Trip of a Lifetime
Like many retired people, I created a bucket list of all the things I wanted to accomplish in my retirement. Most of my goals were the classic ones: Travel to new places, spend more time with my loved ones, and dive deeper into my hobbies (in particular, homebrewing). And as I completed these goals in my first few years of retirement, I had the idea of blending all of these goals into one trip of a lifetime: Visit all 50 U.S. states and drink local beer in each of them.
After a few months of discussing the idea with my wife and two of our friends, we eagerly planned the cross-country road trip. We ultimately decided the best way to reach this goal of mine was to tackle all 50 states in a few parts, and the first part would be traveling across all the Southern States during the springtime. Beginning from our hometown in Georgia, we would drive through as many states as we could until we reached the West Coast, visiting as many landmarks and our out-of-state families along the way. We kept the trip flexible, maintaining no more than 4½ hours in the car any day so we could explore the communities we were driving through. We also took our time in each city, sometimes spending multiple days in one place before visiting the next. The only timeline we followed was customized to specific events we did not want to miss (e.g., Chicago Cubs spring training).
In 40 days, we visited 15 states, 7 National Parks, 7 casinos, and 27 breweries where we sampled over 75 different local craft beers.
I used the Brewers Association’s “Find a Brewer” webpage to find nearby breweries on our travel path. Whenever I arrived at a brewery, I would talk to staff and share that I was a homebrewer on a cross-country adventure. In doing so, I was able to meet and talk with production staff at several breweries and given tours of their breweries. Among the 27 breweries I visited, I was surprised to see how wide of a range of brewing equipment was used. Many had a large setup, which I typically see in my state’s own local breweries; however, several setups were way more sophisticated, and others were as simple as my homebrew setup (just on a larger scale).
One of the best discussions I had was with a brewer in Amarillo, Texas. The brewer had just finished his day when we stopped by for a beer. We chatted for 90 minutes as he told me his homebrewer to brewmaster story. While talking, he kindly gave me a tour of the very unique brewery setup and shared a delightful imperial stout that he brews in small batches to share with other brewers and friends.
While I habitually purchased branded swag from breweries, the best thing I collected was the variety of invaluable information and pointers from the local brewers, painting a picture of the different patterns in the U.S. beer culture of today.
Several pieces of advice I was given stuck out to me — from the benefits of lab tests to the importance of water adjustments. After my travels were done and I settled back into normal life, I implemented much of the advice I received into my homebrew practices. I asked my local craft brewery if they would provide me with their filtered water with the needed minerals for a particular style of beer, with the promise of some my finished beer in return. They readily agreed, and in this process I noticed an immediate improvement in my homebrew.
I’m hoping in the next year to take a similar trip to the Northern States and get a bigger picture of the nation’s beer culture. I look forward to sampling the local beers, collecting swag, and chatting with more brewers in each.
