Stone Cow Brewing Barre, MA

I have to agree. Ive already been twice and the place is beautiful. The beer and the food are also great.

 

Friday and Saturday nights they do a BBQ and bring in Americana bands. My only complaint is that the bands tend to wrap up pretty early.

 

We went on a recent Saturday and enjoyed it. Most of the beer was decent (the sour and IPA stood out to me). The BBQ was a welcome surprise.

It makes for a good combo trip with Honest Weight and/or Brick and Feather.

 

Only had samples, there's a lot of driving to get there and back again, but the 4 I had were all good


If anyone is thinking of going this weekend, bear in mind they have one of those Spartan races this Sunday, so it will be crowded

 

Both Saturday and Sunday. It will be an absolute zoo both days until after 5.

 

I've been numerous times since they opened and they are attracting large crowds, but there are some teething pains. Running out of food (get a second smoker, folks) , cold food (had to send my burger back - it was actually cold, not just room temp), etc. There is a "no glassware outside" policy. They claim this is a safety issue and I'm sure that's a large part of it, though a glass is much more likely to break if dropped in the barn than on the grass. I'm sure they also don't want their branded glassware disappearing. Anyways, I was served two beers in glasses (though I requested plastic) then stepped outside to get my food and over the next 15 minutes was approached by FOUR different staffers telling me and my wife to hand over our glasses. I get it. It's a set policy. But, wow, call off the hounds, folks. Finally a staffer walked up with plastic cups and demanded we pour the rest of our beers into the cups. We were simply sitting quietly at a table 15 feet from the barn door. We didn't go any farther than the nearest table because I just wanted to finish our beers so we could get the next round in plastic cups. It was 8:15. The band was only paid to play til 8 and had packed up, even though the place was open for a couple more hours. Maybe that's an ordinance issue, I don't know. Every worker had that sour, severe New England townie look on their face. We had planned to stay till 10 and we left at 8:20. I dunno. I REALLY like the set up. The beers are decent. It's a pretty location, but the experience was a bummer. I think I'm going to give it a rest and come back in a few months because I don't want to be turned off on the place for good. There's tremendous potential and they're doing 90% of things right. The staff is largely young people and they're working very hard. But that 10% is close to a deal-breaker. Fingers crossed that they work out the rough spots and mellow out a bit.

 

I was there today about 12:15 (my wife ran the race) and never waited more than 5 minutes for beer. Perhaps it got worse later in the day and there was a decent crowd but a lot of the racers just wanted to get back on the bus is my guess.

 

Headed there today, looks pretty nice.

 

I went yesterday. Beautiful spot. The beer was good to very good (outside of the farmhouse ale which I thought was very poor) The new blueberry wild was good, the Milk Stout and IPA were excellent.

The pizza was a snack at best and as far as pizza goes mediocre. The ice cream was very good.

Zero service issues. A certain revisit. Good base to really build on.

 

Definitely agree with your assessment. Was there on Saturday and was surprised that there was a bit of a line out the door. Really enjoyed the blueberry Brett, the milk stout, and thought the Pale Ale was decent. I had some minor service issues (they put a few of my beers on incorrect spots on the sampler block, weren't clear on how to pay for pizza with a card until after I already paid for my beer), but didn't impact my experience overall. The ice cream is fantastic, too. A great spot to hang out with the family.