SUSAN AND I JUST FINISHED our Craft Beer Across America Tour. We took her new white Toyota Highlander on a cross-country trek to Decorah, Iowa and back in 4,443 miles. On our way we tasted at ten different local breweries.

Why drive to Decorah? It is the home of Toppling Goliath Brewery, renowned for their outstanding recipes. Gino was driving in from the East Coast with $700 and a shopping list in a zipped plastic bag.

Full disclosure, this drive was multipurpose. At the base level, it was our first retired road trip, and the first real use of Susan’s beluga. At the prime level, we drove to Decorah for beer tasting and to see Greg Brown perform a benefit concert for Seed Savers, an 890-acre farm with an appealing mission statement: “Seed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3), member-supported organization that saves and shares the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage, forming a living legacy that can be passed down through generations.” They publish my seed catalog.

GMO, herbicide, and pesticide use is rampant. If you can’t beat it, save yourself.

On the beer side, there was a pair of bicoastal precursors that inspired our Midwestern hop. We as a family had just returned from Bend, Oregon and while there took their impressive Ale Trail Tour. After years of constant wine tasting, beer has offered us an alternative. According to beermebend.com, Bend has 21 breweries, with seven more nearby. That whetted my appetite for more touring.

Gino’s cousin, Matt Capone, owns a restaurant, bar, and bottle shop in Norristown, outside of Philly. Capone’s Bottle Shop is known for its massive selection. Matt is a true connoisseur. He travels and tastes, subscribes to Beer Advocate and joins all the beer blogs. He likes to keep up his personal and professional inventories. When he heard Gino was traveling to Decorah again he stuffed a wad of bills into his hand, passed him a hand-scrawled list of beers to buy, and said, “Hurry, or it’s going to all sell out.”
Decorah again? Yes, the three of us came in 2009 to listen to Greg Brown’s benefit concert. Greg performs about every year. That year we came by Amtrak on a 15-day rail pass and Gino fell in love with Shirley, a Blackfoot from East Glacier.

Gino’s legacy with the area is more involved and needs its own column. Since his return back to the East Coast, he’s decided to become Johnny Bathroom Seed. Instead of planting apples, Gino travels the country in his pickup installing bathrooms, restoring kitchens, barns, and bee sanctuaries for organic earth-bound people he meets at farm conferences. He works for free in exchange for being taken in.

He was in Wisconsin before the concert building a treehouse for Margaret and Joe, two scientists from Abbott Labs. He brought them to Decorah.

At our end we decided to theme our tour. We would taste and collect local craft beers all across the Midwest to Iowa and back. We learned in Bend that the craft brewpubs often have the best food in town, so with meal and beverage in mind, empty coolers and growlers behind, we wended our way using a phone app called Find Craft Beer. It sniffs out local beer within 100 miles of anywhere and points the way.

We started in Reno Midtown where a slew of young entrepreneurs are opening craft food, craft brew, and crafty shops on every corner. We’ve done this tour before, but Susan and I both wished to return to the Brasserie Saint James, our favorite spot last time, and again enjoy their Dixie Chicken and Hopalong Cassidy IPA. This would set the standard for the rest of the trip. The Hopalong had a tremendous spike of complex flavors that stayed with me throughout the tour. Afterward, it’s still a top choice.

After one night in Reno we drove 600 miles to Evanston, Wyoming. Our goal was to take a huge bite out of the 2,000-mile distance so we could savor our two-day detour to Fort Collins and Boulder, Colorado. We missed Park City and its Epic Brewery, but we’ll come again. Instead, we found ourselves walking down Evanston’s Main Street at twilight to the Suds Brothers Brewery.

In the door you’re hit by the walls. They’re covered in vintage rock-and-roll posters and rare musician photos. Mounted guitars hang here and there. Dustin, our wide-eyed personable waiter, explained. The owner is a 1960s music fan. We were welcome to look around.

I took a walking tour. Up narrow stairs lined with Tom Petty photos, I came upon a second bar and three huge party tables with photos under glass. One is all Beatles, one is the Stones, and one is Dylan. The walls are Grateful Dead. I saw a great picture of Paul McCartney holding a newspaper that reads “Stones won’t go to jail.” We had tasty Monkey’s Butt Amber and split a Firecracker Burger.

After a good sleep at the Best Western, we were on the road 300 miles to Laramie, Wyoming and the Altitude Brewery full of wood carvings.

Steve Gibbs teaches at Benicia High School and has written a column for The Herald since 1985.

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