Trip logs for Outside the PNW

Boston/New England surrounding:

I've spent a ton of time in Boston over the last few years and visited many places. I won't list all of them, and will instead list the ones I found worthwhile or were talked up and kind of let me down.

Some quick thoughts about New England in general-
Laws here are drastically different (surprise surprise right?). Breweries will only fill their own growlers in MA. There aren't a lot of breweries with tasting rooms, brewpubs, or taphouses. This does seem to be changing, but slowly. The few that exist seem to only offer sample sizes or ten ounce pours. Since there are few of these places, it's a safe bet to assume crowds at most of them.

The beer bars feel less focused on local offerings than we are here in the NW. Call me crazy but that's sort of a letdown to me. I don't want to drink Ballast Point or Bear Republic in Boston (not to single those two breweries out by any means) I want to drink local stuff! This isn't always as easy as you'd think. I honestly didn't see a lot of Trillium, Jack's Abby, Idle Hands or any of the other notable New England breweries during my time.

If you're looking to buy bottles/cans don't just pop into random liquor stores. I was astounded at how bad the selection was at some of them. They made the worst beer selection at a Safeway you've ever seen look like an oasis by comparison. Look for more worthwhile options in the BA directory.

Most of the best destinations are spread out all over the greater Boston area. Mass transit is awesome and inexpensive. I can't say how easy it is to navigate since my girlfriend did all of that and she's originally from the area.

Lastly, if you use the BA directory be forewarned that a some of the "Bars/Eateries" entries would never be added in the NW. It could be a good idea to take a look at the bar or restaurant's website before visiting.

Cambridge Brewing Company- One of the rare brewpubs I came across in the Boston area. Nice varieties on the taplist. There were sours, big barleywines, and old ales along with very solid year round offerings. Delicious food in a slightly upscale atmosphere. I really dug this place.

Night Shift Brewery- This place was similar to a lot of tasting rooms around the NW. Industrial space. Cement floors. Working brewery within sight. There was even a food truck outside. I seem to recall about 15 beers on tap. I think I tried three, and really enjoyed them all.

Mayflower Brewing Company- Very small tasting room that is designed for sampling much more than hanging out. If you've been to Boneyard, imagine a more homey version of their tasting room. Beer was OK to good. Not much of a destination if the goal is to stick around for a while. A little off the beaten path.

Trillium Brewing Company- Samples, growler fills, bottles and merchandise only. There may be a limit on the number of samples too, but our bartender gave us more than the three (?) we were initially offered. The beer is absolutely delicious. A definite standout in the area. We were lucky there was no crowd or I'm sure we'd have been very politely ushered out. Small space, definitely not one to kick back and relax at all. Row 34 Oyster Bar is next door and they feature many of Trillium's beers.

Row 34- A far cry from our typical casual vibe in the NW. This place is decidedly upscale and likely more focused on their impressive seafood than beer. But that isn't at all to suggest that the beer is at all under appreciated here. There's something like 25 taps and every offering is top quality. If I did have a complaint it would be there aren't enough local to NE offerings, but I'm sure I'd be in the minority here. And to be fair this is a common fault I've seen in many area beer bars and restaurants. Food is of amazing quality. Ridiculously fresh seafood and the most impressive looking and tasting lobster roll I've ever seen.

The Tip Tap- Slightly upscale with around 40 handles. Nice selection of Night Shift beers in my visits. A worthy stop for sure. Never tried the food.

Bukowski Tavern (Boston location)- Old school and divey ... in a good way. Pretty sure this place has been focused on good beer for quite a while, sort of like the Boston version of some place like Duck Island or Horse Brass. A nice change of pace from the newer beer bars, even if I wasn't thrilled with the taplist (too few locals).

Lord Hobo- Sub par service. You're probably treated well if you're a regular. Not enough local brews on tap yet again. Didn't try the food.

The New World Tavern (Plymouth)- Nice mix of an old timey pub atmosphere and modern sensibility. Pretty good food, OK taplist. Definitely stop here when in Plymouth, despite my "ok" characterization of the selection (I'm probably more obsessed with drinking local than most).

Portsmouth Brewing (Portsmouth NH)- If you're not from New England there's a good chance you'll be impressed with the historic looking surroundings outside and the old world feel inside. Gorgeous establishment. I found the beers a bit hit and miss but still worth my time. Probably the most impressive looking fish and chips that have ever been presented before me. Big crowds! My most recent visit we were quoted an hour wait before we could be seated.

When Pigs Fly Pizzeria (Kittery ME)- One of the more impressive places we visited. Sort of in the middle of nowhere, so I wasn't expecting anything special. Great taplist, local heavy while still having some nice offerings from all over. Spacious interior. Good food.

Maine Beer Company- Small tasting room, but great beer. I liked everything I tried here.

Allagash (Portland ME)- If you want any chance of a tour, you need to book in advance. As a stop without a tour it's just OK. You're treated to a free flight of samples, which is pretty cool, but probably not worth a stop on it's own. Limited bottles can be found here, which is cool. Even better is that just across the street is an industrial area with a cluster of breweries.

Foundation Brewing Company (Portland ME)- I dug what I tried here. Selection seemed Saison heavy (but good quality). Industrial feel to the tasting room. Outstanding English brown ale.

 

Oh we're safe as long as John only moderates. The previous mod was a little more over zealous on the moderation here.

 

I wish the NW was better represented on the general forums of this site, as our beer culture seems so different than the rest of the country. You touched on a couple of issues that I wanted to cherry pick from your posts: 1) a willingness to admit when a local brewery isn't on top of their game 2) enough local breweries who are worthwhile that bars are able to put together a quality taplist from just local/regional options, 3) every convenience store, dive bar, etc. has at least a few craft options, and 4) because craft options are so plentiful, not every restaurant which serves craft beer is regarded as a beer destination. Most of the rest of the country doesn't seem to line up with us on those things yet, and since we're in the minority, referencing those attitudes seems to draw blanks in the other forums. But the NW forum doesn't have the same velocity or thread turnover as the main forums, so I'm always looking for more new NW content, even if it's about places/beers outside the NW. Maybe it's just a sign I spend too much time here and should find some healthier habits? :-)

 

I'd like to see this thread stay in this forum, because it means that many of the commenters will be folks with whom I have something in common, and folks who can use local breweries and places for illustrative comparisons.

I have found when traveling that sometimes the whole rating scale seems skewed. I'll go some place, have a decent beer at a decent brewery, and then look the place and the beer up on BA and find that everyone's rating the brewery and the beer extremely high. And perhaps, within their area, that's right. But I'd rather hear opinions from folks who have the same benchmarks in mind that I do.

And we in the NW shouldn't get too cocky about how good things are around here. It's possible that if we too went to Vermont, for example, we'd think our own beer scene was a little lacking. Haven't been there, couldn't say.

 

You guys are hitting the nail on the head here. I wouldn't worry about being cocky, though. The beer in the PNW, and I guess the west coast in general, is just on another level with respect to the entire east coast. Vermont has some really great stuff going on, but in my opinion (and this is coming from a serious cynic, so bear that in mind) it is over rated because people from NYC and Boston don't have simple, consistent access to great DRAFT beer like we do here.

The packaged distribution is pretty good, but even on that front, Bell's just got to NYC a little over a year ago. The people in DC and Northern Virginia are going nuts right now because Deschutes just finally became available there. Heady Topper, and the variety of beers coming from Lawson's and Hill Farmstead, are really great beers, but they'd be lost in the Boneyard/Barley Brown's/Bale Breaker/etc. shuffle out here. Since New Yorkers can't wander over to their neighborhood growler shop and get a fill of Pallet Jack, or even something remotely equivalent, they're very happy to drive 7 hours into Vermont and brave dirt roads and crowds (of other rich NYers and Bostonites) to get at the good stuff. The people running the hotels during "folliage" season are loving it.

At the end of the day, a thread like this one is valuable if you're trying to get to the bottom of "ratings inflation". There needs to be some way to calibrate the ratings, to put them in perspective to known quantities so that expectations can be managed.

On the other hand, we could all just stop taking this so seriously and be happy if a bar carries Fat Tire and SNPA.

 

A perfect example of this phenomenon is Katie O'Brien's, which many people in Portland don't even know about, despite the fact that they have 35 taps. Any place that has Bourbon County Coffee on tap would be a "world class" beer bar in most parts of the country, but here they're (thankfully) not even on most people's radar.

 

Even the TW in Spokane Valley had Bourbon County for fills a little while ago.

 

Thanks for posting that! heading to Boston for the marathon in April and then doing 4 days in Portland, ME so this is like the perfect outline!

 

Glad to help. If I think of anything else useful that I didn't share I'll message you.

 

There's so much I want to say about this that I don't know if I can even form a coherent post. I'll attempt to keep it short and just stick to a few things.

As far as contributing to the main forums, I don't too often. After ten years the same topics come up too often (I'm sure you felt that way a few years ago). The other thing is the regional ignorance can be pretty tiresome. Also, I'm OK with the NW not getting it's due. Seattle is definitely a victim of that more than Portland, though truthfully Portland is so great they definitely are not getting the praise they deserve.

In a way though, that's sort of a good thing for us. How much would it suck for people from all around the country to begin to descend on our locations in the NW the way they do in places like Vermont? Can you imagine growler limits at Boneyard or Fremont or Black Raven? That shit would be horrible, so part of me is definitely OK with being so far under the radar. Also, once you recognize the ignorance is there, it's sort of amusing to just let people from places like Asheville believe their city is as great as they think it is. Who knows, maybe it is ... I haven't visited, though my suspicion is that it isn't. But their belief doesn't make our beer here taste any worse, that's for sure.

And for your second point, that's the amazing thing I noticed about Boston. They have a good amount of breweries but they absolutely aren't very represented at their beer bars. I don't know if that's because there are just too many places that drive up demand and spread it thin or if there's equal or more demand for stuff from other parts of the country. I do know that it wasn't uncommon to visit a beer bar and see maybe 3 faucets out of 30 that were local to New England. Maine and Vermont bars represented their scene much better than Boston.

 

When I visited Waterbury Vermont my girlfriend and I were pretty amused by all the people there proudly proclaiming that they were "the best beer city in the country". Don't get me wrong, it's a very cool town. And it was awesome the locals seemed so very much behind Waterbury's reputation, deserved or not.

But ...

My opinion was that it's a town with one brewery that makes one beer (back then anyway, I know they're now brewing more than just HT these days) and they have about 3 beer bars. Pretty cool for a town that size. But best beer town/city in the country? Not a chance.

Don't get me wrong, the vibe there was cool. It reminded me a little of a miniature Bend. But truthfully if it were in Oregon, say maybe half way between Hood River and Bend, it would be a footnote in a beer lover's travel itinerary. I can imagine some people might even skip it! I really don't think Heady Topper would catch on the way it did if it were brewed here. It was the right beer at the right time for the North East.

I haven't made it to Hill Farmstead yet, but the beers I had from them while in Vermont were the highlight of that entire New England trip. But I have a hard time imagining that as much as I love the beers from HF, that I'll think they're worth a several hour wait in line.

I guess the way I see it is New England is the land of the beer bar.

The Northwest is the land of the craft brewery ....

And beer bar.

And convenience store with a killer bottle selection.

And drugstore that fills growlers.

And ... well, you get the picture.

 

I agree with you on Waterbury for the most part but I think their proximity to HF, Lawsons, and the Alchemist and the fact that you can walk into a bar and have Abner, HT, and Sip of Sunshine on tap makes it a very, very, very awesome place. Now, none of those breweries are located in Waterbury so it is tough to say it is "the best beer city in the world" but it is a very cool place.

 

In all honesty, I didn't enjoy anything I had from Lawson's during my trip. In fact, I'm not a very big fan of Heady Topper either (the finish completely ruins it for me ... after half a glass or can it's just too sweet for me). The Hill Farmstead stuff I had I loved, and there was an IPA by Fiddlehead that was pretty good but other than that, I can't say I was impressed. Most of the stuff reminded me of things that probably wouldn't make many waves here.

 

Madison, WI:

The Great Dane (downtown) - The Great Dane was a great disappointment. Every beer was a huge letdown. The cask bitter I tried was infected and the mild ale my girlfriend ordered was full of diacetyl, as was the Scotch ale I ordered next. By this point I gave up on the beer. I actually switched to water while I finished a spectacular burger. Service was surprisingly good.

Ale Asylum - Good service, fun tour, and consistently tasty beer. Really nice interior. Our tour guide was pysched on my Boneyard t-shirt and after the tour chatted with me and my girlfriend for over half an hour about Bend. This conversation drew a manger who also joined in, and quickly after that an owner/founder of the brewery (can't remember his title exactly). This definitely made for a fun and memorable experience.

Capital Tap Haus - This is the downtown location for the Middleton Wisconsin brewery Capital Brewing. I love lagers, and consequently have been a big fan of Capital over the years. Despite being a lager heavy brewery they do brew some ales (and even have an attempt at an Imperial IPA). If you've never experienced a party school atmosphere like that of Madison, you may experience it here like we did. A large group of students were here during our visit, chugging boots of Capital beer and singing along to the Hanson Brother's Mmm Bop. It sounds awful but was actually pretty fun. I prefer the lagers at Capital to the ales. Didn't try the food.

Come Back In - While this place is sort of divey in feel, the taplist was pretty good, with a nice amount of local offerings. If memory serves the food wasn't bad either.

The Old Fashioned - Great food, formidable tap list. The busy atmosphere made me feel almost in a hurry to leave though as I knew the servers were looking to turn our table. Would be a fun place to hang out on a slower night.

Dotty Dumpling's Dowry - Long heralded as one of the best places to get a burger, they're still cranking out some good ones all these years later. Oh yeah, pretty good selection of drafts too. Best fried cheese curds I had during my visit too.

The Malt House - It was quiet during our weeknight visit, which surprised me. A quiet bar in Madison is surprising the way an icy road would be in Hawaii. Service was friendly, taplist very good and bottle list even better. They even had bottles of Cantillon ... but the bottle I ordered was slightly light struck.

New Glarus Brewery - My visit to New Glarus left me wanting. The tour of their incredible facility was self guided and their tap room only had something like 5 beers, most of which I'd seen all over town during my visit. I'm glad I visited but unless they make changes and add some handles I'd see no reason to return.

Other thoughts - If you're planning on buying bottles in the downtown area of Madison do it before 9PM. There's a local ordinance that I believe is limited to the area around campus that prohibits the sale of alcohol after 9. This is due to an age old University of Wisconsin tradition of drinking until inebriation, otherwise known as getting absolutely shitfaced.

Also, most of my visits were not on weekends, and my trip was before students had returned for the coming school year. If you visit during the weekend while school is in session expect big crowds at many drinking establishments. UW has long been in the top ten of party schools in the nation and as someone who lived many years in Madison I can say the rep is well deserved.

Lastly, be wary of using name your own price hotel searches. Though you may select "downtown" to be within walking distance of my places, the reality is that areas nowhere near downtown are included in this zone. If you end up someplace like this, check and see if your hotel has a shuttle that will take you downtown and pick you up.

 

Agreed on Heady - good DIPA but not the best by any means. I really liked Sip of Sunshine and Doubel Dose (collab w Otter Creek) from Lawsons...agreed that HF had the best beers of the bunch though...i also liked Fiddleheads IPA and Mastermind (one of their DIPAs).

 

Bump. with a reminder to place trip reports here.

 

Heading to Spain (Barcelona, Malaga, La manga, Toledo, Granada and Madrid) this summer. I'll make sure to report here. Amsterdam and Brussels, too, but everyone knows those two places.

 

Two days each in Brussels and Amsterdam after 10 days in Spain. Been to both before, but should be fun as always.

I was in Vancouver over the weekend. Alibi Room for brunch and beers like normal, quick shopping stop at Viti downtown and then a couple beers at Four Winds in Delta before coming back home.

 

NYC? i've always had such a great time there when it comes to beer. look forward to seeing a trip report.