Greetings everyone... This trip obviously covers multiple geographic regions, but seeing as how Pittsburgh will be the first stop heading east, this seemed the fitting forum. We are taking a quick one-week beercation with the intention of driving east through Pitt, Philly, and heading up to New Haven. The intention right now is maybe Voodoo and Brew Gentlemen in Pitt, not sure about Philly, then the usual suspects around New Haven, i.e. Treehouse, Trillium, New Park, day trip up to Hill Farmstead and Alchemist.... Definitely covering a lot of territory here, so we want to make sure we capitalize. I would greatly appreciate hearing any and all feedback concerning must-visit breweries and being foodies, some great local eateries in any of these areas as well! I look forward to hearing your suggestions! Cheers!
I did a similar trip last summer. Brew Gentlemen is great, Voodoo was a cool spot, but didn't have anything special, Indenpendent Brewing Company is a great bar, good food and tons of local options. Driving pro Pitt to Philly you could stop a Pizza Boy, there's not a lot more in the area, but they have more than 60 drafts, pizza is solid and they have a lot of cans and bottle to go, many from other breweries. I don't much to Philly, but in the vicinity I like Tired Hands, especially the old location, but both locations are a couple of minutes away, so it's easy to check them out. The original Forest and Main is also very close and it's in an old house and they usually have some old school styles on cask, it's one of my favorite breweries. The Referend is in NJ in an industrial park and they make spontaneous beers, they always have a few casks and drafts maybe 10ish combined and some onsite bottles. On the way to Treehouse I like the Jack's Abbey taproom in Framingham MA, mostly (all?) lagers, but they have many different styles covered. Exhibit A is around the corner and worth a stop too. Cheers
That's great information, thank you! Just saw that Brew Gentlemen is closed when we drive through, so we will probably have to hit it on the way back. Voodoo will be open, but I have half a mind to skip that one. So with heading to Philly it looks like we can hit Pizza Boy on our way through, then Tired Hands... Forest and Main sounds great too. Not sure how we'll be on time to head into NJ. I will definitely look into your other suggestions as well. Thanks for the input!
How long are you taking for the drive through PA - just one day? And are you taking the Turnpike all the way across or are you taking 78 once you hit Harrisburg? That would help making suggestions. Pizza Boy allows you to sample some other PA breweries as well with all of their guest taps. And the white pizza I had there was top notch. For example, right now they have 6 Tired Hands beers on tap. FYI they don't do flights https://alsofhampden.com/beer.php I love Forest & Main and they aren't too much of a detour off the Turnpike. Tired Hands or other places in the city would be a more significant detour (if you are just driving through).
Agreed. If you're going 76 to 276, consider stopping at La Cabra instead of trekking all the way to Tired Hands. Here's a map of all the PA breweries to help visualize: https://www.pabrewreview.com/BreweryMap
Def. hit up Pizza Boy. You can't beat their to-go can selection for the price. I would also suggest Tregs, if this would be a new to you brewery. It will be off your path by 15 minutes max, but well worth it. Their tour, which is amazing, ranked #5 in the country (I forget who ranked this) behind New Belgium, DFH, etc. Their food is also tremendous. Can't say I have ever had anything bad there.
@Brewfisted If you feel like posting afterwards, I would like to hear about your trip and everywhere you stopped at and your thoughts.
Hidden River Brewing in Douglassville, PA is only a slight detour. make sure to hit New England Brewing when you're in New Haven.
Appreciate the response! Yeah unfortunately, that's probably about all we will have time for. Ideally get into Pittsburgh on a Tuesday, then drive on from there Wednesday. Expecting to get into New Haven later that day to share with a buddy. But we definitely want to hit some stops along the way, and may even consider hitting one or two of any that we missed on the way back through, time permitting. The drive itself isn't regimented. We will take the route that affords the best opportunity for great stops! Google maps has the fastest route taking 80 out of Pittsburgh. However, with a few of the suggested stops, we will seemingly be taking 76 across with a couple detours on the way, Pizza Boy being a definite stop for sure. With having TH beers on already, that would definitely save us a trip out of the way! Obviously don't want to detour several hours out of the way, especially since we will have another lengthy ride up to HF/Alchemist once we get into New Haven.
Thanks for the map! Useful. Great suggestion. May have to add that to the list now....which incidentally continues to grow.... Appreciate it!
Awesome....thanks! We may just have time for that! You like New Park as well? I've been impressed with their berliners and IPAs thus far.
Didn't realize we'd be passing by Troegs as well. Would love to make that stop too. This is definitely going to be a juggling act! May come down to seeing what the woman is feeling as well. And yes, I most definitely will post back here sometime after we get back. Looking forward to trying all these new places.
The I-80 is through the rural part of the state so not really any acclaimed breweries along that route. Just a heads up that you are likely to hit brutal traffic from northern NJ to CT. So the 7 hour idealized trip from Pittsburgh to New Haven (via I-80 or I-78) could easily turn into 9 or 10 hours with traffic. Detouring through Philly suburbs (via I-76 and I-276) to the NJ Turnpike (I-95) will only be worse. If you go the I-78 route after Harrisburg, Funk Brewing (well regarded for their IPAs) is in Allentown area (Emmaus to be exact) but doesn't open until 5pm.
I know you realize you're covering a lot of ground, but do you have any type of itinerary? Or at least do you know if you're staying anywhere besides New Haven? I feel like New Haven to VT and back is a lot of driving and not necessarily a lot of reward. Are you staying in Boston? Are you staying somewhere in VT?
Ok I am most definitely listening.... Yes, it will be a lot of driving, but we were wanting to try and knock out Hill and Alchemist while we're there. And I think the plan was to try and stay up that way as well, then drive back down following day. Right now, the main stops on the agenda are Treehouse, Trillium, New Park, New England (based on someone's recommendation), HF, Alchemist... Everything else is wide open. Any suggestions? Definitely wanting to pick up some east coast hops....
Hey everyone, just wanted to say thanks for the feedback. As promised, this is just a quick rundown of the trip.... 3100 miles in a week! Day 1, drove to Enola, PA from STL to hit Pizza Boy. Not a bad spot, decent pizza, HUUUUGE selection of beer. Definitely worth the stop off. Day 2, on our way to Hartford, stopped at Troegs and La Cabra. Troegs is a gorgeous facility, very nice tap selection, great bottle selection. La Cabra left a little to be desired. Nothing but IPAs and maybe one or two blond/lager options, which were all just average. However, the food was spectacular. Excellent tacos! Due to time constraints (evening bottle share in Hartford), we had to skip Tired Hands. Day 3 took it easy for the most part. Wanted to hit Fox Farm, but due to hours, had to skip that one. Went to Treehouse, ate B&G's bbq, stopped at Trillium-Canton, then stayed in Boston. Managed to hit Night Shift downtown (fantastic beer selection) before having some awesome seafood at dinner. Day 4, made our way up to Vermont, starting first at Hill Farmstead, then over to Alchemist (thankfully got there 15 minutes before close, so at least got to check in a couple big ones there before they shut down) before eventually getting over to Foam in Burlington. Again, unfortunately due to time constraints, we weren't able to stop off at Lost Colony, which came highly recommended. Day 5, headed straight south toward Hudson Valley, and of course, due to an oversight on my part, skipped Suarez (I was thinking it was south of Hudson). Left there and worked our way to Allentown and stayed the night there. Day 6, headed down to Lancaster to visit PA Dutch country, but in the process made a quick detour at Lancaster Brewing....of course, not a "whalez, bruh" stop by any means, but still some decent stuff and a cool little place. Day 7 was pretty much the home stretch. Took a straight west-bound route and stopped off Jackie O's on the way through Athens. Very worthwhile, TON of great stuff on tap, and expensive bottle list purchase ;-) At any rate, thanks again everyone for the information ahead of time! Cheers!
Advice. Don’t overdue it or stress about it that’s when beer becomes not fun. Hops are perishable as we all know. Enjoy the company and the beer. I’ve always found the more a buy the more I feel like I “have” to drink it ASAP then actually enjoy. We’re all different but that’s my advice for the trip. Cheers and enjoy hopefully you get some good memories and beer is just the plus.
