Two guys drive from Indianapolis to Memphis to get a beer made in Arkansas.

It took driving seven hours and 1,009 miles in the rain to get it, but Rob Long and Joe Hodson of Indianapolis finally got a beer — three of them in fact — from Arkansas.

Taking beer geekdom to new heights, the neighbors began a mission Jan. 1, 2020, to try one craft beer made in each state. They accomplished that goal with a few hours to spare, returning home to Indiana from Memphis about 6 p.m. Thursday to sample a selection of hard-earned Diamond Bear beers made in Little Rock.

"Arkansas was our last one," Long said on the way home Thursday. "We started in January and knocked out the Midwest, California and Colorado pretty quick, and even Florida, but we couldn't get any beer from Arkansas."

They hoped to find an Arkansas-made beer in Nashville, which is closer to their home and would have saved about four total hours of drive time. But alas, Memphis was the closest city they could buy a beer made in Arkansas.

"It was the furthest we traveled specifically for a beer," Long said of the trip.

A July family trip to North Carolina allowed Long to check off several East Coast hazy IPAs as well as Terrapin Beer Co.'s Hopsecutioner IPA from Athens as the Georgia beer he took home to share with Hodson. 

Approaching their Dec. 31 deadline, the beer seekers still had one blank on their map: Arkansas.

A long day was spent researching where to find a beer made in Arkansas — as close as possible to Indianapolis. Long called Diamond Bear Brewery in Little Rock and the owner put them in touch with the distributor who in turn led them to the closest place to get a Diamond Bear: Joe's Wine & Liquor in Memphis. Hodson and Long's wives said go for it.

"They were really great there at Joe's," Hodson said. "We ended up going back at 8 a.m. today to get some growlers for the road."

While the trip was about beer, the two bros who were willing to drive 14 hours round trip for a beer, made time to stop for an old-fashioned at The Peabody. As homebrewers, they have built up their level of patience. It is a month to six-week — or longer — wait from the time of mashing in and knocking out to serving and sipping.

Among the more memorable beers around the country for Long and Hodson was a blackberry, plum, raspberry sour called "Braaaaaaaains" from Drekker Brewing Co. in Fargo, South Dakota. He said they drank that, properly, on Halloween.

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Most of the beers they obtained — from friends who travel to online sales — were some variety of India Pale Ale. Long said he has come to enjoy East Coast hazy IPAs more over the past year.

Last year, Hodson's beer mission was to drink 100 beers made in Indiana. Next year, the two plan on trying a brew from every beer style presented at the Great American Beer Festival. That will be about 91 categories, plus some subcategories.

For Long and Hodson, they could have selected from any number of breweries that distribute in Arkansas: Lost Forty, Core, Ozark, Bike Rack, New Province, Fossil Cove and Flyway. There are about 45 breweries are Arkansas, but a little more than half are those are considered "nanobreweries" that only brew for taproom sales or limited area distribution, says Brian Sorensen, author of "Arkansas Beer: An Intoxicating History" and an Arkansas beer columnist for the Fayetteville Flyer.

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Some of those smaller Arkansas breweries that can't be found outside the state lines would be Fort Smith Brewing Co., Prestonrose Farm and Brewing Co. near Subiaco, Hawk Moth in Rogers, and SQZBX Brewery & Pizza Joint in Hot Springs. A small brewery in the little town of Scranton also recently started up, becoming the third now in Logan County with Country Monks in Subiaco.

Russ Melton, owner of Diamond Bear, said he remembers talking to one of the beer travelers from Indianapolis earlier in the week and gladly put them in touch with his distributor in Memphis.

Although he does get requests every now and then to have beers sent out of state, he has to decline because it is illegal in Arkansas.