In the Flemish Region of Belgium, categorically referred to as “Flanders,” biking is an inextricable part of the culture. More than ten million search results return in a Google query for biking in Belgium. A significant portion of those results yield a cross-curricular interest in Belgium other’s cultural stalwart: beer. Thousands of beer drinkers and cyclists pedal through Damme and Bruges and Ypres as well countless little Belgian hamlets in search of a pint to satiate their thirst after a ride. There’s something connotatively elegant in this. We picture leisurely bike rides along the coastal plains just east of the North Sea and then through the low valleys and slight inclines of Wallonia in the south, all while stopping for a pour of Trappist beers. It should make sense, then, that in America, our vision of the cross-pollination between biking and beer is a tad different. It would make sense that the relationship here is a little more, well, extreme. Mountain biking became of a part of American culture in the mid-1970’s, it’s genesis part of a twisted genealogy that could claim roots in California or Colorado. It was an Oregonian outdoorsman, though, who is believed to coin the name “mountain bicycle” in the 1966. Though the sport occupied in niche in American culture, bike companies have been making mountain bikes since the 1980’s and the sport achieved mainstream status in the early 2000’s. This follows a similar trajectory as the craft beer industry. Dreamers and pioneers in the west tinkered with traditions – like their brethren did on the bike paths – to create a different set of norms in the beer they drank. Today, thanks is large part to the industrious trailblazers like Ken Grossman at Sierra Nevada and Jack McAuliffe at New Belgium, who began their operations around the same time mountain trails were being blazed by bikes, the American beer scene is dramatically different. Now, there are a number of breweries across the United States who are combining their passions for extreme outdoor activities and well-crafted beers. It’s inscribed into their company’s ethos, a part of the culture, and it’s easy to find a place to spend a day dialed in, shredding down a mountain side before saddling up to a tasting room barstool and downing a flight of beers.

Good Beer Hunting A ranch made for bicycles and beer...

Longmont, Colorado; Brevard, North Carolina The cross-continental recommendation is born out of one name: Dale Katechis. Katechis, founder of Oskar Blues, has long blended his affection for bikes and beer, so much so that it’d be an outright crime to mention mountain biking and beer without his name (and brewery) being the first one listed. The brewery founder also started REEB Cycles, whose Dikyelous model was called by GearJunkie a “dream bike.” While cans are becoming ubiquitous in beer again, Oskar Blues was on the forefront of that charge, no doubt because canned beer is (a) better for the environment and (b) easier to pack in a backpack for a ride out on the trails. If you’re out in Colorado, the best bet might be a town away on the North Border Loop, but fear not, OB’s Tasty Weasel Tap Room is only about 20 minutes away. In 2014, Oskar Blues created REEB Ranch just outside of their Brevard, N.C. digs in nearby Hendersonville. Straight up route 40 is Asheville, one of the country’s best beer cities. Or just saddle up to the bar at Oskar Blues. After all, if you need anymore convincing, consider what REEB is spelled backwards. Bend, Oregon Bend, Oregon might be the best mountain biking city in the country. Situated on the drier side of the Cascade Range, Bend is home to a little bit of everything topographically, from rocks and narrow ledges to easy climbs and full-concentration descents. What makes it better, as a Bend brewer told me, “People come to Bend for the outdoors and to drink beer.” Nowhere is that more apparent in Bend than at GoodLife Brewing, who even named their brown ale 29”er, when 29” wheels were a craze a couple years ago. “We are a brewery at heart, but we are also a lifestyle,” said Chris Nelson, marketing director at GoodLife. “That lifestyle is is trying to promote people getting outdoors and exercising then finishing their activity with one of our Adventurous Ales.” Nelson estimates that 80% of their employees are on their mountain bikes four days a week, eight months a year. “We even just sit at random trailheads handing out cold beers to people when they finish riding,” said Nelson. Just like bike paths (try Phil’s Trails or the Mt. Bachelor park, both within city limits), you can’t throw a stone without it hitting a brewery in Bend. Try 10 Barrel or Bend Brewing or Boneyard. The list goes on and on. Check out a partial list for each of our regions on the navigatable map below.