Weekend through NE

If you want to sample some of Vermont's best beers you need to go to Worthy Kitchen in Woodstock, Worthy Burger in South Royalton, or Prohibition Pig in Waterbury VT. To buy; try Woodstock Hops & Barley in Woodstock, Hunger Mountain Co-Op in Montpelier, or Craft Beer Cellar in Waterbury. For breweries; Fiddleheads in Shelburne is a great choice, try their Mastermind, Otter Creek in Middlebury try their Double Dose; Hill Farmstead if you can make it and Parker Pie Co. Also for easy visits go to Harpoon in Windsor, and Long Trail in Bridgewater.

 

If you really want to go to Hills Farmstead I would maybe try to hit that first sometime on Friday. Maybe take 95 north to 93 north(will take you through Franconia Notch and some of the White Mountains) then over to 91 in Vt and it is short trip to Hills Farmstead from there. Less crowds there on Friday than Saturday. From there maybe stay around Stowe or Waterbury. There are a couple of breweries in Morrisville Rock Art and Lost Nation I think. Rock art beers are fair and well I haven't made it to Lost Nation but they are supposed to have some good beers. That leaves Saturday for the Burlington and Shelburne area(Fiddlehead). Lots of beer available on Church Street in Burlington. And if time permitted you could make it down to Middlebury for Ottercreek and another small brewery Drop-in Brewery. Ottercreek has DoubleDose and well from time to time Drop-in has had a few good beers.

 

This is worthy advice

 

At around a 6-hour trip (based on Mapquest right now and not a Friday afternoon), you would need to leave before 11am to make it before closing. Also for the love of all that is holy, I would advise AGAINST driving coastal Connecticut via I-95 on a Friday. Although I agree NH is a scenic drive (I'm from there!), the more sensible approach appears to be I-684 to I-84 to Hartford then up I-91 from there to VT.

Harpoon in Windsor, VT would be a nice stop for brewery-only beers, appetizers and to stretch your legs before a final homestretch to Waterbury for dinner and more limited brews.

 

Since you mentioned MA/VT and no gave you any MA options..
Head to Boston Friday afternoon... hit Trillium Brewery at like 5 on Friday. Try some samples and/or buy bottles, head next door to Row 34 for Oysters/Dinner/Beer. Head to Night Shift in Everett (north of city) until close (9pm). Hit Kendall Square area bars (CBC brewpub open til 11, Lord Hobo open until 1am). Hotel in the area hopefully. This can be modified with a Tree House stop (opens at 5pm) on the way to the city, but you'd have to sacrifice Trillium probably.

Wake up early (8am) drive straight to HF, 3.5 hours. Wait in line, buy stuff and get a few samples. Drive to Waterbury. Bar crawl the rest of the night to try some Heady/Lawson's/HF. Leave Sunday early (or do Waterbury early on and leave early and get some distance home before getting a hotel).

 

If you forego the Boston area, you could swing up Friday eve to TreeHouse in Monson, MA, for growler fills of MA's own far-flung destination beer. Then stay in the Pioneer Valley (I-91 corridor) around Northampton or Greenfield for the night. Northampton has great craft beer taps all over town at places like McLadden's, Sierra Grille, or Hinge, and Northampton Brewery's brewpub drafts are better than they've ever been. Dirty Truth is there too if you like great beer lists and also don't mind farting out $8 a pint. Or head to Amherst for the classic Moan and Dove, where the Valley's modern beer bar culture started.

Amherst also has Amherst Brewing Co and High Horse, both brewpubs, the latter especially worth a stop for its award-winning beers you can't really get anywhere else.

A little further north you could have dinner and brewpub drafts at The People's Pint in Greenfield. Seymour (beer bar) has a nice atmosphere in downtown Greenfield too, but is another fart out $8 a pint joint. Most exciting beer bar in upper Valley right now is the Five Eyed Fox, which just opened this past week in Turners Falls, with Tree House Green (!), Smutty Bouncehouse, Jacks Abby Calyptra, FW Wookie Jack, Allagash Saison, Pretty Things St Botolphs, Maine Beer Peeper, and Bruery Hottenroth. It may just be the long-awaited W. MA craft bar that will actually bother to bring in some regional draft rarities. The kind of place that might bother doing good deeds like bringing a Night Shift draft line west of 128 / sometimes Worcester. Greenfield has Ryan and Casey package store, where you can pick up many of MA and the region's best retail beer selections.

Also, don't discount SE Vermont if you have time. Brattleboro has the classic McNeill's and the new and shiny Whetstone Station, the latter getting HF and Lost Nation here and there as a guest beer along with their ever improving house-brewed lines. Personal opinion is to find HF on tap, unless you're really set on bringing some home. Their customer service is cold, and they seem to be enjoying that people will drive hours to them for their excellent beer and they don't have to improve their line efficiency or attitude. Find it on tap at Three Penny in Montpelier or at Positive Pie. I do understand the HF draw though, just being honest that I've yet to experience a great compassion for the customer there. Compare that to Tree House, where Dean very well might hug you. Or the very friendly folks at Fiddlehead or Lost Nation.

Happy travels!

 

Sure thing my friend. Western MA is an embarrassment of riches. We have no Heady Toppers but boatloads of SOLID underacclaimed beer. Besides what I already named, a few things to seek in bottles at Ryan & Casey in Greenfield or River Valley Market in Northampton - Brewmaster Jack IPA and single-hop experiments, Stoneman Brewery saison and dark beers (imperial stout and Porter especially), and Lefty's Breakfast Stout and Scotch Ale. Also- Element brews vicious strong beers and has a great taproom in Millers Falls, 10 min east on Rt 2 from I-91 - worth a tasting room stop and growler fill! Don't waste too much time here in W MA, but don't totally ignore it either!

 

I would highly recommend a stop at Treehouse on Friday night if you can. Their beer is excellent, but they only do growler fills there, and tasting is very limited, like a 1oz sample of each beer. Super cool space though, and a bit out of rhe way if you're heading straight to VT, but pretty much on the way to Boston. Keep in mind that MA breweries only fill their own grolwers so you will have to buy new glass there. Treehouse sometimes has a large line, depending on what beers are available (usually no more than an hour wait). I would get there 30 min before they open on a Friday. While in MA try some Wormtown Be Hoppy if you see it on tap anywhere. Then drink some of those growlers Friday night and then fill them at Hill Farmstead! Make sure you check out Hill's website and read about their growler policies (only 750ml and 2L/64oz, CLEAN colored glass only, no clear or metal, no big German style). Also, expect a 2-3 hour line at Hill Farmstead, so I think getting there an hour or 2 before they open may be necessary if you want to leave there early.. Lost Nation was a cool stop between Waterbury and Hill. Their Gose is great and the food there is awesome for a quick lunch stop. Don't forget a big cooler with ice for your growlers.

 

Thanks for sharing the news on Five Eyed Fox. Great to see Turners coming around. Far cry from how I remember it growing up in the area 20 years ago. I'm going to have to check it out!

 

You've had several beer-related ideas tossed your way, but no one has yet to address your other goal. I know, not surprising, you didn't go to NatureAdvocate.com If you're serious about getting back to nature for a bit but don't want to blow a whole day, I would suggest hiking Hunger Mountain in Waterbury. It gets steep and rocky near the top, but if you're in reasonably good shape you should be fine. Go here for details:

http://alltrails.com/trail/us/vermont/mount-hunger-waterbury-trail

My two cents on Hill Farmstead is that it's great if you have a lot of time to spend in the area, but it's a long drive and a long wait. The Waterbury bars are going to have several Hill Farmstead beers on tap. If your schedule is stressed I might forego the half-day plus that you're going to spend on the HF trip for a couple other options. On the other hand, if this is your only chance to visit HF in the foreseeable future then bring your growlers and have at it!

 

Even better take I-687 to I-87 to Exit 20, to Route 149E, to Route 4E. Stay near Worthy Kitchen in Woodstock VT. Its just a 5 hour drive. Plus you pass Long Trial on Route 4 on the way. Staying in N. Hampton area doesn't make much sense. I met 4 people from NJ that drove to Hunger Mt Co-Op in Montpelier VT for the 9 am sale of Heady Topper. They made it in 6 hours. Then I met them again at noon at Hill's.
North Hampton is like a 4 hour drive from NYC, seems like a waste of day to me.