Anything missing from this NE roadtrip plan?

Most important note: HF is only open Weds-Sat, so I'd start your planning there.

New Haven: Can't go wrong with any of the famous pizzas. I like Sally's and Zuppardi's best. I might hit New England Brewing if you have time at the end of the day.

Boston: I'd prioritize Row 34 somewhere in there. Oleana a fantastic dinner spot near where you're staying in Cambridge. CBC is always good but more of a pub menu, their best beers are their bottled sours. The bbq places are both good but you don't need to hit both. Notch in Allston is the best beer in the city, but doesn't really fit your plan unless it's open at lunch time on your Sox day or you go instead of Lamp.

Maine: Allagash is worth the time and imo their Coolship beers will be among the best you encounter on the whole route. Also great lobster rolls on site. The places across the street are all fine but no must stops. Throw Crispy Gai on your dinner list. Novare Res or Slab on your grab a beer and a snack list. Tandem coffee is awesome, not really a sit down bfast place outside of bfast sandwiches and benches.

VT: All great picks here, your day will be much more fun if you get to HF at open which probably rules out Schilling. Schilling->HF->Alchemist before they close is tough, let alone adding Freak Folk at the end.

Way home: Check if Suarez or Fidens are on your route.

Don't miss in any circumstance: TH and HF
Should prioritize on your route: Fox Farm, Allagash, Oxbow, Alchemist
Lot of other great places on your list (personally I'd have Lawson's on that second line and Oxbow after), but there are sooo many great beer places that if you miss any individual one of the others you can sleep easy without feeling like you messed up your trip.

take home stuff:

Sours: are you talking fruited kettle sours (prioritize Trillium), mixed ferm (prioritize HF and Oxbow, CBC, and Allagash), or spontaneous (prioritize Allagash)
IPAs: personally I would mostly take home TH, HF, and Alchemist. Fox Farm, Bissell and some Lawson's up there too, everything else not as good.

Prepare yourself for a lot of posts about this being too much driving to be fun. Definitely true for some people, but I don't see any really difficult days to pull off in a relaxed way here beyond your first day of VT plan, which is borderline impossible unless you really short change yourself on time at HF.

 

Sounds like a wonderful trip you have planned! Depending on your target dates, you need to take the fall foliage, or leaf-peeping traffic and general congestion into consideration - it affects lodging, roadways, and food and brewery places.

Good info here: https://jeff-foliage.com/

 

As someone who has had an ambitious beer day or two in my lifetime, I'd prioritize places you absolutely want to see in each place.

Is Alchemist cool? Sure, but you'll find their cans many places. Is Maine Beer Co. a fun hang? Yes, but, again you'll find their beer everywhere.

1.) I like Sallys, but everyone has their favorite. Fox Farm is about an hour from New Haven, so keep that in mind if you're driving to New Haven for lunch then planning on driving to FF then back to New Haven. Seems superfluous (and I really like FF).

2.) All works out.

3.) IMO, just do food and baseball. It's chaotic enough. Go enjoy a game. Find something great on draft at the ballpark. No need to add more stops when the priority in baseball. If anything hit up a bottle shop before or bar after the game.

4.) If your aim is Bissell, go to Bissell. Allagash is out of the way if you're staying downtown (coming from someone who loves Allagash with every fiber of my body). Enjoy the night life in Portland. Grab a cocktail at Room for Improvement. Eat at Crispy Gai (or Honey Paw or Lenora or anywhere else).

5.) Love MBC. And I love heading back into Portland for the East End and Oxbow/Duckfat. Ton of good eating in that area too. Oysters and Sushi and BBQ. All great.

That's the extent of my expertise. Someone else can advise you on Vermont. It's been too long, but, heads up, while something might say "20 miles away," please note that that could very well mean an hour.

Have fun!

 

i think notch brighton should be a priority for boston. such a cool spot and not too far from fenway/cambridge. there isnt another brewery in boston that i'd want to visit over notch.

 

Day 6 is doable as long as you get an early start on the drive from Portland to HF (get there for open at 11:30) and skip Schilling. But if you try to do Schilling too, you'll be pressed for time since they open at about the same time as Hill. As others have mentioned, you'll want to give yourself some time at HF since it's a great spot. I really like Schilling, but to do it right, you should give yourself time for some beers and a meal. If you do that, you won't get to Hill till 3ish, which would mean you're hustling to get to Alchemist before they close (and you probably would only have time to buy cans to go). But if you skip Schilling and get to Hill when they open, you'll have no problem at all doing HF>Alchemist>Waterbury. It'll be a long day, but the bulk of the driving is in the morning before you get to VT.

 

Another vote for Sally’s, was just there last week

 

If it were me, based on experience, I would narrow it down to the top spots. For me it would look something like fox farm - treehouse - trillium - Bissell- hill farmstead, alchemist. I’d trim the fat and keep a couple extra options open such as notch, sacred profane. And just plan the food options around my top brewery destinations. Or eat at said breweries if they have it.

 

My tips as someone who has done the VT and ME trips maybe a hundred times (from Boston where I live):

Hit the Alchemist - they have hand pulled cask Heady Topper (on site only) which is one of my all time favorite beer experiences.

In Burlington, I would definitely recommend Foam, and their restaurant Deep City (next door, but dinner only) is really good as well.

South of Portland is a brewery called Barreled Souls - if you like strong barrel aged beers, they do them the best of any brewery in the area and it's a cool hangout spot.

I would definitely recommend hitting Bissell Brothers. Those other breweries (Belleflower, Goodfire, and Hi-Fidelity) are fine but nothing special. Like some others said, I'd probably skip Maine Beer Co, but it's still a fine stop.

Trillium Fenway is absolutely worth the stop before the Sox game - there's a great food court next door (Time Out Market) with lots of good options that you could bring to eat at Trillium if you're hungry.

You'll probably get a lot of conflicting advice, but you can't really go wrong here, especially in VT and Portland area - amazing places.

 

“…spend the rest of the day hitting some combination of Oxbox (and those Duckfat fries everyone talks about), Belleflower, Goodfire, and Hi-Fidelity.”

The above sounds like a good plan to me. My wife and I did a Lone Pine (which was OK/good) -> Goodfire (which was very good) -> Oxbow (which was very good) crawl. I would suggest for you a crawl of Goodfire -> Hi-Fidelity -> Bellflower -> Oxbow.

There is an online brewery mapping website which may be helpful to you:

https://mainebrewersguild.org/visit-breweries/plan-your-route/#0

Cheers!

 

Lots of good advice here already. I’ll just add for breakfast in the Waterbury/Stowe area, I feel like the Butler’s Pantry in Stowe is the required stop here. Delicious breakfast. Also, I really like Lawson’s and am not a huge fan of anything in Burlington, but if Burlington is a must on your itinerary, you might skip Lawson’s or maybe even hit it on your way home. It’s the wrong direction, and depending on which day you are there it may not open until noon, which would probably not get you to Burlington until 2 pm or so assuming you stay for an hour. If it’s Fri-Sun they open at 11 and that might work better.

 

Is there a reason you aren’t stopping at OEC enroute to New Haven? Seems more in line. I’m a huge Fox Farm fan, but 2+ hours round trip from New Haven is not worth it. Stay around New Haven and go to Twelve Percent and NEBCO and enjoy the pizza.

Maine – Terlingua and Central Provisions are a must. You better be going to Novare Res. Go to Bissell. Skip Allagash. Day 2, I’d skip Maine Beer Co and spend more time in Portland for food and Belleflower/Goodfire/Oxbow/etc.

VT – Your Burlington/Stowe/Waterbury plans look good. Lawsons is a bit out of the way. I prefer Four Quarters, Zero Gravity and Burlington Beer over Foam, but to each their own. Foam definitely has a great patio. Like someone noted, your drive from Maine to HF is the best bet if you want to actually get to Alchemist for a Heady pour. With Schilling you are looking at cans only at Alchemist.

 

My wife and I enjoyed our visit to the Allagash brewery and we visited other nearby breweries as well (e.g., Definitive, Foundation, Austin Street). Allagash conducts what they term a Cellar Tour. We did not take this tour but I read where some BAs posted positive thoughts about the tour. Maybe something to consider:

https://www.allagash.com/visit/the-cellars/

Cheers!

 

If I had to choose between driving an extra couple hours for Fox Farm or just go to OEC, I'd go out of my way for FF. I'd assume you'd find FF drafts (hoppy beers) in CT, but since you mentioned liking spontaneous beer, Fox Farm shouldn't be missed. I think their spon and wild beers are top notch and I'm fairly certain they do not leave the brewery. I haven't had anything from OEC in many years, but I recall them all being bracingly sour and often their brett culture was way over the top. Fox Farm's wild beers are much more akin to HF in that they're generally well balanced in the sour/funk department.

 

I've visited Allagash twice and did the cellar tour once, highly recommended