Favorite New England Beer Experience

My favorite drinking experience was when my buddy came from Minnesota and got to finally go on his NE beer trip. Best part was when we sat out on the streets of North End, like respectable degenerates, and split one of his Barrel Theory stouts and a Trillium stout. Great combination of people walking by that were appalled and jealous. Perfect summer weather and great conversation.

 

Alright, you're back in the "acceptable" bin. But just barely.

 

For all my belly aching about the cold and how I love the heat, I do have central air. I keep it at 74, and would probably keep it a bit higher, but it's a compromise with my roommate.

To be fair, it came with the apartment (I do love central air though, it's convenient).

Nice story, but an odd choice for a drink on a summer day.

My motto is, "You don't have to shovel humidity."

 

[QUOTE="mountaindewORcrabjuice, post: 6157212, member: 1211064" I just thought in a beer world where a lot of people try to pump their own tires and project self-importance to anyone within striking distance, this guy was just a nice, down-to-earth dude who happens to make world-class beer. It was a nice breath of fresh air.[/QUOTE]

Haha, I have to laugh, ALL of the people who make great beer are really down to earth and cool (at least the ones I know), it's the guys who aren't so good that "pump their own tires".

 

So this might not be my favorite experience, but it's up there and no one has mentioned it yet so... I stopped in at Fiddlehead and picked up two growlers and then went next door and shared a few different pies at the pizza place with my wife. The beer was great, the pizza was great, and it was just a great time.

 

Fiddlehead and a pizza is a good one. Just hit up Fox Farm for the first time last week. Awesome spot with a lot of outdoor space.

 

Mine was just this past weekend actually. It's been a rough few weeks dealing with the untimely death of a close friend, so the wife and I decided to get away from it all and go camping in Acadia to get recentered, stopping at Tree House along the way to stock campfire beers.

After a tough morning hike, we stopped by Charlotte's Lobster Pound and enjoyed some lobster rolls and Haze/Julius sitting in adirondack chairs enjoying a view of the fields/forest and the ocean just beyond.

 

How has nobody said Hill Farmstead? My cell phone doesn't work there so I cant be bothered to do anything but drink my beer and talk to people about beer.

 

I'll add a Hill Farmstead one.

First trip was an early release, but that wasn't it. It was the second trip. We took a trip, we being New England Revolution fans, to Montreal to see the Revs play there. On our way back it was a Wednesday or Thursday and I obviously wanted to take a trip to Hill Farmstead. This was pre tap room, pre pretty much anything other than opening crowds or crowds at a release, so it was a very chill day. At one point I think we were the only ones in the taproom, while Shaun and Luc from Dieu du Ciel were brewing some colab. Anyway, Shaun ending spending a bunch of time just shooting the shit with us, proud of the awards and Christmas cards sent from other breweries (Sierra Nevada, I think, stood out). We took pictures there, and a few Luc photobomed us. The weather was perfect, and they had the garage door opened, it honestly was a perfect day.

A little while after that one of our friends from the group died of meningitis. Those pictures of us all happy were a nice remembrance along with the amazing time we had. Any time anyone says Shaun is an asshole, I remember that day how happy he was, and think come on maybe you just got him on a bad day.

 

It's not my favorite experience, but I did have a very singular experience at Hill Farmstead.

This was 2012 or so and I had recently moved back to Boston after living elsewhere for about 15 years. I was obviously excited about what was going on up in VT around this time and I had friends who lived in Burlington who were always telling us that while Heady was good, what we really needed to do was go to this crazy farmhouse in the middle of nowhere where people waited in lines for their amazing beer. I had never even heard of such a thing as waiting in line at the source for beer (I'd been drinking craft since the 90s, but I didn't get to the BA level of geekdom for a couple more years).

So we went up to visit those friends with a plan to go the HF the next day. Our plan was to arrive about an hour before open because they insisted there would be a big crowd. Well, it was a rainy, cold, grey, shitty day and as we made our way further and further out into east bumfuck I remember thinking that "there is no freaking way there is going to be a line of people waiting for beer way out here in the sticks on this miserable mess of day'. How young and naive I was (well, naive anyway).

There was of course a huge amusement park like line of people all dressed in rain gear carrying growlers. It took over 2 hours to get beer but we actually had a great time hanging out in line chatting with everyone and drinking those samples that they used to come around selling while you waited. Everyone was so excited to be there and it just seemed like such a whacky, unique situation. I brought one of my growler's home to give to a neighbor who was a bit of a beer geek and I remember writing him a long note to go with it explaining just how crazy the scene was up there. I really was pretty flabbergasted by the whole thing.

Funnily enough I don't actually remember the beer itself very clearly! I know I liked it a lot, but given what we had gone through to get it I just assumed it was something I wasn't likely to try again soon. I've still never been back, though I've had their beer on a couple of occasions since then. One time was at Worthy Kitchen, and sitting on their porch drinking an Edward while looking out at the surrounding mountains was a pretty great experience now that i think about it. One of these days I'll get back there to enjoy the taproom and, I'm assuming, a more civilized experience.

 

@NeroFiddled reminded me of the great experience of grabbing beer at Hill Farmstead and then crushing a "Green Mountain Special" at Parker Pie along with some Hill Farmstead drafts.

Who the fuck writes a note? Just send him a text.

 

Too many to count or rank... the top two are probably Shaun Hill's Backwoods Brewdown parties before HF opened and pretty much any good beer drank on our deck on a nice evening, facing Camel's Hump, looming over us about 2 miles away. Often while grilling. Hard to beat.

 

In 2012 I was definitely still sporting a sweet flip phone!

And @mountaindewORcrabjuice, I salute you on your username. One day perhaps we can meet for beers over a lunch of Khlav Kalash.

 

Hey I'd be up for a bowl... I mean, no bowl. STICK. STICK.

 

That time is snowed at Hill Farmstead on Memorial Day Weekend.

 

Honestly, it's only tangentially beer-related. It's the homemade smoked habanero pistachios at Long Blue Cat. They're insane. Sat there, drank a beer, read the paper, munched on the pistachios. Wonderful.

 

Tell us more about Shaun’s parties. That’s sounds fascinating. Where were they? How big were the parties ? What and how many beers were being served?

 

I’ve never been, but I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Ebenezer’s Belgian Beer Fest and/or Ebenezer’s stories in general.

 

Drinking heady playing pond hockey on mushrooms at 2°F.

 

Never faced any mushrooms but I'll second the beer and pond hockey combo in the titty-freezing cold.