Northward 2023



Wednesday July 5. Left a little after noon with my friend John, with whom I had traveled to several places before, including Asheville/Richmond in 2017, the West Coast in 2018, and Las Vegas / Bryce Canyon / Zion the previous month. Our first stop: Bog Turtle Brewery. It's not highly rated but it was on our route so I figured, why not? We sampled:


Then we went up to Chadds Ford PA to visit our friends Mike and Virginia. Mike and I have visited a good number of breweries together, including several in Belgium in 2003. We hung out for about an hour, then the three guys went to La Cabra Brewing, which has two locations. We visited their Berwyn Brewpub. All their beers were light in body and pretty good overall.


Next we visited Locust Lane Craft Brewery, whose air conditioner wasn't working, so we shvitzed while we drank:

Noble Toil was made by Furrow Blendery earlier in the year to celebrate their partnership on Locust Lane's 6th anniversary. We bought a couple of bottles to go.


At 7:00 we arrived at our final brewery of the day: Levante Brewing, which has three locations. We visited their West Chester Taproom.


After that we picked up a pizza, returned to Mike's, watched a movie, and crashed around 10:30.


Thursday July 6. Around 8:30 John and I headed to the New York City area, where the traffic is always heavy and the tolls are outrageous. We paid $20 to cross the Goethals and Verrazzano-Narrows bridges combined. I have E-ZPass, but it was issued in Maryland, and many New York tolls give discounts only to New York E-ZPass customers; everyone else gets billed the full amount. You know, as motorists approach New York, there should be highway signs that say, "Entering New York. Fuck you."

Before visiting breweries we stopped at John's dad's house in Brooklyn because John had some stuff to drop off. The combination of huge numbers of vehicles, road closures, and double parking made traffic an absolute fustercluck. It took us a half hour to go 4 miles. I hope never to drive in this part of the country again.

At 12:30 we arrived at our first brewery of the day: Barrier Brewing, which opened in 2009 and is the oldest brewery in Nassau County. We tried:

The people working there were friendly and the head brewer gave us a brewery tour. I bought a 4-pack of Hop Fighter to go.


We headed further east on Long Island to Root + Branch Brewing, which had been open just under a year. It specializes in hazy IPAs, which get very high Untappd ratings. I thought they were good but overrated.


We checked into an Airbnb in Lindenhurst. Since everything is expensive on Long Island, this is the only place on the trip where I paid more than $100 to stay. At around 4:15 I walked downtown while John rested and would catch up with me later. My first stop was 27A Brewing, which opened in August 2019. The refrigeration unit for their kegs wasn't working, so the only cold beer they had was a few cans. Also their air conditioner wasn't working. Not to be deterred, I got a can of:


My server opened a can of Hoplark 0.0, a hopped water drink by Other Half.


Down the street is WA Meadwerks. It was almost as hot in there as it had been at 27A because although the place had air conditioning, I got there minutes after it opened so the air conditioner hadn't been running very long. I sampled several meads and chatted with my server and a couple of locals.


About a block away is Breslau Brewing, which had been in business for about a year and a half. It was normally closed on Thursdays, but tonight was the soft opening of Lifeguard Night. As luck would have it, their air conditioner wasn't working, so it would be another shvitzfest. John met me and we sampled:


Then we walked to Sand City Brewing, which has two locations. I had gone to Sand City North during my New Jersey / New York 2019 trip. Today we visited Sand City South and tried:


We walked/stumbled back to the Airbnb and I crashed around 8:30.


Friday July 7. Woke up in the wee hours and couldn't get back to sleep, so I wrote for a while. Around 8:40 John and I parted ways as I took off and he planned to walk to the train station to go to his dad's house. I got out of Long Island with only one traffic slowdown due to construction on the Whitestone Bridge. When I entered Connecticut I got gas at a "welcome center", which charged 30 cents more per gallon than normal gas stations. Apparently what Connecticut welcomes is your money.

Shortly before noon I arrived in Salem CT at Fox Farm Brewery, which opened in 2017. Its location is peaceful and pretty. I sampled:


A little before 2:00 I arrived at OEC Brewing, which has a quiet location off a country road. OEC stands for Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores ("Order of the Eccentric Boilers"). This brewery makes mostly lagers and wild ales, and no IPAs. I sampled the 4 wild ales they had on tap, and all of them were good.


At 3:30ish I arrived at The Factory @ Sloop Brewing in Fishkill NY. I had visited a previous location of theirs, Sloop Brewing @ The Barn, in 2019, but that location closed not long afterward. I tried:


Sloop was founded in 2010 or 2011. The Barn, which opened in 2014, was their first production facility. The Factory, which opened in September 2018, is housed in a former IBM plant. The bar has some old computer parts under polyurethane.


And then there's this contraption:


I ended the day in Middletown. After checking into an Airbnb I walked to two breweries. At 6:00 I arrived at Clemson Brothers, which has another location in New Paltz. The business started in 2012, and the brewery opened in 2015. The Middletown location is inside a very old building. It has a covered biergarten. The beers get very low Untappd ratings. I tried the one beer that got a decent rating, and even that was marginal:


Then I walked to Equilibrium Brewery, which opened in 2017. It has a nice taproom with quite a few beers on tap. I sampled:


A friend of mine, who I've had several Equilibrium beers with, asked me to bring back some Equilibrium beer, so I bought a 4-pack of Ghost in the Laboratory (Hyper Fractal Supernova Set wasn't available). On my way to the Airbnb I stumbled upon an outdoor concert in a little park.


I returned to the Airbnb and crashed around 9:00.


Saturday July 8. Woke up around 1:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, so a little after 3:00 I got up, wrote, and did the Internet thing for several hours.

Left at 8:30 on a warm, cloudy day. Drove almost 2 hours to Fidens Brewing, which doesn't have a taproom. Beers are to-go only, and you can't order online. Since the beers are highly rated, I included this place in my itinerary. I was the first customer there, as I arrived a half hour before it opened. While in line a couple gave me tips on some breweries located where I would be traveling to the next day (and I would go to two of them).

Fidens sells beers by the can/bottle, i.e., you don't have to buy a 4-pack, nor do you get a price break if you do. Initially I bought one each of four different beers, and opened two of them in my trunk to taste them and see whether I wanted to buy more. I liked one of them, so I went back in. By this time they were giving out samples, so I tried a few more beers and bought a few. Some of the ones I tried were:


Then it was off to Wayward Lane Brewing. I arrived shortly after it opened at noon. It's located in a peaceful farm-like setting, and there were chickens running around. I tried three beers, all of which were good.


Drove through beautiful countryside to Weaver Hollow Brewery, arriving when it opened. This is one of the most secretive breweries. It is open only on Saturdays 2-8 PM, and the only place to find information is on Instagram. There is an enthusiasts page on Facebook, but it's maintained only by fans of the brewery, not the brewery itself. The taproom has 10 taps, but only 4 of them had beer flowing, and 2 of those were guest beers. I ordered both Weaver Hollow beers, which were disappointing: they tasted just okay, and they were a bit warm and undercarbonated. Plus they were expensive. I believe that this place's high ratings stem from the fact that it's located in the middle of nowhere and it's open only one day per week. Difficulty in obtaining things tends to make people overvalue them. Anyway, the two beers I tried were:


Drove through more beautiful countryside to Binghamton and checked into an Airbnb at 4:30. Talked with my host, Jeanne, for a while. She is very interesting. She's a writer, and she gave me one of her books. I always have copies of the books I've written in my trunk, so I brought them in to show her and let her keep several of them. She was friends with Isaac Asimov, and she has a card on her refrigerator with a poem that he wrote her. Also, Ronnie Van Zant once asked her out.


She drove me around town and showed me a few things, then dropped me off. I walked to Water Street Brewing, which doesn't have good ratings but since it was nearby, I gave it a try.


Then I walked to Beer Tree Brew. It has 3 locations (Farm, Factory, and Downtown), all within 15 minutes of each other. I was at the Downtown location, which has a nice taproom and a rooftop bar. It has slushie machines, and also serves something called a "beer tower" which is a contraption that holds 5½ pints (pictured below right). The place opens at 7:00 AM every day serving coffee and food, and starts serving beer at 11:00. The two beers I tried were pretty good and very similar.


After that I walked over the Chenango River...


...to Peterson's Tavern where I met Jeanne and some of her friends to hear a live band.


Then I walked back to the Airbnb and went to bed by 10:30.


Sunday July 9. Woke up around 3:00 or so. Left shortly before 7:00 in a heavy downpour and drove past lots of farmland and mountains to Watkins Glen State Park, located at the south end of Seneca Lake (which is one of the Finger Lakes). The weather was nice: warm and cloudy but not raining.


A few miles away is SheQuaGa Falls (some folks spell it Chequaga). It's located in a residential area.


Drove to the top where there is a smaller, less spectacular area above the falls.


After that I drove to my first brewery of the day: Tin Barn Brewing, which has 2 locations. This one, on the west side of Seneca Lake, is called Tin Barn FLX (FLX is an acronym for Finger Lakes). The brewery had just celebrated its 3rd anniversary (though this location was only a year old). I arrived about 20 minutes before it opened at 11:00, so I hung out and ate a couple of sandwiches. The place is large and pretty. I sampled:


Then I went to Frequentem Brewing, which the couple at Fidens had told me about the previous day. I arrived 15 minutes after it opened at noon and sampled:

I enjoyed the fruited beers but adding fruit puree to a beer is cheating. It doesn't take much talent to do that. What tastes good is the fruit, not necessarily the beer. The one beer that wasn't fruited was just pretty good.


Next I went to Other Half Brewing's Finger Lakes location, another place that the couple at Fidens had told me about. As of this writing Other Half has 7 locations, and this was the fourth one I'd visited. It's located on a beautiful spot in the middle of farmland. I sampled:


At 2:00 I arrived at Mortalis Brewing, which was established in 2017. As of this writing it has two locations, with a third to open in about a month. I tried:


Then it was up to Rochester for Fifth Frame Brewing. I arrived at 3:45 and sampled:


Went over to Buffalo to stay with my friend Jason, who I'd stayed with on my Ommegang/Buffalo and Vermont/Buffalo trips. He was out when I arrived. After settling in I lay down on the bed and that was all she wrote. Several nights of little sleep had caught up with me. The next thing I knew I woke up at 10:00 PM. Jason's dog Chuck was on the floor, but Jason had gone to bed. I went back to sleep until about 3:00 AM.


Monday July 10. Had a brief visit with Jason before he had to go to work. I left around 8:15. Drove along the east side of Lake Erie. Stopped for gas even though I had half a tank because I was early for my first destination, and paid the most per gallon of my entire trip. I should have continued onward and gotten gas elsewhere but when you're in unfamiliar territory you never know whether to take your chances or go with the bird in hand because places down the road might charge even more, or you might have to go out of your way at an inconvenient time.

I arrived at Panama Rocks Scenic Park just before it opened at 10:00. It has lots of interesting rock formations to climb on and in.


It was a beautiful sunny day. I continued southwestward through part of Pennsylvania to the Geneva/Madison/Harpersfield Ohio area, which has many wineries. Some are closed on Mondays but some are open. At 2:00 I arrived at Debonné Vineyards, which is the one winery that also has a brewery, called Double Wing Brewing. The winery opened in 1972 and the brewery in 2008. The beers were fairly pedestrian, which was no surprise. I sampled:


Down the road is South River Vineyard. The tasting room is an old church that was abandoned for decades until the winery opened in 2002. The owner also owns Red Eagle Distillery a few hundred yards away. I sampled 4 sweet wines called Creation, Trinity, Temptation, and Riesling Vineyard Reserve.


A couple of minutes away is Kosicek Vineyards, which started growing and selling grapes in 1929 and became a winery in 2013. I sampled 5 sweet wines called Niagara, Dam White, Emma's Blush, Concord, and Dam Red.


Also close by is a beautiful winery/restaurant called Ferrante Winery & Ristorante. I got a flight of 8 sweet wines called Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Summer Sangria, Raspberry Blanc, Cranberry Blanc, Blueberry Blanc, Harvest Spice, and Vidal Blanc Ice Wine. This place was more reasonably priced than the previous ones: $13 for 8 samples (the other places charged $2 per sample).


Around the corner is Deer's Leap Winery. I was the only customer when I arrived at 4:30. The flights were way cheaper than at the other places: only $4 for 7 samples. My server also gave me some freebies, including wine slushies. I'd seen beer slushies before but these were the first wine slushies I'd seen. I tried sweet wines called Blueberry, Cherry, Peach, Pear, Strawberry, Elderberry, Raspberry, Cherry Almond, Chocolate Covered Strawberry, Pink Catawba, Niagara, Sweet Country White, Concord, Fredonia, Geneva Fusion, and Ruby's Rosé. The slushies were Strawberry and Peach, and they weren't as tasty as the wines because they were diluted with ice. I liked the Peach wine so much that I bought a bottle to go.


The folks at Ferrante told me about a new brewery in town called Darkroom Brewing, so naturally I went. It had been open one week. It had nice décor, but the beers weren't that good.


Checked into Willow Lake Campground because the motels and Airbnbs in this area were pricey. Even tents and cabins with no showers were over $70. Willow Lake has showers (25 cents per 3 minutes), and the camping fee was $60, so it was the best deal in the area. All of Willow Lake's sites are for RVs, with electric and water hookups, which I didn't need since I was tenting, but I would take advantage of it by plugging in my laptop so I could do some writing. There was no wifi though. After setting up my tent I dozed off for a while, then wrote until the wee hours and went to sleep.


Tuesday July 11. Woke up around 5:00ish. The morning was cool, dry, and sunny. Left at 8:00 and arrived at the Holden Arboretum at 8:45. Admission was normally $20, but on Tuesdays it was $12 for people over 60, and I was over 60 and arrived on a Tuesday. Walked around for a couple of hours.


Then I drove to Brandywine Falls, arriving a little after noon.


I arrived at Masthead Brewing at 2:00 and sampled:


Next I went to Fat Head's, arriving just before it opened at 3:00. As of this writing there are 4 Fat Head's locations (one in Pittsburgh and the others in Ohio). I visited their North Olmstead location, which opened in 2009. It's a big place with lots of tables and some games. I tried:


At 4:30 I checked into the Wolf Inn Hotel in Sandusky. It's one of the shittiest places I've ever stayed. The room was small and ugly, there was no soap, and the wifi didn't work. I called the front desk and they assured me that the reason it wasn't working was that a lot of people were using it. I'll come back to that later.

Ubered to a highly rated brewery called CLAG Brewing, which is owned by a Vietnamese gentleman named Kha Bui (CLAG stands for Cocky Little Asian Guy). I mention this because there is a brewery in Richmond VA called The Answer, which I've been to several times and is also highly rated, that is owned by Kha's brother An. (Click here for the article where I found this out.) When I walked in I was greeted by Kha, who told me that he's the youngest boy in the family and that CLAG had been open for 9 years. There were a few dozen beers on tap, more than half from CLAG and the rest guest beers. All the beers I sampled were just fairly good, which was a disappointment not only because of the brewery's high ratings, but also because the beers I'd had at The Answer were much better.


Next door is Small City Taphouse, which is also owned by Kha. It's a restaurant, so there were more people there than at CLAG because food is always a draw. It had close to 40 draughts, mostly guest beers/meads/ciders plus some CLAG beers. (Similarly, Kha's brother An owns the Mekong restaurant, located next door to The Answer, which has some Answer beers and many guest draughts.) I tried one guest beer:


Ubered back to the Wolf Inn around 7:00ish and crashed soon afterward.


Wednesday July 12. Woke up around 1:00. Remember the excuse they gave me for why the wifi wasn't working? Well, in the wee hours it wasn't much better. It was very spotty and slow. But for $44.36 I guess I shouldn't complain.

It was cloudy and rainy when I left around 9:20. Drove west and then north around Lake Erie to Ascension Brewing, arriving a half hour before it opened at noon. Ate lunch in my car while waiting. This brewery has been in been in business since 2015. I sampled:


Next stop: Witch's Hat Brewing. I tried:


By the way, it's getting harder and harder to find brewery coasters. Remember how just about everyone had coasters? Now most places don't. They might have stickers, and a lot of places charge for them. Witch's Hat gave me some for free, but I've been to many breweries that charged $1, $2, or even $3 for them.

At 2:30 I arrived at Jolly Pumpkin. As of this writing there are 9 Locations. I went to the location in East Lansing called Jolly Pumpkin Café & Brewery. It's a fairly big place. It normally opens at noon, but today it wouldn't open until 3:00 due to maintenance. Plus there was a problem with the CO2 so draughts wouldn't be served today anyway. But at least I got some photos.


Right across the street is HopCat, which is a craft beer bar that as of this writing has 10 locations (most of them in Michigan, one in Indiana, and one in Nebraska), with more planned. I was at their East Lansing location. It's a nice place with more than 40 beers on tap. I sampled:


I had planned to visit Old Nation Brewing after Jolly Pumpkin. I would have had to backtrack more than 20 minutes (which would have added a total of more than 40 minutes of driving). The reason I didn't go there first is that it didn't open until 3:00. Had I known that Jolly Pumpkin wouldn't be serving I would have just gone to Old Nation and waited. Since I'd just had two of their beers at HopCat I checked their website to see whether going out of my way would have been worth it. There was one highly rated beer on tap that I hadn't had, and while I would have liked to taste it, I wasn't going to do all that extra driving for one beer. Plus I've had many highly rated beers that were disappointing, so I decided not to take the chance.

At 4:30 I arrived in Grand Rapids and checked into the shittiest Airbnb I've ever stayed at. I didn't mind that it was in an old ugly house in an old ugly neighborhood and the bathroom was on a different floor from the bedroom. What I minded was that the place was a sty. It was dirty and smelly, with insects flying around, and there were curly hairs on the edge of the bathtub. But the bed was comfortable, there was a window air conditioner, and for the first time in over two days I had access to reliable wifi. I tend to stay at the cheapest places when I travel because I can't justify spending $200 or $300 for a nice hotel room. I don't require luxury, so the cheap places are usually adequate for my taste, but the law of averages occasionally catches up with me and I stay somewhere that is disgusting even by my low standards.

Walked in the rain to Arvon Brewing and tried:


Next I Lyfted to Speciation Artisan Ales & Native Species Winery, which makes funky ales as well as clean ales and wines. I sampled the funky ales:

At 7:00 they did trivia. People love trivia. There weren't a lot of customers until trivia started, as you'll see below.

Before trivia.
During trivia.


Then I Lyfted to Jolly Pumpkin Pizzeria & Brewery. I had only half planned to go, but since I couldn't have beer at the location I'd visited earlier, I went. Jolly Pumpkin is known for its funky ales. The menu listed several non-funky beers from North Peak Brewing (both breweries are owned by Northern United Brewing Company). I sampled two of the Jolly Pumpkin beers:


Lyfted back to the Airbnb. It was still raining when I arrived a little after 8:00. Went to bed around 9:00 or so.


Thursday July 13. Slept on and off until about 4:00. Before heading out of town I went to Founders Brewing since it opened at 11:00 AM. (It used to have a location in Detroit, which had recently closed.) I arrived a half hour early, which was just as well because I had to download a parking app and set up an account in order to park. It seems that many cities have their own parking apps; there is no all-encompassing app that will let you park just anywhere. I sampled four of Founders's biggest beers:


A few minutes away is City Built Brewing, which opened in May 2017. I tried:


Then I went down to Kalamazoo where I would spend the rest of the day and evening. My first stop was Bell's Brewery, which has 2 locations. I was at their Eccentric Cafe, which opened in 1993 (the brewery started in 1985). A lot of beer aficionados think Bell's is just about the best brewery around (at least according to Zymurgy polls). Two Hearted IPA (formerly Two Hearted Ale) is a good beer that has been very popular for many years, and this is probably the main reason for the brewery's popularity. The Untappd rating for Bell's is only a little above average, and I consider this more realistic. Anyway, none of the other Kalamazoo breweries that I wanted to visit would open until 3:00 or later, so going to Bell's was a no-brainer. I sampled:


By the way, Bell's was acquired by a company called Lion in late 2021. You can get details here.

At 2:30 I checked into Days Inn & Suites by Windham, which is a fine hotel. I had a nice big clean room (refreshing after the previous night's Airbnb) and a king size bed, and it cost only $71. I always prefer hotels/motels over Airbnbs because I never have to share a bathroom and there is always someone there to check me in (many Airbnb owners send you a lock combination and you let yourself in). I'll stay in an Airbnb only if there is a substantial cost savings or it's walking distance to breweries (saves Uber/Lyft fares).

I got situated, made some tuna sandwiches for the next few days, and ate some food. At 3:45 I arrived at Wax Wings, which opened in July 2018, and tried:


At 4:30 I arrived at Brewery Outré, which opened on April 1, 2022. All the beers I tried were good.


Drove back to the hotel, left the car, and walked to One Well Brewing. It's a big, festive place with many pinball machines, plus video games, pool tables, foosball, bubble hockey, and dartboards. It opened on Black Friday 2016. To commemorate that day, every year on Black Friday anyone who shows up can join their mug club for $175 (as of this writing there are almost 2000 members). All the beers I sampled were pretty good.


While walking back to the hotel I stumbled upon Puff Cannabis Company, a chain that sells you-know-what. I couldn't believe how low the prices were. For $17.50 I walked out of there with 40 gummies and a joint. When I got to the hotel I took a fast-acting indica gummy at 7:10. (Fast-acting gummies work much more quickly than regular gummies because a process called nano-emulsification causes the chemical to bypass the liver. You can read more here and here.) How long did it take to work? Well, I'm not sure because I don't remember much. I fell asleep, but I don't know when. 8:00? 9:00?


Friday July 14. Slept on and off until 5:00. It was the best night of sleep I had on the entire trip. I've tried several prescription medications to help me with my insomnia, and none of them worked. I would still wake up early and not be able to fall back asleep. Not only that, they would make me tired and groggy the next day. THC is much better because it helps me sleep and does not make me groggy. Pharmaceutical companies are well aware that THC works better than their products, which is why they pay politicians to keep it illegal: they care more about making money from their snake oil than actually helping people. And of course politicians care more about campaign contributions than the people they are supposed to represent. (Click here for more on this topic.)

I arrived at Arclight Brewing (which I'd discovered during my 2019 Eastern U.S. trip) 15 minutes before it opened at noon. I tried two pricey barrel-aged fruit sours, which had nice flavor but were a little more sour than I'd prefer, so overall they were good:


Next I went to The Livery, which was established in 2005. It has a stage where it hosts live music. I sampled:


I pulled up to Transient Artisan Ales, which started in 2016, just before it opened at 2:00, and got expensive ($6 for 2.5 ounces) samples of:


Just over the Indiana border is Bare Hands Brewery, which has a cozy little bar. I tried:


Checked into an Airbnb in Elkhart. It was cluttered and somewhat dirty, but it was homey and gave me a warm feeling. It cost only $49 (which was cheaper than the shithole I'd stayed at two nights earlier). There were two other guys living there in addition to the owner, so it felt sort of like a commune. The house is located in a nice old neighborhood with sidewalks and big trees. Here are some photos of the bedroom:


I walked over a mile in the late afternoon heat to Westwind Brewery, arriving at 5:45. My beer samples were $5 each, which I would expect if they were high octane, but they weren't.


Then I walked...


...to Iechyd Da Brewing, which opened in in 2012. I had the most attractive server and the cheapest flight ($3.75) of the entire trip.


Elkhart has a sort of old look and feel to it. There were lots of classic cars, which was nice to see, but many of them were irritatingly loud. Anyway, there is a third brewery in town that has low ratings, so I hadn't planned on visiting it, but since it was just a few minutes out of my way I figured why not? Brass Elk Brewing is basically a restaurant that seems to have added a brewery as an afterthought. There was only one beer that had a decent Untappd rating, so I got a glass of it.


Then I walked...


...back to the Airbnb and crashed sometime after 9:00.


Saturday July 15. Woke up at 3:45. It was a cloudy, rainy morning. I left a little after 7:30 and didn't speed (much) because the roads were wet. According to Google Maps, the drive to my first brewery should have taken 2 hours 40 minutes, but it took 3 hours. The only way to make Google Maps accurately predict my drive time is to speed, so apparently speeding is figured into their calculations. Anyway, since I left plenty early, I still got to Guggman Haus before it opened at 11:00. I went more than an hour out of my way for this brewery because it's highly rated, and it did not disappoint.


Drove another 3 hours to visit my friend Mark, a fellow craft beer aficionado who lives on the east side of Columbus. He has all sorts of beer signs, bottles, etc decorating his house, as well as a substantial assortment of craft brews, two of which he shared with me: Jackie O's Evelyn and Urban Artifact Resh.


Mark's wife Darcy drove us to Hoof Hearted Brewery and Kitchen, dropping us off at 4:00. (Hoof Hearted also has a location a half hour north in Marengo.) They were having a glycol issue so their beer selection was limited.


We walked to Wolf's Ridge Brewing a little over a mile away, arriving at 5:30. It has a nice restaurant in front (the food is supposed to be great) and a taproom in back. Every beer we got was good.


At 6:30 we went to Jackie O's on Fourth, which is a block away. (Jackie O's has 3 other taprooms and a bake shop, all in Athens OH.) Mark is friends with the general manager Johnny, who gave us the bottle that we had.

Me, Johnny, and Mark.


We Lyfted to Columbus Brewing and got some poutine and a pizza. This was the first time since I left Pennsylvania that I ate anything other than food that I had packed in my car. We sampled:


That's the last thing I remember. Apparently Mark got us an Uber back to his house and I managed to make it safely to bed.


Sunday July 16. Got up at 4:00. Wasn't too hungover considering how much I had consumed the previous day and night. It was a warm, mostly sunny day. Left a little after 11:00 and got to DankHouse Brewing 15 minutes before it opened at noon. Quite a few people showed up shortly after it opened. I sampled:


Continued eastward and arrived at Hightower Brewing at 2:20. It's located on a hill up a steep winding road, which I suppose is how it was named. I tried:


Left at 3:00 and drove more than 2½ hours to Terra Alta WV to visit my old friend Richard, who I've been friends with since the early 2000s. He'd been living in a house at Alpine Lake Resort since he retired. He told me about a brewery in town called High Ground Brewing that I'd somehow missed when doing research for the trip. It opened in 2019, it's veteran-owned, and it's located off the beaten path in a nondescript building. We arrived at 7:00 and tried:


They gave us a free bottle of a BBA Russian imperial stout called Valley Furnace to take home.


Then we hung out at Richard's house and crashed around 10:00.


Monday July 17. Up before 4:00. We had a nice relaxing day watching TV and eating great food, including a fantastic vidalia onion dip that Richard has been making for many years. We also drank Manhattans and two beers: Crooked Crab Jumbo Lump and the bottle of High Ground Valley Furnace that we'd been given the night before. Oh, and in the late afternoon we passed out in front of the TV for a few hours. I mean, you'd think we were old and retired or something.


After such an exhausting day I hit the hay around 10:30ish.


Tuesday July 18. Slept until about 5:00. Hung out with Richard for a while, then took off at 11:35. Passed several breweries on the way to my first destination, but they were all closed on Tuesdays. I arrived at Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport MD at 2:00 and tried:

I bought 4-packs of Fly in Any Weather and 13 Emojis to go. Oh, and they give a 10% discount on to-go beer on Tuesdays.


At 3:00 I walked over to Interchange Tiki Bar & Brewery, which is located in the same shopping center. It has a kitchen and often hosts live music. It used to be Homaide Brewing; the owner rebranded it Interchange a year and a day earlier. I sampled:


Then I visited my friends Todd and Mitsy in nearby Hagerstown, arriving a little after 4:00. They cooked a great dinner and we ate on their deck because the weather was nice. Their backyard has a garden with lots of vegetables and chickens.


After a nice relaxing evening we turned in by 9:30.


Wednesday July 19. Woke up around 4:00. Todd and Mitsy both had to work, so I left a little after 6:00 in order to beat rush hour. Got home before 7:30 AM.

It had been a great trip that included 58 breweries, 225 beers, more than half a dozen friends, some hiking, and 8 states. I visited friends in 5 of those states and breweries in all of them.