Beer Travel – Beer Trips – Beer Adventures
Every year, people from near and far travel to the San Juan Islands to enjoy the pristine beauty, the numerous recreation opportunities, and the slower pace of life. For beer-focused travelers, the only brewery in the San Juan archipelago is Island Hoppin’ Brewery, located near the village of Eastsound on Orcas Island.
The Inland Northwest Ale Trail released its new map and passport on August 1st, 2014 revealing that the ale trail now consists of 27 breweries. The program, which started in August 2013, originally consisted of 16 stops, but now enters its second year with the addition of 11 more breweries. During the month of August, the Inland Northwest Ale Trail group will host events at Spokane and Coeur d’Alene bars celebrating the launch of the new Ale Trail map. Find the dates and locations for those events in the press release below.
The heat of the day gives way to the steam of the night in one of the world’s biggest, sexiest and most notorious cities. I am about half-drunk, just sober enough to stay safe, and I’m wantonly lost on a dangerous backstreet. The music spills out of the raucous neighborhood bars–incoherent rhythms stumbling across the sidewalks and into the street, bouncing harmlessly off each other like whiskey-soaked drunks too wasted to fight.
It is not exactly news to most people in the Pacific Northwest that Victoria, British Columbia makes for a great weekend getaway. It is only a couple hours away from Seattle but it feels like an entirely different country. Yes, I recognize that it is in fact a different country, but what I mean is that something about Victoria feels very continental. It hums with a European vibe that is uncommon for a city on the western edge of North America.
Many people think of lace doilies and hand-painted china teacups when they think of Victoria, but those days are all but gone. Sure, you can still enjoy high tea at the Empress Hotel, but Victoria is otherwise a hip and vibrant city with a rapidly growing craft beer scene to prove it.
Every year, at least two million people visit Yellowstone National Park. Many of them approach from the west, driving from Bozeman, Montana into the mountains along Highway 191 up the Gallatin River to the park entrance at West Yellowstone. But before you head upstream to Yellowstone, why not spend some time exploring Bozeman’s robust beer scene.
Like Montana itself, this loveable little city (pop. 40k) enjoys a high number of breweries per capita. In all, there are three breweries in Bozeman and two more in nearby Belgrade. What’s more, there’s an upscale pub offering a vast selection of beers from breweries across the state, which enables you to get a real taste of Montana without driving hundreds of miles from one brewery to the next.
Portland, Oregon has more breweries than any other city on earth. A visit to Portland without drinking beer is like going to Pisa and not seeing the Leaning Tower. For our annual anniversary getaway weekend, we escaped to the Rose City for a couple days of beer touring. It is a trip we highly recommend. Beer is everywhere, so you don’t need much help finding it, but here’s what our anniversary escape looked like.
When people think of visiting the Pacific Northwest to experience the beer scene, they usually focus on either the Seattle area or the Portland area. Too often they forget about Spokane and its surrounding environs. There are plenty of reasons to visit the Spokane area, but the Inland Northwest is now a bona fide beer destination and the local breweries teamed up last year to issue a standing invitation to beer lovers.
Searching for good beer in wine country is a noble mission. We recently stumbled upon a brand new brewery in the heart of one of the world’s most prolific wine regions: Walla Walla, Washington’s Burwood Brewing Company.
Wine tourists are familiar with Walla Walla’s “airport wine district.” The remains of a World War II Air Force training base surround the Walla Walla Regional Airport. Today, more than 20 wineries, many within walking distance of each other, call the retired Air Force base home. Some wineries occupy old hangars, barracks, and other fossilized outbuildings, while some are located in newer buildings. And there you have it, Walla Walla’s airport wine district.
Outdoor adventurers of every class consider Hood River, Oregon one of North America’s premier locations for thrills and exploration. However, you can keep the snowboards, wind surfers, snowshoes or mountain bikes on top of the car or at home in the garage and still have a great time exploring this beautiful part of the world. (Pictured above: Acadian Farms & Brewery. Photo by Kim Sharpe Jones.)
You don’t need to be a thrill seeker to appreciate the magic of Hood River. The gorge also offers plenty of less-perilous forms of recreation for us chill seekers. For instance, Hood River and the surrounding area are home to no less than 10 breweries. Both sides of the Columbia River provide opportunities to explore breweries and seek significantly less-risky forms of entertainment. We call it the Gorge Brewery Loop (view in Google Maps).
An imposing man appears and dancers, dressed in yellow and red regalia, glide into formation. Around the beachfront bay, the crowd of two thousand hushes, from the chefs and beer pourers preparing on the luau grounds, to the swimmers playing in the water, to the festival attendees patiently lined up on the neighboring deep-water pier.
Cutting through the quiet, the man’s voice rings out across the bay in the native Hawaiian language, rich and strong, welcoming ancient spirits to the festival and asking for blessings for the day. Even the birds seem to stop chirping in reverence for the ancient Hawaiian tradition. As the chant fades to silence and the dancers stop swaying, the crowd roars into an ebullient single cheer and then, only then, is the Kona Brewers Festival open to pour.
