Blueskies Brewery | TheBeerProfessor

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.

Ohio Breweries (20)