If Budweiser and Coors are the only drafts you can name-drop when someone asks what your favorite beer is, it might be time to expand your libation horizons (and your palate).
Tickle your taste buds by sampling craft beer from the many brewers all over the country who use traditional ingredients and beer-making practices to produce fantastic-tasting beers.
From Los Angeles to Coney Island, here are a few fantastic craft brewing companies you must pop into for a pint of the cold one should you find yourself in town. And no, we're not talking about Blue Moon.
Angel City Brewery
Located in the city's vibrant Arts District, this Los Angeles brewery was only founded in 1997. However, it's already fast becoming an LA institution, distributing to many of the region's bars, pubs and restaurants. Angel City bottles and cans several IPAs, lagers and porters-most of which are available on tap-plus a few limited editions available on rotation and seasonally.
Sample: Angel City IPA, SaazBerry
Beaver Street Brewery
Since opening its doors in 1994, the award-winning Beaver Street Brewery-Flagstaff's first brewpub-has expanded to found sister company Lumberyard Brewery. But its mission to handcraft exceptional ales and lagers remains.
Order a beer flight with great, hearty dishes at their massive, steampunk-themed pub located just a block from the Flagstaff train station.
Sample: Railhead Red, Hopshot Red IPA
Coney Island Brewing Company
Is it strange to find a craft brewery in one of America's most mainstream boardwalks? Not when that brewery is essentially an ode to all things Coney Island, from its logo down to its fantastic beers. And especially not after you've stuffed your face with a couple of Nathan's Famous hot dogs. (Trust us, you can't help but do so.)
Sample: Mermaid Pilsner, Vagabond Wit
Great Lakes Brewing Company
Cleveland may finally be getting the Renaissance it's been waiting for, but when Great Lakes Brewing was founded, much of the Ohio City neighborhood was dilapidated. Still, it stayed and persisted, naming many of its brews after all things Cleveland.
These days, the brewpub is right in the thick of the now hip neighborhood's gentrification, and it's become the most important craft beer brewer in the city.
Sample: Eliot Ness Amber Lager, Dortmunder Gold Lager
Snake River Brewing
Snake River's organic, handcrafted beer is brewed in six forms, but they all come "with a touch of the Tetons." (Or, at least they're produced in their shadow in spectacular Jackson Hole.)
The craft brewery has won many awards for its lagers and ales and has been doing it the longest in the state of Wyoming. A stop at its brewpub in the charming town of Jackson is an essential experience.
Sample: Paco's EYE-P-A, Jenny Lake Lager
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