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Wine country too snooty? Go on a beer run
Brewery hopping provides alternative for vacationing beer aficionados
 Amy Sancetta / AP A bartender pours a pitcher of one of the many brews on tap at the Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland, Ohio. Many beer aficionados are taking vacations which include visiting the nation's many local breweries, like Great Lakes Brewery, as well as brew pubs and beer festivals. |
CLEVELAND - Beer usually conjures images of fraternity keggers, tailgate parties and Homer Simpson loafing at Moe's Tavern.
But U.S. beer drinkers are becoming more sophisticated in their suds consumption, matching beer with food and experimenting with different varieties than those endlessly promoted on football Sunday TV commercials.
Some are willing to travel long distances to find them.
Although beer lacks a major destination such as Napa Valley, many beer aficionados are taking vacations that are more like extended beer runs, visiting the nation's many craft breweries, brewpubs and beer festivals.
Nearly every major city has a brewery these days. In Cleveland, the century-old mahogany bar at Great Lakes Brewing Co. has seen its clientele change over the years. Originally, hardworking locals bellied up - like famed crime-fighter Eliot Ness, who frequented the place decades earlier when it was called the Market Street Exchange.
The locals still show up, but on weekends the parking lot is filled with out-of-state plates from as far away as Nevada and Florida. Beer drinkers come for a taste of the brewery's award-winning Dortmunder Gold, a crisp lager, and Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, named for the ore carrier that sank in Lake Superior in 1975 during a storm as dark as the chocolatey black brew.
If you go in and ask for a Bud Light, tour and tasting guide Chas Murray will offer you a glass of tap water.
"We have good beer, really good beer," Murray said.
Great Lakes Brewing - 2516 Market Ave., 216-771-4404 - expects to produce 50,000 barrels this year and was ranked by the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association as the 26th largest craft brewery - defined as small and independent - in the country.
"The biggest thing when you're pairing things up - if you have a bold beer, you need an equally bold dish to stand up to the flavors," Gerome said.
Mike McAllister of Dayton traveled to Great Lakes Brewing Co. for its limited release of Lake Erie Monster Double IPA. Such limited releases are a big draw for breweries, and customers were restricted to six 22-ounce bottles, which sold for $10 each.
McAllister is a converted wine drinker who gave up on vino because he couldn't afford the expensive varieties he enjoyed.
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It turns out the beer crowd isn't all that different from the wine and cheese crowd, according to McAllister.
"A lot of the people who are beer geeks are actually bigger snobs than the wine people - just without the money," he said.
While visiting Cleveland, beer lovers are likely to stop at the Brew Kettle Taproom & Smokehouse - 8377 Pearl Rd., 440-239-8788 - which is only a short drive from Great Lakes Brewing.
Inconspicuously located in a strip mall in suburban Strongsville, the Brew Kettle was voted by ratebeer.com as the No. 1 brew pub in the country. Visitors can brew their own beer in the fermentation room or imbibe an impressive variety of craft beers on tap, including Celis Belgian white ale, a crisp, slightly floral brew, and New Holland Dragon's Milk, a bourbon barrel-aged ale with oak and vanilla tones.
Owner Chris McKim sees a lot of beer tourists pass through.
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