One Year and 389 Breweries Later

A recap of my 2023 brewery travels

Hello, and welcome to 2024. In this dull first week of the new year, I take some time to look back at some of my beer-related travels in the past twelve months. Before I do, though, I want to remind everyone that this month is a tough month for alcohol-centric businesses. At a time when breweries are closing in the U.S. at their fastest pace in nearly a generation, it’s even more concerning when New Year’s resolutions and Dry January drive their customer base away for an entire month. Jeff Alworth proposes “Pub January” over Dry January, but even if you’re choosing to abstain this month, there are other things you can do to help show support for your local bars and breweries. Buy a gift card to a bar or brewery that you’ll use later in the year. Buy some brewery merch. If they serve or even make their own non-alcoholic beverages, give some of those a try. If they serve food, opt for some takeout. I can’t do all the heavy lifting myself, despite the recap of 2023 that I’m about to dive into…

My 2023 Brewery Visits, by the numbers

This week, let’s look back at last year. I wrapped up the year averaging more than a brewery visit a day, buoyed by a multi-week trip to Australia and New Zealand where I racked up numbers while drinking a slew of fresh hop beers. With as many breweries as I visited, there are some that were never even mentioned in this newsletter last year. Ten of them get a shout-out below. If “travel more” is one of your New Year’s resolutions, I hope this annual wrap-up can help inspire you!

Ten Noteworthy Brewery Visits of 2023 (in chronological order)

HooDoo Brewing Company, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA

Only a glutton for punishment like me would willingly go to the northernmost production brewery in the United States in the dead of winter. Thankfully, it was a “warm” -5°F (-15°C) on the day I visited HooDoo, and the outdoor patio was packed with people standing by the fire pits as a light, powdery snow fell. The beers here, which I had tried at past beer festivals in Alaska, were delightful. Two highlights of the visit: the last beer on my friend’s flight turned to slush before he got around to drinking it, and a guy was drinking on the patio in shorts. You do you, HooDoo.

Lesser-Known Beer Co., Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

Every year, I have at least one brewery that I knew nothing about (in that respect, this place lived up to its name) that blows my mind. Lesser-Known was an early entrant for that honor. The spot had opened just eight months earlier, and the cozy taproom was adjoined by a bottle shop featuring some excellent Belgian imports and a production space where they proudly poured their Dunkel straight off the lagering tank into my glass. They’re all about old-school brewing techniques and beer styles at Lesser-Known, and I hope both the brewery and the beers they brew become better known.

Scratch Brewing Company, Ava, Illinois, USA

It was quite a road trip for me and a good friend to get out to the small town of Ava from St. Louis, but it was worth the trip for this bucket-list brewery. Scratch has carved out a niche for foraged beer, using ingredients off the land here in Southern Illinois. The beers had a list of seemingly exotic ingredients: wild carrot, nettle, elecampane flower, paw paw, oak leaf, hickory, and yes, hops — all found or grown in those rolling hills and forests we passed through to get to the brewery, which is nestled in a wooded grove in a picturesque setting.

Wildflower Brewing & Blending, Marrickville, NSW, Australia

I planned my entire year around this visit, and it still exceeded expectations. It was my three-thousandth brewery visit, and a group of Aussie friends of mine all joined me for the visit. The beers were impeccable, the service was friendly and warm, and the staff surprised me with a cellar pull: a bottle of Nothing Fancy, a collaboration with Jester King — the brewery where Wildflower founder Topher Boehm interned and the place where I marked my one-thousandth brewery visit. I was tickled pink. This was kismet.

Rhyme x Reason Brewery, Wānaka, New Zealand

It started with a DM from the brewery’s Marketing & Sales lead, Kate, who suggested I should come up to Wānaka from Queenstown to visit their brewery and try their fresh hop beers, since I’d miss their tap takeover in Wellington by a day later in my trip. I got a friendly welcome when I wandered into the taproom and was immediately offered a flight of beers that were among the best I had in New Zealand. After feeling like a stranger in a strange land for a week in a place 10,000 miles away, it was nice to feel at home here. Also, there’s a skateboard hanging in their lounge area with beer writer Michael Jackson’s likeness on it.

Dunajský pivovar, Bratislava, Slovakia

I don’t need to say much more about this brewery than this: it’s a brewery on a boat docked on the Danube River, with views of Slovakia’s capital city and its historic castle perched above. There aren’t many floating breweries in the world (this is my third — one was on a Carnival cruise ship and the other is docked on the banks of the Vltava River in Prague), and there especially aren’t many making delicious lagers of the dark and pale varieties, so every visit to one is worth noting.

Second Dawn Brewing Co., Aurora, Colorado, USA

Even in this year’s downturn in beer, it’s still dizzying trying to keep up with all the new breweries opening in Colorado. Often times, they can seem to run together for someone like me who's been to dozens in Denver alone. But Second Dawn stood out for one very obvious reason: the beer was outstanding and flawless. That's not surprising, as Ross Koenig, who founded the new brewery with his wife Amy last year, spent a decade at New Belgium Brewing as their innovation brewer. I haven't been this excited about a new brewery in the Denver area since Cohesion opened two years ago, and it's going to become a part of my rotation on future trips to the Mile High City. 

Wayland Brewing Company, Orchard Park, New York, USA

Believe the hype. I hadn’t heard Western New Yorkers get this excited about something since the Bills ended their playoff drought. This new addition to Buffalo’s beer scene is an absolute gem, with a massive indoor and outdoor space, outstanding food, and a lineup of beers that can please every palate. It’s a place to bring the family, a place to hang with friends, a place to catch the game, a place to hold a function — Wayland has built a brewery that can be practically everything to everyone… even when that everyone includes Josh Allen.

Resident Culture Brewing Company, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

It’s all about the company you keep. Other Half, Grimm, Threes, Finback, Barrier, Sand City, Equilibrium, and Two Ton have all collaborated with Resident Culture over their seven-year history — a seeming who’s-who list of New York-area breweries. Having tried a lot of those beers, it’s safe to say I knew what to expect when I came into Resident Culture’s taproom on a Saturday afternoon in December, but I was still truly impressed with everything from an Italian Pilsner to a saison brewed with New Jersey’s The Seed to the IPAs that made them famous. It was a fitting visit to mark my 100th brewery in North Carolina.

everywhere, Orange, California, USA

My next-to-last brewery visit of the year was another one of those pleasant surprises — a spot that’s barely a year old that I knew nothing about, but knew I’d be hearing more about them in the future. Not surprising, the folks behind this spot are veterans of The Bruery, so you know the brewing chops are there (and the beer shows it!), but what’s more noteworthy is the bright, airy taproom, decorated with the brewery’s whimsical and distinctive branding. In an era of cookie-cutter brewery taprooms, everywhere breaks through.

One Last Thing

How will my 2024 brewery adventures start? With another trip to the Southern Hemisphere. If you’ve got any beer recommendations for me in Auckland, New Zealand or Melbourne, Australia, I’m all ears. That trip is just a week away, and the sunshine and warmth of summer in January can’t come soon enough.

Cheers,
Chris