A hundred miles north of Birmingham, there’s a brewery boom occurring in Huntsville. Straight to Ale (3200 Leeman Ferry Road) in the Olde Towne Brewing’s former space, was the first to open a tap room in 2010. Try its Monkeynaut IPA. That same year, Blue Pants Brewery (500 Lanier Road) opened down the road in... View Article
A hundred miles north of Juneau is Skagway Brewing Co. (7th and Broadway), originally opened in 1897 to service the gold rushers, then relaunched 110 years later when Boom Town is merely the name of its brown ale. Don’t miss Spruce Tip Blonde to taste its terroir. Another spruce tip beer can be sampled at... View Article
For Trekkies, space is the final frontier. For nerds of another flavor—beer geeks—there’s always somewhere new to explore, some vast area of beer to pioneer if only on a personal level. With a rapidly growing number of hubs that vie for the title of Beer Town, USA, what about places not yet steeped in suds?... View Article
Ben and Karen Willmore experienced their first earthquake while in the parking lot of Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, CA. Though not a major temblor, it shook enough to make cautious patrons move away from the alarming vibration of the massive glass doors in the brewery. But the Willmores had no reason to go home... View Article
Beer traveling is a new type of pilgrimage we make as adults, but the kid in us would love to go dinosaur hunting. Sure, time travel would be perfect, but failing that, visits to exciting paleontological sites and museums can be as exhilarating to the entire family as exploring a new brewery is to Mom... View Article
It’s Friday lunchtime at the Dean Swift, a smart but casual corner pub on the south side of the Thames and a few minutes’ stroll from Tower Bridge. Inside the open-space bar, the lunchtime crowd of young professionals and serious barflies scuff the battered oak floorboards as they enter in search of good food and... View Article
Not terribly long ago, we explored the idea of confronting Jack Frost mano a mano and actually heading north in our wintry beer travels. Bold, but there’s a more comfortable way to soak up beer culture that puts hop bite ahead of frostbite. And with craft beer culture permeating every corner of the country, consider... View Article
For beer lovers, attending the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver deserves to be at the tippy top of your bucket list, that check-list of things to do or places to see before you die. In 2012, there were more than 450 breweries pouring nearly 2,500 different beers (from all 84 recognized categories) all... View Article
In Ireland, history catches you by the coattails at every turn. Towns, cities and countryside reflect centuries of invasion, foreign domination and massacre, the unbearable horror of the Great Hunger of the 19th century, and the long and bloody struggle for Home Rule in the 20th.
