Beer Trip: Boston or Denver?

I hadn't realized that Boston's area was a limiting factor, but it makes sense given the age of the city. I've been to the Boston area several times, and I know the greater-Boston area has a bunch more breweries to visit because I visited some, but I don't know the suburbs names well enough to do multiple searches using the Places feature here on BA. I hope the new BA version that is in the works, and specifically the Places feature, will have the capability to search the SMSA somehow for us travelers to use.

 

I can't speak for others but my earlier post was more referring to driving between "hubs" as opposed to actually driving to/from breweries or bars. Once you are in Boston (or Portland, or Waterbury, or Burlington) there's no driving necessary since all are small enough to be walkable. It's just getting between those places that requires a car.

 

I voted for Boston. Been to both places before and if you want somethings to do outside of beer (I know I know, blasphemy!) to me Boston offers more to do. Keep in mind your trip you mentioned from Boston to Burlington, VT (as example) is 3:30-3 hours long so enjoy that (also done that the other direction).

If you want a beercation with the primary reason for the trip to be beer, then Denver is the ticket. I enjoyed the Boston breweries and bars but Denver is cheaper and has a wide variety you can't get in many places. Be warned, Denver has some wicked weird weather sometimes so check weather history for your trip window. It can snow one day and the next it's 80F, no joke.

Either way you can't really go wrong.

 

You can look at the map of the breweries in MA at: https://massbrewersguild.org

If you go to the breweries tab it will bring up a google map with all of them on the map. Gives you a good idea of where each brewery is. As others have mentioned you'd probably want to include Portland ME and/or Vermont in your road trip. There are areas which are starting to have a lot of breweries in one smallish area such as Everett around Night Shift Brewery. You can hit a bunch of breweries all close to this area. Likewise in Portland around Allagash brewery. You really need to list out all the breweries you would want to visit in New England and see whether you can logistically reach them. Figure out what days they are open and when they release beers. Tree House is only open Wed-Sat. Cans are released on Wed, Thursday and Friday. Tree House also only (consistently) does pours on Saturdays when cans are probably sold out. So you really need to consider whether you are looking for beer to take away or beer to drink on site.

Another thing to consider is how many breweries do you want to hit vs how many local beers do you want to drink? You can hit a lot of local bars in and around Boston and get some great local beers without traveling to a ton of breweries. Trillium is available in lots of bars these days. You also have bars like Armsby Abbey in Worcester which most times has beers like Hill Farmstead on tap without having to drive to Vermont. Other beers like Fiddlehead from Vermont are also readily available.

I haven't mentioned anything about Colorado because I don't live there. I love the state and have visited a bunch of times but I'm not as familiar with the beer scene. I've been to a lot of great bars around there and I think you'll have less of a hard time logistically. I'd bet you can find some resources to map out breweries there as well to determine logistics. Overall though I don't think you can just look at which area has better beer but which place you can check off all the boxes you want given time, distance, and availability (hours, beer release days, etc).

 

You can't go wrong with either.

Denver: You can take day trips to Rocky Mountain National Park, Garden of the Gods, etc. Retail weed. You can go to Avery, Crooked Stave, and Casey.

Boston: One of the nicest cities on the East Coast. Lots of historical sites, museums, etc. Trillium and Tree House. If you don't mind driving 3+ hours you can hit The Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, and Foam in Vermont.

I think Boston itself is slightly nicer than Denver, but there's amazing hiking near Denver. I'm big into NE-IPAs so I'd favor Boston by a hair.

 

Since you really can't go wrong with either place as far as beer goes, let the food choices guide you. Boston has abundant fresh oysters, Denver has Rocky Mountain oysters.

 

Haven't been to either but had to vote Denver. Great beers and legally burn a fatty? No contest!

 

Weed has been legal in MA since late-2016, but there won't be anywhere to legally purchase recreational weed until (at earliest) July 2018.

 

I don’t disagree. BUT, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

I’ll take some southern (or in Denver’s case, western) hospitality any day

 

If you're going to have a car, keep in mind that most Bostonians spend between ten and fifteen hours each week looking for parking spaces. Denver's got to be less of a hassle.

 

If you like fake friendliness, go to the South.

If you like sincere hostility, come to New England.

 

I've had the pleasure of visiting both, and voted Denver.

Well, I say pleasure. I wasn't too fond of Boston. I pretty much walked around all day and saw what there was to see. Food was gross, but I might have been to the wrong places. All in all, it was a forgettable trip. My whole trip down the east coast was kinda lame, but it was before I was into craft beer. It actually lead to the end of the relationship I was in at the time, so maybe part of it was me having to put up with her for such a long period of time?

Denver, on the other hand, was an insanely good time. Crowded as hell, but a lot of fun. I'd go to Denver again in a minute if I wasn't going to Ireland next year.

 

I've done both within the past year and a half. Boston was last summer (as part of a long road trip) and Denver this year. Neither is a bad option, as long as you have good options for getting around. If I had to pick one to do again, I'd chose Denver. It might just be a recency bias, but I enjoyed that trip much more and felt like there was a lot we didn't get to see.

 

But Old Ironsides itself was amazing to me. The USS Constitution and an Ipswich Oatmeal Stout work well together.

 

Can't get Trillium or Nighshift in Denver. And Boston is just s great city.

Also Treehouse is only 1.5 hours away.

 

Got to agree with you there.

 

Fly me out to Denver so I can make an educated suggestion?

Joking aside, I have never been to Colorado, but the Boston (read "New England") beer scene is incredible. You can hit Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont in a week, no problem.

 

No problem if I hire a driver.

 

Denver.

You won't have to put up with obnoxious Red Sux fans.

Seriously though, a lot comes down to what ya wanna do with your non-beer time. Boston got history, art, and an overall interesting vibe. Denver got, well, Denver got better beer, and more of it.

 

I think this is probably the starkest metric that differentiates the two. If you want to plop down in one city for a week and take in everything they have to offer, then Denver is your bet. If you want to spend a night or two each in a handful of different cities within a few driving hours of each other, then Boston is a great hub from which to launch that.