Visiting Boston Guide (Summer '14 Edition)

Updated by popular demand (and recent influx of posts asking for advice). Locals: please comment with suggestions of places to add, corrections to my mistakes, or to praise me.

BA Places Guide: Boston

General Boston Notes:
Massachusetts stores are not allowed to fill growlers or operate taprooms. Also, breweries are only able to fill their own branded growlers, so keep the cost or deposit of the growler in mind when estimating your costs. It is also illegal to have happy hours in Boston, so don't bother searching for the best drink specials (although you can find food specials around).

On the subject of food, check out the Boston Chowhound board for any and all questions regarding that topic.

Parking is generally difficult-to-impossible city-wide, so you should plan for this if you do decide to drive into the city. Consider walking or renting bikes from the Hubway bike stations to get around town. Boston is a beautiful walking city, and is growing more bike friendly by the day (although still a little dangerous in spots).

The MBTA (the "T") is Boston's public transportation system. By and large, it is decent and many (if not most) locals rely on it in lieu of a car, although we all love to complain about it. Google Maps has the T train and bus schedules integrated into it. It's fairly accurate, but for complete schedules go to MBTA.com.

The T service has recently been extended until a little after 2am on weekends, but it's easy to miss the last train (be aware the last trains running inbound from the 'burbs stop earlier). Taxis are generally overpriced, but Boston city cabs are required to to take credit cards (Don't fall for the "machine is broken" games); the same is not true for Cambridge and other surrounding towns, though. Taxi service apps (such as Uber(x), Lyft, or Sidecar) are becoming increasingly popular.

Map
This guide in mapform. Seriously, use this. Thank me later.

 

Breweries
Ordered loosely based on community visit preference. Be aware, some breweries have limited visitation or tour times. Check out their websites and social media sites for hours and current offerings. Brewpubs all feature full pints and food.

MBTA Accessible
Cambridge Brewing Co. - Brewpub and growlers
Night Shift Brewery - Tours, samples, growlers, pints
Trillium Brewing Co. - Samples, growlers
Mystic Brewery - Tours, samples, growlers, pints
Idle Hands Craft Ales - Tours, samples, growlers
Harpoon Brewery & Beer Hall - Tours, samples, growlers, pints
Boston Beer Co. (Sam Adams) - Tours and samples, pints available at Doyles after Trolley ride
Watch City Brewing Co. - Brewpub and growlers
Boston Beer Works (Several locations)- Brewpub, tours, growlers
John Harvard’s Brewery & Ale House (Several locations) - Brewpub and growlers

Bantam Cider also has a taproom in Cambridge.

Driving
Jack’s Abby Brewing - Tours, samples, growlers, pints
Tree House Brewing - Tours, samples, growlers
The Tap - Brewpub, tours, growlers
Mayflower Brewing Co. - Tours, samples, growlers, pints
Cape Ann Brewing Co. - Brewpub, tours, growlers
Newburyport Brewing Co. - Tours, samples, growlers, pints
Bog Iron Brewing - Tours, samples, growlers (Pints soon, if not already)

 

Bars / Restaurants
Ordered loosely based on community preference (but reasonable minds will always differ). Sam Adams and Harpoon beers have been a mainstay in almost every bar in Boston for a long time, but Boston has seen a tremendous increase over the last few years of craft taps and decent bottle lists at most restaurants, especially newer ones. You will probably find something worth drinking at most places, however these are some (but definitely not all) restaurants and bars with a heavy craft emphasis. I limited this to Boston/Cambridge area just from sheer volume. (*) Most commonly recommended.

Cambridge / Somerville
(*) Lord Hobo
(*) Meadhall
Redbones
Cambridge Common
Atwood’s Tavern
Olde Magoun’s Saloon
Flatbread Company @ Sacco’s
Green Street Grill
The Asgard
Russell House Tavern
Bukowski Tavern

Allston / Brighton / Brookline
(*) Publick House
(*) Deep Ellum
(*) Sunset Grill & Tap
The Avenue
The Abbey
Hops ‘n Scotch

Back Bay / Kenmore
Lower Depths
Island Creek Oyster Bar
Salty Pig
Parish Cafe
Eastern Standard
Yard House- Fenway
Bukowski Tavern
Cornwall’s

Downtown / South End
(*) Row 34
(*) Stoddard’s Fine Food & Ales
jm Curley
Saus
Picco
Tip Tap Room
Kinsale
Coda
Local 149
Jacob Wirth

Jamaica Plain/West Roxbury
Canary Square
Brendan Behan Pub
Vee Vee
Centre Street Sanctuary
Milky Way Lounge
Galway House
James's Gate
Eugene O'Neill's
Porter Cafe

 

Stores
City stores are in alphabetical order, because location is usually more important to people. Use the map to find the stores listed here closest to where you plan to be. Each of these will carry a majority of what's available in distribution or have a nicely curated selection. Suburb stores are the ones most frequently recommended outside the city. Also note: Due to store chain laws, some locations of large supermarket or convenience chains will carry alcohol and some will not.

Greater City
Ball Square Fine Wines & Liquor
Bauer Wine & Spirits
Bay State Foods
Bee's Knees Supply Co
Blanchard's of Allston
Boston Wine Exchange
Charles Street Liquors
DownTown Wine & Spirits
Federal Wine & Spirits
Liquor World
Marty’s Fine Wines
Social Wines
Streetcar Wine & Beer
Urban Grape (South End, Chestnut Hill)
Whole Foods River St

Suburbs
Craft Beer Cellar (Belmont, Newton, Braintree, Westford, and Winchester)
Julio’s Liquors
Gordon’s Fine Wines & Liquors (Waltham, Watertown)
Redstone Liquors
Yankee Spirits - Attleboro
Colonial Spirits
Acton Wine & Spirit Co.
Berman’s Wine & Spirits
Granite Liquors - Weymouth

(all links working as of 5/26/14... let me know if one breaks).

 

It's there under MBTA accessible breweries.

 

Forgot Navigation was open, I will include next update. Also forgot Riverwalk Brewery and Blue Hills Brewery, probably another couple, too.

I briefly read of Abandoned Building a while back, but haven't heard much of it. I tried to limit to places within an hour drive of Boston, but made exception for Tree House Brewing since it's so frequently mentioned/asked about.

 

First off, I can't speak for the BA places designations.

There are several types of Mass brewery licenses, but as far as I know all licenses allow the brewery to pour free samples at the brewery. This doesn't necessarily mean the brewery has a tap room, but all the ones you mentioned do have one in some manner and all definitely offer samples. They may not necessarily offer flights, but may do one-at-a-time samples of a few beers on tap. I believe samples are restricted to 2oz or less.

The smaller "farmer/brewer" license designation allows a brewery to obtain a permit to pour full pints of beers with little red tape, and those that have done so are listed as having "pints" available as well; This law was changed fairly recently I believe, so most smaller breweries will probably take advantage of this, space and capital permitting. However, a brewery with the larger manufacturing license is subject to an annoying quota system for "pouring" liquor licenses to obtain the same full pint permit, but for example, Harpoon has one at its Beer Hall.

To sum up, I think pretty much all of the breweries that offer full pints will sell you a flight, and you can probably get the sample equivalent of a free flight at most of the ones listed as having samples w/out pints.

 

And the Brownwyn, etc. There's a lot of good places north of the river. I was battling with expanding that section a bunch or keeping it relatively close to the size of the others. I'll revisit next update, but your comments are here for potential visitors to see!