Not a galaxy so much as a life phase, really. In any case, it was nearly 25 years ago when several GTBers and friends conceived of the Bad Brewery Tour as an offbeat Spring Break journey. The details are a bit hazy, but the trip centered in Milwaukee, with plans to visit Pabst and Miller (in hopes of finding the source of Milwaukee's Best and Mickey's Big Mouth), among others. There was a stop planned at the National Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame in St. Louis, too, if memory serves.
It may well not.
Now that we're older, wiser, and much more to the point, drinkers of far better beer, I think it's time to revisit the wintry reveries of far younger men. And thanks to the mathematically-inclined hops heads at Flowing Data, we don't even have to work very hard to plan.
Flowing Data is dedicated to the analysis, exploration, and visualization of data to help scientists and the rest of us understand information more easily and completely. The brainchild of UCLA PhD Nathan Yu, the polyinformatic site covers a breadth of data-related topics, from voting patterns, to genomics, to solar weather, to the predicted date of the end of the world. And most relevant to our uses, to beer.
Anyone can make a map of great American craft breweries, and lots of people have. It takes a bit more effort and data manipulation skills to turn that list into an algorithmically optimized road trip planner.
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| This is a lot easier to read on the Flowing Data site |
Y'know, if we do this right, we can hit Surly, Pabst, Founder's and Bells in a three-day mini-tour. Spring Break, anyone?
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20 comments:
Unibroue is right by Montreal which is right by Vermont which is home to The Alchemist and Hill Farmstead and provides easy access to Allegash, Smuttynose, etc. And you'd get to spend a night in Montreal. Just sayin.
like the way you think, zman. we may have to do multiple trips.
Unibroue is a tremendous brewery. I know a bit about b/c our pal Juan Carlos was a member of a brewers' guild in NYC that hosted microbrewery folks. Weird crowd, but I got to sample Fin Du Monde and Blanche de Chambly for free. A couple of those large bottles of ~9% alcohol gets you on your way in a hurry.
Less exciting at the same brewers' guild event was being cornered by an obese wiccan woman who nagged me to try her mead and join the guild. As Meatloaf almost used to sing "I will do anything for booze, but I won't do that."
espn's 24-hour college hoops marathon tips off tonight at 5:30 (making it, technically, more like a 30-hour hoops marathon). lots of good stuff both days. for the locals, tonight's uva/george washington matchup is a good one. tomorrow night we get michigan state/kansas, maryland/georgetown, and duke/kentucky. and at 8:00 am tomorrow, the northern iowa/stephen f austin tip is an underrated game between two good mid-majors.
hoops orgy!
ballast point sold to constellation brands for one beeeellllion dollars:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/11/ballast-point-acquired-by-constellation-brands-for.html
The Bad Brewery Tour almost happened. Then Dave (and Rob?) went to Cancun and I went to Jamaica with my girlfriend's family, and I can't remember where Fitz (and his Camaro) and Gus went. It could've been one for the ages a la Daytona'92, or it could have been terrible.
Consolidation is good for the beer industry, right?
it would have been terrible, and also one for the ages.
and i did go to cancun. welcome to the heart's downtown! the life of the sea turtle begins on the beach!
in addition to the hoops marathon on espn, the tribe travels to lynchburg tomorrow night to take on liberty. to me, this is a much bigger game than we might think - a win on the road against a decent but not great team carries forward momentum to saturday when the tribe travels to dayton. a loss makes the season-opening win at nc state feel a lot less important.
And in news of a similar theme, Marriott purchased Starwood last week. That is pleasing to me.
Bill Barnwell's name just showed up on the front-page of ESPN.com with a long-ass NFL article. This is a very good thing.
I am less sanguine about Marriott-Starwood than you, Danimal. I have been diligently banking Starwood miles for a couple years b/c their points system is very good and relatively fair. I get nervous that Marriott may F that up. That's what happened when United bought Continental.
I'm with TR on the Marriott-Starwood deal. But I did stay at a holiday inn last night.
I have never had a bad Unibroue product. If you're in Boston go to the Lower Depths, they have a broad selection of Unibroue beers. Bring Squeaky of you go.
I too have banked many Starwood points. I'm really hoping this purchase doesn't screw me over.
la vide de tortuga de marina se inizia alla playa! alla playa!
i like zman's vermont good brewery tour. i am in. we will be up there over xmas break, if anyone wants to meet me. never heard of unibroue, but i will look for it . . . also love switchback, which is in burlington
I have both Starwood and Marriott--and have booked many nice vacas on both programs.
Don't think you guys need to worry.
Catherine is much cooler than Dave. We should invite her to OBFT.
How come no one ever wonders aloud about all the PEDs JJ Watt must take to be so big and fast and crazy and intense?
obft brewery tour! radish!
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