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Manhattan's Only Active Brewery Opens Its Doors for Free Tours

So what are you doing this weekend? Drinking beer? Yea, we thought so. Luckily for New Yorkers and tourists to the Big Apple, Manhattan's only active brewery has begun offering free tours to accompany their award-winning beers.

Perched on Pier 59 on the Hudson River, the Chelsea Brewing Company has been sitting calm and cool since 1996, slowly working its way onto the taps at bars around the city. To enjoy their full beer list, featuring a slew of seasonal brews which just became available on April 10, we spent last Saturday heading into the mouth of the brewery beast itself.

Led by craft beer aficionado (and former NBC page) Ian Phillips, the tour leads curious patrons through the steps of the beer making process, including some hops sniffing and picking anecdotes, and ends with a few pitchers of free beer to taste the results. On our visit, we downed some of their standard Checker Cab Blonde Ale, Sunset Red, and Flower and Shower Wheat and rounded out the eve by using the tour's discount beer coupons to sample some newly-released Imperial barleywine at 11.5% alcohol by volume.

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Beyond Rolling Rock: Brewing Renaissance Makes Philadelphia a 21st Century Beer Mecca

I love a good brewery, and I'm all for the proliferation of high-quality, small-batch beers around the U.S.A., so I read with great interest a story from the Sunday New York Times travel section on the burgeoning Philadelphia brewing scene. As with most industrial towns on the east coast, Philly's beer-brewing industry was going gangbusters back in the 19th century, but Prohibition all but wiped it out, and for most of the 20th century, area drinkers had few alternatives to the insipid mass-market lagers that flooded the market after Repeal Day. Fortunately for anybody with taste buds, this is no longer the case.

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The Brooklyn Brewery: A Splendid Friday Night Destination For Those Who Love Beer and Hanging Out

There's something special about visiting the Brooklyn Brewery during Friday night Tap Room Hours. It feels liberating in a way that a regular pub happy hour doesn't. After all, it's not a bar, it's a brewery, and even when it's crowded, there's room to wander among the huge vats and kettles and sacks of barley, malt, and grain while sipping a freshly-brewed beer and savoring the weekend as it unfolds. So in the interest of serving any readers who consult this site in an earnest attempt to ferret out fun things to do in their destination, let me give you the ABC's on one consistently enjoyable option in New York City.

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Mancationing at a Monastery

Belgium might not be at the top of your list of mancation destinations, but after suffering through six-packs of Pabst and MGD while scraping for travel funds the first thing you could use is a quality beer. And man, those Trappist monks deliver!

Breweries like Chimay and Rochefort have long been crafting beers that come closer in flavor and complexity to fine French wines than to the ambers and lagers common in the US--many can even be aged. Across Belgium, there are only six Trappist monasteries that brew these rich ales, and some have been doing so for over a hundred years as a way of sustaining their needs. (Rochefort has been at it since 1595.)

Almost all of the monasteries welcome tours, but only Achel has a brewery and cafe right inside the abbey, so you and the guys can sit and enjoy while watching monks prepare the brew. They even have a guest house for only €28 ($41) per night, so you won't have to stumble back into town.

Related Stories:
· Drink in the Atmosphere and More [NZ Herald]
· Achel Brewery [Official Site]
· Give Us a Belgian Beer [Jaunted]
· Belgium travel coverage [Jaunted]

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Shopping in Brooklyn: Beer and Wine

New York's special spot in booze history (birthplace of Schaefer and Rheingold, and home to more than 100,000 speakeasies during Prohibition), combined with a young population willing to spend a big chunk of their income on booze, has led to Brooklyn's vibrant and varied brew-and-spirits scene. From brewery tours to affordable wine shops, Kings County can cater to both connoisseurs and novices alike.

Brooklyn's Top Booze Shops

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Beer Travel: Hermann's Best Brewery

Earlier this fall, we told you about Hermann, Missouri, the little German village in the middle of flyover country. Sure they have a wicked Oktoberfest, but what about beer drinking when festivals aren't in session? That's when Tin Mill Brewing Company has you covered.

When we stopped in, the tasting room had four brews on tap, ranging from easy drinking Maibock to serious teeth-grinding Dopplebock. All of 'em were quite good, and the sampler gets you four tastes for four bucks. If you're ready to commit, they also have beer by the half tankard, full tankard or growler.

Beyond the tasting room, you'll find a self-guided tour of the operation. Signage explains all the tanks and hoses, as well as the brewing process. On our visit, Pilsner was afoot along with another tank of Dopplebock--just in time to replenish the dent we made in the brewery's supply.

Related Stories:
· Tin Mill Brewing Company [Official Site]
· The Real Oktoberfest... In Missouri? [Jaunted]

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Where To Get Free Beer in Boston

Boston has the reputation of being both a bad town to be poor in and a good town for drinking. Those with the misfortune of identifying with both are stuck with a serious dilemma. Luckily, the craft brewing wave of the 80's has left Beantown equipped with a pair of breweries willing to pony up a few cold ones for the low low cost of... Nothing!

Post-click, all the details, and our Boston Beer Tour Map.

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