Going to Every Brewery in Mississippi in 24 hours

"How long would it take to go to every brewery in Mississippi?"

A question I posed, over beers, of course, to my fellow beer nerd friend John Lovegrove.

"24 hours or less," was the answer.

That's all I needed to hear. Only days later, I was getting after it.

I suggest watching the video above, showing the adventure of going to every brewery in Mississippi. If you only have time to read at the moment, here's how it went down.

My friend was up for driving and her boyfriend was down to join in on the adventure too. We started at Lazy Magnolia, the oldest brewery in the state, and also close to where they lived in Gulfport.

We were out the door just before 6pm, giving us until 6pm the following day to pack in all the breweries. Heading back towards Chandelier Brewing in Gulfport, we began knocking them off quickly.

Including Lazy Magnolia, the first eight breweries were relatively close together. We hit Fly Llama in Biloxi, then Hops & Growlers, and Craft Advisory in Ocean Springs where we know the brewer, Martin.

Next we went to Lost Springs, just blocks away, which was actually the first "new" brewery to me, that I hadn't been to in the past.

Nearby we hit Puff Belly and finally Fort Bayou, where again I'm friends with the brewer (it's who I'd been staying with while in town actually).

Now we had to drive up to Hattiesburg, the first "big" drive (~75 miles), and also we were racing against the closing hours of The Porter, the second to last brewery of the night.

We made it. We got some beers down there, then headed across town to Colludium Brewing, also new to me. We ended the night there, properly drunk and without a place to stay, so the car in the parking lot is where we wound up.

Somewhere around 4 or 5am my friend woke up and I began stirring as well, restless, so a drive to Waffle House got the next day going. We burned some time looking around the Lucky Rabbit, a self-proclaimed "junk joint" with antiques and vintage doodads to look at.

Southern Prohibition was the brewery just blocks away, known by many as the best in the state. However, they were under construction going on months now. Luckily, my friend knew the brewer, and he let us in early to check out behind the scenes, have a couple beers, and sent us off with some to-go beer.

We had four breweries to go, each about an hour to ninety minutes driving apart.

We hopped out of the car at Threefoot Brewing in Meridian right as the manager rolled up. He had no idea about our mission but gladly escorted us into the brewery to shower us with beer, chicken & waffles, and other happiness.

With our vibes even higher, we rolled into Jackson next to their only brewery: A beer store that brewed in the back.

We blasted through those beers, then drove on to Key City Brewing in Vicksburg. We lingered there for a bit, then set out on the final drive.

Natchez, the name of both the brewery and the town, sat right across the river from Louisiana. We rolled into applause, as they'd been anticipating us. They poured 14 beers on a giant flight board, and at last, at 5:05pm, I took the record-breaking sip of beer to secure my place in history as the guy who drank at every brewery in Mississippi in 24 hours.

Altogether I'd sampled 95 different beers from the breweries - something I wish I'd kept closer attention to, as I would have shot for a solid 100.

My friends had a drive back to Gulfport ahead of them, but I had other plans. West. Simply west. Ideas on the way, but just west for now.

They dropped me off on the Louisiana side of things, properly full of beer, sunset approaching, now on the road with my thumb out.

I actually got a ride in the back of a pickup truck before my friends even drove away, and I was off. More rides to come, including a police officer. A free casino hotel room in Shreveport awaited - the next adventure was already beginning.