Why Visiting Breweries Is Essential To The Craft Beer Experience

I recently saw a post on Facebook in which the writer questioned the reasons for going to beer festivals. He said that it is a lot of money to spend when it would be easier just to visit breweries. I’m all for visiting every brewery, but I don’t think it’s feasible for people who can’t travel like I do, and there are many reasons that I think beer festivals are excellent places to explore beer, but that will be a topic for another article. Visiting breweries is vital to craft beer’s existence, and since a large percentage of them don’t distribute widely, and some don’t even go to festivals, we all should go right to the source and drink at the breweries, whenever possible.

As I write this article, there are nearly 10,000 breweries across this nation, and a large percentage of them are very small. I live in a state with just over a 180 breweries, but even people who are very much involved in craft beer haven’t heard of all of them, or even visited many of them! As I visited every brewery in Indiana last year, I visited a lot of places with good beer I never would have tried if I had not ventured to the source. And some of them are making amazing beer like it’s a well kept secret. I try to do my part to promote some of these excellent breweries nestled all over my state, but since there’s so many of them, you should go out and try their beer as well. And with nearly 10,000 breweries across the U.S., there’s almost always breweries nearby if you know where to look.

As I visited every brewery in Indiana last year, I was always excited when I found a brewery not on my list. A lot of good breweries exist in their community, and are successful without the world at large knowing about them. On a recent trip to Peru, Indiana, I stumbled into Circus City Brews inside City Wineworks, and was able to add another fine brewery to my list. I found similar experiences all across the state, and on a recent trip to the Tampa area, we were encouraged to walk a block to Magnanimous Brewery after sampling excellent sours at Hidden Springs. It is often my experience when I go to an area to visit one brewery that I am pleasantly surprised when I find several other excellent ones nearby. If this is the kind of traveling that you would like to do, there’s a lot of fun to be had across this nation at its breweries!

With over 10,000 Breweries in this country, there are a lot of places to visit, and a lot of breweries to choose from. I have been fortunate enough to visit about 500 different breweries, and while that may be impressive, I travel constantly and as a beer writer, I like to visit new places wherever I go. I have tried extraordinary beer in places I never dreamed would have a brewery. Over the Fourth of July weekend, my mother and I trekked across the Chesapeake Bay to visit the tiny RAR Brewery in Cambridge Maryland. It’s been my experience that some of my favorite breweries have been out in the middle of nowhere. Closer to home, Cedar Creek, and Harry Stuff are two excellent breweries on farms miles from anywhere. They are certainly quaint places to drink good beer, but their excellence deserves recognition.

So while I recommend visiting every brewery that you can, it’s the ones who don’t distribute widely that are truly worth visiting. The ones who don’t make beer you can buy at the grocery store, or your local liquor store. The breweries who may can beer only to be sold in the taproom, or only offer growler sales if you want to take the beer home. This is beer at its freshest, and beer that should be enjoyed in a taproom! Smaller breweries are not sending all their best stuff to taprooms and other breweries, so when you visit, you can experience the best that they are doing currently!

If you need more reasons to visit breweries, consider that most breweries do special releases available only at the brewery. Four years ago I drove up to Grand Rapids to stand in line for over an hour to get the Tank Bender, Founder’s 20th Anniversary release. Lots of smaller breweries do releases all the time, and sometimes visiting these places is the only way you’ll find out about them. Here in central Indiana, I love visiting the breweries for the releases they do. A lot of my fondest memories across the last six months have been sitting in taprooms enjoying special releases. And when breweries do collaborations, this is usually the first place you’ll learn about them.

The bottom line is when you visit breweries, you want to experience good beer. I enjoy most styles of beer, and feel fortunate that I usually find something I like no matter where I go. Sometimes you will visit a brewery who is clearly a work in progress. For me that means I need to make another visit back to them to see what they’ve done. Last year I had an opportunity to visit some breweries whose progress I would like to check on when time allows. But for the most part, I experienced good beer at a vast majority of the breweries I was able to visit. As I’ve said before, the rating of beer is subjective, so you need to go out and see what beer you like as well!

As the craft beer bubble gets older, a lot of birthdays will take place. My last article was for the third anniversary of 2Toms which was amazing. Two weekends ago I helped Fortlandia celebrate their second birthday. While I enjoy most of the breweries in Fort Wayne, Fortlandia is a secret I want everybody to know about. They are making excellent beer, and if you are in northern Indiana you need to visit them! I am still thinking about the Black IPA I got to try when I was there.

So I could talk about my travels across breweries in multiple states forever because it’s my hobby, and it’s what I like to do. I like craft beer, and since we have more breweries than ever in America, there is nearly something excellent everywhere. When traveling, it’s always a good idea to check out local breweries, and I encourage you to visit all the ones in your area as well. We all have our favorite brewery, but since I want our beer scene to be diverse forever, I am trying to do my part, and visit as many breweries as possible.

I don’t ever think I will get to even a quarter of the 10,000 breweries in America, but that’s no reason for me not to try. I like craft beer, and I enjoy the people who brew it, as well as my fellow craft beer drinkers. While I like beer festival’s because they bring us all together, the intimate experience in our taprooms is something I long for as well. So whether you like the bustling affair that a beer festival is, or the experience a brewery visit offers, there is plenty of good craft beer to drink, and I hope you enjoy every drop. So please try to visit as many breweries as you can, and perhaps we’ll meet up somewhere!