Its been just about two months since I returned to Boston from my glorious beer adventures, and writing for Beeriety has given me a great space to process everything I experienced.  So in my final “Beer, There, and Everywhere” post, I wanted to share the things from my trip that have been most significant since coming back to the Boston beer community.

The second leg of my beer journey took me to the West Coast, visiting San Diego, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco area (Seattle and Portland had to be saved for a separate trip).  But as far as California is concerned, the craft beer culture is thriving and the level of innovation and experimentation is high.  It seems to be the trend in the West; in a culture of hop-heads and extremists, crazy big beers reign the tap lists.

As a Bostonian, I’ve grown accustomed to having a stellar craft beer selection and culture readily available.  So I was excited to see what the first leg of my trip, in which I visited New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware, (spanning a decent portion of the Atlantic) would have in store.  All the breweries I visited are producing an interesting and well-executed selection of beers to their local communities and beyond.  What fascinated me the most was the realization that most breweries on this side of the country share a couple of common threads:

As I began to explore the tremendous world of craft beer a couple of years ago, one thing became abundantly clear: every beer is like a person, possessing individual personalities, stories, and characteristics. The basic components are the same, but the variables that are present give craft beer immense potential to create insanely interesting, complex and delicious beers. I mean really, what could be more exciting?