The Beer Travel Guide Post-Quarantine Update

Since America is opening back up, we figure it’s time to re-open The Beer Travel Guide as well! Welcome back to our old friends, and hello to our new visitors. Coronavirus continues to put stress upon small businesses everywhere in the world right now– so for beer lovers, perhaps more than ever, it’s important to show support for your local craft breweries. These businesses rely on continued customer support for survival, so if you have disposable income and you’re able to afford re-investing that income into local businesses, we urge you to put some of it into the hands of the makers of your favorite local craft beer.

We didn’t update our site during the coronavirus quarantine– for what we think are fairly obvious reasons– so please be patient with us as we start logging updates and writing new content. Some things to note as you start planning new beer travels and as you use our site as the resource it was designed to be:

1. PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH OUT-OF-DATE INFORMATION. Nearly every craft brewery that remained open for can sales during the shutdown changed their public hours of operation, and many who are re-opening their taprooms now will also be operating on a different schedule than they had in place pre-quarantine. We will be updating our site as quickly as we can, but it’s very possible that the information on our brewery lists regarding dates, times, and food availability is no longer accurate. Before heading to any brewery, please check the brewery’s social media to determine their hours of operation.

2. PLEASE CONTINUE TO EXERCISE CAUTION TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF THE DISEASE. Though we are all happy that the country is opening back up and many people can return to work, there is still no coronavirus vaccine, so it is very possible the disease could return with a devastating surge at any time. We want our readers to support local craft beer, but we also want our readers, brewers, and brewery employees to remain safe. Please continue to use social distancing, frequent hand washing, and masks whenever possible– scientists agree that a combination of these three things is the best way to make sure you don’t catch the disease or inadvertently spread it to others. Behave the way you’d like people to behave around you. These are scary times, and the best way we’ll get through them is being considerate of the health, needs, and worries of others. The only way we can ensure that our favorite breweries remain open is by doing our part to prevent coronavirus from spreading.

3. PLEASE CONSIDER BUYING BEER TO DRINK AT HOME. Coronavirus concerns will likely continue to be prevalent until a vaccine is available, and we have no timeline on its availability. Fortunately, the craft beer industry is continuing to adapt and evolve in order to keep employees at work and keep beer drinkers satisfied. Don’t feel safe going to a taproom? Most breweries offer to-go cans and crowlers, so you can drink delicious craft beer from the safety of your own home. Can’t travel to your favorite brewery without risk of exposure? More breweries now than ever are offering delivery directly to your doorstep– several will ship anywhere in the state, and some even ship outside the state. We all want to support or favorite craft breweries, and most craft breweries will be going above and beyond to ensure they remain as safe and sanitized as possible– but it’s important to remember, regardless of your level of concern about coronavirus, the easiest way to support and stay safe simultaneously is by purchasing beer to drink at home.

4. PLEASE EXPLORE BEER FESTIVAL ALTERNATIVES. Odds are high your favorite beer festival is cancelled or will be cancelled in 2020. It would be exceedingly difficult to manage crowds and cleanliness at a beer festival– as anyone who’s been to a beer festival knows. We *love* beer fests, and we’re incredibly bummed that we’re unlikely to attend any this year. That said, many outlets are offering “virtual beer festivals,” where cans of beer will be sent to your door for your at-home consumption. Many of these also offer Zoom discussions with brewers or beer experts so you can learn about your beer as you drink it. While our festival calendar is obviously going to be a serious work-in-progress in 2020, we will try to update with information about virtual beer festivals, so that those who love the variety one can enjoy at a beer festival may have the opportunity to do so from the safety of their homes.

At our house, we’ll continue to buy cans from our favorite local spots and bottle shops, we’ll continue to do virtual happy hours with friends, we’ll attend virtual beer festivals whenever possible, and we’ll enjoy the occasional pint at local taprooms, using all precautionary safety measures at our disposal, in order to stay safe while having fun. This problem isn’t going away any time soon, but if we all collectively do our part, we can minimize the spread of the disease. If we do that, we’ll minimize the odds of another quarantine and we’ll help ensure that our favorite local craft breweries remain open for business.

Keep drinking local, keep safe, and if you need advice on where to do your drinking, keep coming back to The Beer Travel Guide. We’re all in this together.