As we reach towards year end of 2024, the holidays are a touch point that many of us use as a way of marking time, and reflecting on where we are in our lives and our endeavors. I have maintained a “life list” of all of the breweries and brewery-owned tap rooms that I have ever visited – as far back as I could recall. For me, it starts in 1989 and the total of unique breweries and tap rooms visited is about to top 600 as we wrap up 2024. (I used to think that was a lot until I saw some article about a guy who has been to something like 2000 of them). So, OK, I am no record breaker, but I have been to a lot. If you want to check out the whole list, you can go to it here.
My Beer-mentor Michael Jackson “the beer hunter” at Penn beer tasting 2014
Making a list with a photo of every brewery is in itself both amusing and has its positives a negatives. In the past week or so I have been reviewing the list and cleaning it up in anticipation of hitting the “Grand 600” – and a number of observations and thoughts about it have surfaced for me. Now I am going to share a few with my fellow beer appreciators!
- Patterns and Trends – 600 is a lot of anything, which gives me the opportunity to “slice and dice” my brewery list a number of ways that I think could be interesting. Like for example by state (and country). There are 14 US states that I have still not been able to drink at a local brewery in. This map shows which states, how many, and those with none in gray. This is both good and bad, as it does lead me to want to plan to getting to the remaining 14, though most of those remaining are not that easy to get to. Hey, something to do when I retire, right?
“This land is my land, this land is beer appreciation land”
- Location, Location – Since I live full time in Pennsylvania, it only makes sense that I have been to more breweries there than all other states (171). Coming in second place is California (69) – as that is the true O.G. beer mecca, and just a great place to visit. All in, PA, NJ and CA account for nearly half of all the breweries I have been to so far. (Not on that map above are the close to 40 breweries I have visited in other countries – you can see them all on my interactive Google brewery map here).
Anchor Steam in San Francisco 2016, closed in 2023
- Nothing Lasts for Ever – Small businesses, particularly in the hospitality sector, often don’t make it for long. Since I began counting visits some 35 years ago, a lot has changed, and a lot of the breweries I visited have closed. Based on limited research, it appear that about 150 of the 600 brewery locations I visited over the years have closed. Some may have been second or third locations of a still existing brewery, and others were reopened as something else, but the establishment I visited at the time is now gone. When I review that part of the the list it does make me sad, but that’s business. Honestly, others that do still persist make me shake my head, but there’s no accounting for taste, right? (The blue icons on my interactive map represent now closed locations I am aware of).
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Early on it was harder of find breweries 1989
- Brewing Industry Changes – I was interested in seeing how my visits to new breweries reflected the rapid growth periods of craft brewing like 1994 – 1996 when the national actual brewery count went from 600 to 1200, or 2009 to 2013 when US breweries grew from about 1,500 to 3,100. (Now of course there are close to 10,000 US breweries). I created a graph that shows the number of breweries in the US by year and the ratio of those to the number I have visited. While it took a while, it appears that I have been to just about 6%. I can see a future where that ratio higher will grow as the number of overall breweries actually starts to decline. Gotta roll with the changes.
Breweries visited vs. Breweries in the US…
- Lifestyle and World Changes – Turns out that the number of breweries visited and number of breweries in existence is a factor, the real main reason why some years I visited a lot, and others not so many is simply my ability get to them. Huge visit years often reflect purposeful beer travels (attending the Brewer’s Association conferences, or a trip to a beer location like Asheville NC). Conversely, in 2020 and to some extent 2021 visits were stunted by the pandemic, and 2023 crushed by my recovery from knee surgery. So, the ebb and flow of life has the biggest impact. Also, thanks to the changes in business travel since the pandemic, I am traveling out of town less – and I have pretty much hit all of the breweries within 50 miles of my home already. But a quest is a quest.
With Brendan and Sam Calagione of Dogfish 2006
- Rules Have to be Followed? If you collect anything you know you have to establish boundaries and rules. If you collect coins, do you focus on US issues or coins of the world? If you collect dolls do you count all the dolls you have or only the different ones. I recall early on trying to decide if I should count different locations of brewery chains (Rock Bottom, Gordon Biersch, Big River, locally Iron Hill). I asked some of my beer-minded friends and their response was “sure – it’s your list, you make the rules”. Similarly, early on I agonized over of I should count brewery taprooms. I was following a rule that there had to be an actual brewery on premise, but the meteoric rise of tap rooms and the fact that the Brewer’s Association counted them justified including them on the list (if they were tied to and run by a brewery). An unfortunate byproduct of evolving rules was that I left out some breweries and tap rooms from my early list, making my total count lower – but I do have record of them, so have to rethink their inclusion at some point. Hmmm….
New Belgium 2014
- 1000 is Out of Reach – Not sure if I ever thought I’d reach 1000 unique breweries visited, but it is a nice big round number, you know? Now I think 750 is a more reasonable but still significant goal. While some of my US travel has decreased along with the sheer number of US breweries, I am now traveling out of the country more. Depending on the culture of the country, there are new breweries popping up everywhere (well not everywhere, but you know what I mean). But anyway, with some determined effort, I think 750 can be done.
Jim Koch from Sam Adams 2013
- Brewery Experiences are Highly Subjective – I decided from the start of my list that I would not rate, score or review my visited breweries. Sometimes I would be moved to write a separate blog post about an extraordinary experience, but I didn’t think I should do “number of stars” or ratings. To me, an experience at a brewery is a combination of the quality of the beer (first!) – but also the look and feel of the place, the people and the overall vibe experienced at my visit. This depends a lot on how I was feeling at the time, my expectations and personal preferences. I am not going to tell you what I think you should like or not, and moreover, one visit isn’t always indicative of an establishment’s true qualities. So, you decide.,.
Good Times & Friends at Dogfish in 2010
I could go on and on (and I do) but I’d like to leave you with a couple of thoughts on reaching 600: As I review my brewery life list, it brings back a lot of great memories. And while generally my memory has never been great, when I see the entries on this list – even from 25 years ago or more, I can almost without exception remember that establishment, how I was feeling when I was there, who I was with and in most cases how the beer was. And to look back at 600 some snapshots over time (and beer) I realize how fortunate I have been to have such great experiences, friends – and yes beer – in my life so far. And, I am far from done.
600 behind me – If you feel it, raise a glass with me to the great memories, great people and beer – but I can’t rest – I still have at least 150 more breweries to visit – maybe even 400! Cheers to 601.
601 on the way…2024 Cheers!
