ounces of beer per consumer per day, and then only until 8 p.m. If they want to serve food and house beer from the same location, they must establish separate businesses at the same physical location that then must buy beer from said brewery. And so on, ever crazier with each new rule and exception.

The main reason for all this confusion is that the tavern lobby opposes craft brewers on the grounds that they believe craft brewery taprooms siphon off customers from their own establishments (despite the glaring differences in appeal). It all spells frustration for the small breweries, who are quite obviously offering something different. Drinking good, local, honestly made beer is an inalienable right in this country, as is the right to run or patronize a dive bar. Both can and should exist. Ultimately, craft beer is bringing better beer, jobs, and tourism to Montana and other states that are hurting financially, and it’s fun to drink, explore, and manufacture. Time to wake up and smell the hops.

The good news is that Montana’s craft beer scene is vibrant indeed. There are, at the time of this writing, twenty-three breweries and several more on the way. “It’s growing. In Montana there’s really this mentality to buy local,” says Chuck Sowell, an assistant at Carter’s Brewery in Billings. “So many of the small towns have their own breweries, and you don’t have to be a beer connoisseur to come in and drink the local beer.”

Change has come slowly, but come it has, and now you can pull into a formerly forlorn city like Billings and find no less than four craft breweries making interesting styles, barrel-aging beers, and educating consumers on life after the fizzy yellow stuff. “We’re breeding a culture here where we have more home brewers, and more people that really appreciate the good craft beer, and so more breweries are now branching out beyond the basic wheat, stout, IPA, and ambers,” says Sowell. “More breweries are doing barley wines and Belgian styles, and so there’s an appreciation for that, too. It’s really cool that there’s a beer culture in Montana now.”

Tony Herbert, executive of the Montana Brewer’s Guild, says it’s all part of the state’s character. “Montanans have long had a history of liking their beer, so it’s fertile ground, first of all. And a lot of the beers are coming right out of these Montana fields,” he says, referring to the state’s own amber waves of grain. “The water is fantastic, too. What I’ve seen is that people really appreciate the newness of these breweries and the beers that they make. We’ve been experiencing the same kind of growth that craft beer has recently. We [the Montana brewing industry] grew eight percent in 2009, and I think people have just changed. There’s been a palate shift.” Time to shift into gear and get to Montana yourself.

ITINERARIES

Billings

MONTANA
BREWING CO.

113 N. 28th St. • Billings, MT 59101 • (406) 252-9200
www.montanabrewingcompany.com • Established: 1994

SCENE & STORY

Situated downtown in the historic headquarters of what was once the Montana Power Company, MBC is a popular dining and sipping spot for locals and out-of-towners alike. Thanks to the ongoing refurbishment of the Babcock Theater, this part of town is becoming the arts core of the city. With a reputation for good burgers, nachos, and pizza, the portions are huge—as they are throughout Montana—but within reason. The interior is traditional brewpub, and a bit dim beneath craftsman glass fixtures. But it’s comfortable, with wooden booths and a large central bar area and tables in back that offer of view of a tidy brew house behind glass. It’s quiet; the sports bar Hooligan’s next door seems to siphon off the loudest cheering sections, but there’s a large flat-screen in the front area for the truly devoted.

PHILOSOPHY

The whole place is festooned with banners and descriptions of the company’s many GABF and World Beer Cup (held in even years) medals earned over the years, most recently in 2010 (the sole winner for the state, for Sandbagger’s Gold), attesting to the effort that goes into the beer. The brewery claims it was the first in the state to do any barrel aging, a costly and time-consuming experiment for any brewery.

KEY BEER

The lineup is fairly standard-issue brewpub fare—they’ve got a well-made but familiar classic range from pale and golden ale to stout—but MBC’s Whitetail Wheat, a GABF winner for American wheat beers, is above par, with a clean-tasting, full-but-not-too-sweet body and a faintly spicy finish. The Sandbagger Gold and the Sharptail Pale Ale are two other beers on the lighter end of the spectrum, but seasonals (such as a recent fall release, Drunkin’ Pumpkin), a pleasingly spicy but light at 4.6% ABV amber and slightly tannic coffee stout round out the offerings nicely, too.

ANGRY HANK’S

2405 1st Ave. North • Billings, MT 59101
(406) 252-3370 • Established: 2006

SCENE & STORY

Angry Hank, the story goes, was a cantankerous local that brewer Tim Mohr knew as a kid growing up. But there are no bad vibes here in Mohr’s small converted repair shop, with retractable, glass-filled garage doors and a cozy patio. The crowd is lively and eclectic; you’re as likely to see a bearded hippy as a U.S. Marine sipping one of the adventurously named beers that give this place some of its ample personality (Head Trauma IPA; Dog Slobber Brown; Street Fight Imperial Red). The high stools, small wood tables, corrugated metal accents, and gray bricks give it a smart, slightly urban feel. On most if not all afternoons, it’s well packed (capacity is a scant sixty-four), and there’s no kitchen—unless you count the popcorn popper parked along one wall. The staff and clientele are clearly outdoorsy, and the walls display pictures of climbs and rides that don’t look the least bit angry.

PHILOSOPHY

Mohr makes use of locally grown hops—a novelty in Montana—when he can, and pushes stylistic limits beyond the norm, resulting in some excellent beers like those mentioned above, and his seasonals, such as a recent Oktoberfest, reveal serious brewing chops. You can tell he’s watching the brewing world develop and eager to keep his drinkers enthused and curious about what’s coming next. This will be the key to survival for many new breweries across the West: innovate and improve without kowtowing to trends—yet without blindly ignoring them, as the beer world embraces newness with more and more vigor—all while building a base of returning, happy drinkers. Easier said than done.

KEY BEER

The 4% ABV Anger Management Blonde Wheat is a tasty start, with its accents of coriander and orange peel coming through without dominating the beer. Those ingredients are added during the boiling stage with hops, and are fairly common in Belgian breweries, while Americans have only started to use such ingredients amid the craft beer revolution.

CARTER’S
BREWING CO.

2526 Montana Ave.-B • Billings, MT 59101 • (406) 252-0663
www.cartersbrewing.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

Constructed in an old railroad depot storage building in the center of town opposite Billings’s old hotel row, Carter’s is named for owner-founder-head brewer Mike Uhrich’s son; Uhrich was a brewer with Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co. before getting the itch to brew his own styles. Carter’s is the young turk of the Billings scene, with some sixteen taps from traditional kölsch to Belgian-style saisons and farmhouse ales, Imperial IPA and even an American-style sour. There are more than thirty oak barrels for wood-aging Belgian and other experimental styles strewn around the tiny 7 bbl brew house—a marvel of space management—and it’s a popular gathering place for the local beer fanatics, who come in to chat, fill growlers, and catch the occasional game.

PHILOSOPHY

“Mike experiments and brews what he wants to brew and not necessarily what people want to drink,” says Chuck Sowell, one of three assistants who bartends, and a dedicated advocate for Montana’s growing craft beer scene. “It’s an interesting approach,” he adds. “We’ve met a lot of brewers who brew ‘to style’ or they brew to win medals, or they brew to meet demand for whatever sells the most or whatever people like the most. Mike brews what he wants to brew. He’s really, really passionate about his beers.”

KEY BEER

De-Railed IPA, at 6.5% ABV, is a big, piney, clean brew with a bitterness-to-body ratio that approaches the heartiest of West Coast IPAs.

DETOUR

RED LODGE, Montana

A former Crow Nation redoubt and mining capital an hour out of Billings, the historic town of Red Lodge (established 1884) is the gateway to the Beartooth Highway, a famed 69-mile ribbon of switchbacks on Highway 212 that leads south from Red Lodge into some of the most beautiful corners of Yellowstone National Park, with high glacial lakes, alpine tundra, and year-round snow. Ringed by soaring 12,000-feet peaks in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, including Montana’s tallest point, Granite Peak (12,799 feet), the town itself is quintessential Old West, with hundred-year-old homes and stone buildings dating from the 1880s looking over the main street (and a certain bank scoped-out—but never robbed—by Butch Cassidy, who worked the area). Despite a bit of particularly grim history—a mining accident outside of town in 1943 remains the state’s worst ever, having killed seventy-four men—it’s a vibrant place today. Make sure to stop and read the roadside attraction sign (which explains the disaster) heading into town from Billings, and stroll down Broadway, Red Lodge’s main street. Red Lodge Ales hosts an Oktoberfest every September, and there are scores of other events (including annual hoe downs, a Red Lodge Festival of Nations for Native Americans, and assorted adventure races including 10K runs and a skijoring duel).

RED LODGE
ALES & SAM’S
TAP ROOM &
KITCHEN

1445 N. Broadway • Red Lodge, MT 59068
(406) 446-4607 • redlodgeales.com • Established: 1998

SCENE & STORY

It’s hard to miss the brewery along the road into Red Lodge with its jolly crimson paint job. On a busy day, depending on the season, you’ll be on the heels of plenty of bikers and skiers, for starters. The taproom adjacent to the Red Lodge Ales brewery is Sam’s Tap Room & Kitchen, a bright, sunny space that manages to feel both retro and modern at the same time. There are shiny metal stools and wall details of rusted and corrugated metal, a large woodstove, reclaimed barn wood, and historical photographs to warm things up. There are large viewing windows inside to the brewery, and outside space is plentiful as well, with a beer garden and separate lawn for weddings and concerts. It all feels easy-does-it and well designed, and the hops growing on all the fences outside are utilized in the brew house every fall. The coldest months bring some rowdy fun with a Winter Carnival (www.redlodgemountain.com), complete with a local dog sled-pull contest.

Founder Sam Hoffmann, whose family comes from Germany, started out small, with a 500-square-foot facility, brewing tanks made of discarded dairy equipment, and a trio of German-style brews (alt, kölsch, and wheat), none of which are at all easy to make well. Now that the company has earned its local and regional fans and graduated to a much larger facility (on track to produce some 5,000 bbl in 2011), the approach is much the same, with some variations for seasonals and one-offs, and room for a new big seller, Bent Nail IPA. There are seven year-round beers, and nine to twelve seasonals, many of them lighter to medium in body, and generally mellow in hop character, all made with Montana-grown barley.

PHILOSOPHY

German precision meets eco-minded. Head Brewer and Director of Operations Justin Moore explains that while the range of beers is somewhat traditional, there’s something for everybody. “We do have the IPAs and double IPAs that we get to have fun with as well,” he assures. What’s more, the methods of making Red Lodge’s brews are anything but traditional. “We have Montana’s largest solar array right now,” explains Moore. Among other innovations: a “free air” system which utilizes sensors and the outside air to keep beer fresh inside up to nine months a year, and an in-house bio-diesel operation (to run company vehicles and delivery trucks). The brewers also crowd-source some of their own ingredients: locals are invited to bring in their own homegrown hops for use in a special fall brew called Harvest, which those same growers later enjoy at a discount.

KEY BEER

Bent Nail IPA, a juicy, piney brew at around 6.3% ABV is the biggest seller these days, but the original altbier, called Glacier Ale and pleasantly quaffable at 5% ABV, gives a look at what Red Lodge was built on. “I think it most represents us, our best year-round beer that is true to style,” says Moore. Also try the 5% ABV Kölsch, known as Reserve Ale, cleanly made and made for sessions in the grassy beer garden out back.

Missoula

MADISON RIVER
BREWING CO.

20900 Frontage Rd., Bldg. B • Belgrade, MT 59714
(406) 388-0322 • madisonriverbrewing.com • Established: 2005

SCENE & STORY

Located a stone’s throw from Belgrade’s Gallatin Field Airport, which serves the Bozeman area, this unassuming taproom is the ideal place to unwind with locals before a flight (or after a bumpy arrival). While the warehouse exterior isn’t much to look at, the interior is inviting and busy. Friendly drinkers chat quietly at tall tables and a small wooden bar beneath the tall ceilings. There’s classic rock on the stereo, and a wall of ultracolorful hand-blown glass tankards belonging to the Mug Club members. It’s for locals, but they’re an amiable lot. “We get all kinds of people here,” says owner Howard McMurray, the tall, gentle fellow behind the brew kettles. “We get fly fisherman, we get college students. A few days ago a little old lady came here from Butte for our Double IPA (which is a 9% ABV beer) and I actually questioned her—are you sure you want this one? And she said she’d driven an hour and a half just to drink it. It’s great to see that.”

PHILOSOPHY

There are six standard taps and two seasonals at any given time, and McMurray employs a workmanlike approach, researching styles and the ingredients generally used in each, to just “go with it.” It’s refreshing to hear a brewer speak of his own beers in this unpretentious way; too many seem eager to proclaim near-magical powers. But McMurray’s straightforward approach doesn’t mean MRBC’s beers are boring. They’re sturdy and solidly made.

KEY BEER

“The Hopper Pale Ale is a beer I’ve been making for ten years in the different places I’ve worked,” says McMurray, adding that it’s changed subtly over time as he’s moved around in brewing positions. The most recent version, at 5.6% ABV, has a more ample body than many pale ales, the tang of juicy Centennial, Cascade, and Horizon hops, and a floral aroma. Copper John Scotch Ale is a style known as Wee Heavy (akin to a strong porter), and McMurray’s version is made with roasted barley and a bit of smoked malts, which gives it an appealing char kick.

BOZEMAN
BREWING CO.

504 N. Broadway • Bozeman, MT 59715
(406) 585-9142 • bozemanbrewing.com • Established: 2001

SCENE & STORY

Ask anyone where to drink craft beer in Bozeman and the response is, inevitably, “Dude. The BoZone.” The nickname has, admittedly, a catchy ring to it. Nestled in a former pea canning factory in Bozeman’s northeast-of-center “warehouse district”—really just a line of buildings a few blocks off the main street—it’s packed every night with locals clutching pints or goblets poured off of one of the eight taps. Mondays bring bluegrass jams, and the clubhouse feel lends an added buzz. This seems like the place Bozeman’s most dedicated beer drinkers and ski bums come together when it snows outside, and with charming servers and walls that were literally painted with a sort of brewer’s grain-infused paint, it’s easy to see why. Bottle art was derived from a variety of historic Montana breweries, and overall the place has an unpretentious, friendly feel.

PHILOSOPHY

“When I started out here, it was on a shoestring—borrowing against my house and the whole nine yards,” recalls founder and head brewer Todd Scott, who brewed for the well-known (but ill-fated) Spanish Peaks brand, and scored much of its equipment after it closed. “And I was having a kid at the same time. I needed to come up with a beer that was going to start out selling well right out of the gate. I didn’t have time to build a reputation for brewing awesome IPAs, or something like that. I needed a beer that was easy drinking, that people could drink three, four, five of, that was popular at the time—like Fat Tire. The idea was to brew something that looked like a Fat Tire, but didn’t have that biscuity flavor. And that was our Amber.”

KEY BEER

The malt-forward Bozone Amber Select is Scott’s flagship today. “It’s just such an easy drinking beer,” says Scott. “There’s nothing ‘wow’ about it necessarily, other than, ‘I can have another one, and another one,’ and that was by design.” But don’t skip the roasty, draught-only Plum Street Porter (six malts; no fruit added) and seasonals or one-offs, like a recent sour Belgian tripel-style creation called Funky Virtue; at 11% ABV, it is aged with cherries in port wine barrels for three years and was first released after Montana’s state law changed in 2008, allowing the sale of beers of up to 14% ABV. It’s got all the sourness and power and oaky notes one expects of well-made American wild ale.

MONTANA
ALEWORKS

611 E. Main St. • Bozeman, MT 59715 • (406) 587-7700
montanaaleworks.com • Established: 2000

SCENE & STORY

Spread out spaciously beneath the rafters of an 8,000-square-foot former train depot in the heart of town, Aleworks is packed nightly with locals, and its pool tables, cement bar, and outdoor patio accommodate crowds of around 300 at any given time. Still, with its cavernous wood ceilings and long layout, it doesn’t feel like a madhouse even on a very busy night. The pepper-Parmesan fries have a well-deserved good reputation, and the fare centers around burgers and other steakhouse specialties like bison, Wild Alaskan salmon, and a superb eight-ounce tenderloin steak.

PHILOSOPHY

Upscale but not uptight. “We’re not fine dining by any means, but we do a lot of really nice food, and one of the big things for me is keeping it affordable for locals—for everybody,” says Executive Chef Roth Jordan. “We’re really preaching that we take as much pride in a $9 hamburger as we do in a $36 Kobe rib-eye steak.”

KEY BEER

There are thirty-two mostly local taps and eight rotating guest taps weighted toward regional brews from Belgrade, Missoula, and Big Sky. There’s always a cask-conditioned beer (recently, Madison River Oatmeal Stout) and several seasonals like Bozeman Brewing Company’s piney Harvestfest.

Butte

QUARRY
BREWING CO.

45 W. Galena St. • Butte, MT 59701
(406) 723-0245 • wedigbeer.com • Established: 2007

SCENE & STORY

Chuck Schnabel and his wife, Lyza, opened a little brewery (seven-barrel system) in Butte against what some would call considerable odds. Butte was once home to five breweries at the turn of the last century (when “the Richest Hill on Earth” had made it a fantastically rich mining metropolis), but none survived past the mid-1960s, and the rough-around-the-edges town wasn’t exactly the place to try anything too newfangled.

But today the Schnabel’s airy taproom, built in a converted old garage, is a kind of testament to the steady community-building power of craft beer. It’s comfortable and well lit, with brick walls and high ceilings, chalkboards and games for kids, and a wide wooden bar where Chuck or Lyza can usually be found tending bar. It’s a good stopping point between Bozeman and Helena.

The only quibble is that Quarry’s beers, which are named for types of local rock (basalt, granite, mica, calcite, etc.), were not (when sampled in late 2010) on par with other Montana brews in terms of quality. But they were not entirely lacking merit, and Schnabel is beginning to experiment with new recipes to meet the rising expectations and changing palates of beer lovers. (Note: In early 2011, Schnabel announced that Quarry was moving to a new location two blocks away, at 124 W. Broadway, in the old Grand Hotel, built in 1915 but gutted by fire in 1992 and vacant ever since. Plans for a ten-room bed and breakfast would make it Butte’s first brewery B&B in the modern era.)

PHILOSOPHY

Schnabel is a pragmatist, even a bit curmudgeonly, and his beers reflect a utilitarian approach. “I try to keep it simple,” he says. “There’s no sense in overcomplicating recipes, overcomplicating brews. I don’t even send beers to competitions. I don’t believe in them. My biggest thing is this: If the beer sells, it’s good. We have 157 members of our mug club and 260 on the waiting list. We gotta be doing something right.” True enough. He’s already risked a lot to get a craft brewery going in a macrobrew tavern town, and three years into it business is booming.

KEY BEER

Schnabel is particularly proud of his Gneiss IPA, made with Chinook and Cascade hops, and Galena Gold, a golden ale.

A WILD RIDER’S PARTY TOWN

Robert Craig Knievel, aka Evel Knievel, was born and raised in Butte (Oct. 17, 1938 to Nov. 30, 2007). Evel Knievel Days, a festival in his honor, occurs the last weekend in July, drawing some 50,000 every year. As the story goes, eight-year-old Knievel attended a daredevil show in town, and the rest is history—thirty-five broken bones later. On St. Patrick’s Day, Butte, which has no open container law, becomes a massive open-air street party, and Quarry sells a great deal of beer every single second of it.

Helena

BLACKFOOT
RIVER BREWING

54 S. Park Ave. • Helena, MT 59601 • (406) 449-3005
blackfootriverbrewing.com • Established: 1998

SCENE & STORY

Head Brewer Brian Smith and Brewer Brad Simshaw met while working at the state capitol (a big employer in town). “It’s the exact same story many brewery founders will tell you,” says Simshaw. “One day I walked home and got a catalog in the mail. It was James Page’s Homebrew Supply out of Minneapolis. I walked back to the office and told Brian, ‘I’m gonna order this!’ And from there, we started brewing once a week for a couple of years, and just progressed from there.” Today, their brewery in the heart of town is a popular, after-work spot, and the high tables for six encourage mingling. It cheerfully buzzes with servers, patrons, and conversation, and it’s walking distance to Last Chance Gulch, the historic heart of downtown Helena.

PHILOSOPHY

Straight to style. It may not be terrifically adventurous, but it’s effective, and the beers are uniformly tasty, fresh, and sessionable. They have a fourteen-barrel brew house, never pasteurize or package, rarely filter, and serve only on draught.

KEY BEER

Don’t be confused: Blackfoot River’s copper-hued Single Malt isn’t a whiskey. It’s an American IPA, and while it’s heavily hopped with Pacific Northwest Simcoe and Cascade hops—packing a citrus punch at 6.9% ABV—it’s quite a sociable beer, worth ordering twice. The name comes from the brewers’ use of costly, 100 percent floor-malted Maris Otter malt from England, which, when brewed properly, yields complex beers with exceptional mouthfeel. Floor malting is when the grain has been dried and kilned and then raked on a wooden floor, a disappearing tradition.

Missoula and the Bitterroot Valley

Southwestern Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, a 100-mile stretch from Missoula in the north down to Lost Trail Pass (7,014 feet), straddling the Bitterroot River and flanked by the Bitterroot and Sapphire ranges, is not to be missed. With its world-class fishing holes and kayaking streams, jagged mountain vistas, easily accessible hot springs, swaths of cottonwood forest, historical attractions (Lewis and Clark paused in the area, and the Daly Mansion—a 24,000 square foot, 50-room palace—draw many visitors), it’s one of Montana’s prettiest corners. Missoula is home to a vibrant literary tradition (Norman Maclean, author of A River Runs Through It, was from here, and the yearly Festival of the Book is a major draw) and has a growing beer scene, nourished by the University of Montana, and featuring the Garden City Brewfest held every year on the first Saturday in May.

BITTER ROOT
BREWING CO.

101 Marcus St. • Hamilton, MT 59840 • (406) 363-7468
bitterrootbrewing.com • Established: 1998

SCENE & STORY

In what used to be an old apple warehouse, this brewery in the sleepy former copper mining capital of Hamilton is bright and cheerful, with high wooden tables and metal stools—something of a Montana brewpub standard—and interesting old historical artifacts and photos, chalkboards, even a few big peacock feathers for good measure. Owner Tim Bozik, a commercial furniture manufacturer who moved to the area fifteen years ago, saw a wide-open opportunity to serve a thirsty local clientele who had few local options for craft beer. He utilized old dairy tanks and other hand-built equipment and began winning over the locals, crank by crank. “Old timers would come by and ask me, ‘Are you gonna be brewing that dark sh—t?’ Yep, I said. And most of those guys are still regulars.” Bozik and his daughter, Nicol, are big music fans as well. There’s a stage in the corner for live music twice a week; Huey Lewis (of famed 80s rock band) lives nearby, so if you’re lucky you’ll catch one of his impromptu appearances.

“There’s such an eclectic crowd that comes in,” says Bozik. “Walk in at any given time and you’re bound to see the local pig farmer sitting next to the town judge and maybe a highway patrol guy.”

PHILOSOPHY

“We’re strictly about quality. I don’t want someone coming in here and ordering a porter or IPA and hearing them say, ‘You missed it,’” says Bozik. In other words, the brewing ethos is more or less directly to style, with an emphasis on clean, balanced beers. With the “whims,” or seasonals, and experiments though, expect to see some more innovative styles like India Black Ale, smoked beers, and other departures. “The whims allow our brewers to try new things, try something that excites them. Sometimes we have guest brewers. And we do the same thing with our kitchen,” says Nicol Bozik. Additionally, Bitter Root is one of the few breweries in Montana bottling at all, and what’s more, they utilize the very sociable twenty-two-ounce bottle, great for sharing on a quiet night at home (or by the campfire).

KEY BEER

The juicy 6.2% ABV IPA is the flagship, but look for what’s on the seasonal and whim list for a taste of what the brewery can really do. Additionally, the 5.1% ABV porter is especially interesting for its use of smoked malt, which gives it an almost leathery, earthy bite.

BIG SKY
BREWING CO.

5417 Trumpeter Way • Missoula, MT 59808
(406) 549-2777 • www.bigskybrew.com • Established: 1995

SCENE & STORY

Two good friends who spent all their spare time home brewing and visiting breweries moved to Missoula in 1990 and met a third friend who was working in a ski shop. The trio got serious about beer (when not back-country skiing) and their by-the-bootstraps creation, Big Sky, has grown so rapidly that today it brews more beer in one facility than the rest of Montana’s twenty-three breweries combined. Not bad for “a bunch of yahoos up here having a good time,” says cofounder Bjorn Nabozney. To certain Montanans who rue progress, the sudden success and size (around 40,000 barrels per year sold in Montana, Washington, Arizona, and twenty-one other states) can seem off-putting, but it’s hard to begrudge their good-natured success. “We’ve sort of become the Schmidt Brewery of the craft scene with all of our animals,” says Nabozney, whose mother designs the cartoon-like label art for the brewery. A visit to the bright, modern taproom is a fun affair, because every visitor is allowed four samples, which are no mere sips. Despite the location in an industrial park, there’s often a sizeable crowd on hand.

PHILOSOPHY

Ultimately, Big Sky is in it for the beer. “We don’t brew to get medals,” says Nobozney. “We brew for ourselves. We brew what we like. Which is very similar to a lot of craft brewers. We don’t brew a West Coast–style beer; we don’t brew an East Coast–style beer. We’re kind of monkeys-in-the-middle with regard to our hops and our malt characters. Our alcohols are pretty manageable; we don’t brew a bunch of extreme beers. When I’m having a beer, I want to enjoy my third beer and not feel like I’m overly full or like I can’t have another one. After I’m done skiing or getting off the river, I want to be able to have a couple.”

That approach has paid off. “We know that because of our size, we’re not the local beer anymore, we’re more like Montana’s beer. We’re an apple in a basket of oranges—distinctly different,” he says.

KEY BEER

The success of Big Sky has been built largely on the huge sales of Moose Drool, a slightly sweet-tasting 5.3% ABV American Brown Ale made with a tangy touch of Willamette hops from the Pacific Northwest, but the brewery’s more ambitious barrel-aged barley wines, Belgian-style saisons, and other limited releases are worth trying, too.

LOCAL HERO

BRENNAN’S WAVE: Missoula and the Bitterroot area are famous for whitewater rafting, kayaking, and river boarding. In the taprooms and bars of Missoula, you’ll inevitably hear of this man-made whitewater kayaking destination downtown on the Clark Fork River at Caras Park. Local Brennan Guth was a star high school athlete who later discovered whitewater and created a Montana-based kayaking school. He died in a boating accident in Chile in 2001, and a major community effort, including donations from Big Sky Brewing Co., resulted in the construction of this $300,000 play spot in the river (for experienced paddlers only), which was the site of the U.S. Freestyle Kayaking Championships in 2010. It’s a meaningful local landmark.

BAYERN
BREWING

1507 Montana St. • Missoula, MT 59801-1409
(406) 721-1482 • bayernbrewery.com • Established: 1987

SCENE & STORY

Think: Little Bavaria. Owner and head brewer Jürgen Knöller, who bought the operation from its original owners in 1991, is a born-and-raised Bavarian brewmaster, and he has taken great pains to create the atmosphere of a traditional German bierstube here, with wooden tables, German breweriana, hop garlands, and a barrel on the bar. The space is clean, with a wide bar and plenty of tables and stools inside. There are some traditional snacks available, like German Landjaegers (Bavarian beef jerky), and on Fridays, during the warm months, brats and sauerkraut are served outside. It’s popular with firefighters in very dry years, reports Knöller, and there’s a strong local contingent of fans as well.

PHILOSOPHY

“We’re a lot different than the other breweries. For one, it’s the good old way of brewing German beer, following the Reinheitsgebot [the German Beer Purity Law of 1516, still followed in spirit if not to the letter of the law in southern Germany],” says Jürgen. Which means the only ingredients used are malt, hops, yeast, and water, with nothing else in the brew. What’s more, he’s super dedicated to traditional styles like Pilsner and Dopplebock while adhering to extremely tight protocols for making and serving beer, but he’s equally as vigorous in the fun department, sponsoring a raucous Oktoberfest and other events.

KEY BEER

Bayern Pilsner, at 5% ABV, is exactly true to style, and has a bready taste with good, ample, noble hop flavor, which is on the spicy side.

KETTLEHOUSE
MYRTLE ST.

602 Myrtle St. • Missoula, MT 59801
(406) 728-1660, ext. 201 • Established: 2009

KETTLEHOUSE
NORTH SIDE

313 N. 1st St. West • Missoula, MT 59802
(406) 728-1660, ext. 222 • Established: 1995

SCENE & STORY

The original location of Kettlehouse, a brew-on-premises facility where customers could make their own beer in small batches, has a gritty, backcountry ski hut feel, and newcomers are likely to find the crowd at least two-deep around the bar. It’s there you’ll find the magnificently named Al Pils—bartender, in-house philosopher, and the bearded inspiration behind a house beer bearing his own name. Pils and his cohorts serve an ultra dedicated fan base that sometimes refer to their favorite establishment as the “K-Hole,” mingling as they sip on taproom-only offerings like the kookily named (but seriously brewed) Fresh Bongwater Pale Ale, Hemptober Spliff, and Discombobulator Maibock.

The newer north side location, necessitated by the company’s steady growth, is a sleeker affair straddling the Orange Street underpass and built in an old train building, with high ceilings, exposed brick walls, and a wooden bar that must be one of the longest in Montana. It’s a slightly more serene atmosphere, but not stuffy by any stretch of the imagination.

PHILOSOPHY

Tim O’Leary, Kettlehouse’s founder, set out to match the quality of his beer to that of Montana’s outdoor bounty. “I guess I don’t call myself a brewmaster because I have a degree in physics,” says the Helena native. “And I didn’t go to formal brewing school, but we’ve taken recipes that I’ve created, and those that our staff has created, and refined them. A core principle of ours is to buy local ingredients whenever possible. The barley that we use is grown in Montana, across the divide. The hops come from the Willamette and Yakima valleys, and then we use pure Montana water. I spend most of my thinking, working, and worrying time on the quality of the beer. Montana’s like a small town. If I put my name on a beer, I want to be proud of it, because I might see someone on the street, and they have no qualms about coming up to me to say, ‘Hey, your beer’s great!’ or ‘Your beer sucks.’ If we’re not making award-winning beer, I’m not doing my job. You’ve got to listen to people.”

KEY BEER

“Cold smoke” is a skier’s term for the sort of snow that forms with low humidity and low-temperature conditions, creating the best powder. It’s light, buoyant, and rare outside the Rockies. Kettlehouse’s award-winning beer of the same name isn’t overly heavy, nor is it airy and light. It’s a Scotch Ale that has fulsome, malty body with a slight smoky character. Spicy accents from East Kent Goldings hops (a British version also grown in the American West) balance it beautifully.

DETOUR

BIG DIPPER ICE CREAM 631 S. Higgins • Missoula, MT 59801 • (406) 543-5722 • bigdipper icecream.com

Not only is Cold Smoke the name for the best snow and a favorite local beer, it’s now an ice-cream flavor, too. Big Dipper, a classic old-fashioned ice-cream stand which opened in the back of the original Kettlehouse brewery location in 1995, has become a staple in Missoula and achieved fame far beyond thanks to its retro feel. Cold Smoke ice-cream is made with Kettlehouse’s signature Scotch Ale. Today, the company has a new location in Helena’s Last Chance Gulch downtown, and added Big Sky IPA as a flavor, too. Other flavors (there are about forty total) include Pumpkin, Egg Nog, Chipotle Chocolate, Huckleberry Sorbet, and Strawberry Thin Mint Chip.

GLACIER
BREWING CO.

6 10th Ave. East • Polson, MT 59860-3219
(406) 883-2595 • glacierbrewing.com • Established: 2003

SCENE & STORY

Located on the southern end of Flathead Lake (at 192 square miles the largest freshwater lake in the United States), Polson is a town of some 4,000 year-round residents and is part of the Flathead Indian Reservation. It’s also home to the nation’s largest fiddle competition, and in the summertime the town becomes a major tourist thoroughfare. From the ground up, Glacier Brewing Company has a wonderful Old West feel, with swinging saloon doors and a historic brewery sign over the entrance (which came out of Montana’s first brewery, the H.S. Gilbert Brewery in Virginia City), antique brewing posters, and wooden truss rafters. The owners expanded the taproom a few years ago, and today there’s ample room for beer drinking both inside and out, in addition to a small wooden stage in the beer garden for all those fiddlers.

PHILOSOPHY

Unfussy and stylistically simple, hitting several major beer styles from Kölsch and pilsner to ältbier and stout, with friendly, smiling service.

KEY BEER

Cherries grow in the area, but the very popular, very sweet Flathead Cherry Ale is made with a grenadine-like cherry additive, which seasoned craft beer aficionados might have difficulty enjoying. Also try the Slurry Bomber Stout, at 5.5% ABV, a dry roasty sipper, and the Glacier Select Oktoberfest (6.7% ABV), a dark amber with some spicy hop character that is, despite the seasonal-sounding name, one of the company’s most popular year-round beers.

TAMARACK
BREWING &
TAMARACK ALE-
HOUSE & GRILL

105 Blacktail Rd., Ste. 1 • Lakeside, MT 59922
(406) 844-0244 • tamarackbrewing.com • Established: 2006

SCENE & STORY

Heading along the west side of Flathead Lake, it’s a short drive onto Lakeside, with the turn for “The Rack,” as locals call it, at the beginning of town. In the winter, this is a popular spot for skiers at nearby Blacktail Mountain Resort. The attractively modern two-level facility is situated on the side of Stoner Creek, and out back there’s a shady patio that beckons in the summer months.

The operators, Craig Koontz and Joshua Townsley, sought to incorporate a number of touches from breweries they admire into Tamarack, such as an open viewing area from the second floor looking into the brew house and the lack of a barrier between the brewery tanks and the bar area itself (a feature borrowed from Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe, Arizona, where Northern California-raised brewer Koontz met business partner Townsley). With the beautiful copper-clad kettles and seven shiny fermenters, there’s a cheery confidence about the place and a hum of activity even on weekday afternoons. One of the best features is a wood-burning indoor-outdoor fireplace with seating on each side—on the patio and inside the restaurant.

And while the Alehouse & Grill area is technically a separate business from the brewery, it’s really only on paper that the two are distinct from each other. “You can hear it, and you can smell it,” says Koontz proudly of the open-plan design. The food menu is extensive, from burgers to pizzas made with handmade beer dough and even a few Southwest items. Several beer dinners per year stretch the kitchen’s repertoire with local Willow Spring Ranch lamb shanks, seasonal vegetable tortes, and cured meats.

PHILOSOPHY

Koontz is an eager experimenter with his ten-barrel facility, with recent forays into making pilsner with Sorachi Ace hops (developed in Japan), which have a distinctive lemongrass quality. But most of the beers are true to style. “There’s stuff that sells for a reason,” he says. With that in mind, the ten standards hew to familiar styles such as amber, wit, hefeweizen, and stout.

KEY BEER

Yard Sale Ale. “We describe it as a robust amber ale,” says Koontz of his 5.6% ABV top seller. “It’s bordering on a brown if you look at it in the glass, which separates it from the Fat Tires and Alaskan Ambers out there on the shelf,” he says. “It’s got heavy amounts of chocolate malt and a little roastiness to it, as well.” Ask if Old Stache is available; it’s a super limited-quantity porter aged in bourbon barrels.

THE GREAT
NORTHERN
BREWING CO. &
BLACK STAR
DRAUGHT HOUSE

2 Central Ave. East • Whitefish, MT 59937 • (406) 863-1000
greatnorthernbrewing.com • Established: 1994

SCENE & STORY

The mostly automated, 8,000-barrel capacity brewery itself is unmistakable; for one, it’s the tallest building in town (three levels), and for another, it’s more or less completely made of glass, which shows off a gravity-flow brewing setup (using few pumps) unlike any other in the state. It’s a striking contrast to the less lofty wood clapboard buildings around it, and it means the brewers have the best view. A tour up and down the winding circular stairs is recommended, building a thirst for refreshment in the busy taproom, which is a popular hangout for locals.

PHILOSOPHY

Solid, malt-forward, cleanly made brews. Founder Minott Wessinger, the great-great-grandson of Henry Weinhard—whose own Blitz-Weinhard Brewery was a Portland institution from 1856 until it closed for good in 1999—built Great Northern Brewing in 1994 as a vehicle for Black Star Golden Lager, with a hoppy lager recipe akin to the great Weinhard’s Private Reserve which had made his family’s fortune. It’s a hop-accented golden lager designed to appeal to discerning drinkers in both the macro and craft segments.

KEY BEER

“Black Star Golden Lager built this brewery,” says General Manager Marcus Duffey, by way of explaining why they brought the 4.6% ABV brew back after a seven-year hiatus (see the “Detour” below for more on founder Minott Wessinger and his inventions). It’s a slightly sweet, malty golden lager with some discernible, grassy hop character, good for a session down at the bar, but nothing particularly astounding.

DETOUR

MINOTT WESSINGER

Whitefish, Montana—like Aspen, Taos, and Sisters, Oregon—is an ultra picturesque Western town that lures hordes of affluent, influential types to soak up the vibes and spread their empires. Minott Wessinger is one of those sorts himself. There are several very well-made beers in his lineup, and, taking cues from the Empire Builder train line that serves Whitefish, there is some dynasty-building going on that might come as a surprise to lovers of craft beer. In 2001, Wessinger, who had struck gold developing St. Ides (a “malt liquor”) under a contract arrangement with another brewery in the late 1980s by having rap artists including Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, and Biggie Smalls expound on its qualities, decided to sell Great Northern Brewing Company and cease brewing Black Star Lager in order to pursue other projects, notably a youthfully marketed alcoholic soda pop called Sparks, which caused no little consternation among watchdog and parents groups. After launching it in 2002, Wessinger later sold Sparks to Miller in 1996 for a reported $220 million. Perhaps sensing his legacy and lineage—and sensing new opportunity in craft beer—Wessinger returned as a partner to Great Northern and helped relaunch Black Star Golden Lager in February 2010. Who knew craft beer and gangsta rap were bedfellows in Whitefish, Montana?

THE GREAT
NORTHERN
BAR & GRILL

27 Central Ave. • Whitefish, MT 59937 • (406) 862-2816
greatnorthernbar.com • Established: 1919

SCENE & STORY

Right across the street from the Great Northern brewery, this is the kind of place that every town needs but too often lacks: a classic old establishment with a beat-up old bar, cool old signage from days and businesses gone by, a patio, full menu, and a stage. It’s got a roadhouse feel, with pool tables, shuffleboard, and ping pong, and the atmosphere of a glorious dive without too much of the grime. And because it’s the social center of town in Whitefish, it’s typically filled to the brim with Whitefish citizens and tourists young and old. The locals are appropriately proud of the day The Boss—Bruce Springsteen—jumped on stage with the band to play “Mustang Sally” way back when in August 1996.

PHILOSOPHY

Officially? “If we ain’t got it, you don’t need it.”

KEY BEER

Of the tap brews, most are local to Montana, or at least the Pacific Northwest, so ask what’s freshest and take your pick. Kettle-house’s Double Haul IPA is a mainstay, as is Big Sky’s Moose Drool, and Blackfoot Organic Pale.

BEST of the REST: MONTANA

WORDEN’S MARKET

451 N. Higgins Ave. • Missoula, MT 59802-4522 • (406) 549-1293

Missoula’s very first grocery store, now in its fifth location, originally opened in 1883 and has played a key role in the development of Montana’s beer scene. For starters, it has long stocked a good selection of kegs, stoking many a local party, but more importantly, its owners have introduced locals to thousands of imports and American craft beers, which are lovingly curated by the talkative and knowledgeable Mark Thomsen. It’s a friendly, bustling place. In October 2009 another of Montana’s backward beer laws was amended, finally allowing the sale of beer up to 14% ABV, a threshold that is common with many of the most sought-after styles of Belgian and English beers.

BLACKSMITH BREWING CO.

114 Main St. • Stevensville, MT 59870 • (406) 777-0680 • blacksmithbrewing.com

Housed in an old buggy salesroom built in 1908 that later became both a Chinese laundry and a blacksmith’s shop (until the year 2000!), Blacksmith is one of the latest additions to Montana’s growing beer scene, opened in October 2008. Stevensville, on the other hand, is known as Montana’s oldest community, founded in 1841, and the owners and fans alike see this as a kind of synergy capturing all that is good about the great state of Montana. The taproom is a visual nod to this pedigree, all exposed brick, vintage high backed wooden chairs, pine walls with cowboy branding-iron “graffiti” (discovered during renovations), and bare wooden rafters and beams. Right on Stevensville’s main street, it ought to be on any Bitterroot Valley traveler’s agenda. The beers are West Coast–style ales like Cutthroat IPA, at 6.2% ABV, a traditionally copper-colored brew that’s dry-hopped for an extra citrus finish. A recent India Black Ale or “Black IPA” was excellent, too, with ample roasted bitterness and a fir tree’s freshness.

FLATHEAD LAKE BREWING CO.

26008 E. Lake Shore Dr. (mile marker 26 on MT Route 35) • Woods Bay (Big Fork), MT 59911 • (406) 837-0353 • flatheadlakebrewing.com

Originally opened in 2004, this much-loved brewpub resides on the picturesque eastern shore of Flathead Lake in Woods Bay, and boasts views of the water and big mountains under the Big Sky. The company added a pub fare menu in 2010 and a second taproom location in Missoula in early 2011. Try the chocolaty 6.5% ABV Porter, which earned a bronze medal at the 2006 World Beer Cup.

Wyoming

SNAKE RIVER
BREWING CO.

265 S. Millward St. • Jackson, WY 83001 • (307) 739-2337
snakeriverbrewing.com • Established: 1994

SCENE & STORY

The mere presence of great craft beer is not the first reason to go to Jackson—let’s face it, the Grand Tetons are the real draw here, especially in the winter for skiers—but it does sweeten the deal considerably. Opened in 1994, Snake River has built an excellent restaurant and award-winning brewery. The brewpub itself is a spacious, well-lit, multilevel affair with lots of windows, and frequented by locals who avoid the tourist traps in town (i.e. the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, which, truth be told, can be a fun pit stop). It turns into a serious party around holidays like Oktoberfest, Mardi Gras, Halloween, and Saint Patrick’s Day, and the food earns high marks, especially “The Roper” sandwich: braised brisket, applewood-smoked bacon, caramelized onions, white cheddar, and horseradish mayo on a house-made bun.

PHILOSOPHY

Snake River’s huge popularity could have led it down the path of mediocrity in a hurry. Instead the family-owned brewery seems to be getting better every year. Since 2007, the brewery has ramped up its brewing program considerably, adding bold new styles and experiments that are gaining notice.

KEY BEER

Snake River Brewing Company has traditionally excelled in one particular style that few manage to nail or even dare to tackle: Foreign (aka Export) Stout, which is characterized by a huge roasted malt profile, a higher than usual alcohol content, and malt-given flavors of caramel, cocoa powder, and coffee. Their 6% ABV Zonker Stout has won scads of awards over the years, helping make Wyoming’s first brewpub something of a legend in craft beer circles, having won more than two-hundred prestigious medals. But it’s Le Serpent and Le Serpent Cerise that have bitten hardest into the regional, and indeed, the entire national beer landscape. A pair of limited release, Flemish-style sour ales aged in French oak barrels up to eighteen months, these two beers made surprise appearances in the top ranks of the American and international craft brewing awards circuit in 2010. The Cerise version is aged in the barrel with whole Washington cherries; both burst with earthy, tart flavors of wood and fruit.

TEXAS and the
SOUTHWEST

W ith its piñon-dotted highlands, sun-baked mesas, and labyrinthine canyon lands, the American Southwest is mesmerizing from 30,000 feet, the distance from which most travelers view it as they whiz by from LA or SF to the East Coast or back again. But the best way for a beer lover to experience its incredible bounty is to spend some time on the ground in the cities and small towns. The soulless casinos, strip malls, and tacky strip joints are just side effects, like jet lag, because a vanguard of hard-working beer lovers has suddenly propelled the Southwest’s craft beer scene from tumbleweed to tornado, from Austin to Albuquerque, Reno, and even Sin City—Las Vegas. It used to be the kind of place where beer meant only a frosty can of Tecate with lime, the follow-up to a good tequila (which, to be honest, is still not a bad way to go). But beyond the old standbys there’s now a new wealth of great American craft beer breweries and internationally savvy beer bars springing up like Christmas cactus in a dried-up arroyo, even along the iconic Route 66 amid the old adobe of New Mexico. In the end, there’s nothing better than a brewery-fresh beer and a high desert sunset, but roadside tacos and Texas barbecue aren’t far behind. Time to hit the road. Just don’t forget the sunscreen.

Texas

THANKS IN LARGE PART TO WAVES OF GERMAN IMMIGRANTS WHO made Texas home, the Lone Star State has long been synonymous with beer, especially a couple of inexpensive, mass-produced lagers, Shiner Bock (from San Antonio’s Gambrinus Corporation) and Pabst’s Lone Star. No disrespect to those ubiquitous brews, but there’s much, much more to discover in the new world of Texas craft breweries and beer bars today, especially in Austin, which has embraced pathbreaking brewing styles with the force of a Texas twister. These bold, natural beers go especially well with Texas Hill Country cuisine and languid afternoons with friends and great music.

Austin

THE GINGER MAN

301 Lavaca St. • Austin, TX 78701 • (512) 473-8801 aus.gingermanpub.com • Established: 1994

SCENE & STORY

Moved recently to its present location under pressure from real estate developers, this large, dimly lit bar consists of a long stone bar, couches, dark wood paneling and tables, a tasteful collection of beer trays on the walls, and a busy outdoor seating and stage area, well retaining the charm that made the original (close by and now called the Ghost Bar) one of Austin’s most beloved spots. There are eighty taps and more than a hundred bottles to choose from, with a strong selection of American craft beers and choice international marks.

PHILOSOPHY

Founder Bob Precious took his inspiration for the Ginger Man family of bars from J. P. Donleavy’s novel of the same name, in which the character of Sebastian Dangerfield is a young American abroad at Trinity College, a bon vivant Time magazine predicted readers would love for his “killer instinct, flamboyant charm, wit—and above all for his wild, fierce two-handed grab for every precious second of life.” But thankfully, the maudlin shtick doesn’t get the better of this loose-knit family of bars. Of the original Ginger Man, in Houston, Michael Jackson memorably wrote, “it is a true pub, where it is possible to indulge in conversation without having dubious entertainments or food pressed upon one. Despite its name, it has no oppressive theme, either as a literary bar or as an Irish tavern.”

KEY BEER

Jester King’s Commercial Suicide, a 3.3% ABV traditional English Mild, the sort of beer Michael Jackson (a Fuller’s Chiswick Bitter man) might have sampled, and one that will not lead too quickly to reckless, Dangerfield-style debauchery.

DRAUGHT HOUSE PUB & BREWERY

4112 Medical Pkwy., No. 100 • Austin, TX 78756 (512) 452-MALT • draughthouse.com • Established: 1968

SCENE & STORY

Austin’s most famous beer destination, The Draught House is an old Anglo-German-style bar with a Tudor half-timber exterior. Inside is a softly-lit, exposed-beamed space furnished with rough-hewn wood tables and straight-backed wood chairs, and a bar with seventy taps, eighteen bottles, and a few casks on at a time, along with pub grub like made-to-order pizza, nachos, and calzones. Outside, there’s a massive beer garden that often fills with a chilled-out crowd.

PHILOSOPHY

The Old World meets Craft Beer Nation, U.S.A. Instead of lining up along the bar for the latest Victory, Dogfish, and Green Flash brews, locals know to form an orderly single-file line, as if purchasing train tickets in Munich or Piccadilly Circus, but they’re quite happy in the process. You will be, too.

KEY BEER

There are always five or so house beers and one on cask, like a recent single hop IPA, Hop School Nugget (7% ABV), resinously grassy with a drying finish.

JESTER KING CRAFT BREWERY

13005 Fitzhugh Rd., Bld. B • Austin, TX 78736 (512) 537-5100 • jesterkingbrewery.com • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

Few breweries have to remind visitors to leave pets at home so as not to spook the livestock. Located fifteen miles outside of town on a ranch in the rolling Texas Hill Country, Jester King is a first for the American South: an ambitious farmhouse brewery working primarily in the rarified world of oak-barrel aging and second fermentations in the bottle. With a massive 8,000-square-foot barn next to the new stone-walled brewery, the owners opened for business with a rapid-fire release of highly rated beers including a collaboration with Dane Mikkel Borg Bjergsø of Mikkeller, the acclaimed globe-trotting gypsy brewer.

PHILOSOPHY

Belgium comes to Hill Country. By Texas standards these are wild, experimental beers, but the Belgian and French traditions at work here are time tested. The founders also espouse deep philosophical underpinnings of conservation, pledging to use organic and local raw materials at every turn, even rainwater in the brewing kettles.

KEY BEER

Boxer’s Revenge Farmhouse Provision Ale (9% ABV) is a dry, Champagne-like farmhouse ale dry hopped with spicy Hallertau and floral Cascade and Centennial hops. The beer is refermented in French oak wine barrels with wild yeast for up to a year.

Fort Worth

RAHR & SONS BREWING CO.

701 Galveston Ave. • Fort Worth, TX 76104 • (817) 810-9266 rahrbrewing.com • Established: 2004

SCENE & STORY

“Fritz” Rahr Jr.’s great-great-grandfather William opened the first lager brewery in Wisconsin in 1847, but was killed due to burns suffered in a tragic brewing kettle fall. His descendant’s brewery is already up to 6,000 bbl per year.

PHILOSOPHY

German-influenced beers with Texas twang and a sense of off-beat humor, as evidenced by beers named Ugly Pugg and Buffalo Butt.

KEY BEER

Look for the Iron Thistle, an 8.5% ABV Scotch Ale with hints of fig, raisin, chocolate, and smoke.

BEST of the REST: TEXAS

LIVE OAK BREWING COMPANY

3301-B E. 5th Street • Austin, TX 78702 • (512) 385-2299 • liveoakbrewing.com

Founded in a bare-bones two-room warehouse of a brewery in southeast Austin in 1997, Live Oak has gained a reputation for making some of Austin’s—and the entire Southwest’s—best beer, thanks to their luscious Live Oak HefeWeizen (4.1% ABV). The secret to their success? Ultratraditional old-world methods including open fermenters made from repurposed dairy tanks, secondary lagering (cold aging), and decoction mashing, a technique described in detail on a super popular, reservations-required ninety-minute tour.

THE FLYING SAUCER DRAFT EMPORIUM

815 W. 47th St. • Austin, TX 78751 • (512) 454-8200 • beerknurd.com/stores/

Six of the fourteen all-craft-focused Flying Saucer Draft Emporiums are located in Texas, which says a lot about the kind of beer Texans are getting into these days. With 70 taps, 140 bottled selections, and a couple of casks at any given time, this most recently added outlet’s selection makes its mall-like exterior and college crowd eminently bearable. Early on, the servers were more eye candy than beer experts but the level of institutional knowledge has ramped up considerably in the last few years. Once akin to Hooters with better beer, the Flying Saucer, founded in 2008, is headed higher.

UNCLE BILLY’S BREW & QUE

1530 Barton Springs Rd. • Austin, TX 78704 • (512) 476-0100 • unclebillysaustin.com

Decent Texas-style barbecue, pulled pork sandwiches, fried chicken-and-waffles, and brisket share the bill with award-winning house brews. Brewer Brian Peters breaks out fresh cask beers on the first Tuesday of every month, and has recently been experimenting with smoked beers to go with all the mesquite-grilled fare. Try the Hell in Keller, a kellerbier (aka zwickelbier) which has earned two medals at the GABF. There’s a sleek second location overlooking Lake Travis serving the same fare.

New Mexico

Albuquerque

MARBLE BREWERY

111 Marble Ave. NW • Albuquerque, NM 87102 (505) 243-2739 • marblebrewery.com • Established: 2008

SCENE & STORY

A hoppy oasis in a dusty warehouse area of Albuquerque not far from the main drag of Lomas Boulevard, Marble produces a modest, but growing, 6,000 bbl per year. The brewpub has hardwood floors, deep red walls, a forty-inch-wide bar, and a spacious, umbrella-equipped seating area outside. “It’s a great scene,” says founder Ted Rice. “We get blue-collar guys coming in from the machine shops that are right around the corner. But then we’re also right next to the courthouse facility, so we’ll get lawyers coming in, too. And we get the local beer nerds—all walks of life, all commingling and just gathering around a great local flavor.” Try one of the ten beers available, including seven year-round brews plus the three Brewer’s Specials, and fortify yourself with the Marble Nachos draped with a layer of homemade beef chili made with New Mexico red chiles. Casks are tapped Fridays, and tours are possible when the brewer’s schedule allows (try calling ahead). Growlers go for a mere $7.75. This is a short drive from the airport, so it would make a great first or last stop in the Land of Enchantment.

PHILOSOPHY

Rice and Co. have helped New Mexico embrace the tang and bite of spicier beers. “We want the malt character and the residual sweetness to be low, to allow layers of hop flavors to shine through,” Rice says. “So, when you have those layers of hop flavors and that low residual sweetness, the malt base is dry, and you have drinkability.”

The water in Albuquerque is fairly alkaline and fluctuates depending on whether the city is drawing from surface or well sources; turning a potential liability into a strength, Marble runs brewing water through a reverse osmosis filter and then adds back in necessary minerals and salts, allowing them to mimic classic brewing styles.

KEY BEER

Marble Red is a chewy, 6.2% ABV sipper with ample caramel malt body enfolded by juicy Cascade, Crystal, and Simcoe hops.

Santa Fe

SANTA FE BREWING CO.

35 Fire Pl. • Santa Fe, NM 87508 • (505) 424-3333 santafebrewing.com • Established: 1988

SCENE & STORY

The road leading to New Mexico’s oldest brewing company was known as a section of Route 66 as it passed through town during the 1920s and 1930s. Today it’s known as Route 14, aka Cerillos Boulevard, and the Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway. Time your visit (it’s about a 15-minute drive from the city center) for sunset, because the taproom and its outdoor tables have ideal west-facing views overlooking the vast, high-desert plateau Bandelier National Monument.

The taproom is cozy, quiet, and congenial, with stools and high ceilings, and food is available next door at the related Santa Fe Brewing Pub & Grill, which also sells beer to-go and features a solid lineup of live concerts at night. Free, guided brewery tours are offered on Saturdays at 12 p.m., and there are ten house beers on tap plus one guest tap and growler sales. Once an almost unknown brand outside of Santa Fe, the addition of new tanks and a bottling line and canning capability for Happy Camper IPA and an Oktoberfest beer have revved up this brand to 11,000 bbl a year (it didn’t hurt when the owners put the 6.6% ABV brew in a can comprised solely of the New Mexico state flag’s red, stylized sunbeam “Zia” against a bright yellow field). Recently, the beers have gone from banal to barnstorming, incorporating barrel aging, wild yeasts, and other tricky techniques.

KEY BEER

Brewer Ty Levis’s Zotte Berten series showcases the brewery’s new experimental side, such as #5, a tart brew resembling the Belgian style of geuze, made from blends of aged and young lambic, or spontaneously fermented beer.

SECOND STREET BREWERY at SECOND STREET

1814 Second St. • Santa Fe, NM 87505 • (505) 982-3030 secondstreetbrewery.com • Established: 1996

SECOND STREET BREWERY at THE RAILYARD

1607 Paseo De Peralta, No. 10 • Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 989-3278 • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

Caught unawares amid the hordes of tourists Santa Fe is known for, it can be easy to want to run for the hills. Yet while 9,000-foot Atalaya Mountain just behind town makes a very good day hike, there is no brewery on the summit at present, so instead, hang with the laid-back locals who make Second Street a kind of second home. The original, housed in a warehouse-type structure next to some old train tracks with outdoor seating and a décor that might be described as 1980s meets 1880s: sponged sienna paint, wagon wheels for chandeliers, and arty photos on the wall. There’s a more updated location, too, at the Railyard near downtown, home of Santa Fe’s farmer’s market (which supplies the restaurant in season) and the REI store, should you still need gear for that hiking escape. The patio makes a nice spot for al fresco beers when the temperature’s right. Both locations have full menus; try something with green chile, like the juicy burger.

PHILOSOPHY

Strength in numbers. Brewer Rod Tweet has a huge repertoire, with about fifty different beers so far, though results are still a bit uneven.

KEY BEER

Start with a crisp Kolsch (4.6% ABV), which will put out the fire if the green chile takes you for a ride.

THE COWGIRL HALL OF FAME

319 S. Guadalupe St. • Santa Fe, NM 87501-2613 (505) 982-2565 • cowgirlsantafe.com • Established: 1993

SCENE & STORY

Known simply as “The Cowgirl,” this darn-near-perfect bar is filled with creaky old wood floors, an incredible array of Western bric-a-brac, cowgirl photos, and the aromas of mesquite barbecue. Santa Fe’s most popular watering hole, with nightly live music, a huge billiard parlor, private party rooms, and breezy brick patio, it’s one of the West’s perfect places to drink a good beer on a hot afternoon. Based on a Southwestern barbecue restaurant opened in New York City under the watchful eye of the late Margaret Formby, the founder of the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum in Hereford, Texas, the Cowgirl is located in a hundred-year-old building in Santa Fe’s historic Guadalupe district. Try for the Bob Dylan Brunch starting Sundays at noon, when local musicians jam on the iconic singer’s material.

PHILOSOPHY

Beer, bluegrass, and barbecue, Annie Oakley–style.

KEY BEER

This isn’t exactly a craft beer bar, but you won’t go thirsty. Santa Fe Brewing Company’s 6.4% ABV State Pen Porter is so good, so nutty, and so chocolate-like, you’ll have to be careful not to drink too much of it, or end up in the clink yourself.

DETOUR

HEAVEN’S DRIVE-THRU: EL PARASÓL 1833 Cerillos Rd. • Santa Fe, NM 87505 • (505) 995-8015 • elparasol.com

Founded in 1958 in nearby Española by the Atencio family, there are now seven locations in this miraculously talented family’s minichain. Santa Fe’s oldest (of two) is an unassuming little cinder block drive-through on Cerillos Boulevard; you may also walk in to order, which can be quicker when the cars are backed up or you’ve called ahead. The tender pork and beef tacos are sublime, but there’s simply no way to adequately describe how good the burrito with roasted white meat chicken and guacamole with green chile tastes. Don’t miss a bite of this New Mexico road food paradise.

Embudo

BLUE HERON BREWING CO.

2214 Hwy. 68 • Embudo, NM 87531 • (505) 579-9188 blueheronbrews.com • Established: 2010

SCENE & STORY

Housed in a tiny adobe overlooking the Rio Grande along the road up to Taos (the main road, not the “High Road to Taos”), this adorable little brewery was founded by dedicated home brewers in a building formerly used as a gas station, vet clinic, and art gallery. It’s a teeny affair, with colorful framed art, track lighting, a little three-tap bar for the three beers on at any given time (brewed in a back room on a 100-gallon system), and at least three little kids with brewing in their futures. Parent-owners Kristin Hennelly and her husband, Scott, a biochemist, use locally grown hops.

PHILOSOPHY

This is community brewing with a sense of history—and humor. Scott Hennelly characterizes the clientele and the mission with a wink. “It’s an art community, it’s an old Hispanic community, it’s a kind of a hippie community, and it’s kind of a hipsters-escaping-the-world community. There’s writers and artists from a couple of generations here. Kristin’s parents have a winery—one of the earliest in New Mexico. It’s probably one of the main reasons we’re doing this, because they want to corner the local market in sin.”

KEY BEER

Embudo Gold, using Perle and locally grown Cascade hops.

Taos

ESKE’S BREW PUB & EATERY