favorite taproom in Ma?

Bog Iron

 

No-brainier for me—Night Shift. Great beer, very cool space, tons of draft options, food trucks, and you can bring your own snacks.

 

Night Shift and Jack's Abby.

 

Jack's Abby beer hall is an awesome spot. Medusa also has a great taproom.

 

For taproom experience, I would vote for Aeronaut. Beautiful, funky space with fun & interesting events almost every night: game nights, concerts, standup, theater, movies, lectures, DJs.

 

Jack's Abby and Medusa.

 

Cisco and Medusa

 

Cisco is pretty awesome - that patio is unreal, and a few steps away from wine and their distillery too.

 

Jack's Abby
Night Shift
Harpoon
Mystic

 

Agreed with a few already mentioned – but Mystic also gets a top vote from me. Love the chill vibe there. I’d rather hang there than at places like Night Shift.

 

As someone who's recently moved (back) to Mass from the West coast - I'm surprised there aren't more taprooms around. Is there some archaic liquor law preventing more from opening easily? Seeing how insanely busy Nightshift (and Jack's Abbey, Aeronoaut, etc) consistently are, there certainly seems like a market for more neighborhood taprooms.

 

I wonder this all the time, actually.

 

Well just north of Boston for taprooms, you mentioned Night Shift and Aeronaut, then there's also Mystic, Slumbrew, and Cambridge Brewing. Winter Hill just opened, and this summer Bone Up is coming in down the street from Night Shift and Lamplighter is going into Area 4 in Cambridge (all seem to be focusing heavily on the taproom).

I've been following Lamplighter and Bone Up's process through their blogs, and I'm not sure it's archaic alcohol laws as much as the difficulty and expense of building anything around here.

 

Yeah, I don't know if it is a specific law, just a combination of the difficulty of finding the appropriate amount of space at a rent that isn't going to instantly cripple your bottom line, securing funding, probably getting a zoning variance, and navigating the rest of the federal, state and local regulatory schemes.

When I initially heard about Lamplighter, before they had found a space, I thought "good F**** luck finding that kind of space in Cambridge." It is pretty fantastic the lengths they have gone to get their brewery up and (almost) running. I am really looking forward to visiting.

 

Cambridge Brewing. Great location, good prices, easily one of the best patios in the Boston area. The Tap in Haverhill has another great patio, theirs overlooking the river. Northampton Brewery has a beautiful taproom with tons of windows. The view of the water and Boston skyline from Harpoon is tough to beat.

 

Super kid friendly at lunch to early evening. My 2 year old is pretty much a regular. He loves the pizza.

 

Jacks Abby for sure. The food is amazing along with the beer. I like Night Shift a lot, just not the hipsters that come with it. Too much skinny jeans.