http://www.masslive.com/bestofmass/index.ssf/2017/08/best_of_mass_breweries_10_top.html They started with reader voting to pick five finalists from Western and Eastern/Central Mass and then tasted beers at each brewery and picked their favorites. Here is their ranked list: 10. Berkshire Brewing Company 9. Element 8. Vanished Valley 7. Fort Hill 6. Jack's Abby 5. Wormtown 4. Lefty's 3. Night Shift 2. Trillium 1. Tree House I enjoyed the writeup and will have to check out some of the beers from Lefty's if I can find them. Not too many surprises in the Eastern/Central Mass picks, although you leave out a lot of great breweries narrowing it down to 5 these days.
Border to border, Massachusetts has become an incredible place for beer in the last 5 or so years. In addition to the bigger names mentioned, you've got, among others: - Brick and Feather - Honest Weight - Mystic - Idle Hands - Medusa - Lamplighter - Bog Iron And then the stalwarts like Cambridge Brewing and Mayflower. Cape Cod is really the only place behind the curve, which isn't surprising, but even they are trying.
Did Brick & Feather and Honest Weight not count as Western Mass? They are head and shoulders above the 5 chosen for the West. That being said I haven't had AB and have heard good things so maybe I'm off there.
The voting determined the Top 5 in each region. Neither of those two breweries were in the Top 5 for the West. I've had beer from those two breweries and haven't from most of the others, so I won't comment on the validity of that voting.
I see. I'm assuming most people haven't been to either. Worth a trip imo. Want to try Vanished but I'm usually only out that way on Fridays.
Haven't made it out to Brick and Feather. Have only been to Honest Weight once, but I hope to make it back there again soon. HW has connections to the Boston area so we see a good amount of their stuff on tap. I've been able to try/have a lot of their regular line up. HW is one of my favorite breweries in the state, let alone Western MA.
