The best beer to drink while traveling isn’t always the most famous one. Sometimes, the place you’re drinking it makes all the difference.
I’ve had some pretty good beers while traveling.
I’ve also had some pretty bad ones.
When I traveled through Scotland, I got to try a lot of different beers and styles that I wouldn’t normally find at home. Some were great. Some were forgettable. A few regional breweries, if I’m being honest, just weren’t very good.
But I also had a beer in the shadow of Loch Ness.
I couldn’t tell you exactly what was in the glass. I couldn’t give you a detailed breakdown of the malt bill or tell you which hops the brewer used. I can tell you that drinking a beer while being surrounded by forest, castles, and Loch Ness made that beer a whole lot more enjoyable.
That got me thinking about what actually makes a beer memorable.
The Best Beer to Drink While Traveling Isn’t Always the Best Beer
We spend a lot of time talking about beer as if taste is the entire experience.
It’s not.
Taste obviously matters. So do aroma, carbonation, mouthfeel, temperature and the way a beer changes as you drink it. A great beer can have all of those things working together.
Then there are the things that aren’t actually in the beer.
Where are you drinking it?
Who are you with?
What are you doing?
What’s the weather like?
What are you looking at?
Those things can completely change the experience.
A beer that seems merely average sitting on your couch can feel pretty special when you’re drinking it with people you love while watching the sun disappear behind a mountain.
That doesn’t mean the beer magically became better.
The experience around it got better.
Scotland Taught Me Not to Judge a Beer Too Quickly
Scotland was probably the easiest place I’ve traveled to make this connection.
Beer is deeply tied into the culture there, and I got to try styles and breweries that I wouldn’t normally encounter in Pennsylvania. There was plenty of variety, from traditional European styles to beers that felt completely different from what I’d find in my usual rotation. La Chouffe became my favorite in the basement of a sports themed bar (not a sports bar).
Not everything was a winner on the trip.
That’s worth mentioning because traveling somewhere famous for beer doesn’t mean every beer you try will suddenly be amazing. Some of the regional breweries I visited simply weren’t for me. I now know a Belhaven Best isn’t for me.
That’s part of exploring.
You don’t travel somewhere new expecting every beer to become your new favorite. You try what’s around, figure out what you like, and occasionally find something you wouldn’t have ordered at home.
Montana Isn’t Known for Beer. That Didn’t Matter.
I recently went to Montana to visit Glacier National Park.
If Montana is famous for anything, beer probably isn’t near the top of the list. Mountain views? Absolutely. Glacier National Park? Obviously. Beer destinations? Probably not the first thing that comes to mind.
Still, I had some pretty decent beers while I was there. A couple were actually quite good. Do I remember the names? Not off the top of my head. Do I remember the breweries? Also no. But I remember drinking them.
I remember being in Montana. I remember the mountains. I remember being with people I care about. I remember the feeling of sitting down after a day of exploring and having a cold beer. That’s enough.
If I had a beer from one of those breweries back home, sitting at my kitchen table, I might not think much about it.
Put that same beer in front of me after a day at Glacier National Park and suddenly it has a story. If I did happen to take it home with me, it serves as a reminder of that fond memory.
Location Is an Ingredient
We talk about beer like it’s only what’s inside the can.
It isn’t.
A beer has an aroma. It has a flavor. It has a temperature, carbonation and mouthfeel. Those are the obvious things.
Location might be an ingredient too.
A pilsner on a sunny patio feels different from the same pilsner on a dark winter night.
A cold lager at the beach hits differently than one you drink while watching TV. That beer might taste better if you change the channel to the Eagles game.
A beer after a long hike can taste incredible simply because you’ve spent the last several hours earning it.
Then there are the people.
A beer with your best friends can become one of your favorites even if it wasn’t objectively the best beer you’ve ever had. A beer during a great sports game becomes part of the memory. A beer shared with family on vacation can stick with you for years.
You aren’t just drinking the beer.
You’re drinking the moment.
Why You Should Try the Local Beer
That’s why I think traveling is one of the best excuses to try something you’ve never heard of.
You don’t even need to know much about the brewery. Ask someone what they drink locally. Walk into a bottle shop and pick something you’ve never seen before. If there’s a small brewery nearby, give it a shot.
Maybe it’ll be fantastic. Maybe it’ll be terrible. Either way, you’ll remember where you found it. That’s more interesting than drinking the same beer you could have bought at home.
Sometimes the Beer Is Just There to Do a Job
Not every situation calls for the most complicated beer on the shelf.
Sometimes a beer has a job to do.
After spending a day hiking, you might want something cold and crisp. At the beach, you might want something light and refreshing. At a cookout, you might want a beer you can drink while you’re talking and eating without having to think too much about it. At a long dinner, maybe you want something with enough character to slow down and appreciate.
The best beer depends on the situation. That’s one reason I don’t think you can always answer the question, “What’s the best beer?” A better question might be “What’s the right beer for this moment?”
Don’t Be Afraid of the Beer You’ve Never Heard Of
The beer industry has made it incredibly easy to chase the same famous breweries. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m guilty of it too. But traveling gives you an opportunity to get away from the usual list.
You might find a regional lager that never leaves its home state. You might discover a brewery that has almost no presence online. You might stumble across a beer that isn’t highly rated but happens to be exactly what you wanted that afternoon.
That’s the fun of it. Some can be a 99-point, once-in-a-lifetime bottle. Sometimes a beer just needs to be cold, fresh and in the right place at the right time.
Oh, the Beers That Will Flow
So the next time you travel, don’t just look for the beer you already know.
Try something local. Try something weird. Try something you’ve never heard of.
You might discover a new favorite. You might discover that the beer isn’t very good. Either way, you’re experiencing something you couldn’t have experienced at home.
And remember that the beer itself is only part of the equation.
The smell when you first open it. The temperature of the glass. The way it feels in your mouth. The people sitting next to you. The game playing in the background. The view in front of you. The place you found yourself in.
All of it matters.
Because I’ve had better beers than the ones I drank in Montana. I’ve probably had better beers than the ones I drank in Scotland, too. But put a cold beer in my hand, surround me with people I love, give me a great view or a great game, and I’ll take that beer pretty much every time.
Oh, the beers that will flow.
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