Top 5 Brewery Visits of 2018

We have reached the end of another year. One more flip of my calendar and 2019 will have officially arrived. Here at Great Beer Now, the 2018 year was the most successful one yet and one that brought with it more beer tours and more beer festival attendances than any other year

Reflecting back on my year at Great Beer Now, it was easily my most travelled thus far, with a total of 60 new breweries visited in nine states. California, Colorado, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin all contributed to my brewery count and 2018 marked the first time that I made a return visit and second beer tour of the same area, visiting Central New York once in the spring and once in the fall.

Ranking my Top 5 breweries of the year required much internal debate and consideration of a multitude of factors. As I have often said and must repeat, the makings of a great brewery go far beyond brewing and serving delicious, quality beer! There would be virtually no way to select my Top 5 Breweries based solely on beer quality. It would be next to impossible because there are too many breweries in existence that brew quality artisan suds to possibly narrow my choices down to the five best. Besides, even though I do rate the individual beers with each brewery I visit, my ratings are only general guidelines. Even my own tastes vary from one experience to the next and just because I rate a beer 4 out of 5 stars today doesn’t mean I will rate exactly the same beer the same way tomorrow. This is why, to rate as a great brewery, there has to be something more. It could be a unique feature, strong community involvement, a wide range of activities, or any number of other factors that make one brewery stand out or even seem inspirational on some level, business or otherwise.

So, after much deliberation over the past several days, I have arrived at my picks for the Great Beer Now Top 5 Brewery Visits of 2018. Here we go:

5. Saranac FX Matt Brewery

One of my most memorable brewery visits took place in Utica, New York at the historic FX Matt Brewery, also known as Saranac Brewing. This brewery is a standout for its rich history that dates all the way back to 1888 when Francis X. Matt brewed his first batch of beer, setting into motion a brewing tradition that continues to this day. The building that houses Saranac Brewing is old, indeed, and you just know, before you even set foot inside, that there is much brewing history within these walls. Taking a tour is paramount to the experience because it provides you, the curious and always eager- to- learn- more craft beer fan, the opportunity to discover more about the brewery and its past, observe some of the museum- worthy memorabilia, and witness the large brewhouse where more than half a million barrels of beer are brewed each year. Saranac impresses in so many ways that it easily earns a place on my Top 5 countdown.

 

4. Cabarrus Brewing

Drive a little east of Charlotte, North Carolina and you will arrive in the city of Concord, a thriving suburb with a strong craft beer scene. The standout among the many fine breweries in and around Concord is Cabarrus Brewing. The large interior of Cabarrus Brewing features an openly viewable brewhouse, a long, beer hall style arrangement for guests, meeting spaces for private parties, and a large outdoor area perfect during the warmer times of the year. Cabarrus Brewing takes its brewing and position in the community seriously, and it shows not only in the quality of the beer, but also in the brewery’s endless activities and community involvement. A quick check of the Cabarrus Brewing calendar at any given moment reveals beer release specials, holiday celebrations, dance lessons, live musical performances, charitable collaborations, and more. Whew! I get exhausted just thinking about all of the great things that take place at Cabarrus Brewing. Add to that the family and dog- friendly atmosphere and you have all the makings of a first- rate operation and a brewery that more than deserves a place in my Top 5 Brewery Visits of 2018.

 

3. Penn Brewery

My next top brewery takes us to the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and another brewery with historic significance. It’s Penn Brewery, a German- influenced brewery that dates back to 1986. That might not seem very old, but the history at Penn Brewery goes far beyond its precise number of years in business. You see, Penn Brewery is located in the Deutschtown neighborhood of Pittsburgh and is housed in a building with historical significance, not just due to its age, but also because it has an actual system of caves on site! Yes, caves- you know, the places where beer was once stored in order to age and lager, for the best flavor and quality possible. In the modern world, hardly any brewery uses caves anymore because it simply isn’t practical, but Penn Brewery has the caves right there, on the property. This is part of the reason why Penn Brewery brews and serves a higher percentage of lagers than one would expect and it fits in well with the emphasis on German beer and food, both of which are available in abundance. The award- winning beer, the German potato salad and bratwurst, and the lagering caves combine to create a brewery experience like no other and help land Penn Brewery in my Top 5 Brewery Visit countdown.

 

2. Fat Head’s Brewery

Historic breweries are certainly cool places to visit and they stand out in your memory because they truly get your imagination charged and challenge your historic perspective. But modern breweries can be just as intriguing, even if for completely different reasons and a perfect example of this is Fat Head’s Brewery in Middleburg Heights, a Cleveland suburb located adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Fat Head’s just opened this new brewery in the summer of 2018 and it is truly a sight to behold. The large restaurant and tap room are where guests will spend most of their time, sampling beer, eating the different foods, and debating over whether the food or the beer deserves to be the star of the Fat Head’s Brewery show. But there is much more going on beyond the restaurant and tap room and Fat Head’s offers both guided tours and self- tours to educate guests on beer, brewing, and Fat Head’s place in the craft beer universe. Walk through the large brewhouse and you will see the modern fermenters, bottling machines, experimental brewing area, meeting spaces, and labs where the beer is tested for quality. It’s big, it’s bad, it’s modern, and it’s rad! It’s Fat Head’s Brewery, one of the nation’s most award- winning breweries and a must visit if you happen to find yourself in the Cleveland, Ohio area.

1. Lakefront Brewery

And for my top brewery visit of 2018, I turn to one of America’s foremost cities for beer, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The city is home to a large number of breweries and the one that has been around practically the longest and has the most to offer overall is none other than Lakefront Brewery. The facility greets guests first with a German- style beer hall where you can order a glass or flight sampler, order food, and enjoy your pairing in the company of friends or complete strangers, who are quite likely to become your newest friends with minimal effort. You can also sit on the large outdoor patio and enjoy the Milwaukee River view and, if the weather is warmer, greet guests as the paddle up the river and stop at Lakefront Brewery for some much- needed refreshment. But the highlight of any visit is the tour, which is a ton of fun and loaded with laughs. The coolest part of the tour comes at the end when guests sing along to the Laverne and Shirley theme song while one of the guests in the audience is asked to do the honor of placing a glove on a bottle as it moves down the bottling line- just like everyone old enough remembers from the opening of the Laverne and Shirley television show. The fun, the laughs, the large beer hall, the recognition from critics for its food and beer, the distinction of producing the nation’s first organic certified beer, the commitment to the environment, and the Laverne and Shirley bottling line all combine to make Lakefront Brewery an instant classic and one of the best tourist breweries in the nation.

 

2018 was an excellent year for beer. Great Beer Now set an all- time record for brewery visits in a single year as I made my way to a total of 60 breweries in nine different U.S. states. It was easily my most traveled year, too, and I took more city/regional beer tours this year than any other.

With so many breweries visited, I knew I was going to have a tough time deciding which breweries to include in my Top 5 Countdown. I take my brewery visits and evaluations seriously and with each brewery I visit, I am often thinking in the back of my head about the merits of each and whether or not it has a chance of making it to my Top 5. The odds of making my Top 5 Breweries this year was exactly 12 to 1, and I had to leave off many memorable places. This is why it’s only fair to mention the five breweries that just missed making my countdown. My choice for runners- up this year include:

• Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, CA
• Crying Eagle Brewing in Lake Charles, LA
• Austin Beer Garden Brewery in Austin, Texas
• Copper City Brewing in Rome, NY
• Empire Brewing in Cazenovia, NY

Any one of the preceding five breweries could have made it into my Top 5 Breweries of the year. The five I selected beat them out, in most instances, by the slimmest of margins.

So there you have it folks, my picks for the Great Beer Now Top 5 Brewery Visits of 2018. I wish everyone a great year of beer and look forward to an equally successful and adventurous year of brewery visits in 2019. Remember to support your local brewery, but always be open to new and exciting beer opportunities in the year ahead. And as always, keep reaching for the craft beer stars in 2019!