The Top Places We Want to Travel for Beer in 2025

We went to a lot of top places for beer in 2024—London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Czechia, Paso Robles, CA, Bellevue, WA, the Yakima Valley, and Denver, to name a few. We traveled to some incredible breweries all across the globe and tried many fantastic beers, so we’re already getting excited about the adventures we want to take next year.

With the New Year just on the horizon, here’s a bucket list of sorts for all the top places for beer travel in 2025.

Will we make it all happen? Guess you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out!

Where We Want to Travel for Beer in 2025

Australia and New Zealand

Repeat after us: dream trip. If you paid attention to our “Top Beer Resolutions of 2025,” we mentioned visiting a hop harvest in another country. Australia and New Zealand fit that bill perfectly.

Through our travels and articles this year, we met Scotty Hargrave from Balter Brewing on the Gold Coast of Australia, Jos Ruffell and Pete Gillespie of Garage Project in Wellington, New Zealand, Dr. Ron Beatson from NZ Hops, and Brent McGlashen from Mac Hops in Nelson, New Zealand.

Several brewery friends, from Firestone Walker Brewmaster Matt Brynildson to Monday Night Brewmaster Peter Kiley, have told us about their epic adventures during the hop harvest in Australia and New Zealand, so we are absolutely chomping at the bit to explore both of these beer cultures.

Repeat after us again: dream trip.

THE TINY BREWERY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD

Germany

Last year, Hop Culture Freelancer Ryan Pachmayer visited Munich, Germany, putting together an excellent guide for those looking to imbibe at some of the most historic breweries in the world.

Lucky for us, he went back, producing a guide to the Franconia region.

During his latest trip this past fall, Hop Culture Senior Content Editor Grace Lee-Weitz texted him to ask how it was going. He immediately responded, “ OMG, we’re at the most amazing place.”

We want to go to that amazing place!

Plus, we want to go drink kölsch in Cologne, Altbier in Dusseldorf, and rauchbier from Bamberg, stopping by the historic Schlenkerla, of course.

Basically, we no longer just want to live vicariously through Pachmayer’s travels or the people we talk to but rather plan our own trips.

Who knows, Oktoberfest may be involved, too.

BEST BREWERIES IN MUNICH, GERMANY

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FRANCONIA’S BEER SCENE

Upstate New York, United States

Since Lee-Weitz moved across the country from the East Coast to the West Coast in 2020, she hasn’t had a chance to get back to upstate New York. The Hudson Valley region is ripe with incredible breweries—Hudson Valley Brewery, Suarez Family, The Drowned Lands, Deep Fried Beers / Night School and Marlowe Artisanal Ales (both of which we named to our “Best New Breweries of 2024,”), and Equilibrium, just off the top of our heads. Going even further north, you’ll hit the Finger Lakes region, replete with places like Brewery Ardennes (whose BA Tripel we named to our list of “The Best Beers We Drank in 2023”), an Other Half taproom, and Fidens not too far away.

Beautiful hillsides with beautiful breweries brewing beautiful beer? Sign us up for that trip.

BEST BREWERIES IN UPSTATE NEW YORK

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

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Hop Culture Social Media Manager Magic Muncie named Montreal-based Messorem Bracitorium to our list of “The 11 Best Breweries of 2024.”

“Messorem Bracitorium, a microbrewery in Montreal, Canada, was founded in 2019 and has since risen to become one of the most innovative breweries around,” wrote Muncie. “Known for their unique interpretations of modern styles, Messorem had quite an impressive showing in 2024. With striking artwork, incredible collabs, and an array of epic merch, Messorem crafted unforgettable experiences for craft beer lovers throughout the year.”

This got us thinking about putting more Canadian breweries on our radar. We realize Canada is huge and made up of very different regions, each with its own unique breweries, but hey, we have to start somewhere, right?

Plus, Montreal is not that far from both Vermont and New Hampshire, meaning we could potentially just drive a few hours south to hit a couple of our favorite New England breweries like Schilling, The Alchemist, von Trapp Brewing, Garrison City, and more.

A double or even triple whammy!

Korea

Last year, we named Dokkaebier, the Korean-owned brewery in Oakland adding Korean ingredients and culture to its beers, one of our “Best New Breweries of 2023.”

Recently, one of our fans reached out, recommending that we visit Japan and Korea. While Lee-Weitz and her partner traveled Tokyo a couple of years ago, they’ve been itching to go back, expanding to Korea, too.

Lee-Weitz knew very little about the drinking culture in Tokyo before reaching out to folks in the city, finding some of her favorite listening bars, tiny five-seat pubs, and breweries.

One of the best parts of our jobs is exploring new cities and finding the best breweries, bars, and hidden gems. We’ve done this quite a few times now, and Korea would be a great addition to that list.

Alaska, United States

While going through old travel guides, the Hop Culture team stumbled across one from Anchorage, AK, that we immediately decided “needed an update.”

A bucket-list vacation destination in its own right, Alaska has a brewing culture just a little, well, wild. Overcoming more challenges than those in the lower forty-eight, Alaskan breweries seem like a land of untamed wilderness to us.

Plus, we’ve also wanted to go to Anchorage’s A Deal With the Devil Day, which usually happens in late October. That alone could be a good excuse to take a six-hour flight north.

Finland

We have a strong case for why Finland should be on your list of countries to visit for beer next year.

First, our community on IG put us on to Revenant Brewing Project, which we named one of “The 11 Best Breweries of 2024.”

Founded in 2023, Revenant Brewing Project is a passion project from Kuopio, Finland, for a couple of long-time beer enthusiasts, wrote Revenant Brewing Project Co-Founder Petteri Sikanen in an email to us.

Just thirteen months since unleashing its first beer, Revenant now counts sixteen beers in its portfolio that have garnered 12k reviews. Currently, Revenant Brewing holds a highly esteemed 4.07 rating on Untappd.

Speaking of Untappd, one of the most popular posts on IG for the world’s largest social networking app for beer last year included this one on Salama Brewing.

Now the second highest-rated brewery in all of Finland (with 10k+ check-ins), Salama has continued their ascent by producing some of the most exciting beers in Europe.

During the Untappd Community Awards, Salama stacked up twenty-seven medals with thirteen golds—ranging from wild ales to pilsners to IPAs. Salama also secured sweeps in the American Barleywine and Fruited Berliner Weisse categories!

We imagine there are even more breweries out there in Finland worth your time, which is why we’re adding this country to our list of the top places we want to travel for beer in 2025.

Iceland

Speaking of cold places that no one typically thinks of when it comes to great beer culture, Iceland popped up on our radar after we learned about a trip there next year led by The World Atlas of Beer author Tim Webb.

Is our interest piqued? Absolutely. Do we know anything about breweries in Iceland? Sure don’t. Which is exactly why we want to go. Even after all of his travels and writing a book about beers around the world, Webb has assured us he expects this to be a trip of a lifetime.

Want to see us write a new travel guide? Where should we travel in 2025? Shoot us a DM @hopculturemag or hit us up at [email protected] and let us know!