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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: East End Brewing Company, Pittsburgh, PA (June 30, Brewery Stop #15)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: East End Brewing Company, Pittsburgh, PA (June 30, Brewery Stop #15) The 15th brewery found on the cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was East End Brewing Company located in Pittsburgh, PA. After picking our friend Joel up in rural PA at his parents farm, we headed into town to hang out with our hosts for the night, Rusty and Sara. After unpacking the car and presenting Rusty with the cases of beer we brought for him from Oregon, we sampled a few of his favorite beers and then headed out to a couple of breweries and to get dinner. I had never been to Pittsburgh before, and didn’t realize it was so steep (hilly) and had so many bridges. I thought the west hills of Portland were bad, OMG, it’s incredibly challenging to travel around the east and north end of the city without GPS or a navigator that knows their way around. The first brewery we stopped at was in the central east part of the city, the East End Brewing production facility and taproom. It’s nessled in the back side of a larger industrial looking building and you …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: The Saint Louis Brewery, Schlafly Bottleworks, St. Louis, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #14)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: The Saint Louis Brewery, Schlafly Bottleworks, St. Louis, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #14) The 14th brewery that we visited on the cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Schlafly Bottleworks in St. Louis MO. After a great KC BBQ lunch, we hit the road and headed to St. Louis. There was a little bit of traffic out of KC, and a whole bunch of traffic trying to get into St. Louis which pushed out travel time to over 5hrs. We ended up getting off the freeway and taking some side-roads into the SW part of town as their rush hour freeway traffic is horrible. The Schlafly Bottleworks location isn’t hard to find, just be ready to drive a bit through residential areas to get there. Note, that there are two locations, we went to the production facility to meet up with one of Gary’s former students that lives in the area in the suburbs and not the main downtown restaurant and bar. I had never heard of Schlafly before our trip, it was selected by Devin and I’m glad he picked it out for us to stop at. They have …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Empyrean Brewing Company, Lincoln NE (June 27, Brewery Stop #9)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Empyrean Brewing Company, Lincoln NE (June 27, Brewery Stop #9) The ninth brewery that we visited on the beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Empyrean Brewing Company in Lincoln NE, June 27th, 2015. After saying goodbye to Denver, we drove across Nebraska to Lincoln to visit some family for a few days. Having been born and raised in Lincoln, it’s nice to see the city grow up some, expand it’s food and beer offerings, and be a destination for some and not just a layover for those taking I-80 across the mid-US. We got into town late afternoon on Saturday, spent some time with my family, and then headded out for a drink after dinner at Empyrean Brewing/Lazlow’s. 20 years or so ago I worked at Lazlo’s Brewery & Grill for a summer while I was going to college in Lincoln. Back then, it was the ONLY micro-brewery in Lincoln, and their beers were unique and really stood out. Over the past few decades, a lot of changes have occurred with Lazlow’s including expansions and new locations, the brewery becoming it’s own company, separate brewing facility, and changes in the restaurant …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Avery Brewing Company, Boulder Colorado (June 26, Brewery Stop #8)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Avery Brewing Company, Boulder Colorado (June 26, Brewery Stop #8)The eighth brewery that we stopped at during the beer discovery tour (click here to read more about the whole trip) was Avery Brewing Company in Boulder CO, June 26th, 2015. We drove to Boulder taking the back roads from Oskar Blues Brewing in Longmont, which surprisingly wasn’t that long of a drive (20 mins?), and we ran into very little traffic which was nice. When we pulled into the Avery brewing complex, it was clear that it’s a really popular brewery to visit as we got one of the only free parking spots in their big lot. The facility is quite large as you can see (like a factory), with full production area, restaurant (upstairs), swag/bottle shop (upstairs), self-guided tour area (upstairs), and taproom with an outdoor patio. That afternoon, the weather was really nice and we thought about sitting or standing on the patio, but as you can see from the pics there was no available spots outside on the patio. We got lucky and found a small ‘standing’ table at the back of the taproom and ordered our beers. The really cool thing with …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Odell Brewing Co., Fort Collins Colorado (June 25, Brewery Stop #2)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Odell Brewing Co., Fort Collins Colorado (June 25, Brewery Stop #2) The second day of our journey to the east coast on our beer discovery tour (click here to read about the whole trip) in late June we made our way from northern Utah into southern Wyoming and then into Colorado to Fort Collins, just north of Denver. The first brewery stop for the day was Odell Brewing Company. We got there just as they opened for the day, and discovered they had a food cart truck and live music over the lunch hour on their patio (see pictures below). The facility is quite large with lots of seating inside and outside with lots of interesting artwork and things to keep you distracted. The brewing production areas can be viewed if you go on one of their free brewery tours which you have to sign up at the bar. The surprise for us was that we didn’t think that they would have so many beers on draft on site (18 the day we were there). We knew that they had a lot of varieties that they distribute across the west coast, but it was quite a …

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Review: Fortside Brewing Co., Vancouver WA

FORTSIDE BREWING CO., VANCOUVER WA The second brewery stop on Friday, May 29th was at Fortside Brewing Co., located off of NE Andresen (just south of Fourth Plain Blvd. a few blocks). We were super excited to learn about this brand spankin’ new brewery at the Thirsty Sasquatch bar and decided to make the drive down Fourth Plain to try it out. Fortside just opened in late April 2015, so it’s really new and they only have three of their own beer available, +1 root beer (non-alcoholic). The location is in an industrial mall complex, the signage on Andresen is limited to just a small thing on the side of the building, so you need to keep an eye out for it. The building has a large painted logo on it, and as you can see from the pics, it’s a long open space with lots of raw wood, metal, and windows. The bar seats just a few people, they have plenty of tables, and a few seats outside for the smokers. The brewing facility is in the back of the business behind a large glass/windowed wall. We spent a few moment talking to the bartender about it and he …

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