Where My Journey Began

My very first brewery visits were back in the days when I thought beer was gross; of course, I still think that sort of beer is nearly useless.  My memories of my visit to the Coors brewery are vague at best - I was about five, but I do remember being very excited about getting to drink "pure Rocky Mountain spring water".  I have better memories of the Lone Star brewery in San Antonio, or more specifically, their museum.  I got see a real flea circus, a two-headed calf, goofy mirrors and the hall of horns.  I thought it was the coolest place.  Everyone was given a wooden nickel to use in the saloon, and while the grownups got a free tasting of Lone Star beer, the kids got root beer - just as cool, we thought then.

Years later, I discovered that beer could, in fact, be tasty.  Very tasty.  It all started in Boise, ID, home to several great craft breweries (and several more recently).  My mother was a fan of hefeweizens - American style hefeweizens - and after getting past the fact that it looks like horse piss (her words, and she'd know), it became my gateway beer.  Crazy enough, my next favorite style was porters.  Thanks to The Ram's Total Disorder Porter, my love of good beers became a near obsession.  Pales and browns followed.  IPAs were beyond my palate at that time, but I came around, thank you beer gods! 

There began my quest to visit the origins of some of my favorites.

I spent a summer working for the Tahoe National Forest, and over one of my weekends I followed a whim to drive down to Chico and the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.  I was not a fan of their pale ale, but I thought it would be fun to try some of their other flavors.  Total disappointment.  I didn't like any of the ones I tried.  I still don't.  I was, though, (and still am) a huge fan of Deschutes Brewery's Black Butte Porter.  So, on my return trip to Boise, I decided to go through Bend, OR.  While I was at it, I wanted to visit the Oregon coast.  Rogue Ales happens to be in Newport, OR, and I kind of liked their beers so I added Rogue to the trip as well.  After that, my travels, if not entirely revolving around brewery visits, certainly included them.

I'm now at #90, or more depending on how I want to count them.  I go to beer festivals whenever possible.  I've even been known to search for matches on online dating sites based on whether or not they mention "craft beer", "brewery", or "microbrew".  I recently ran across one of my best friends doing such a search (we now live about 2,000 miles apart).  Of course I dropped him a hello.  We always did bond happily over a good brew. 

I've lived in Montana now for two years.  During that time I've made it to 24(+) of its breweries.  I only have about 15 to go to finish off my Montana list, but my goal for this year is to get to my 100th overall.

I decided to start this blog to document my brewery journeys.  I'll probably throw in a bunch of other stuff, but most things in my life directly, or indirectly, involve beer so it's all good!