I'm headed to Boston in a few weeks, and figured I'd see what people think I absolutely have to do (beer-wise) while I'm there. Being from CA, I'm planning to try and sample as much Top 250/Beers of Fame/Top New Beers stuff that isn't distributed out West as possible. Ideally, all suggestions would be within ~2 miles of Copley Square, although I'd be willing to travel further if there's some life-changing experience lurking a few more miles away. Thanks!
Trillium is probably within 2 miles of Copley. All their stuff is good and I think FPPA is a Top New Beer. Publick House is probably about 5 miiles from Copley but well worth a visit.
Buy anything you see from Jack's Abbey. I wish I would have brought back more of their stuff when I was in Boston.
In addition to the above locations, I really like Stoddard's (about a mile towards downtown) and Bukowski's (about half a mile towards Fenway) as they both have nice offerings. If you're willing to venture into Cambridge, Lord Hobo and Meadhall (both near MIT/Kendall Square on the Red Line) are worth a stop. As far as beers go, Mayflower Porter, Smuttynose IPA, most Maine Beer (King Titus, MO and Zoe are all over bottle shops - Lunch shows up at random) and the Spencer Trappist are worth a try. I'm sure (statistically anyway) that there are some exceptions, but I'd avoid anything from Harpoon, Sam and Shipyard on a short trip as there are much better options around.
Definitely Trillium! Their ratebeer' #6 new bbrewer this year. Fort Point pale Ale and Congress street IPA are both top 250 and I think quite high actually. if you're willing to go a little further out of the way night shift and Idle Hands are awesome and both in Everett which isn't far and T accessible. They are in the same building with doors 10 ft from each other. Also sunset grill and tap in Allston is one of the best beer bars in the country. 115 taps,over 500 with the bottles. The green line will take you from copley right there.
Toss out the search for top beers/beers of fame, that's far too limiting. If one were to follow that exclusively they'd miss great Boston-area beers like Jack's Abby Hoponius Union, Mayflower Porter and Pretty Things Jack D'or. My favorite beer bar in Boston is Deep Ellum and I highly recommend anyone interested in craft beer to check it out. Lord Hobo is also a wonderful spot.
Trillium was great. The area is extremely small though. Row 34, which is right next door to Trillium is awesome. Can be a little pricey, but their raw bar is awesome and so is their food. As others have said, you need to buy some Jack's Abby beer. Also, public transportation is 11 bucks per person for a day pass. This can make Boston smaller and more accessible for ya. Well worth the money if you plan on going to more than 2 places. Parking can be annoying and possibly quite pricey.
Good advice. You should easily be able to get to Publick House on the Green Line. I think there is a stop right out front iirc. Save your money for Trillium.
If you do plan on buying a pass for MBTA then you have to buy it at a station. If you're staying near Copley then you should be able to buy 2 passes at the station at the automated machine. However, if you put 30 bucks in and your total is 22 then you're getting 8 bucks back in gold dollar coins.
so my dilemma is that Row 34 opens at 5pm on Saturday. I want to do the Trillium bottle release @10AM. why isnt row 34 open for lunch? I guess I want my beers and lunch too. lol.
Not much foot traffic in that area during weekends in the winter. I would expect them to do lunch once the summer months roll around.
Blue Dragon is around the corner and will be open for lunch. Haven't actually eaten there yet but have heard good things, plus they have a solid beer menu. http://www.ming.com/blue-dragon.htm I don't understand the appeal of Deep Ellum. Every time I have been in there it is flooded with annoying college students and wannabe Allston hipsters.
Thanks for the feedback! Art #18 will likely disappear by Saturday. But we should have plenty of other sour beers for sale in the coming weeks.
quite honestly thats one of my favorite sours ive had in a while. i was there on thursday last week with my girlfriend and her cousins and we all loved it that we combined bought a case. they NEVER like beer enough to buy it themselves so the fact that they did this showed how good it was. Please start sending kegs/distro around philadelphia, or come to philly beer week.
Less than 100 bottles remain. Draft might last a bit longer than bottles but really tough to gauge. Myself and fellow Co-Founder are both from the Philly area. Sending beer down there is high on our priority list once we start sending beer out of state. Right now we are still struggling to supply Boston area. But more beer is coming soon!
