Please advise and/or direct if this question has been addressed in detail. Anticipating life will resemble a past normal late next year, 2021. I'm planning a brewery tour throughout the upper New England area...Mass, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine. Would be flying into Boston. Tentatively I have it planned this way....1) Trillium. 2) Treehouse. 3) Lawson's. 4) Alchemist. 5) Hill Farmstead. 6) Bissell Bros. 7) Lord Hobo. I'm a NEIPA guy. Everything is written in pencil with an eraser near by. The DW is a wine person. I'm figuring in wine tastings and experiences as well. Aside from the aforementioned beer/brewery stops what would you suggest? I'm planning on a 7 day minimum up to 10 day trip. Additionally are there any recommended services that provide transportation, lodging etc that's recommended to draw towards or stay away from. Any/all suggestions, opinions, perspectives are welcomed.
It's not going to satisfy your NEIPA craving, but the tour at Allagash was one of my favorites. And when you're done, plenty of NEIPA across the street. Also, one of those seven breweries you list doesn't fit in with the other six.
It's smart to plan the trip over 7 to 10 days. We've seen some posts with people planning to hit all the same places you've listed (and more) in an unconscionable 48 hours. Anyway, you seem to have a pretty solid list of places to hit. I'd skip Lord Hobo entirely. There are certainly plenty of other smaller places you can visit, but at some point it just becomes overkill. If you want to change things up a bit, your Maine visit offers the best chance to do so in fairly close proximity. As RKP1967 suggests, I'd hit up Allagash. (Right across the street are 4 juice factory breweries you can walk over to try). I'd also suggest Oxbow and Maine Beer Company. I guess how many places you hit depends on your stamina. I don't have much anymore. Two or three places on a trip is fine with me.
Ditch lord hobo Add Fiddlehead, Shelburne vineyard tasting room is directly across the street for the wife. If staying in Burlington treat yourself to a night at Hotel Vermont. Then make the short walk to Foam and the Farmhouse
7-10 days would give you a pretty fantastic trip and let you do a lot more than just beer while hitting everywhere worthwhile. Probably worth noting most places you listed don't do tours, but they basically all have taprooms. One thing to check is some are only open a few days a week. VT: Burlington is an actual (albeit small) city and has the most to do in the state, and Foam is great for NEIPAs. Definitely stay a night there. That said, it is a bit north of the other big VT breweries and you're signing up for a lot of driving if you try to do them all in a day and stay in Burlington. Hill Farmstead, Alchemist, and Lawson's can all be done in the same day, but you are going to want to stay in Waterbury or Stowe that night. Transportation around there is basically non-existent, so you'll definitely need to drive between the breweries, but the bar options within walking distance of Waterbury center or the beginning of mountain road in Stowe are great. I don't know how the wine options are, but there are going to be more options here than in MA/ME. I like the Butler House in Stowe. The Stagecoach Inn in Waterbury is cool and haunted (and has a great breakfast). Maine: Stay in Portland, easily worth 2 nights if it's summer. As others have said, Allagash is one of the best to visit, has a real and good tour, and is across the street from several NEIPA factories. Uber is plentiful and you will definitely want to take advantage. If you book far enough in advance, Airbnb can be a great option here, but there aren't as many as you would hope so you have to be pretty diligent about looking. Boston: The obvious home base of the trip given you'll be flying in there and the fact that you basically have to go back to Mass to get from VT to Maine (and Tree House) anyways. Trillium is a great visit and you can spend a ton of time there. Night Shift and Lamplighter also worth hitting if you're looking for suggestions, but not as essential if you are not. Tree House is just over an hour drive and has a drink limit, so don't dedicate a whole day to it. TH and HF are the two absolute can't misses for quality. Trillium and Lawson's have the best taproom experiences. Hopefully that's helpful!
Tried to edit my post but missed the window I guess, couple other things to note: VT has the best nature if you're into that, but the southern Maine coastal towns (Kennebunk, Kittery) are great too assuming you want some of the trip to deviate from brewery hopping. Just don't stay there and plan on doing Portland breweries in the same day, it's too far to uber and you're not going to want to drive yourself. In Boston, it's worth looking for a hotel downtown as the most fun to be had walking is near the common or seaport. That said, food is best in the south end and Cambridge so I wouldn't rule out those areas either. In terms of the touristy stuff, most things historical are cool if you've never been here before, the north end is good, Faneuil Hall and Cheers can be skipped. Those three states will give you more than enough to do in a week, but Rhode Island is great in summer too, Newport is beautiful and food in Providence is excellent. Don't bother with Connecticut unless you'd spend a whole day on pizza or NH unless you want to rent a lake cabin.
There's a million other little (and not so little) breweries along the way that are worth a stop. For instance, if you're driving from Boston to Tree House, I recommend a stop in Framingham at Jack's Abby for lunch (and a beer...) Harpoon's beer hall in Boston is really good and their Windsor VT facility has a great restaurant as well.
