Twelfth Stop - Diamond Bear Brewing CoI chose to add Diamond Bear to my tour largely because of its convenient location between Fort Worth and Saint Louis. It seemed like too far of a drive without a stopping for a tour at least once. Before arriving I send out calls and emails to each brewery I’m headed to so as to make sure someone will be around to give me an interview and/or a tour. Diamond Bear was one of the very few that never responded to my requests.
I was going in blind. I researched each brewery before my arrival but because of Diamond Bear’s lack of response and my short time I skimmed their history and that’s about it....
Eleventh Stop - Rahr & Sons Brewing Co.One visit just wasn’t enough for me. Monday afternoon I went by the brewery in Fort Worth to interview and have a few beers with Fritz Rahr, the brewery’s founder. Although wonderful I had to be sure to make it back Wednesday evening for the open house brewery tour.
In the interest of full disclosure before anything else I should mention that I harbor an extraordinary bias when it comes to anything Rahr. While in college at TCU in Fort Worth I was a regular at the Saturday afternoon Rahr brewery tours and a frequent “sampler” of their products...
Tenth Stop - Real Ale BrewingI’m only putting up a mini post about Real Ale in Blanco, TX because truth be told, it was a mini visit. I don’t want to say that my trip to Blanco wasn’t an afterthought, but it wasn’t really at the forefront either.
After spending the early afternoon at Independence Brewing Company I knew I was going to be cutting it close to make it in time for Real Ale’s last tour of the day. As I waved goodbye to Amy and Rob Cartwright at Independence I slammed on the accelerator to try and get to Blanco by four o’clock. The problem was that I only hit the accelerator for 2 of the next twenty minutes; the traffic in Austin was horrendous...
Ninth Stop - Independence Brewing CompanyI’m realizing that breweries tend to be built where rent is cheap. Because of that I’m slowly gaining a great appreciation for breweries that aren’t in neighborhoods rough enough that I get shifty-eyed when cruising by in my Toyota Corolla. It has significantly stood out in a few of these areas to say the least!
My assumption that all city breweries I visit will be in bad areas left me pleasantly delighted when I found Independence Brewing Company of Austin Texas. It’s in a nice, relatively new warehouse/office park...
Eighth Stop - 512 Brewing CompanyThe 512 Brewing Company is located in a nice new warehouse park. As has been typical on these trips so far I got there fine but thought I was in the wrong place. 512 has absolutely no signage in front of or on their building. If it had not been for the half open garage door I could see the fermentation tanks through I wouldn’t have found it.
When I did manage to find it 512 it didn’t even matter for a bit. No one answered when I knocked so I went around to the open garage door and hollered in. Even then, no response. It took a few minutes of silence before something blared from the speakers...
Seventh Stop - Spoetzl BreweryI’ve always been a little confused as to why the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, TX refers to their beers as “Shiner Beers.” Sure, I could have checked their website or any number of research materials but instead I went to the brewery.
Shiner, TX is pretty out of the way between Houston and San Antonio. So instead of making you head down to Shiner to figure it out for yourself I might as well tell you. The Spoetzl Brewery was started in 1909 by the Shiner Brewing Association to make only one beer, Shiner Premium. Their famous bock beer wasn’t introduced until 1913 when it became a seasonal beer...
Sixth Stop - Saint Arnold Brewing Co. It’s another brewery in a warehouse district in a rough area of a big town I’m not familiar with. In fact, Saint Arnold’s itself is inside a big 100 year old former frozen food warehouse they renovated and moved into in 2009.
Saint Arnold was started in 1994 by Brock Wagner with two goals in mind...
Fifth Stop - Live Oak BrewingLive Oak Brewing in Austin isn’t in the best neighborhood, they don’t use fancy marketing, and their facility isn’t the most picturesque. None of that matters. When you produce consistently excellent beer that you’re knowledgeable and passionate about you get a free pass on those periphery things.
I made it to Live Oak in Austin and met with owner/brewer Chip McElroy. I was also lucky enough to speak briefly with brewmaster Steve Anderson...
Fourth Stop - Coop AleworksThat’s “coop,” like where a chicken lives. Not Co-op, like where hippies do their grocery shopping. I found that out fairly quickly after arriving at Coop Aleworks and hearing co-founder/general manager/sales/marketing guru and all around busy man JD Merryweather refer to it as coop. Initially, I was very confused.
It was explained to me that the name “Coop” is actually a combination of a couple of things. First, it’s a play on “co-op.” Coop strives to identify with their local community so “co-op” is an homage to the multitude of grain co-ops around the state of Oklahoma...
Third Stop - Free State Brewing My last post said my next stop would be down I-35 at Coop Aleworks in Oklahoma City. Short answer, I lied.
Longer answer, I had it on very good authority from many people that I would be a fool to pass on a trip to Free State Brewing in Lawrence, KS. So instead of moving on I went to a KU football game (which they won handily) and had lunch at Free State Brewing...
Second Stop - Boulevard BrewingI barely know where to begin with this one. I suppose I should start with a HUGE “thank you” to Julie Weeks, the Marketing Communications Manager for Boulevard. She went above and beyond to make sure that I was taken care of today on my visit to Boulevard.
Boulevard’s bottle caps and much of their other artwork features drawings of their iconic brick smokestack. As I drove down Southwest Boulevard looking for the brewery I was more than a little frustrated from the complete stoppage on I-35 on my way into Kansas City...
First Stop - Des MoinesThe first official stop to my beer trip came Monday night at El Bait Shop in Des Moines, Iowa. I figured that since I’m going to a ton of breweries in cities all over the United States I should start the trip off here at home. And if that’s what I’m doing, then what could possibly be more appropriate than to hit up a homebrewing event?
I obviously couldn’t show up to a brewery to find out much about homebrewing so instead I did the next best thing; I went to a meeting of the Iowa Brewer’s Union...
Beer Trip Explained
I am currently in the process of researching for, going on, and writing a book about an epic road trip around the Central United States with stops at as many breweries, beer bars and brewpubs as I can make. I’m going to be sitting down with the brewmasters, brewery owners, other employees and even average Joe sixpacks to figure out why, as a country, we love beer so darn much!
The trip is going to include stops at breweries of all size. Everything from Anheuser Busch in Saint Louis, all the way down to homebrew night at a local bar in Des Moines, Iowa. The entire trip is being done on a shoestring budget over the course of a month and a half while I impose my way onto friend’s couches, air mattresses, and floors.
I’m hitting the road on the 24th of September and should be back home just in time for Halloween. Throughout the trip I’ll be putting up pictures and updates of my progress here on the blog. Check back frequently to see my full route, brewery tour dates, and updates of my progress.
