Looking for the original Bar Towel blog? You can find it at www.thebartowel.com.

We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.

Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!

Around the World Beer Trip...where would you go?

Discuss beer or anything else that comes to mind in here.

Moderators: Craig, Cass

User avatar
El Pinguino
Seasoned Drinker
Posts: 1440
Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 6:02 pm
Location: Downtown TO / Galapagos Islands
Contact:

Around the World Beer Trip...where would you go?

Post by El Pinguino »

Ok, here are the requirements....
- you can stop in up to 6 places
- you have up to 1 month to do it
- you can visit multiple nearby cities on 1 stop by using public transit

So, where do you go?

My route is:
Portland
Melbourne
Tokyo
Helsinki
Brussels (+nearby Netherlands or Germany by train)
Barcelona

liamt07
Bar Fly
Posts: 597
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:36 pm
Location: Downsview/Toronto

Post by liamt07 »

El Pinguino wrote:Ok, here are the requirements....
- you can stop in up to 6 places
- you have up to 1 month to do it
- you can visit multiple nearby cities on 1 stop by using public transit

So, where do you go?

My route is:
Portland
Melbourne
Tokyo
Helsinki
Brussels (+nearby Netherlands or Germany by train)
Barcelona
Wait, you're taking a beer trip and going to Australia, Finland and Spain?

Let me do my 6:

Portland (+ Bend, OR)
San Diego (+ surrounding municipalities)
Brussels/Brugge
Berlin (+ Dusseldorf, Bamberg, Munich, Koln)
London (for a proper cask ale)
Copenhagen

User avatar
Tapsucker
Seasoned Drinker
Posts: 1910
Joined: Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:21 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by Tapsucker »

I'll pick three because of great hings I've heard about the beer scene or beers I've tasted from them and three because I have no clue and might be surprised (i.e. "off the radar"). For the record I've never been to any of these places. There are plenty of great beer destinations I have had the pleasure to visit, so not to put them down. Just looking at new targets. New discovery is the point, right?

Like to verify the great things I've heard or marginally sampled:

Oslo
Copenhagen
Tokyo

Like to discover what's happening in the wilderness or maybe potential new emerging beer scenes:

Buenos Aires
New Delhi
Saigon

Only a few years ago, who would have thought Tokyo might be interesting for beer? Gotta keep an open mind!
Brands are for cattle.
Fans are cash cows.
The herd will consume until consumed.

sofakingdrunk
Bar Fly
Posts: 925
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2014 7:55 am
Location: Guelph

Post by sofakingdrunk »

Leeds or Sheffield(nothern England)-great local beers, and close enough by train to London,Edinbugh etc that they could be done in a day.

Brussels or anywhere else in Belgium

Munich

San Diego and area

Sydney Australia-I really know nothing about the beer scene here, but I'm sure that there is one, and I've always wanted to go.

Liberia, Costa Rica- I don't even think there is a beer scene here, but I'll sit and drink shitty carribean lager all day, as long as im on a beach in Costa Rica.

User avatar
lister
Beer Superstar
Posts: 2071
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 2:33 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by lister »

Me personally, I'd never do an around the world trip in a month. Far too much hustle and bustle going here and there. Too much time is spent traveling. It doesn't feel like a vacation.

Last spring having done a Europe trip for three weeks (the girlfriend & the in-laws did four) with the first week in London, the second week in Paris and the third week in Eastern Germany, Prague, Salzburg, Florence, Rome, Parma and Milan, that third week was a fucking killer. I'm never doing anything like that again. They went on to do Zurich, south eastern Germany and finishing in Berlin. Ugh.

Future trips to Europe, if for a month, would be one country a week and they'd have to be near each other and only one to two cities/towns in each country.

If we did winters in Taiwan then that could serve as home base for various trips around Asia.
Tapsucker wrote:Only a few years ago, who would have thought Tokyo might be interesting for beer? Gotta keep an open mind!
Having done Tokyo four or five years ago just going to Club Popeye alone was worth it. I'd imagine the scene has improved since. Just good luck finding the locations with that whacky addressing system there. :wink:
lister

A
Bar Fly
Posts: 591
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2001 8:00 pm

Post by A »

Dublin
Antwerp
Tel Aviv
Tokyo
Mexico City
Chicago
Last edited by A on Tue Mar 18, 2014 12:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
El Pinguino
Seasoned Drinker
Posts: 1440
Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 6:02 pm
Location: Downtown TO / Galapagos Islands
Contact:

Post by El Pinguino »

liamt07 wrote: Wait, you're taking a beer trip and going to Australia, Finland and Spain?
Yep. All those places have some decent beer options.

I totally agree with other people's choices though, in particular San Diego (love it there)...I chose places I haven't been to / haven't been to in a long time. I had also thought about Delhi as someone else posted...

User avatar
Torontoblue
Beer Superstar
Posts: 2136
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2004 6:12 pm
Location: Edmonton via Toronto via The Wirral

Post by Torontoblue »

I'd go back to:

Liverpool, then take the trans-pennine train stopping off at all train station pubs on the way. I used to do this journey every 2 weeks for 2 years in 1990/91 and never realised there were pubs on the platforms!!! Once in Leeds head off to Sheffield.

Then a week travelling around Isturia for the ciders, and back to Barcelona on the train for more great Catalan beers.

Heard great things about Tokyo from friends who have just visited.

Then either Melbourne, Adelaide, or Sydney in OZ. Got a friend visiting there now who says the beer scene is evolving. Also get in a sneaky visit to our wineries whilst in Adelaide ;)

Across to Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch for some good Kiwi beers & wines.

Finish off in San Diego, (which I'm visiting later this year).

I think that's following the rules :-?
Last edited by Torontoblue on Tue Mar 18, 2014 3:53 pm, edited 3 times in total.

sprague11
Seasoned Drinker
Posts: 1907
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:37 pm
Location: Newmarket, ON

Post by sprague11 »

Vermont I can do any time, so I'm taking:

Portland
San Diego
Tokyo
Brussels
Stockholm
London England
"A good light beer is one that doesn't taste like piss!" - Frank d'Angelo

User avatar
Craig
Seasoned Drinker
Posts: 1943
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:23 am

Post by Craig »

I'm surprised nobody has Denver on their list.

TheSevenDuffs
Beer Superstar
Posts: 2584
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:40 pm
Location: Mississauga
Contact:

Post by TheSevenDuffs »

Can someone explain what the big deal with Tokyo is? It wouldn't even make my top 25 list.

User avatar
lister
Beer Superstar
Posts: 2071
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 2:33 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by lister »

TheSevenDuffs wrote:Can someone explain what the big deal with Tokyo is? It wouldn't even make my top 25 list.
Just strictly about the beer? Or altogether?
lister

User avatar
Torontoblue
Beer Superstar
Posts: 2136
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2004 6:12 pm
Location: Edmonton via Toronto via The Wirral

Post by Torontoblue »

TheSevenDuffs wrote:Can someone explain what the big deal with Tokyo is? It wouldn't even make my top 25 list.
They just have some real interesting beers, bars, lots of imports and a weird (to Westerners) bar/beer scene, according to 3 friends who have visited there since November 2013. It's just somewhere a little different.

TheSevenDuffs
Beer Superstar
Posts: 2584
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:40 pm
Location: Mississauga
Contact:

Post by TheSevenDuffs »

lister wrote:
TheSevenDuffs wrote:Can someone explain what the big deal with Tokyo is? It wouldn't even make my top 25 list.
Just strictly about the beer? Or altogether?
The beer. I assume that people would answer this question in a 50/50 weighting of (1) cool city to visit and (2) good beer culture. Japan definitely get the 'tick' on the first point but nothing about a good beer culture there has ever registered for me.

To answer the question that someone else asked about why Denver isn't showing up in lists, it wouldn't be in mine either for the same reason. If I want to go to Denver (I am sure that I will some time soon) I can go for a long weekend with a relatively cheap flight on my own dime. But the parameters of this lead me more towards places like Copenhagen (which many have listed). San Diego is also a lot more inviting than Denver in terms of the city itself (and the climate).

TheSevenDuffs
Beer Superstar
Posts: 2584
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:40 pm
Location: Mississauga
Contact:

Post by TheSevenDuffs »

In terms of my list:

1. Brussels/elsewhere in Belgium
2. Munich
3. Copenhagen
4. Anchorage
5. Portland

Post Reply