It is a tradition that my last blog entry of the year reflect upon the previous twelve months with a photo gallery of the breweries I visited during that period. In 2026, I visited a total of 35 breweries- 15in my home state of Ohio, 14 in other states, and 6 outside of the United States. The 14 breweries I visited in other states were located in California, Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Utah, while those outside of the United States were in Armenia, Canada, Poland, and Slovakia. Of the 34 breweries 21 were ones I had visited before and 14 were first time visits (indicated in bold in the list below).
As per tradition, following the list below, I have included one photograph from each of the breweries I visited. Enjoy.
OHIO (15)
60cc Brewing, Toledo, OH
BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, Toledo, OH
CLAG Brewing Co. Sandusky, OH
Great Black Swamp Brewing Co., Toledo, OH
Hoptometry Brewing, Tiffin, OH
Inside the Five Brewing Company, Sylvania, OH
Inside The Five Brewing Co., Toledo, OH
Inside the Five Brewing Co., Perrysburg, OH
Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, Athens, OH
Maumee Bay Brewing Co., Toledo, OH
Old Dog Alehouse & Brewery, Delaware, OH
Patron Saints Brewery, Toledo, OH
Quenched & Tempered Brewing Co. Toledo, OH
The Laird Arcade Brewery, Tiffin, OH
Voodoo Brewing Company, Toledo OH
REST OF UNITED STATES (14)
Bell’s Eccentric Cafe, Kalamazoo, MI
Blind Lady Ale House, San Diego, CA
Dark Horse Brewing Company, Marshall, MI
Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, Romulus, MI (Airport Location)
Harland Beer Co., San Diego, CA (Bay Park Location)
Red Rock Brewery, Salt Lake City, UT (Airport Location)
New Holland Brewing Co., Battle Creek, MI
North Park Beer Co., San Diego, CA (North Park Location)
Pavlov’s Brewing Co., Temperance, MI
San Diego Tap Room, San Diego, CA
Seek Beer Co., San Diego, CA
Stone Brewing, San Diego, CA (Airport Location)
Vault Brewing Company, Yardley, PA
Woods Boss Brewing Company, Denver, CO
INTERNATIONAL (6)
Beer Academy Ethnograph, Yerevan, Armenia
Brovaria, Poznan, Poland
Pivovar Golem, Košice, Slovakia
Pivovar Hostinec, Košice, Slovakia
Steamworks Brewing Co., Vancouver, Canada
Yaletown Brewing Company, Vancouver, Canada
60cc Brewing, Toledo, OH
Beer Academy Ethnograph, Yerevan, Armenia
Bell’s Eccentric Cafe, Kalamazoo, MI
BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, Toledo, OH
Blind Lady Ale House, San Diego, CA
Brovaria, Poznan, Poland
CLAG Brewing Co., Sandusky, OH
Dark Horse Brewing Company, Marshall, MI
Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, Romulus, MI (Airport Location)
Great Black Swamp Brewing Co., Toledo, OH
Harland Beer Co., San Diego, CA (Bay Park Location)
Hoptometry Brewing, Tiffin, OH
Inside The Five Brewing Co., Sylvania, OH
Inside The Five Brewing Co., Perrysburg, OH
Inside The Five Brewing Co., Toledo, OH
Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, Athens, OH
Maumee Bay Brewing Co., Toledo, OH
New Holland Brewing Co., Battle Creek, MI
North Park Beer Co., San Diego, CA (North Park Location)
Old Dog Alehouse & Brewery, Delaware, OH
Patron Saints Brewery, Toledo, OH
Pavlov’s Brewing Co., Temperance, MI
Pivovar Golem, Košice, Slovakia
Pivovar Hostinec, Košice, Slovakia
Quenched & Tempered Brewing Co. Toledo, OH
Red Rock Brewery, Salt Lake City, UT (Airport Location)
San Diego Tap Room, San Diego, CA
Seek Beer Co., San Diego, CA
Steamworks Brewing Company, Vancouver, Canada
Stone Brewing, San Diego, California (Airport Location)
Between 2017 and 2021, at the end of each year, I posted a blog entry documenting all the breweries I had visited during the calendar year. Included was one photograph from each brewery. In 2022, I did not post such an entry. I can’t quite remember why this was the case. However, I also failed to make an end-of- year posting in 2023. Anyway, 2024 is almost over and I thought I’d get back into the habit of documenting the breweries I visited.
During 2024, I visited a total of forty-five breweries. Before going any further, I should define what I am counting as a brewery. Any establishment owned by a brewery, whether beer is brewed on-site or not, is included in my list. For example, Inside The Five Brewing Company has three locations in northwest Ohio. At only one of those locations is beer brewed. However, all three locations are included in the list of breweries I visited in 2024.
Of the forty-five breweries I visited in 2024, eighteen were in my home state of Ohio, seventeen were located elsewhere in the United States, and ten were outside of the United States. Of the seventeen breweries I visited elsewhere in the United States, four were in the neighboring state of Michigan. Toledo, where I live, is located just south of the Ohio/Michigan border, so visits to Michigan breweries are fairly routine. Trips to California, Indiana, Nevada, and Pennsylvania afforded me the opportunity to visit breweries in those states. In terms of breweries outside of the United States, two trips to Canada, as well as trips to Armenia and Slovakia, meant that I visited more non-US breweries than I normally do.
Of the forty-five breweries I visited, sixteen were repeat visits. This meant there were twenty-nine breweries that I visited for the first time (indicated in bold font in the list below).
I hope you enjoy the photographs below. I wish every one a Happy New Year and hope that 2025 is a wonderful year for you.
OHIO (18)
60CC Brewing, Toledo, OH Arlyn’s Good Beer, Bowling Green, OH
I recently spent a couple of days in San Diego, CA. This was my third trip to California since November, and my second to San Diego. The purpose of this particular visit was to give a guest lecture in ‘Craft Breweries and the Urban Economy’, a class taught by my good friend and colleague Julie Wartell at the University of California-San Diego, As per usual when I visit Julie in San Diego, we managed to find time to visit couple of breweries.
At one of our brewery stops, Seek Beer Co., we ran into (excuse the pun) a local running group. The Seek Beer Run Club meet every Monday at 6pm. Those who show up participate in a 5k run (or jog or walk) around the North Park neighborhood. Afterwards they meet back at the brewery and enjoy some conversation and a beer or two. This is a run-for-fun group, with inexperienced runners (and non-runners) encouraged to participate. According to the group’s Instagram account, runners get a complimentary post-run beer and discounted beers for the remainder of the evening. Those completing ten runs receive a club t-shirt.
The Seek Beer Run Club meet every Monday evening
Seek Beer Run Club participants enjoy a post-run beer and conversation
While the Seek Beer Run Club appears to be a rather informal, come-as-you-are, group other initiatives are somewhat more ambitious. Take the BrewRunners of Cincinnati, for example. The Ohio group offers both a15-week half marathon training program and a 17-week full marathon training program. Each training group meets twice a week at local breweries, with the goal of having participants run in the Flying Pig half and full marathons in early May. Having said that, the group emphasizes that while they are a running group, they are “mostly a get together and have fun group”. On its website, the group lists ten Cincinnati breweries as social partners.
The Seek Beer Run Club and BrewRunners of Cincinnati are two examples of the intersection between craft beer and what is known as leisure time physical activity (LTPA). Dirk Steinbach and Christine Graf of the German Sport University define LPTA as “all of the behavior connected with physical activity that people engage in in their freely disposable time”.
Others examples abound. Cycling groups that associate themselves with the craft brewing movement are also common. In my city of Toledo, OH Patron Saints Brewery organize Pedals and Pints. Cyclists meet at Patron Saints and bike to another local brewery or bar, where they enjoy some beer before heading back to Patron Saints. Partnering with a locally-owned bike shop, the bi-weekly meet-up is billed as a “casual ride exploring awesome places in and around West Toledo”. On a larger scale, Bikes & Beers organizes bike rides in cities across the country. Each event has 15, 30, and 50 mile cycling routes and a host brewery where the post-ride after-party takes place. There is a registration fee for participating in Bikes & Beers events, but each one benefits a local cycling charity to improve policies, laws, and infrastructure. Again, the emphasis is on fun and is promoted as “a fun way for cyclists of all levels to get out and enjoy the road”.
Participants in the bi-weekly Pedals and Pints program meet at Patron Saints Brewery and bike to another local brewery or bar
Beer yoga is also a common activity associated with breweries. Within minutes, a brewery taproom or other space within the brewery can be quickly transformed into a temporary yoga studio. The branding associated with beer yoga is particularly clever with names such as Bendy Brewski Yoga, Downward-facing Drafts, and Bottoms Up! Yoga. Then there’s Yoga and a Pint, a name that really cuts to the chase.
So what motivates people to participate in runs, bike rides, and yoga classes that are organized by or in collaboration with breweries? The answer to that question is provided by a recent study conducted by Alana Seaman of the University of North Carolina -Wilmington and her colleagues and published in the journal Leisure Studies. In that study, the researchers interviewed individuals who participated in LTPA associated with breweries in Wilmington, NC, Auburn, VA, and Louisville, KY. Activities that interviewees participated in were frisbee golf, run clubs, ping-pong tournaments, and yoga classes.
For participants, the social aspect of LTPA is important. LTPA provide opportunities to spend time with friends, while also meeting new people. Having a post-activity beer plays a critical role in facilitating socializing. Without it, most people would probably depart once the activity was completed. Some of the interviewees appreciated the laid-back, informal nature of LTPA, and the fact that it is less serious and intense than physical activities carried out in purpose-built buildings. The brewery, and the beer it produces and serves appears to be playing a critical role in bringing people together and socializing with each other. The fact that the craft breweries in the study were locally-owned was also attractive to many LTPA participants.
Leisure time physical activity is good for human health. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies insufficient physical activity as the fourth leading risk factor for mortality, accounting for approximately 3.2 million deaths per year. Research published in The Lancet suggests that the situation is much more serious, placing the number of deaths attributable to the lack of physical activity at 5.3 million. One estimate suggests that 31.3% of persons aged 15+ are insufficiently active.
A study of over 100,000 men and women between the ages of 20 and 100 living in Copenhagen, Denmark and published in the European Heart Journal found that leisure-time activity promotes cardiovascular health, while job-related physical activity does not. In a paper published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine researchers found that 7.6% of cardiovascular disease deaths globally are attributable to physical inactivity, while another published in the Journal of Yoga & Physical Therapy concluded that “people who participate in leisure activities have lower stress levels, a better mood, a lower heart rate, and more psychological engagement, which means they are less bored, which can help them avoid hazardous habits.”
The combination of craft breweries and LPTA seems to be a particularly beneficial one. LPTA clearly has health benefits. But so does moderate alcohol consumption in a social setting, as demonstrated by the work of evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar and others. As noted by Dunbar et al., in a 2017 paper published in Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, “our social networks provide us with the single most important buffer against mental and physical illness”. This is because alcohol triggers the endorphin system, which relaxes individuals and promotes social bonding.
I have been studying the craft brewing industry for just over ten years. Over that time, as the result of my own research, as well as that of others, I have arrived at the conclusion that craft breweries are assets to the communities in which they are located. The aforementioned paper by Alana Seaman and her colleagues, which explores the symbiotic relationship between craft breweries and LTPA, is the most recent piece of evidence in support of this.
So another year is about to draw to a close. And with that, it is time to look back on my brewery and taproom visits for the year. At the start of the year, I set myself a goal of 52 breweries/taprooms, an average of one per week. By the middle of March, I had visited 17 breweries and 5 taprooms, so I was well on course to meet my target. And then, as we all know, large parts of the United States started to go into lockdown mode in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. I was one of those individuals who took the threat of Covid-19 seriously, its appearance severely curtailed my brewery and taproom visits. Indeed, in the period since mid-March I have only visited 3 breweries and 1 taproom (all in my home state of Ohio). So, in total, I visited 20 breweries and 6 taprooms during 2020 – exactly half of my original target. This compares with 46 in 2017, 66 in 2018, and 63 in 2019.
Before providing more statistics on my 2020 visits, let me explain the difference between a brewery and a taproom. The difference is quite simple. A brewery is an establishment where beer is produced, whereas a taproom is an establishment owned by a brewery that sells but does not produce beer on-site.
Of the 20 breweries that I visited 5 were in Ohio and 15 were in the United States but outside of Ohio. All of my non-Ohio brewery visits were in California, Florida, Michigan, and Nebraska – states that I had the opportunity to visit before Covid-19 lockdowns were implemented. Of the 20 breweries, I had visited 4 before (all in the Toledo metropolitan area and indicated by italics in the list below). Of the 6 taprooms that I visited 4 were in San Diego, CA, 1 was in Omaha, NE, and 1 was in Hudson, OH.
Unfortunately, there are no international breweries or taprooms on this year’s list. For the first time since 2003 I did not venture outside of the United States. With several vaccines now available hope that I will be able to resume my travels and brewery/taproom visits during 2021. Due to the uncertainty that still exists with regard to the impact that Covid-19 will have on our activities during 2021 I will not set myself a target.
As is my tradition, I have provided one photograph from each of the breweries/taprooms that I visited during 2020. To me they capture the beauty and diversity of the world of craft beer. I hope that you enjoy them.
As has been my tradition for the last couple of years, my final blog entry for the year reviews my brewery visits during the previous 12 months. This year I visited a total of 63 different breweries. That is an average of one brewery every 5.79 days. Overall, I visited three less breweries in 2019 than I did in 2018. Of the 63 breweries, 14 were in my home state of Ohio, 46 were in other parts of the United States (excluding Ohio), while three were outside of the United States. In addition to Ohio, I visited breweries in 10 different states – California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Of the 63 breweries I visited, I had been to 15 before (indicated in italics in the lists below). Late in the year, I did manage to visit some breweries outside of the United States. A late-November trip to the Netherlands afforded me the opportunity to visit three breweries in Amsterdam, two of which I had been to before. The most breweries I visited in one day was six – when I participated in The Napa Beer Mile in Napa, CA in February. The city where I visited the most breweries was Charlotte, NC. During a trip there in October I visited nine breweries. At the start of 2019, I set myself a target of visiting 52 different breweries during the year. I easily hit that target. I will set myself an identical target for 2020.
Below you will find a list of all the craft breweries that I visited during 2019. Following this list, you will find one photograph from each of the places that I visited. I hope that you enjoy these. They are intended to capture the beauty and diversity of craft beer and the places that brew and sell it.
So another year is about to draw to a close. And with that, it is time to look back on my brewery visits for the year. This year, I visited a record sixty-six breweries. At the start of the year, I set myself a goal of fifty-two breweries, an average of one per week. So I more than met my target.
Of the breweries that I visited, twenty were in my home state of Ohio, forty-one were in states other than Ohio, and five were outside of the United States. In addition to Ohio, I had the opportunity to visit breweries in five other states – Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, and Texas. Outside of the United States, I visited breweries in Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Of the sixty-six breweries that I visited, I had been to thirteen of them at least once before (indicated in italics in the lists below), which means there were fifty-three breweries that I visited for the first time.
This year, I also kept track of the craft beer bars that I visited. Throughout the year, I visited nine craft beer bars – three in Austin, TX, and one each in Toledo, OH and Ann Arbor, MI. I also visited craft beer bars in Rome (Italy), Lisbon (Portugal), Zurich (Switzerland), and Innsbruck (Austria).
Creating a list of craft beer bars visited did raise some interesting definitional questions. To qualify as a craft beer bar, does that mean that all beer that it sells must be craft beer? If not, what proportion of the beer must be craft beer? Does a bar that sells predominantly macro-beer, but has a couple of craft beers on tap, qualify as a craft beer bar? I did give this some thought as I set out to create this list. Here is where I ended up, from a definition perspective. To qualify as a craft beer bar, the beers available must be predominantly craft beers. It is ok to have one or two macro-beers, but no more than that. Also, it must have craft beers from more than one brewery. For example, while most of the beers available at the Brewdog bar in Rome are brewed by Brewdog, the bar does have a nice, albeit, small selection of other craft beers. While you may debate the criteria I used to define a craft beer bar, it worked for me.
Below you will find a list of all the craft breweries and craft beer bars that I visited during 2018. Following this list, you will find one photograph from each of the places that I visited. I hope that you enjoy these. They are intended to capture the beauty and diversity of craft beer.
For 2019, I will once again set a target of fifty-two craft breweries. While I am tempted to try to beat my 2018 total of sixty-six breweries, I want to keep this a fun, non-stressful, venture – fifty-two seems a reasonable target.
