PicoBlog

In the bottom of a canyon, 1800 feet below and a mile away from the throngs of tourists who are simply there for the views, my friend and I sipped celebratory beers to mark the completion of the first leg of by far the most challenging hike I’ve been on — the Gunnison Route of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The only sounds were the glugs of beer from a can, the rushing waters of the river beside us, and the occasional bird chirping. It was amazing to escape into nature, without a phone signal, without throngs of tourists, and with nothing but some trekking poles and a hydropack on my back.

My friend and I had a couple other memorable moments that were deserving of beers on our road trip around Colorado, including a hike where we clung to a cliff edge and squeezed through a foot-wide crevasse to see some petroglyphs in Mesa Verde National Park, and a harrowing drive through scenic mountain passes in pouring rain.

I can’t recommend getting out there and visiting some National Parks enough, if you have the time and means. I bought an annual parks pass earlier this month that I plan to use as much as I can over the next twelve months. The peace, the beauty, and the solitude are all worth it, especially at the less-visited parks or in the off-season. And if there’s some beer nearby, even better.

I got to thinking over the summer about the most extreme breweries in the U.S. based on cardinal direction after re-reading this piece from Good Beer Hunting about Fairbanks, Alaska’s beer scene last year. Indeed, the northernmost brewery in the U.S. is in Alaska’s interior region — Silver Gulch Brewing (though their brewery in the town of Fox hasn’t been open to the public in well over a year and a half). The northernmost brewery taproom is HooDoo Brewing Company in Fairbanks. But what about the other extremes? I’ve tracked them down:

Northernmost Brewery in the Lower 48: Atwood Farm Brewery in Blaine, Washington is just a mile and a half from the Canadian border, and it brews with estate-grown hops on their farm on the property.

Easternmost Brewery in the U.S.: Horn Run Brewing in Eastport, Maine just barely beats out nearby Lubec Brewing for this title. Appropriately, Horn Run has a moose in their logo.

Westernmost Brewery in the Lower 48: Arch Rock Brewing in Gold Beach, Oregon is a pint-sized taproom on a portion of the Oregon Coast that juts out just enough to give this brewery their geographic extreme.

Southernmost Brewery in the Lower 48: First Flight Island Brewery & Restaurant in Key West, Florida is the furthest south. It’s named for its location at the birthplace of Pan American Airways and happens to be owned by Top Gun’s Kelly McGillis.

Westernmost Brewery in the U.S.: Kauai Island Brewing Company claims to be “the World’s Westernmost Brewery.” It isn’t (I’ll get to that in a second), but it’s definitely the westernmost in our 50 states.

Southernmost Brewery in the U.S.: Kona Brewing Co. Hawaii on the Big Island is the nation’s southernmost, and its new, larger facility is capable of churning out 100,000 barrels of beer per year, exclusively for the Hawaiian Islands.

Southern and Westernmost Brewery in the U.S. and its territories: If we’re going to get technical, let’s pull in our nation’s territories for a wider look at beer across the nation. Flying Fox Brewery in Pago Pago, American Samoa, is the nation’s only brewery south of the equator, and at 170°W longitude, it’s the westernmost brewery in the U.S. Even still, it’s not the world’s westernmost — that title goes to Pacific Brewing in the Kingdom of Tonga at 175°W.

NOT the Easternmost Brewery in the U.S. and its territories: “Easternmost? So that’s gotta be like the Virgin Islands, right?” Sure, let’s call Brew STX, a scenic seaside brewpub on St. Croix, the easternmost brewery in the nation — in the Western Hemisphere.

Easternmost Brewery in the U.S. and its territories: While most travelers from the mainland to Guam would fly westbound via Honolulu, Guam is in the Eastern Hemisphere, and thus The Guam Brewery, one of three breweries on the island territory, is decidedly the easternmost in the nation. They’re also the easternmost hard seltzer maker, for that matter.

Total brewery count: 2,783
Total breweries visited in 2022: 254
Total breweries visited in Colorado: 238

Brewery #2772, Telluride Brewing Company, Telluride, CO (Visited 19-Aug-2022)

I don’t often play favorites with beer, but I can confidently say that Telluride’s Face Down Brown is my all-time favorite brown ale. It’s not even close. It’s ranked as my favorite for many years, and every time I go back to it, my opinion is reinforced. So when a slight change in our Colorado road trip itinerary last week put us mere yards from Telluride’s production brewery, it was a must-visit. The cozy taproom is in the same building as their larger production facility on the outskirts of this ski resort town, and it was full at three in the afternoon on a Friday, with local regulars and tourists passing through town sitting side-by-side at the bar. The cooler was well-stocked with cans of nearly every beer on tap, which made it easy to take home some of the stuff we couldn’t drink on account of driving and time constraints. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable and down-to-earth, which was a relief for me, as I was worried about a hoity-toity attitude considering the wealth of this town. I wish the weather had been more cooperative so I could’ve taken in the sight of the San Juan Mountains surrounding the town, but a raw, rainy day made every sip of that Face Down Brown taste so much better.

That’s a lot of non-alcoholic beer.

The years-long experiment of Mikkeller breweries in the United States is over. Two years after backing out of their Citi Field location, their San Diego brewery is closing as well, as the brand transitions back to contract brewing. You can read more in Kate Bernot’s latest report at Good Beer Hunting.

A suggestion that came in from a reader of mine after I asked for your favorite “situational beers:” a situational beer bracket. We’ll do it on Twitter one of these weeks, so stand by and follow for more soon.

Cheers,
Chris

ncG1vNJzZmiaoprEurvRpGWsrZKowaKvymeaqKVfpXyjscSrZJqsXam1pnnEnZ6eq12ks27Ax55knpmiqbU%3D