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The Top Places for Beer Travel in 2024
Save up those miles!
Photography courtesy of Budvar
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We went to a lot of places in 2023—Paris, Lille, Belgium, Bratislava, Nashville, Munich, Rancho Cordova, Vermont, Austin, Manhattan, Los Angeles, and Tokyo, just 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 New Year’s just on the horizon, here’s a bucket list of sorts for all the top places for beer travel in 2024.
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 2024
Kansas City, MO, United States
Photography courtesy of Vine Street Brewing
Yes, we know it might sound odd. When we think of epic beer cities, we’re more likely to name Portland, OR, Chicago, IL, Los Angeles, CA, or Asheville, NC. But Kansas City, MO, has quietly become home to some buzzworthy breweries—Vine Street, Alma Mader (one of our “14 Best Breweries of 2022”), BKS Artisan Ales (one of our “Best Breweries of 2023”), and KC Bier (whose KC Bier Light Craft Beer & Brewing named as one of its “Best 20 Beers in 2023”), to give you an idea.
That list alone has us thinking: Should we plan a trip to Kansas City next year? Call us crazy if you want, but seems like something is in the water (or should we say beer) in this Midwestern state.
You heard it here first: Kansas City could be the next great beer city and top place for beer travel next year.
Czech Republic
Photography courtesy of Jan Havránek | LUKR
Last year, we predicted that it would be the “Year of the Czech Lager.”
We pretty much nailed that one!
In May, Hop Culture Senior Content Editor Grace Lee-Weitz wrote about an epic six-brewery Czech pale lager collab called Bus Beer, traveling to Nashville for the Craft Brewers Conference to try the beer release in person. She loved it so much that she named it one of her top beers of the year.
She also covered the cool ways Czechs pour beers.
Hop Culture Freelancer Andy Crump delved into the dark depths of the Czech dark lager.
And wave after wave of breweries that sent us beer included some type of Czech style in the package, prompting us to show you all of the All-Time Highest-Rated Czech Pilsners on Untappd.
These days, we’d be hard-pressed not to find a Czech pale lager, Czech pilsner, Czech dark lager, or even Czech amber on a tap list or in a brewery’s portfolio.
The Czechs just love beer.
In fact, for the last twenty-eight years, the people of the Czech Republic have consumed the most beer per capita out of any country in the world. In 2020, Czechs drank 181.9 liters per person ???? (Kirin Holdings). For context, the United States ranked seventeenth with only 72.8 liters per person.
From what we’ve heard from people who traveled to this ale-loving country, the pub and beer culture is incredible. And selfishly, we want to experience it for ourselves!
Accordingly, the Czech Republic has become a must-visit country on our list of the top places for beer travel in 2024.
Upstate New York, United States
Photography courtesy of @drownedlandsbrewery
Since Lee-Weitz moved all the way 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, 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 of 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.
England, United Kingdom
Photography courtesy of Cloudwater Brew
This one should seem self-explanatory: England is beer royalty. And, at the moment, we feel like peasants with no one on the team having visited His Majesty’s country since at least 2003. ????
We know we are missing so, so much!
First, let’s talk about the pubs, which are to England what bodegas are to New York—on every corner, beckoning all hours of the day, except instead of offering bacon, egg, and cheese bagels and cheap coffee, you get Sunday roasts or fish and chips and pints.
Next, let’s chat about cask culture. We want to get sucked into real ale next year, which we again admit we haven’t had much experience with yet.
Lastly, the craft beer scene is just nutso. Been to England recently? Have a brewery that we must visit? Drop us a line @hopculturemag or [email protected].
All signs point to England as one of the best beer places to travel for beer next year.
That, and Lee-Weitz is a huge Tottenham fan. Go Spurs! ⚽
Denver, CO, United States
Photography courtesy of Westbound & Down
Yes, we just took an epic trip to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival in 2022. But we had such an excellent time, and we didn’t even get to go everywhere we wanted to go.
Plus, a lot has happened in a year.
We hadn’t yet met Cohesion Co-Founder Eric Larkin and learned about his dedication to Czech styles.
Primitive hadn’t yet decided to close its Longmont taproom and move operations to New Image.
Amalgam hadn’t started brewing its beers out of Bierstadt Lagerhaus.
Westbound & Down hadn’t decided to permanently take over its former-pop-up brewery at the Denver Free Market.
Lee-Weitz hadn’t gone on a trip to Belgium with all these fine folks from Colorado, including Strange Craft Founder Tim Myers and Purpose Brewing Co-Founders Peter and Frezi Bouckaert.
In other words, a trip back to the Mile High City is top of mind for the team in 2024.
Franconia, Germany
Photography courtesy of Häffner Bräu Brauereigasthof & Hotel
Earlier this year, Hop Culture Freelancer Ryan Pachemayer visited Munich, Germany, putting together a great guide for those looking to imbibe at some of the most historic breweries in the world.
Lucky for us, he’s already working on his next installment—a guide to the Franconia region. He’s told us if we liked his Munich recommendations, we’re going to love this next one.
Basically, we no longer just want to live vicariously through Pachemayer’s travels but rather plan our own.
We don’t know too much about this region, so we’re eager to learn more from Pachemayer and, hopefully, plan our own beer trip soon.
Las Vegas, NV, United States
Photography courtesy of Sung Shin | Unsplash
The largest industry-wide conference in the country—Craft Brewers Conference (CBC)—with its copious amount of flowing beer will be held in this desert oasis next year. And while we know Las Vegas as an adult Disneyland and entertainment playground, we can’t say that we’ve ever targeted this city as top place for beer travel.
Still, there must be a reason the Brewers Association picked this place to host one of its most important events of the year.
Let’s find out why!
See ya in Sin City next year.
Want to see us write a new travel guide? Where should we travel in 2024? Shoot us a DM @hopculturemag or hit us up [email protected] and let us know!
