Beer travel ‘09
I asked two beer travelers for advice on destinations this summer. Here’s the first dispatch.
Stan Hieronymus, author of many books including “The Beer Lover’s Guide to the USA.” Stan, his wife, Daria Labinsky, and daughter, Sierra, have spent the last year on a family road trip, writing and taking pictures for their web site - The Slow Travelers - along the way.
1. There can’t be a better setting for a brewery anywhere than Pelican Pub & Brewery in Pacific City, Oregon. Right on the beach, incredible views. And this is a brewery that’s won a ton of awards. Daria and Sierra really liked their meals. I didn’t eat - was in the brewery, collecting notes for “Brewing With Wheat.” (A Pacific City bonus: about a mile from Pelican, the Twist Wine Company has Pliney the Elder on tap. The winery is owned by [Russian River’s] Vinnie Cilurzo’s sister and her husband.)
It could fit into a bigger trip in two ways. Either if you were going to Portland (a little late to talk about OBF, I’m afraid). Or if you were going to drive from San Diego up to Pacific City hugging the coast. Multiple excellent stops, including North Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg. There’s an RV park across the road from Pelican, btw, and an RV park basically next to Rogue in Newport.
2. The Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, Wis., next month. Problem would be that it is sold out. Side trip: New Glarus. You might have heard there is a brewery there and the region is thick with small-batch cheese producers. A short drive to Potosi and the National Brewery Museum.
But maybe you mean something different-er. And these days seeing basically local (it can be a long ways between towns here in the upper plains) hardly seems different, but it is my preoccupation. We’ve been in a boatload of national park lodges May and it seems they all have several taps with craft beer, usually brewed nearby. So you could make a trip out of helping your child earn junior ranger badges (Sierra has completed more than 30 programs since we started this trip 14 months ago) while you drink regional beer.
Probably not what you were thinking of, so I’ll try a couple more.
3. Catch up with New Belgium’s Tour de Fat. When you live in the Mountain Time Zone you tend to take this tour for granted, but people sure get excited. Most of the 2009 tour is left, although generally west of Fort Collins. Got to think it won’t be too many years until it joins New Belgium beer east of the Mississippi.
4. The $250 beer dinner at Ebenezer’s (Lowell, Maine). Quite honestly, the price seems silly to me, even for the beers I’ve heard will be there. The value comes from the fact that Sean Paxton will way over-deliver on the food, although it would really help if you had as many stomachs as a cow.
(You’ll notice that none of these suggestions is a place where you can order a ridiculous number of the best beers in the world.)
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