The Top Places We Traveled for Beer in 2024

Over the last 365ish days, we’ve enjoyed some serious travel just for beer. Undoubtedly, discovering new places, beer cities, and meccas for craft is one of the best parts of our job.

From an industrial city in the United Kingdom with a new-school and old-school beer scene to the home of pilsner to the hop capital of the country (aka the Palm Springs of Washington), these are the top places we traveled for beer this year.

Where We Traveled for Beer in 2024

London, England

At the beginning of April, Hop Culture Senior Content Editor Grace Lee-Weitz booked herself a one-way ticket to London. She hadn’t been to the U.K. since her freshman year of high school, when her family took her to see all the sites—Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Crown Jewels, Stonehenge, the Cotswolds. Now that she thinks back, she realizes that her parents planned a pretty incredible trip. The only thing missing at the time: beer!

Of course, as a sixteen-year-old, she couldn’t legally drink anyway. But after her recent trip, her dad shared with her that during their stay in London, he would slip away to a pub down the street at the end of the night. He told her he couldn’t remember anything particularly remarkable about the bar—just that he loved sitting in an English pub, sipping a pint, and reading.

Almost twenty years later, Lee-Weitz finally understood what he meant. There is just something nearly indescribable about spending an afternoon drinking a 4% ABV mild on cask, sunken into a plush red velvet booth next to a fireplace, reading an Agatha Christie novel or striking up a conversation about the inevitable doom of the Tottenham Hotspur’s season with a random stranger.

That’s pub culture.

Something, as an American, Lee-Weitz longed to “research” and understand. So when her friend mentioned she’d be working in London for a week, she jumped at the chance to join her.

And while she could only spend a few days drinking her way across the city, she did her best to chat with old-school pub GMs, new-school craft brewery owners, and as many regulars as she could find in between.

What did she discover?

That with over 4,300 pubs in London alone, finding the “best one” is a little subjective. People staunchly believe in what they call their “local,” the place they love and frequent the most.

“There’s the right pub for the right person out there,” The Harp General Manager Paul Sims explained to Lee-Weitz. “It might not be literally the first pub from your house. … You make it your local because it’s where you love to be. You feel a part of it.”

Sims likens it to finding a great Chinese takeaway. “You stick to it, don’t you,” he said. “They cook it exactly how you want it. Exactly the same every time.”

There isn’t any one thing to point out. At one place, like The Wenlock Arms, Lee-Weitz’s first stop of the trip, it could be the fireplace and the vibe. At another, like The Harp, it could be the care they give to an outstanding ten beers on cask and the people who struck up a conversation with you.

“There’s one thing about British pub culture I’m gonna have to try and explain,” a regular at The Harp said to Lee-Weitz. “British pub culture is about being able to walk into a pub strangers and leave friends.”

Every single place Lee-Weitz went welcomed her. As soon as she opened her mouth, most would ask if she was American before striking up a conversation about gun control, politics, or sports. They’d while away a whole afternoon over hours and a few cask ales.

Her only regret: She wished she’d had more time. Guess she’ll just have to go back again.

Best Breweries and Pubs in London

Manchester, England

When most folks travel to the U.K., they have one city in mind: the aforementioned London. To be fair, England’s capital has an amazing beer culture, from the historic pubs to the twenty-first-century trailblazers like The Kernel and Anspach & Hobday. But just a quick two-hour train ride north takes you to Manchester, where you’ll find a city as passionate about its beer as its football (soccer to us Americans).

Perhaps Paul Jones, founder of Cloudwater, said it best when we sat down with him: “There is a bit of swagger about Manchester,” which comes from working so hard but also not taking itself too seriously.

According to Jones, Manchester is almost like the best of both worlds. “The place in the U.K. where, from the oldest, largest, and longest-standing brewery to the most internationally renowned, you’ve got it all here,” he says. And nowhere else can make that claim.”

“Manchester is like a choose-your-own-adventure,” Matthew Curtis, author of “Manchester’s Best Beer Pubs and Bars” and founder of The Pellicle, explained to us as we sipped on a SoCal in Cloudwater’s airy, bright second-floor taproom. “Do you want modern? Do you want trad? … The quality is high as well. There’s a natural competitiveness to Mancunians, and it’s largely very healthy.”

“I’m convinced that if you were to cut a Mancunian, they would bleed best bitter,” Curtis writes in the first line of his book.

This should tell you a lot about the people of Manchester: They love their beer. The liquid flows through their bloodstream, hearts, and souls.

Creative, working class, and yet cutting edge, Manchester sits on the edge of two worlds. Once a mining and industry town, Manchester morphed into a powerhouse for punk rock music—the birthplace of bands like The Smiths, The Stone Roses, and Oasis. Today, this city sits on the precipice of an investment boom, welcoming young people flocking to the city and big businesses such as Barclays, Amazon, and Google (the only office outside London in the U.K.).

But one common denominator throughout it all?

Beer.

And not just the best bitters, dark milds, and pale ales themselves. Here, beer transcends the glass. Drinking in Manchester has become a rite of passage, a culture, a daily activity as necessary as breathing.

Pop into a heartwarming pub for lunch and a quick conversation with your buddy, or spend all night spooning pickled eggs into your mouth while laughing over a few rounds near the fireplace.

Words like warm, welcome, cheerful, and cordial come to mind.

If you love beer, Manchester should be a city you add to your must-visit list.

48 Hours Drinking and Eating in Manchester, England

Edinburgh, Scotland

Continuing north on her adventures in the United Kingdom, Lee-Weitz ended up in Edinburgh, Scotland. The beautiful, blustery capital of Scotland has plenty to discover, from charming, classic pubs to vibrant new-school breweries cranking out awesome dark lagers and brown ales.

Here, the path less followed is where you’ll find all the treasures. And that’s half the fun.

Down a craggy cobblestone street right off the docks, you’ll find the Moonwake taproom sticking out. Turn the corner, and you’re hit with a fuschia door surrounded by blue, green, red, and yellow geometric shapes. Walk up the stairs or take the accessible lift up to the mezzanine taproom, and the vibrant mural immediately strikes you, a cacophony of color blazing against the shining steel.

Named after the moon’s reflection on a body of water, Moonwake Beer Co. embodies these shimmering layers. You can never quite pin them down, yet you are surprisingly impressed by their beauty.

As much as co-founder Vinny Rosario will tell you Moonwake Beer Co. is old-school and straightforward, the beers he’s making and, most notably, the environment he’s creating are about anything but.

Walk inside Moonwake’s dappled walls, and you won’t just drink fantastic beer; you’ll find yourself reflecting on what it means to be an inclusive and accessible brewery in the U.K.

Read More

Take a twenty-minute stroll from the docks of Leith back towards Edinburgh’s center, veer off the main thoroughfare, Leith Walk, and stroll behind a car repair and maintenance shop called Bob’s Garage.

There, you’ll find Newbarns.

At just shy of 5 p.m. on a Friday, all the tables were full, the lights were turned down low, and the LUKR faucet was cranking.

At Newbarns, the atmosphere is relaxed—more like you are in your friend’s basement. Even the glassware Newbarns Brewer Jonny Hamilton says came from his personal collection. “And then it turned into anyone who found nice glasses in the charity shop were just bringing them in,” he says, noting they do have a special collection for friends, family, and regulars. Old beer adverts from Double Diamond, Harp, and, obviously, Guinness dot the wall. “If you have a look in the bathroom, you’ll see the walls covered in old beer mats!” Hamilton told us.

Even the beers themselves seem laid back, called simply “Pilsner,” “Stout,” “Pale Ale,” or “the almost passive-aggressive name of ‘Plain Dark Beer,’ which is our imperial stout,” Hamilton explains. “The whole point is we wanted to make an imperial stout with just malt, hops, and barley, no adjuncts. For our day-to-day beers, we pretty much never use adjuncts.”

Unfussy, unflappable.

“We’ve focused and tried to be the best at what we can do in the style we do, which is low-ABV beers between 3% and 5% ABV,” Hamilton shares. “We just like anything that you can drink by the pint.”

You won’t find hardcore beer nerds here. And you won’t find people looking for flights. You’ll just find people like Hamilton, those looking for a beer, maybe two, three, or four. One they can grab and tuck into with friends, whiling away the hours, forgetting that the world outside exists.

Much like at Kays Bar, one of the best pubs Lee-Weitz visited in Edinburgh. Curtis’ suggestion, which he wrote to her simply in an email: “The order should be Fyne Ales’ Jarl on cask.” When she walked into the small pub, dogs greeted her. Groups gathered in red-tipped booths. Behind the bar, a bowl of watermelon and on the counter, cashews for £1.80 and wasabi and honey chili snacks for £1.30. There were nooks and crannies everywhere, red-tipped booths where you could get cozy shoulder to shoulder. After a full day of rain, the sun finally shone in through a slightly scratched “Kays Bar” in black writing on the window.

The longer Lee-Weitz sipped on her pint, the more people struck up a conversation with her.

The dog who first greeted Lee-Weitz, Sophie, belonged to a couple—Aya and Alan, who worked for Rolls Royce as a product engineer traveling to Japan, where he met his now partner.

They love Kays because of the people. Because of the constant hum of conversation, Lee-Weitz didn’t even realize until they pointed it out: The bar plays no music. And the TVs? They only switch them on for the Six Nations, a famous rugby tournament every year between Scotland, England, Italy, France, Wales, and Ireland.

While she only meant to stay for one drink, Lee-Weitz stumbled back out three hours later with new friends, doing her best to navigate the cobblestone streets home.

That’s drinking in Edinburgh.

Czech Republic

At the beginning of April, Lee-Weitz joined a five-day beer trade mission to the Czech Republic led by the Czech Ministry of Agriculture.

Over the last half-decade, this department has organized an immersive trip for Canadian and American brewers, introducing them to Czech producers, ingredients, and beer styles. The goal is to encourage trade between countries and educate brewers on Czech beer styles and culture.

It’s an intense trip that takes the group around the whole country, visiting, in total, about twenty different places (not counting all the pubs where they would then go out at night).

Even after just one week in the Czech Republic, it’s pretty apparent that Czechs LOVE beer.

Need proof?

Well, for almost three decades, the people of the Czech Republic have consumed the most beer per capita out of any country in the world. In 2021, Czechs drank 184.1 liters per person (Kirin Holdings). For context, the United States ranked seventeenth with only 72.6 liters per person.

Suffice it to say that the Czechs take their beer seriously. And they’re finally sharing their beer culture with the world for the first time in centuries.

“If there is any justice in the world, this country would be better known for its beer culture,” beer journalist Evan Rail told us as we sat in a monastery brewery that has been making beer since 993. “But justice is in short supply.” Rail would know. He’s lived in the Czech Republic since 2000, becoming a de facto expert on Czech beer culture.

The Czechs have a long, tangled history with beer production. Several of the breweries we visited on the trip have existed since the 1300s, 1400s, or 1500s, with others starting in the 1800s.

But over the twentieth century, both the Nazis and Russians occupied the Czech Republic, making conditions less than ideal. The Czechs had to adapt just to survive.

“The situation in our country was de facto unchanged after 1948; with exceptions, individualities did not arise, logically it was not possible in the communist regime, any individuality was suppressed there,” wrote Pilsner Urquell Master Bartender Champion Lukáš Svoboda in an email to Hop Culture.

From a brewing perspective, Czechs couldn’t push exports or promote their beer culture.

For instance, Bavarian brewer Josef Groll first brewed a pilsner in Plzeň, Czech Republic, in 1842. Technically, the word pilsner means “from Pilsen” (or Plzeň) in Czech. And if you say Piju Plzeň in Czech, that directly translates to “I’m drinking the town of Plzen.”

Today, the style has become one of the most widely consumed worldwide (even Miller Lite cans include the word “pilsner” on them). But while millions of people drink the style, far fewer recognize what the word “pilsner” means and where this beer style originated.

In other words, the Czechs invented one of the most-drunk global beer styles but haven’t received equal recognition.

Compare this lack of awareness to other European countries. For example, in France, the government heavily controls the appellation for Champagne and Cognac; in Germany, the Cologne region controls the appellation for Kölsch.

No protected geographic regulations or official recognitions exist for pilsner.

But that’s changing with each group of brewers that visit the Czech Republic or with each person who decides to pilgrimage to the birthplace of pilsner, for example.

At least for the group, spending five days visiting brewery after brewery and pub after pub vastly expanded their knowledge of Czech beer culture. And Lee-Weitzbrought that back to share with all of you.

But reading about it is only half the battle (and fun); we highly encourage you to plan your own trip to this beer-drenched country.

Best Breweries and Bars in the Czech Republic

Paso Robles, California, United States

We may be biased, but we live in a fantastic state of beer—California. Sure, we all know that you can find amazing breweries around the Bay Area, in Los Angeles, or in San Diego. And, of course, top-notch wine in Napa. But what we love doing is getting out to those little-known places like Sacramento or Rancho Cordova, discovering the hidden drinking gems of California.

Firestone Walker recently invited us down for their incredible Invitational, so Hop Culture Social Media Manager Magic Muncie, Next Glass CPO Kyle Roderick, and Lee-Weitz thought they’d make a weekend of it, checking out all the best places to eat and drink in Paso Robles.

Set amongst rolling hills halfway between Southern and Northern California, Paso Robles made a name for itself with some of the most celebrated wineries in the state.

Yes, we said wineries. Sure, Napa Valley gets all the attention, but for those who don’t know, the Central Coast has some top-rated fermented grape producers. Nestled between coastal Highway 1 and Highway 101, Paso Robles is considered a wine country with a bit of Tex-Mex flair.

As Travel Paso writes on its website, Paso Robles is “a community of cowboys and innovators; it’s where world-class food, wine, and art meets small-town charm.”

From one of the most iconic breweries in the nation to some of the highest-rated wineries in the world, we discovered the rare finds in this rare wine and craft beer city.

48 Hours Drinking and Eating in Paso Robles

Bellevue, Washington, United States

While everyone knows about Seattle, just across Lake Washington, you’ll find a city that should become your base camp for epic adventures and drinking—Bellevue.

The Hop Culture team took a trip to this up-and-coming town courtesy of the folks at Visit Bellevue. For three days, they dipped into the beautiful natural surroundings, walked through the clean, safe streets, and adventured around waterfalls, lakes, mountains, and, of course, breweries galore.

“Bellevue is the lifestyle center of Seattle right now,” explains Visit Bellevue Executive Director Brad Jones, who described the city as the confluence of technology, sustainability, the outdoors, international food, and beer.

“Bellevue is a yes city,” says Megan Adams, partnerships manager for Visit Bellevue, who took the team on a beautiful hike and an impromptu stop at the salmon hatchery. “It’s pro-business but also pro-environment and pro-sustainability.”

She adds, “Outdoor adventures are the great connector in Bellevue. Everyone can access the outdoors.”

All around, Adams says if you live in Bellevue, “you celebrate sweat,” whether that’s through your job at Microsoft, Amazon, or T-Mobile—all with headquarters in Bellevue—through the outdoors kayaking, biking, hiking, running, sound bathing (seriously, it’s a thing, look it up), or, of course, through making beer.

Jones described the beer scene as multi-tiered. “Every kind of neighborhood has a little brewery you can take your dog to,” he says. “You’ll see the three different cultures of it—the larger, medium, and then the neighborhood level.”

Foodwise, you’ll find an international hub of hot pots, dumplings (“the crème de la crème I always take people to is dumplings,” admits Jones), and sushi mixed in with American food, seafood spots, and steakhouses.

“One of my favorite things as far as community-building is concerned is hot pots,” explains Adams, noting thirteen hot pot restaurants in Bellevue alone. “Hot pot kind of reminds me of the Asian version of an Italian dinner because we’re gonna be there for at least an hour and a half together, sharing this meal, creating this meal, and exploring different flavors—I love that.”

The international mix of cuisine directly reflects the people who Adams says you’ll see from “all walks of life speaking different languages.”

Adams says she also loves to visit one of the city’s local coffee shops, such as Bellden Cafe (featured at the link below) or Third Culture (also featured at the link below), to “stop, pause, and listen to all the languages.”

These are the subtle ways Bellevue surprised us…and we’ve barely talked about the breweries yet.

48 Hours Drinking and Eating in Bellevue, Washington

Yakima Valley, Washington, United States

“Welcome to Yakima. The Palm Springs of Washington,” reads a black, white, and red billboard on your way into town. We’ve been to Palm Springs, and we’ll admit before traveling to the Yakima Valley, we didn’t think of the region of the country that produces seventy-five percent of all hops in the United States as a desert. But as Issaquah, WA-based Formula Brewing Head Brewer Jesse Brown reminded me, technically, the Yakima Valley is a semi-arid desert, regularly getting 300 days of sunshine yearly.

“It’s a desert, but it’s also a huge fertile valley,” explains Brown, who feels blessed to live so close to the country’s hop heaven. “I don’t take it for granted. Every year, we have a fresh-hop season, and I get as excited as a little kid!”

A bucket list trip for any brewer in the industry, visiting the Yakima Valley isn’t just for those who work in beer. And it’s not all about hops, either—apparently, the region produces some of the best apples and cherries, too.

“At its heart, Yakima has a very homey feel,” Adam Stewart, the communications and travel trade manager for Yakima Valley Tourism, told us. “Because of the agriculture, most people are farmers, which lends itself to being very chill and calm. It’s very friendly and welcoming, and people just enjoy being hospitable. Even though it’s a big city, [Yakima] has three degrees of separation.”

Local brewery owner Derrick Nordberg from Cowiche Creek Brewing Company would argue that there is actually just “one degree of separation.”

Overall, in the town of 90,000 people, you’ll find a community that loves the outdoors and respects the land, whether that’s through cultivating hops or grapes, growing food for their own kitchens (fun fact: the Yakima Valley grows over forty different varieties of produce and is the number one exporter of Rainier cherries), or simply getting outside to enjoy the beautiful landscape of the valley from biking and hiking to fly fishing and skiing.

“Yakima is a farming community, but has so much outdoor access,” says Kelly Kulenkampff, who works at Yakima’s two-time James Beard-nominated restaurant Crafted. “I believe that everyone around here is ready to break into a hike at any time!”

For example, resident Shannon Mahre, founder of Girls with Grit, an organization encouraging women to get outside, learn a skill, and have fun in a supportive environment.

“We get hundreds of days of sun every year,” said Mahre, who had just come from a trail run before meeting us at local hangout Cot’s Peak for coffee and breakfast. “The activities include hiking, mountain biking, dirt biking, fishing, fly fishing, hunting, and trail running. It literally is never-ending. It’s year-round. I’m running every single day of the year. And mountain biking eleven months out of the year!”

Everyone we talked to at each place we went had similar things to say. “The people are super nice here,” said Seth Warfield, general manager at Caffe 11th Avenue, one of the top breakfast spots in the city. A transplant from Seattle, Warfield says he wasn’t used to people talking to him on the street. “It’s a small-town mentality.”

Of course, when the hop harvest happens from the end of August to the end of September, “it’s insane,” says Stewart. “Brewers from all over the world come here for hop selection.”

But even for the other eleven months of the year, Yakima Valley is a place you should consider visiting.

Where else can you drink award-winning beer with the freshest fresh hops around, eat tacos in a hop field, go fly fishing in a Blue Ribbon river, and do karaoke in a backroom bar (if you can find it)? Here’s everything we did, ate, and drank during our forty-eight hours in the Yakima Valley.

48 Hours Drinking and Eating in Yakima Valley

Denver, Colorado

We know, we know, Denver, CO, isn’t precisely a sizzling new spot for beer travel. But our trip to Colorado’s capital for this year’s Great American Beer Festival (GABF) felt like we were freshmen coming home for the first time in college.

We got around to some of our favorite breweries and a few we’d never visited.

For instance, we sat down with the daring dudes behind one of Colorado’s best mixed-culture breweries, now kicking out incredible West Coast IPAs and pilsners.

Grabbed an ESB on cask with the founders of Colorado’s lambic-style champions.

Attended the festival with the rarest beer in the country.

Drank nowhere near enough dunkels and helles at the haus of German lager royalty.

And tasted a new concept bringing the farm to your fridge and foam.

We’ve been to Denver five times now. Yet each and every time, the city reveals some new drinking adventure to us. For that reason, we absolutely feel that Denver was one of the top places we traveled for beer in 2024.

The 21 Best Breweries in Denver, Colorado