Where is the best place in the world for a porter/stout (beer) enthusiast to travel if they want to taste it all?

• Where is the best place in the world for a porter/stout (beer) enthusiast to travel if they want to taste it all? If there isn't a place that's best for those dark styles specifically, where do you go if you're a beer enthusiast generally? Please exclude Washington, DC, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, OR, and London. We've been to those places and want to go somewhere new. The trip would depart from DC and we'd probably go for 1-2 weeks next year. Visiting multiple cities is definitely an option. For the sake of budget, let's say $3K/person (USD) for 2 people (and that would probably be a stretch). I'd prefer to hear about destinations where you can visit the breweries, but locales with lots of high-variety pubs count, too.

• Answer:

  Specifically asking about porter then I would take a trip to Yorkshire. I've lived here for 5 years now and if you head to the nicer beer pubs there is always something new on tap that I've never had before and is made within a 50 mile radius. You could do a couple of days just in the Leeds area visiting breweries (Elland Road, Leeds Brewery, Saltaire Brewery, Timothy Taylors, Black Sheep, Theakstons, Samuel Smiths, Warfedale, Ilkley Brewery, Roosters, York Brew not counting the brewpubs around the area. You can fly into Manchester UK and hop a train to Leeds and take the local trainlines and buses out to these places. If you like porters than I wouldn't head to Germany at all. When I was in Munich I know it is supposed to be a beer lovers paradise, but it is more a light lager lovers paradise. I had some nice beers while I was in Germany, but I was dying for a nice ale by the end of the fortnight. I would avoid Belgium as well, unless you like the phenolic taste that is so prevalent in many of their beers. I know some people love the clovey- banana- phenolic taste that can be overemphasized in many Belgian beers. I've had some nice beers from that part of the world, but many taste way too phenolic for me. Another plus for Yorkshire around now is that if you like hiking then there are lots of books that have pub walks in them. You catch a train and then walk (about 2 miles) to a pub and have a nice pub lunch and a couple of pints and then walk a bit further and then get a train back. You'll see lots of people walking with poles and really strong hiking boots and full waterproofs, but being from Vermont I do these walks in my boat shoes shorts and a polo shirt so they're not actually that strenuous. It is usually on some sort of a gravel path and the English think it is getting out into the wilderness.