Hey NE friends, I am flying from MN to visit a friend for a few days in a couple weeks. I am flying into Logan and my buddy is gonna pick me up. He very recently moved to Northampton and pretty green when it comes to craft beer. We plan to hit up Trillium on the way out of Boston. I was wondering about any good taprooms, bottle shops, breweries that we could visit during my stay. Cheers!
There's plenty right in the Northampton area worth visiting. For breweries you have Bldg 8, Fort Hill, Amherst Brewing, New City Brewing, and Northampton Brewing. Depending on the day you are here I'd recommend hitting up Vanished Valley in Ludlow for Wednesday can sales if at all possible. Then there's obviously Treehouse which if you're here and they are open you should go to. For bottle shops there's a lot around. Yankee Spirits in Sturbridge and Table and Vine in West Springfield are a couple of the best for variety but there's plenty of other in Northampton area with good selection as well I'm sure. Not as familiar with places with a good selection there. Have a good time and hope you have enough cash and room in your suitcases!
Where's your base of operations going to be? That will have a lot to do with what you can accomplish. Jack's Abby and their sister operation Springdale are in the same building in Framingham - you can get a great meal and fantastic lagers plus sours from next door. Exhibit A is around the corner in Jack's Abby's old digs. Traffic can be...challenging...but there is a "back way" in off Rt 495 if you can convince your GPS to get off the highways. Mystic, Night Shift, Notch, Idle Hands are all near Boston and could be visited in a day's time with Notch being the farthest distance, but also sightseeing opps in Salem. Depends if they are all open or not, but driving-wise they can all be reached easily in a day. Julio's off the MA pike (Rt 90) is an excellent bottle shop. I wish they were a lot closer to my house... Again, pending where you are headed. There is this specific to the Northampton area. Don't get out that way much anymore, so I can't vouch for anything in the article: http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/01/northampton_is_true_paradise_c.html
Some bars to check out are The Dirty Truth, Sierra Grille, Mcladdens, The Foundry. Outside of the Boston area I'd say Northampton may be tops in the state for beer bars and breweries.
I agree with all the posts above. You're already in a great area, as the first reply stated. The only thing I have to add is a trip to Armsby Abby in Worcester. You can get Trillium and Hill Farmstead there, along with other top notch brews.
I've not tried their beers, but I just remembered Brick and Feather brewery in Turner's Falls - on limited time it is probably not worth going out of the way for pours/growlers. It is 40 min or so from Northampton. My son goes there when he has disc golf out that way and his friend is either the owner or head brewer or something - not too clear, but somebody he knows has something to do with the place and it isn't sweeping floors. Regardless, the boy has good taste in beer, usually.
We will be based in Northampton near Smith College. I appreciate the input! I will be there Tuesday morning through Thursday. Obviously there is a lot more to do and see than time will allow but I hope to get in as much as I can. It will also be great to orient my pal to his new spot with all this info. Thanks for all the recommendations!
Cool - yeah, there's plenty to do but don't get so caught up in "the chase" that you don't enjoy your time with your friend - there's always beer to be drunk and there always will be, but time well-spent is where its at. WIth only a couple days, pick a select few that are easy to do and enjoy would be my advice, not that you need it.
Piggy backing here. Figure this may help out TC since he plans to hit Trillium. Are there any other bottle shops or breweries (besides Trill) worth hitting near Canton? My wife and 7 month old are stopping here Saturday night and our mobility will be limited. Thanks in advance.
Castle Island in Norwood for brewery no real great bottle shops, Wegmans is 5-10 minutes from Trillium
Any idea what time a guy would need to get there and how long of a wait it would be to get some cans?
A new Yankee Spirits location is coming to that area later this year. 1 mile from Castle Island and 5 miles from Trillium.
Check out the treehouse thread for recent can release lines. In general it can be anywhere from 20 min to 1hr, depending on what cans are released/available. They open at 12 on Wednesday and will have 2 cans available, usually 6pp of each. Thursday they open at 2 and will have 1 new can release, somewhere around 8-12 pp, and if anything is leftover from Wednesday they will do 2-3 pp of those cans. People have had luck going later on either day and getting a decent haul with a more mellow line. Good luck
If you're going to TH and then heading to Trillium, do yourself a favor, stop in Framingham, get a beer or 2 at John Harvard's (Brando is the one you want, the rest are as good in their styles, but I know you're not driving to NE for those, they also have a milkshake IPA if you can drink those), then hit Jack's Abby for lunch, beer, beer to go, Exhibit A for beer
In addition to some of the more obvious spots* people have mentioned, from your home base in Northampton, I would highly recommend a late-afternoon area road trip of the following: head northeast to Orange to Honest Weight Artisan Beer for some damn fine beer and a truly beautiful little taproom; then drive west to Greenfield for some dinner and beer at the People's Pint, a long-standing, cozy brewpub; from there, it's an easy shot back south to Northampton. (*Totally agree with the previous advice to not get caught up in "the chase." Definitely hit up Trillium on your way out of Boston as that's usually a pretty quick in and out, but as crazy as this advice may be to some, given your timeline, I would not even try to deal with the Treehouse lines.)
