Girlfriend and I are traveling to Boston soon and I was hoping all you east coast BA's might have some suggestions on where to go when I'm in the area. Pubs, breweries, beer bars, etc. Thanks!
Trillium's beer is awesome and in my opinion probably the best the area has to offer. They do tastings and if you're just looking to pick up the best growler you can find, I'd make that an absolutely necessary stop. Jack's Abby is outside the city but has great beer and probably the best setup of all, with the tap room serving as an actual bar where you can get 90+% of the stuff they brew in as small as a taster to as large as a pint. Night Shift is basically the same deal - good beer, outside the city, fun tap room. I haven't done the Harpoon tour since they remodeled, but it used to be $5 for a pretty substantial (30 min) tour followed by 20-30 minutes in the tap room where you could have as many samples as you want at no extra charge. Not sure if it's still like this but even if you're not a huge fan of their beer it's easily accessible by public transit and is probably the most fun.
No need for a car to get to some of the best breweries in the Boston area: Cambridge Brewing Company (CBC) is a brewpub on the Red Line, and Trillium has a taproom in Fort Point near downtown and is regularly on tap at Lord Hobo, a 5-minute walk from CBC. A bit of a step down in quality from those two places, but still worth a visit for some iconic Boston beer and a great place to visit, is the beer hall at Harpoon in the Seaport. The T can also get you to Night Shift and Idle Hands/Enlightenment, next door to each other in Everett, and to Mystic in Chelsea, but you'll be relying on buses (and probably transfers between buses) to get to those places. If you do get a car, you can get to those places more easily, as well as to Jack's Abby, which is worth a trip just outside Greater Boston. If you get a car, there are also a number of breweries worth visiting about an hour north in Portsmouth, NH and the surrounding area. But you can get to plenty of good breweries without a car as well.
You don't even need a rental car if you take the commuter train out to Framingham. Admittedly you'll be waiting around for the return train for a while, but it's reasonably convenient, fairly affordable and usually quick. Sam Adams and Harpoon actually put on really good tours, and tastings. Sam is pretty limited - you get samples of 3 beers, but the brewery is really nice and informative. Harpoon has a beer hall there that you can go get anything they make, and they usuzally even have some pilot brews available. Also have great pretzels there. Trillium is a stones throw from Harpoon, but it's tiny - I mean, like the tasting area is maybe 30 feet by 5 feet. in Chelsea / Everett, there is Mystic, Night Shift and Idle Hands, all make great stuff. Bars there are a ton of other threads, not going to get into those.
