New Hampshire - The "Pass-Through" State?

Yes, I have not tried myself but have heard they do a great job. I'm also a big fan of the Resilience IPA's being made at Schilling for NH hazy IPA's.

 

At restaurants & taprooms the mask-wearing has been reasonable, but not perfect. Keep in mind it’s more spread out & outside.

But yeah I think indoors will be a $hit show just as it’s been everywhere else in the country. Fully expect NH cases to spike a bit & in turn MA since the border is so fluid. Wish Sununu would’ve made mask wearing mandatory but live free or do something I guess.

 

Yeah, Sununu seems extremely resistant to ordering masks, doubt he would go that far. I don't plan to eat or drink inside anytime in the near future but have taken advantage of outside spaces, as I have said. I do plan to stay away from Portsmouth as every time we take a new step in opening they seem to be interviewing people in the paper and they often seem to be from Mass or NY or someplace and on their way to a vacation spot in NH or Maine. Just this morning they had interviewed folks who stopped at a diner on the Portsmouth circle and they were from Mass and headed to Maine. Not panicked but overall seems like the kind of situation I would like to avoid..

 

Unfortunately the reopening isn't going well in many of the states. Texas hit record hospitalizations again this past weekend, and their governor is still stubbornly moving onto Phase 3, which is 75% capacity indoors.

Oregon has already started back tracking.

Hopefully at least in MA we can follow the rules better and do a much slower reopening. The other states went from 2 mph to 200 (Fauci's quote, not mine).

We MIGHT make it to Phase 3, but I wouldn't be surprised if we stall at Phase 2 for a bit, or even have to back track at certain points.

 

See, this is the benefit of having "mediocre" beer scene in NH. All the folks from Mass will bring their virus up to the cool places in Maine and Vermont. Win win, if you ask me.

 

"Their virus." LOL

 

In all fairness to Smuttynose (and NH) its very hard to grow any company, in any industry, from small to medium or from medium to large. Success isn't always indicative of a good business plan and that's what many people assume when they are successful at their current size and then try to grow beyond that.

Mostly NH hasn't produced a successful larger brewery because there haven't been enough smaller breweries to be able to grow (comparatively) into large breweries. This seems to be changing so its only a matter of time.

 

I guess you could ask the hoards of Mass residents that come up every weekend (or the transplants that have moved here). We're even widening I93 to four lanes each way from Manchester to the border so you folks can get here and home easier.

 

The Saugus hockey dads ain’t driving all the way to Vermont or Maine to ski in their jeans and Pats jackets.

 

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/VT,RI,NH,ME,MA,CT/PST045219

According to the census NH has only seen a 3.3% increase in population from 2010 to 2019, while MA has seen an increase of 5.3%.

And NH still trails RI, CT, and MA both in terms of overall population and population density.

Well you kind of have to drive through NH to get to Maine and Vermont. Plus there's the whole tax free thing, fire works...

Don't me wrong, a whole bunch of people flock to NH, just not as many as one might think.

 

We can all agree Connecticut sucks though, right?

 

That was me, and my original answer was somewhat tongue in cheek, but the reality is the NH breweries don't have the hype behind them. Why do we all know Bissell Brothers? Why do we all know Tree House? Alchemist, Hill Farmstead? Because people hype them and spread the word and post their pics on the social medias, etc. Breweries around here haven't yet reached that level of hype and recognition, in my opinion.

Now, if we're all honest with each other and put the best of NH up against the other states, it might be closer than you think. And no, I'm not insane, I understand the best of Vermont, Maine and Mass is better, but I truly don't think NH is the red headed step child people think it is.

My original point remains, though. I don't think I want to live near a hyped "scene" like the can factories of Portland or Charlton just for the sake of becoming a destination state. I'm happy going to Stoneface, Deciduous, Earth Eagle, Litherman's, Backyard, whatever, you guys get the idea. There's plenty of solid options here.

 

I don't think you can lump those two together.
Tree House has the hype and pulls people in from all over but it isn't like they are sticking around in Charlton for a few days to check out the restaurants and see the sights like people do in Portland. Overnight visitors to Tree House (are those a thing) are almost forced to spread out around the state before or after. Most probably head to Boston where, I would guess, a much smaller percentage of the tourism is beer based than in Portland and therefore go mostly unnoticed.
I do realize you said destination "state" but I think that kind of unfairly tweaks the parameters to better support your point.
Basically, you can't really live near the Tree House hype.

 

Pretty sure the stop and go traffic that starts in Tilton heading south on Sundays is not from Maine or Vermont. It's from the White Mountains and lakes region. Same as the backup that starts in Ossipee. 95 traffic from Maine cuts through NH and 89 dumps out in Concord from Vt which adds minimal traffic.

Pretty ironic that I've been stuck in countless hours of traffic with mostly Mass plates and yet here I'm being told "no one wants to come here" or " they're all on the way to Maine or Vermont " .

 

Kate the Great was one of the original hyped New England beers. People lined up for hours for that beer.

So it’s at least possible for a NH beer to be hyped.

I would love to live in Portland. And while it’s touristy, especially in summers, I wait in far less brewery lines in Portland in the summer than I do at any point in time down here in Boston.

There’s typically even a huge fucking line to get into the Harpoon beer hall.

And Portland breweries are more densely populated and walkable than the ones here.

True, people definitely go to NH. And I didn’t say, and certainly wouldn’t go so far as to say, “No one wants to come here”. People from MA definitely love them some NH for various reasons.

Regarding the traffic on a Sunday though, that’s probably for two reasons.

1). People go away on weekends. You’ll run into a ton of traffic heading south from Maine, headIn back from New York, and certainly the “winner” here is the traffic heading back from the Cape.

2). NH is really close to MA and it’s super easy to get to. So if you want to head to a beach or maybe a vacation house that’s easier to get to than the Cape, and certainly cheaper, NH is a great spot.

But for food and beer exclusively it’s not my first choice in New England.

And this is coming from someone who spent 20+ summers straight vacationing on Lake Winnipesaukee.

 

In a thread about NH beer, you gotta love the standout being right on the VT border. But in al seriousness, I loved going to Schilling/Resilience when I lived in the NEK. Between that and HF, there was such a nice variety close by. Plus the view of the Ammonoosuc was always beautiful.

 

I’ll easily take OEC in Connecticut over any brewery in NH.