1001 Beers: Of Course, I can't give up on that quest.
Homebrewing: Well duh, I have a few projects coming up. 2 for December.
Visiting The New Belgium Asheville Brewery: What's interesting about this?
Well, I decided I am going to Bike there for the opening day. It is only about 255 miles from where I live... Probably add a few miles because I do not have an exact address right now. But it makes perfect sense! On their logo, A BIKE! New Belgium is my favorite brewery and... I can probably think of a third reason.... Though, those two are perfect.
I am in no way in shape to ride that distance right now... not in record time anyway. So what am I going to do? Well, ride to several other breweries and track my progress here of course!!! Lets just hope I am still at Bragg when this place opens... If not I will have to choose a different brewery and maybe rework my plan.
I haven't exactly planned out the whole thing yet but I have put together a list of breweries I want to ride to. Tentative list at this point. Things can easily change as I think of more awesome places to go or things to do.
Huske Hardware House - 12 Miles: Just the closest one to me.Maybe I will find something to fill in that last major gap, or maybe not. Looking at the NC Beer Map, not much is in the between places. Maybe I will ride to other breweries of the same/similar distances, too. Just for good measure. I mean, one is in South Carolina.
Railhouse Brewing - 30 Miles: A good distance.
Aviator Brewing Company - 40 Miles: Some good ones at a fest.
Raleigh Brewing Company - 60 Miles: Yup
White Street - 73 Miles: An Awesome New-ish Brewery
Mother Earth - 98 Miles: Stretch it to 100
NoDa Brewing - 126 Mile: I want to go SO BAD!
Conquest Brewing - 167 Miles: Huge Ride
New Belgium Asheville - ~255 Miles: DUH! Not paying attention?
If you have any suggestions, be sure to let me know. I have quite a bit of time to work up to that last ride but I want to be ready for it.
Cheers!
Very cool. At this point in my life I would not even have the guts to take on the 255 mile goal. I have been thinking about riding to some closer breweries, though (more like 15 to 30 miles). Good luck. Looking forward to hearing how it goes.
ReplyDeleteThat was actually the start of this. I wanted to go to a few local places without the driving aspect but then a guy who went to Beer Camp 2 years ago told me that he rode 400 miles over 2 days to get there. Granted, he races bikes etc, but I was like hell! If he can do 400, I can do 255 to get to New Belgium. So, now we train!
DeleteI'll have to figure out how to keep this going though. Of course I plan to update it with each brewery I ride to but maybe I need to add something more...
You realize Asheville is in the mountains right? It may be 255 miles, but the ride once you get west of Winston, on up to Asheville is going to be nothing but up hill. That 255 will feel a lot like 455 I'd imagine. Good luck and practice pedaling up hill.... a lot....
DeleteThanks for that Matt! I knew about the elevation difference but after you posted this comment, I looked at it... only 1,500ish feet from me to there. No biggie.... LMAO!
DeleteThat is just another obstacle for me to challenge. I am not turning back just because of that. I have to do a lot worse on certain days at work and this one is on my terms.
Though, due to what you said... I need to look for hills... At least I have until 2015 to get ready!
Cheers Man! And Thank You!
Good luck with this. Please send me an e-mail at tfoos@newbelgium.com to discuss how we can help provide you with updates and assistance along the way. I hope others will join and most certainly we'll have some sort of party planned for when we open.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Tyler Foos (New Belgium Brewing).
I will! Thank You!
DeleteI look forward to following along....and think it's a great idea!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I just have to figure out how to document the journey. It will for sure be up here. Too many adventures not to talk about it!
DeleteThat's not crazy at all, that's awesome! Have you tried using The Beer Mapping Project's maps to find breweries/brewpubs/beer bars? I use that to plan out road trip stops all the time. I've been thinking about doing the Appalachian Trail next year, but trying to hit as many breweries along the way as I can get to.
ReplyDeleteI've never even heard of that Cory! I'll have to look it up. I think that would be really exciting and getting to taste some new brews along the way!
DeleteCheers and thank you man! I wish you good times in your trail!