I'm going up there at the end of the month for a wedding and was wondering if there are any good spots to check out within 40min of Tilton. I'm coming up from Boston. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks
Plymouth, Laconia, Lincoln and Concord are all within 40 minutes. There was a decent homebrew shop in Tilton when I was in school up there at least.
Smoke N Barley in Tilton usually have some decent beer just check the bottle dates on some of the bombers, a lot of it sits. They update facebook when they get a release ( ie. Lunch, KBS, BCBS etc..) Plymouth- Bidermans Deli has about 20 taps or so and usually has a few pretty good beers. Chase St deli right above it has a solid beer selection as well. I would say your best bet for bottled beer is to stop by Bert's Better Beer in Hooksett right off 93 or head up to Exit 23 and go to Case N Keg in Meredith. Other than that their is not much happening in the area for beer.
Really depends on what you are looking for. If you want to TRY the best beers in the East you need to come to VT. You can TRY great beers on tap at the Worthy Kitchen in Woodstock VT. Or you can also BUY great beers next door at Woodstock Hops & Barley; both are on Route 4 in Woodstock VT. It's about an hour and half drive from Tilton. Another option is to check and see if the New Holy Grail Pub is open in Laconia. Due to open soon.
BE VERY CAREFUL at Case n' Keg. I was just there at the end of July. While they have expanded, do not buy anything from the shelf. They're one of the worst offenders of expired beer I've ever seen. The beer in the fridge isn't too bad (still there's some bad ones) but the shelf beer is very expired. They even brought out last year's Oktoberfest beers from Paulaner. There's some decent beer there, but please check dates.
Holy grail in Laconia isn't open yet, I haven't heard any updates in a while so anyone's clue when it'll be open.
Littleton is about an hour north on 93 from Tilton, but Schilling is there and comes highly recommended.
While Vermont has no shortage of great beer, you don't need to go all the way there to enjoy excellent beer in the East. I'm not too familiar with the Tilton area, but Flying Goose in New London should be within your reach, as are the Burrito Me locations in Laconia and Plymouth--they're more focused on very good burritos, but they also have a nice, if small beer selection from what I hear. The speed limit on I-93 north of Concord was recently raised to 70mph, so you might be able to make it up to Littleton to visit Schilling, which is probably the best brewpub along I-93 in any state, but it's probably closer to an hour away. Closer to Tilton, Manchester and Concord are both within a 40 minute drive. I won't go into all the details here, but if you search the forums for Manchester, NH, you should get some good suggestions. I'm partial to the Strange Brew, Murphy's, Firefly and River Road Tavern for beer bars in the Manchester area, and there's a growing number of breweries around and near the city.
Not far away in Cantebury on the Belmont border is @Canterbury Ale Works. Check out their hours. Good beer in a great setting on the farm. Enjoy our favorite time of the year up here. Cheers, Paul
Todd Mott was hoping to open in Kittery last weekend but didn't quite make it. Should be soon though.
I'm not actually friendly with Tod Mott--the photo is of Will Gilson, the brewer at Crop and formerly of Moat Mountain, and Tod Mott at a brew fest in Portsmouth from a few years back when they were both brewing in NH. I can't remember where I found the photo now. That said, I just saw on another thread that Tributary is opening tomorrow.
