Best New England Beer State

Discussion in 'New England' started by blisscent, Jan 18, 2016.

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  1. kinopio

    kinopio Savant (1,037) Apr 30, 2009 Massachusetts

    So for 1 of the 4 seasons its kinda easy to get beers in Vermont? Not exactly a selling point.
     
    #41 kinopio, Jan 19, 2016
  2. Leebo

    Leebo Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2013 Massachusetts

    It's not an either/ or. It's yes, yes, yes. I have a car and like to travel by car for some of my vacations. I live North of Boston. All good. The rest of the country just wants to live here. And GO PATS. State? I'm thinking of 2 months just beer within 50 miles of my house.
     
    #42 Leebo, Jan 19, 2016
  3. oldbean

    oldbean Initiate (0) Jun 30, 2005 Massachusetts

    Learn to love gray skies and mud I guess.
     
    #43 oldbean, Jan 19, 2016
  4. chipawayboy

    chipawayboy Pooh-Bah (2,181) Oct 26, 2007 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    FB is in every bar in Montpelier/Burlington/Waterbury etc. has been for months. it's really good too.
     
    #44 chipawayboy, Jan 20, 2016
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  5. RozzieBoy

    RozzieBoy Pundit (871) Apr 4, 2013 Rhode Island

    MA.
    VT.
    ME.
    CT.
    RI.
    NH.
     
    #45 RozzieBoy, Jan 20, 2016
  6. jhavs

    jhavs Grand Pooh-Bah (3,587) Apr 16, 2015 New York
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Leaf peepers is like 2 weeks max, ski season crowded time is school vacations and at most Late December through Feb school break, summer is like 3 days at the end of July. I exaggerate a bit, but the difficulty of buying HT is very exaggerated. If you go to a store on delivery day you should be able to find it.
     
    #46 jhavs, Jan 20, 2016
  7. Skwalk47

    Skwalk47 Initiate (0) Aug 31, 2010 Massachusetts

    There's lots of good ones but I think those saying MA has the best must only drink hops and stouts.
     
    #47 Skwalk47, Jan 20, 2016
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  8. blisscent

    blisscent Savant (1,110) Aug 16, 2015 Rhode Island

    There is that and naturally Mass has the most residents, so there is that as well. Most often I think the beer drinker will prefer their locals for many reasons, and some of it might be that they don't often enough visit the other states' beer locales.

    Regardless of that, it's all real close with three states. And my preference would be Belgian beers and Mass falls into third because of my bias.

    - Mass losing both Enlightenment and Pretty Things in one year didn't help matters either.
     
    #48 blisscent, Jan 20, 2016
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2016
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  9. Sweatshirt

    Sweatshirt Initiate (0) Jan 27, 2014 New Hampshire

    Or the people who aren't aren't drinking the right non IPA/Stout beers from the state.
     
    #49 Sweatshirt, Jan 20, 2016
  10. wehaveamap

    wehaveamap Pundit (917) Jan 16, 2010 Massachusetts
    Trader

    Making that claim would be giving a little too much weight to Hill Farmstead and Oxbow, would it not?
     
    #50 wehaveamap, Jan 20, 2016
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2016
  11. Leebo

    Leebo Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2013 Massachusetts

    Or they just go to Jacks Abby.
     
    #51 Leebo, Jan 20, 2016
  12. TheOneTC

    TheOneTC Pundit (754) Aug 23, 2013 Massachusetts
    Trader

    Jacks Abby
    Enlightenment
    Mystic
    Cambridge Brewing
    Night Shift
    Cisco

    Sure, if you look at just one of those vs. Hill Farmstead, Hill comes out on top. But when you compare the wide range of breweries who offer more than just hops and stouts, at a high level, to me at least, MA comes out on top. Guess it depends on how much weight you put on HF.
     
    #52 TheOneTC, Jan 20, 2016
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  13. Jcorn

    Jcorn Savant (1,220) Jun 17, 2015 Massachusetts
    Trader

    Yeah I was kinda joking there. Sure, Focal Banger makes it's appearances around there.

    But I know people at work who go up to VT for weekends quite often & they say they almost never find it on shelves on the weekend. Apparently Lawsons is even harder to get. If I have to take a day off work to get it, then it's hard to get. I've only gotten it via trades. But honestly, Treehouse is the same so call it a push. Frankly, I rank Trillium over Tree House anyway.

    But for this list I'm only factoring in quantity & quality. For quality I think VT is tops with MA hot it it's trail. For quantity it's MA easily for the top then VT #2 & ME #3. Overall I think think VT & MA are probably neck & neck for the top spot with ME coming in at 3.

    1. MA
    1. VT
    3. ME
    4. CT
    5. NH
    6. RI
     
    #53 Jcorn, Jan 20, 2016
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  14. oldbean

    oldbean Initiate (0) Jun 30, 2005 Massachusetts

    The "only hops and stouts" thing really only applies to Tree House at this point. Even in the short time since Canton came on-line, Trillium has started diversifying their lineup. Not sure exactly what their future output is going to look like but it certainly looks like it's going to involve plenty of saisons and wild/sour stuff.
     
    #54 oldbean, Jan 20, 2016
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  15. PatrickCT

    PatrickCT Grand Pooh-Bah (3,776) Feb 18, 2015 Connecticut

    Connecticut has a lot of great breweries. They shoot themselves in the feet by not pushing to get their beer out. Having said that I would rate Connecticut higher than most here but certainly not at the top. Based on my personal tastes, Maine is at the top of my list.
     
    #55 PatrickCT, Jan 20, 2016
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  16. PatrickCT

    PatrickCT Grand Pooh-Bah (3,776) Feb 18, 2015 Connecticut

    Maine
    Massachusetts
    Vermont
    Connecticut
    New Hampshire
    R.I. (the stuff I have had from RI is great, I just haven't had that much. Cheers Rhode Islanders!)
     
    #56 PatrickCT, Jan 20, 2016
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  17. celfan

    celfan Savant (1,060) Jul 4, 2004 Vermont
    Trader

    Not a homer here - I say go MASS! Intercept all of those Jersey, NY, PA cars!
     
    #57 celfan, Jan 20, 2016
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  18. blisscent

    blisscent Savant (1,110) Aug 16, 2015 Rhode Island

    First, RIP to Enlightenment (huge, huge fan).

    I am also a big fan of the other 4, but I still like my Hill Farmstead with Four Quarters, Lost Nation, Hermit Thrush, Backacre, just a hair better if I am forced to chose just one state when considering Belgian beer only.
    Maine does slightly lower with Oxbow and Allagash alone, but like the early promise of places like Hidden Cove, Rising Tide, Banded Horn, and Austin Street.

    I also think IPA's right now are so good everywhere in New England that it's these other styles that should be looked at as a tie-breaker.

    - If Jacks Abbey and Trillium continue their good starts, then it might change things for me. And I'm hoping to further confused and have Alchemist (eg. Petit Mutant) go back to their early roots and brew some sours and belgian beers.
     
    #58 blisscent, Jan 20, 2016
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2016
  19. Piels25

    Piels25 Savant (1,034) Dec 17, 2013 Massachusetts
    Trader

    They won't find Focal on the shelves because it's only available in restaurants. I found it at multiple locations in Burlington/Winooski this weekend without much effort.
     
    #59 Piels25, Jan 20, 2016
  20. Skwalk47

    Skwalk47 Initiate (0) Aug 31, 2010 Massachusetts

    Trillium is definately doing some good things with their sours and I am a big fan of some of Night Shift's sours. However, no one does Belgian-style lambics (maybe in North America) better than Allagash and HF's saisons are better than anything in MA (I think Enlightenment has the best ones around but those will be MIA for at least a year or two).
     
    #60 Skwalk47, Jan 21, 2016
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