Top Breweries in MA

I find myself these days more interested in a beer's texture and cleanliness (I could of said craft) than the the flavor or experimentation.

My favorite MA brewers are Cambridge Brewing Company, Idle Hands, Mystic, Mayflower...and I guess Treehouse. I love their beer, but I hardly get the chance.

 

Given Koch's bankroll and interest in experimentation, I'm slightly surprised he hasn't invested in a coolship to play around with real lambic brewing.

 

A lot of the small american craft breweries are incredibly detailed. I don't think that because a brewery doesn't make one it means they can't. It could be risky even to enter that market because of the established competition. The price point will probably pit you straight up against actual German beers. Many people don't romanticize the style as much as yourself and think it's somewhat basic, not deserving of paying a premium price.

Water chemistry or decoction mashing isn't something out of the blue for an experienced brewer. I've even attempted it in homebrewing. A lot of it is just rigid process which is what Germans are well-known for. Maybe it's an art, in the sense you are making something with your hands, but it seems too formulaic to me. A turbid mash is even more complicated. Maybe a gueuze should be the true test of a brewer?

I also enjoy Allagash tripel more than most belgian tripels.

 

Unfortunately breweries cannot charge $3 plus for a can of pilsner like they can with an IPA. Plus a pilsner requires more time (although less ingredient cost) and is harder to brew and sell.
I think von trapp is in the discussion for best brewery in the region and due to their beer styles they brew, they get no credit. There scores are significantly lower then the IPA producers.

The best is when a brewery starts making these neipas for the first time, (and they have been open for awhile)people say: best beer they make, they are improving, only good beer they make, etc. relic, hooker, Wally, and relic are all examples of this.

Make an average neipa put it in 16oz cans, and some how you become a better brewery. Brew wordld class pilsner, helles, hefenweizen, brown ales, Belgian wits, and you can barely keep the doors open.

Sucks, because there are a million new iPas taking shelf space from smuttynose porter or Ipswich oatmeal stout, etc. I go into large package stores with large beer sections and 90 percent of the beer is a verry hoppy beer, because of this most are old now because there is too much competition.

 

I hear you, and I concur, but I want the opportunity to experience the difference myself (find out if there even is a difference) as opposed to hearing people say there isn't. This is one of the major issues at play - consumers want fresh beer (in addition to many other things, like variety and scarcity) but the national-crafts aren't delivering.

Let us have (reasonably) fresh beer!

 

My point was and is 4 weeks is fresh beer. If a beer falls off in less time then that (especially if refrigerated), then I am very concerned. I think any beer that I see in a package store that is not over a month old is fresh (especially if in refrigeration). Most non hoppy low ABV beers i think are more then fine at 3 months old. High ABV beers that are not hop forward are fine within 6 months (and if I want to taste it aged then I will buy it after that)

Also, I think SN bottle conditions there beers, which means that 3 or 4 weeks is the freshest its going to be.

Even my homebrew, which is super exposed to oxygen compared to these breweries, taste does not fall off for at least a few weeks and for some beers for months. I have noticed that my beers that are mostly citra or mosaic hopped tend to fall off faster then if they are more chinook, cascade Columbus hopped they last even longer without loosing their hoppy edge.

 

Seriously is there anyone who makes a comparable ipl?! I've had other baltic porters. Nothing remotely like framinghammer. Nevermind the aged varients.

 

Posts like those from that Sierra Nevada guy have to make @DigitalNate smile. Suggesting you can't make a hazy New England IPA that doesn't flocculate when the New England brewery with the most hype makes hazy New England IPA's that don't flocculate is...interesting.

Seems really obvious he's talking about Trillium in that post, but extrapolating their issues and those he sees popping up for them to make a point about all NE IPA's.

 

Totally this.

Props to places like Brick & Feather, Exhibit A and (leaving the state for a minute) Austin Street with limited portfolios of meticulously crafted beers.

And who can blame Tree House for just brewing (essentially) various iterations of the same NEIPA week after week when their parking lot is jammed and people are lined up out to the street?

There's no shame in just doing one (or three) things really, really well.

 

Harpoon? Tried the interobang 18% espresso stout? Was a top 5 for me this last year. Last time you tried some of the test batches at the brew hall? Not a fan of something like the mango, but they have a great lineup. YRMV.

 

Ones with high turnover? Also realize that something like SN celebration is bottle conditioned at the brewery for 2 weeks before shipping.

 

Of the same quality, but different, the Baltic porter by Smuttynose.

 

As always, seems distorted. The list? Has to be rated by BA reviewers. What about something like bar tap sales or beer store sales?

 

Treehouse, Trillium, abandoned building, fort hill, exhibit-A are some of my favorites. They're are a ton of breweries in Mass but most of the stuff is run of the mill.

Brewmaster jack, big elm, iron duke, nightshift, berkshire brewing, stone cow... most of their stuff hasn't impressed me. It's good, but exactly what I mean by run of the mill.

 

It's funny, some of you have postulated the hype of IPA can make or break a small, new or young brewery, and there is a real life example of this. As I understand it, Monkish refused to brew IPAs, focusing instead of saisons, sours, etc. Then, when they decided to jump on the NE IPA hype train, they had lines out the door and it hasn't stopped since.

 

I wouldn't necessarily go to bat for everything on that list but if that's all run of the mill then we're living in a pretty good mill

 

We've got it pretty made, that's undeniable.

 

I pretty much agree there. Swap Clown Shoes for Jack's Abby and I can't disagree with any others on the list. While there may be arguments to swap other breweries around, and maybe some others that argueably deserve to be on the list, all in all, it's not bad.

 

Interesting. Below are a few more posts from brewer's, the thread is a solid read. As is another thread I'm sure (I haven't read this one), which is linked within that thread. Beware, the second thread is 30 pages long.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...rough-a-microscope.397142/page-3#post-4624150

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/northeast-pales-ipa-dipa.319817/

Admittedly I'm not incredibly knowledgeable on yeast flocculation and how it relates to hazy IPAs, without derailing the thread too much, would you mind expanding on your post? It appears the why and how (much of it anyways) is still a learning process for many brewer's, both experienced and novice.

Finally, I'm not sure he was necessarily referencing Trillium in that post. He mentioned buying a case and saying there was sludge in the bottom and neck of the bottle. I don't think you'd be buying a case of IPAs in a bottle from Trillium a year ago.

 

This is the one month old Lights On I just finished drinking - looks great! And I don't drink Treehouse often enough to say this with any real confidence, but my feeling right now is that this one tasted even better than the one I drank the day I bought it.

Regardless, I'm hoping SierraNevadaBill's concerns will be alleviated by businesses like Russian River and the Alchemist being the model going forward. Not that I want to see any of the existing regional/national brands suffer (least of all SN), but my guess is that's going to be a tough road for any new entrants when every state has dozens of local breweries.