The Session #29: Will Travel For Beer!

The topic for this 29th edition of The Session comes to us from Gail Ann and Steve at Beer by BART and it is “Will Travel for Beer“.  This month we’re blogging about our favorite beer trips and a few tips on travellng for beer.

You can read more about Beer Blogging Friday a.k.a. The Session over on the Brookston Beer Bulletin.

Since the last Session – the furthest distance you’ve ever traveled to visit a brewery – I’ve actually eclipsed the previous mark.  This time with a visit to the Bay Area of California which you can read about here.

It also included a visit to one of the greatest beer meetings on the planet, the National Homebrewers’ Convention.

Since I’ve already written about these adventures, I won’t bore you with the details again.  But the trip notes linked above are worth a look if you haven’t read them.  Instead let’s move on to a few tips.

Tip #1 – Do your homework before you leave

Even if you’re traveling specifically for the beer,  do some homework on the places you intend to visit.  Get the names of the brewers and owners and check out what they’re brewing – more on why this is useful later.

Search the internet for destination guides. There’s lots being written on local beer, so you can likely find a few blogs or other info on the place you want to visit.

On our recent trip, The Beer by BART guides were invaluable.  Not only for the directions, but we also found a few more places that we might have otherwise missed.  The Beer Mapping Project is also worth a look.

Tip #2 – Don’t try to do too much

More than 2-3 breweries/pubs in a day is pushing it.  It’s nice to be able relax and enjoy your trip without being in a rush, it’s vacation after all.  Plus by the time I’m 4 beers in, getting to the next destination seems less important.

I missed a few places in the Bay Area that I really wanted to see, partly because I wanted to visit too many in a day.  Also we only had 3-4 days before the conference started.  Plan at least a week if you’re thinking about visiting the bay area.

Tip #3 – Ask to talk to the brewers

Brewers are some of the friendliest people on the planet.  Most of the time they’ll be more than happy to come out and chat with fellow beer geeks.  Through our whole trip to California, we didn’t meet one person that was too busy to at least stop and say “Hi.”

They love to geek out on beer talk.  Ask a few questions about what’s going on at the brewery, or about their beers.  This is where doing some research ahead of time can help!

So that should get you started.  All of this writing about beer travel is making me want to do more of it.

Unfortunately, I don’t have anything planned until September.  I’ll be heading back out to Sierra Nevada in Chico, CA.  I hear they have a sweet taproom with lots of beers they don’t distribute.   If you’re in the area and want to meet up drop me an email or tweet.

I might have to sneak in another long weekend between now and then.  Any east coast suggestions?

Tagged as: beer, beer blogging friday. travel, The Session