The Crafty Traveler

As discussed on my previous Beertography post, as my love of craft beer has developed throughout the course of my travels, so did my desire to document those pours through pictures. As proof of this concept, all you have to do is a take a quick glance at my Crafty Traveler Instagram account. With 600 photos and counting, I have been posting excessively fancy shots of sips since 2016. As this blog develops, I want to host these pictures here as a second home of sorts. A gallery for those that may not often scroll through social media.

Every so often I will drop a handful of photos on this site that will then get hosted on the accurately named Excessively Fancy Beer Photos tab. As I drop them, I will often try to provide a few more thoughts on the beers than I do over on my IG (if you notice, all I do there is make up a poor pun to go with the given photo, no idea how I started that and not fully sure why it stuck but here we are). With the idea of this blog being to provide more context, suggestions, and advice for your own crafty travels, background on these beers feels like a logical place to follow through on that idea.

For the featured photo, a set from Hill Farmstead is a natural place to start. I am certainly not alone in this opinion (you can check this list quickly to verify this), but to me Hill Farmstead is the best brewery in the world. Located in Greensboro Bend, Vermont, it is a magical place for a pour. I don’t want to go into too much detail here as I plan to make a whole post dedicated to Hill, but I believe they make the most balanced out there, regardless of style. This photo happens to be a few different vintages of their highly sought after Art series (their house saison Arthur aged in wine barrels for a longggggg time). More on Art and Hill to come, but for now just know that if you are ever fortunate to come across a beer from this Vermont stunner, order it without hesitation.

The other photos in this set feature several of my other favorite breweries across the country. Starting with a stunner stout from Toppling Goliath in Decorah, Iowa, the Assassin series is a line of barrel aged stouts that has been consistently excellent for years now. You will likely see me post several photos of various Assassin variants on this page as I often seek them out. This version was made with coconut, pecan, and vanilla, and if you think that sounds like the best brownie you have ever had, that is exactly what is tastes like. I doubt many of you will find yourself in Decorah, Iowa often (put that into google maps and you will see why), but luckily they distribute a lot of their beer around the country and I recommend anything you would come across from them (although you won’t find Assassin in the store as it is a very limited release, sorry to get your hopes up…).

The second photo happens to come from my second favorite brewery in the country, Sante Adarius Rustic Ales. Another destination brewery located in Capitola, CA, they make some of the most nuanced and delicate saisons in the country. While I am a fan of many types of beers, at this point in my life, mixed-culture saisons are my favorite (mixed culture meaning a combination of traditional brewing yeast with some type of wild bacteria, resulting in more of a sour beer than a traditional beer). This particular beer called Pioneer Plaques takes a blend of their barrel aged saisons and finishes it with blueberries, creating a beer that is juicy but still maintains a perfectly funky finish.

To wrap things up, this is the first of many cans you will see me post from Tree House Brewery. An operation that started as a small shack in the middle of nowhere (seems to be a theme here) Massachusetts, Tree House has now expanded to 5 locations across Massachusetts and beyond. This is another brewery I will dedicate an entire post to later so I will spare you many of the details today, but their specialty from day one is hazy ipas. This particular ipa takes their base beer called Julius, amps up the ABV, and adds toasted coconut to create Coco King, a beer that tastes as interesting as it sounds. Tree House now make an absurd amount of ipa variations (if you don’t believe me, glance at this), so they aren’t all going to be winners, but what I admire about them is as they have grown they have maintained high standards for their product, and I still believe they make some of the best ipas out there. Another brewery worth going out of your way for.

Many more photos to come, but if the anticipation gets to be too much I have good news for you, all of my photos are always just one click away.