Beer-Themed Travel Guides

Above all, I travel to taste. In every country I've visited, from Canada to Panama, Scotland to Thailand, my goal is almost always to find a beguiling beer that captures something about the essence of a particular place. Because even though the internet has made it possible to see parts of the world that we could once only imagine, we still have to travel farther than our well-provisioned kitchens to truly experience foreign flavors. If you ask me though, the pursuit of good food and beer are two of the best reasons to leave home in the first place.

Earlier this month, I published two stories about beer-themed travel. The first, entitled "Rooms with a Brew," was inspired by a trip to Texas that included a stop at the Fredericksburg Brewing Company in Hill Country. Roughly a year later, I found myself spending two nights at Maltsters, a pub in Llandaff on the northern edge of Cardiff, Wales. Built in 1310, it's probably the oldest licensed pub in the city, but you'd never know it from the look of their rooms or the taste of their breakfast menu. In the second story, I list "Eight of the Best German-Style Beer Halls Outside of Germany." Of course I could have included more than eight locations, but I figured one rule of beer drinking should probably also apply to list-making: Know your limits.

Country Roads: Almost Heaven, Not Virginia

Arkansas is a mystery to me. I can count the number of days I've spent in Tennessee on one hand. And I've never been to the Carter Family Fold. But I do know a little bit about Denmark, a country the Man in Black visited in 1971. My fondness for Johnny Cash and his music wasn't what let me to Scandinavia however, and that's why the concert I stumbled upon there was such a surprise. Earlier today, BootsnAll published my story about this experience online. Here's a brief excerpt:

"Glancing above me, I didn’t see Dannebrog, the flag of Denmark, but rather semi-circular stars and stripes banners hanging from the ceiling at regular intervals. The beer on tap was Royal Classic, not Coors Lite. And yet the most disorienting thing was the lack of English I heard spoken around me. Then again, this was the Jutland Peninsula, not the Cumberland Plateau.

I had traveled to Aarhus with few expectations beyond enjoying a citywide party. Nevertheless, the musical dose of Americana was a complete surprise. It was as if somehow, here in northern Europe, I’d stumbled through a jackrabbit hole to the Grand Ole Opry."