Breweries in Mirror Appear Closer than They Are

The trouble with taking a beer blogger on a family road trip, is that he maps out all the potential breweries and pubs along the route -- many more than it would be possible to actually visit. It's a pretty easy task, thanks to the Beer Mapping Project, and the handy proximity maps on beermapping.com make the problem worse, because when you look at some of the things inside the circle, you start imagining different itineraries than what has already been planned out.

But, as I said, it was a family vacation, so many beery destinations were left off, either because we passed them at the wrong time of day, or they were too far out of the way, or they didn't have food or weren't family friendly. No regrets: the vacation was a great success. It was the first visit to Yellowstone for all of us -- I would say it's the quintessential all-American vacation, except that about 60% of the visitors there were from other countries -- and a lovely drive through some amazing Western scenery.

Of course we accomplished a few beer tasks, like a visit to the smashing Barley Brown's pub in Baker City. But here are some of the breweries and brewpubs that we passed by along the way (in some cases, I mean we saw the whites of the brewers' eyes, but still couldn't or didn't stop):

• Laht Neppur, Waitsburg, WA
• Skye Book and Brew, Dayton, WA
• MJ Barleyhoppers, Lewiston, ID
• Kettlehouse Brewing, Missoula, MT
• Bayern Brewing, Missoula, MT
• Bozeman Brewing, Bozeman, MT
• Snake River Brewing, Jackson, WY
• Grand Teton Brewing, Victor, ID
• Wild Life Pizzeria, Victor, ID
• Portneuf Valley Brewing, Pocatello, ID
• Beer Valley Brewing, Ontario, OR
• Mt. Emily Ale House, La Grande, OR

We even walked into Portneuf in Pocatello, but it didn't feel right to take the girls into such a boisterous bar on a Friday night, so we sheepishly walked back out. No problem, compensation was had the next day, when we hit Table Rock in Boise and Barley Brown's in Baker City.

Again, no regrets, but if ignorance is your bliss, then stay away from beermapping.com.