Non-hyped taprooms and breweries

A couple others:

Proclamation gets a lot of love for their beers, but the taproom was just renovated recently and there is never a crazy crowd in the times I've visited. I like the local loop of Whaler's Brewing in Wakefield (another super chill place with decent beers), stop at the award-winning Sons of Liberty down the street for a taste of whiskey and vodka, then finish up at Proclamation.

The state really needs to loosen the laws again so breweries can offer full pours for sale and not just offer "tastings". Plus allow more than 72 ounces of take home beer.

I always like visiting Rising Tide in Portland for pours and a fresh growler of Zephyr.

 

I've been a couple of times since Lost Nation has existed. The quality is still extremely high. I have a soft spot for an excellent lager and Trapp has and does continue to fill that for me when I make my trips to VT.

 

Mystic Brewery in Chelsea MA is a very laid back atmosphere and their beers are great.

 

Thanks for posting a useful thread, OP. Am always looking for new places off the beaten path in my travels. Right now I'm fascinated with the sours from Hermit Thrush. Also, new breweries in ME such as Banded Horn and Barreled Souls. ME is fairly hype-free and a pleasant escape from my home-state when local beer-buying gets frustrating.

 

Good thread. I have to agree on many posts above, as I have tried many of the beers and visited these places... and for us at out here in western mass there are several amazing places to visit that rarely get mentioned in media, BA or fancy city mags.... plus several new breweries that will be open this year and the following. and we do have some super hyped places that also stand up to the hype. pretty sure the wonderful people at Treehouse ever expected to have threads just about their place every week, but it's happening. We can only be proud and happy for them. Their beer is wonderful, but more importantly, they are. I believe this is part of what makes that particular hyped brand so special.

a few places I love for what they do

Northampton Brewery. recently renovated in brewery, they are turning out wonderful hop forward IPAs (2-3 on at all times) and equally well done european styles. great food, great people, and they bought the farm, literally.

Element Brewery in Millers Falls
small, inviting, laid back and a town with essentially nothing else going on.
really interesting inovative beers, premium priced special releases. good people and a wide variety of rubix(type) puzzles.

People's Pint in Greenfield
a classic organic style pub. fresh scratch food, several really good beers from the off site brewery. Love these people and the beers have drastically improved in the past 3-4 years.

other notables
and to be transparent... I know most of these people, and I tend to be pretty honest if I don't like someone's beer.
Brewmaster Jack. until recently mostly available in western mass and a bit in key stores out east, but with expanded distribution, Brewmaster Jack is becoming far more available. Tyler is turning out some great hop forward beers these days.

Backlash. We don't get much out here, but I get to drink every batch off the fermentor at the brewery where it is brewed. Love the approach and his style. Keep an eye on this brand, I sense great things are happening.

Guess I should mention my place. well maybe I will refrain and see if someone else does.

We aren't really talking about Beer Bars, but.
The Moan and Dove. my local. the Moan used to be mentioned daily on BA with its #1 beer bar rating 8 or 10 years ago. It was the very first place to ever serve Cantillon, De Ranke, De La Sienne and others in the United States.
But with all the new amazing places to go through the region, they rarely get mentioned. Sure, the other places are great too. Last weeks draft list was epic with several rare notables...
Been there? Go back and say hello. Haven't been, go see the first real beer bar in western mass if not all of New England.

 

I've been loving me a lot of Abandoned Building in Easthampton. Super chill taproom, good-to-great beers. Lola's saison is a fantastic representation of the style and the whiskey barrel aged Nightshade stout was just phenomenal.

I got to try New City Brewing's ginger beer over the weekend. It's very good, but you definitely have to like ginger.

I was very impressed with White Lion's pale ale when I had it a little while ago.

Gardner Ale House had some good stuff on tap when I was there last, and the food was solid.

To piggyback on @konabrewer's comments:

Northampton Brewery has become a new favorite. I wasn't too crazy about it when my wife and I first moved to town a couple years ago, but I really love it now.

Element is small, but that have some great stuff. Vernal, especially on tap, is a great wheat wine. And the guys there are really nice and very passionate.

Definitely long overdue for a trip to High Horse...

 

CBC in Belmont recommended his stuff to me and I was really impressed. "Hoppiness is a Warm Pun" is right along the lines of the VT/Trillium/Treehouse style IPAs (is there an agreed upon name for this sub-style yet? Does VT or NE style suffice?) and bargain priced to boot. If you live in the area, they seem to have a few bottles of his stuff somewhat regularly and its absolutely worth checking out. I'd guess he's not going to be a 'hidden gem' for too much longer.

 

If you're that area, I'd check out Garrison City in Dover. Nice taproom and is next to a homebrew shop for any homebrewers. You also don't have to worry about having a growler for an unexpected stop as they are selling their take home beers in crowlers.

 

trapp is the same old goodness.
they are in the process of opening up a huge (~50k barrel) brewery on the hillside there.

 

Aren't you High Horse? Someone already did mention you some posts above!
Great re-cap of the area though... I gotta get up there more often.

 

If I'm not mistaken, @konabrewer is at Blatant, and happens to brew one of my favorite IPAs in the the state, along with a few other more recent additions that I unfortunately haven't had the chance to try yet.

Thanks for the input on Northampton Brewery, folks -- was unimpressed some years ago but it sounds like I should give them another shot.

 

Didn't the owners of The Moan and Dove open a place is Greenfield, MA? I think it is Seymour but I've never gone and it gets little or no buzz here. On a side note, what was the name of the beer bar / restaurant that burned down in Shelburne Falls a few years back.

 

Whooops, shows you how much I know.

 

no you were right.

haven't gotten a chance to try high horse yet (i rarely get to MA these days), but blatant IPA was rock solid. hope to get out to high horse one of these times i visit my friend in waltham.

 

Just to clarify, you're both right.

My wife and I started BLATANT Beer in 2010. I operated the company, brewed every batch of those beers with my hands, and was the one in charge until mid 2013. I have since stepped down from my role as the brewer and operator. The beers have been brewed, under contract, for about a year now at Brewmasters Brewing Co. in Williamsburg.

My full time job is High Horse. We operate a tap house and beer company. We are about to break ground on our new brewery in Hadley MA in the coming months. The beers are currently available at High Horse in downtown Amherst and a few amazing beer destinations... Dirty Truth, Moan and Dove, Seymour, Dive Bar, Armsby Abbey, and a few others... keep an eye out and ask for us. At this moment we have 14 of our own beers on tap.

welp.. you asked..

also to clarify. The owner of the Moan and Dove also in my partner in High Horse Brewery. He does not own Seymour. The owner of the Dirty Truth is the owner of Seymour. Our companies have nothing to do with each other other than being good buddies. and to further clarify, we are not partnered in any way to Lord Hobo or other Lanigan places. He sold the Moan and Dirty years ago.

and crap. I forgot to mention Abandoned Building. Love his beers and his place.

 

Can you share any of the details on the brewery going in in Hadley? Where in town are you going to be? Will you have a tasting room?

 

I liked Wandering Star when I was in Pittsfield.

 

I love this thread. That being said, any place selling cans or bottles out of their breweries? I love going to have some samples and seeing the place, but buying new growlers is not something I'm interested in doing. There's a glassware graveyard in my basement.

The Maine places: Banded Horn, Austin St., Foundation, Barreled Souls. Bottles? Cans?

I can't think of any Merrimack Valley places that do (aside from The Tap).

 

Come down to CT and use those jugs. All CT breweries that I can think of will fill anyone's glassware (except maybe Two Roads?). Un-hyped CT breweries in my mind? I dug Firefly Hollow last week, City Steam doesn't get enough credit for some of their beers, Steady Habit of course, but they have their own thread, so I guess they're "hyped"...

 

Lots of ME beers in cans now - Bissel Bros, Foundation, some Rising Tide, some Marshall Wharf, Baxter - new additions every month...