Air travel has lost its mystique in the modern age. We plod through airports, stand in long lines, pay baggage fees, and sit through insufferable and seemingly interminable delays. But there are a few bright spots left in air travel for craft beer drinkers. Some airlines are now serving craft on-board their flights and more airports are serving their local brews. Whether you’re waiting for a delayed flight or just passing through on a run-of-the-mill layover, here are some of the best US airports to taste the local beer scene.
San Diego (SAN)
Hub for: None
Craft deer drinkers flying through San Diego’s airport breathed a huge sigh of relief last year when Stone Brewing opened in Terminal 2. The 12-tap outpost seriously boosted the airport’s beer cred to match that of the city it serves. Not only does the bar pour beers from the namesake brewery, it also features bottles and pints from local brewers like Green Flash, Lightning, Alesmith, and Lost Abbey. For those not lucky enough to fly out of Terminal 2, Craft Brews on 30th Street opened last year in Terminal 1, serving 10 lines of craft beer from Coronado, Karl Strauss, Ballast Point, and more.
Minneapolis (MSP)
Hub for: Delta, Sun Country
When an airport has a kiosk that sells local brewery merchandise, you can bet there are some good brews nearby. Ike’s, a food and cocktail institution in Minneapolis, has two locations in the airport pouring craft beer on tap, including one in Concourse F co-branded with local brewer Summit that serves their beer lineup. In “The Mall” that connects the concourses in Terminal 1, Surdyk’s Flights looks like it’s exclusively a wine bar, but its bottled and canned beer list offers exclusively local offerings from Minnesota brewers like Indeed and Surly. There are over a dozen local taps at Taste of Mill City Tavern in Concourse G, and an outpost of Rock Bottom Brewery in Concourse C that serves beer brewed at its location in Minneapolis.
Baltimore-Washington (BWI)
Hub for: Southwest
Oddly, you’ll have to go outside security at BWI to get the good stuff, but you’ll be rewarded handsomely for the indignity of having to go through security again. Local brewery Duclaw helped give this airport a major beer upgrade when it opened a bar here a few years ago with six of their beers on tap. Beer-and-aviation geeks will love Sky Azure, a hideaway overlooking the airport tarmac in the Main Terminal that offers four craft beers on tap and an impressive bottle list that includes selections from Dogfish Head, Boulevard, and Flying Dog. Inside security, you could do much worse than Heavy Seas Loose Cannon, which is a draft staple at most bars in the concourses.
Salt Lake City (SLC)
Hub for: Delta
An airport serving a city mostly known for its abstention from alcohol might not be where you’d expect to find great craft beer, but Utah’s beer scene is very well represented at SLC. The Squatters Airport Pub in Concourse C serves seven of the brewery’s beers on tap and a lineup of bottles (only the bottles exceed 4.0% ABV, per Utah law). Between Concourses D and E is Vino Volo Ale House, a rare location in this airport chain that focuses as much on beer as it does on wine, and pours a long lineup of Utah beers in bottles. There’s also a Gordon Biersch in Terminal 1.
Denver (DEN)
Hub for: United, Frontier
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the airport serving “The Napa Valley of Beer” is full of craft beer options. The New Belgium Hub in the B Gates and Spoke in the A Gates offer both standard and rare, one-off offerings from the nearby brewer. In the C Gates, the DIA outpost of Denver restaurant Root Down offers a head-spinning list of local draft beer options from the likes of Odell, Funkwerks and Upslope. And even outside security, you’ll find the Boulder Beer Tap House outpost in the Main Terminal with a full lineup of their heady options.
Burlington (BTV)
Hub for: None
Vermont’s only major airport has just over a dozen gates and one restaurant, The Skinny Pancake, so it may not seem noteworthy. But where else can you drink a can of The Alchemist Heady Topper, currently the top-rated beer in the world, before a flight? If you’ve been there and done that, the other nine local beers on tap from Fiddlehead, Lost Nation, Zero Gravity, and more will more than satisfy your chance to squeeze in one last Vermont brew before your flight.
Anchorage (ANC)
Hub for: Alaska
If there’s a model for how an airport should embrace craft beer, it has to be Ted Stevens International Airport’s Silver Gulch Brewing & Bottling Co., an outpost of America’s northernmost brewery inside security in Concourse C. Not only do they pour more than a half-dozen of their brewery’s beers at the bar, but you can fill a growler with one and take it home. And adjoining the Silver Gulch bar is a gift shop that offers single bottles and six-packs of nearly a dozen Alaska craft breweries including Midnight Sun, Kassik’s, and Kenai River. Down Concourse B is an offshoot of Anchorage beer bar Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse, with a less inspired but still impressive craft beer selection that’ll make the long flight home much less painful.
Portland (PDX)
Hub for: Alaska
It’s probably not a huge surprise that an airport serving a city that boasts over 50 breweries has a good beer selection. If you’re looking to saddle up for a pre-flight beer, there are two locations of the Laurelwood Brewing Public House in Concourses A and E and a Rogue Public House in Concourse D. But more notable here is the wide selection of bottled and canned local beers you can buy inside security and stash inside your carry-on to take home. Two locations of the Made in Oregon Store in Concourses C and D offer beers from Ninkasi, Gigantic, Breakside, Hopworks Urban Brewing, and many more to show off to your beer geek friends once you’re home.
