Going to be spending a week in Winchester, NH. Not very familiar with the area, so what's around for food and beer? Thanks....
In Winchester there's a small brewery called The Outlaw. I've not had anything from them but friends say its ok. Theres also a distillery in Winchester that is getting rave reviews called Sweetwater Farm. If you venture out a bit, there's Branch and Blade in Keene (Brewery, good stuff) or Whetstone Station in Brattleboro (brewpub, usually have Hill Farmstead on draft). Both are about a 15-20 min drive depending on where in lovely Winchester you are. Brattleboro Coop usually has a good selection of Vermont beers, and Brewtopia in Keene also has a great selection of NH beer.
My (more-or-less) neighborhood! Welcome to the Great New England Beer Desert! But you're out on the fringes, so there is hope for you... To the south: you're a half hour from Brick & Feather in Turners Falls and pappasilenus spends an unconscionable amount of time there. You're also a little less than a half hour from Honest Weight in Orange, another worthy stop. To the west: Whetstone Station is about 20 minutes away, over the Route 119 bridge into Brattleboro - usually a very good tap list and definitely a great place for a meal. If the weather's nice, you can eat out on the biergarten patio roof over the Connecticut River. Strong recommendation. The Brattleboro Coop is catty-corner across Main St and has, so far as I am aware, the best can and bottle selection south of 89. To the north: Branch & Blade is a new brewery on the outskirts of Keene, about 15 minutes up Route 10. I was not impressed at first but they've started hitting their stride and are totally worth checking out. Another 15 minutes into Keene proper is Elm City Brewing which is decent enough pub fare and just-pretty-much-OK beer as long as your standards aren't particularly high. I don't know, some people like it a lot. I do know it's the only actual brewery within walking distance of my house, so there's that. Brewtopia on Washington St is the only worthwhile bottle shop in all of SW NH. To the east: there is, so far as I know, nothing at all. Well, Outlaw Brewing, I guess. I don't think they have a taproom? but you'll find their blonde at just about every local convenience store and gas station and I suppose you have to at least try it, but I'm not sure why.
Thanks! I had stumbled onto Whetstone, forgot about Brick and Feather and The Brattleboro Coop. Outlaw says they have a tasting room, but it looks a bit sketchy.
Somebody reminded me that Ashuelot Brewing is somewhere out there, too - down a muddy, rutted goat-trod, a garage-sized brewery nestled in the third-growth scrub forest of backwoods Richmond, NH. You could be one of the handful of people who have ever seen it! Only open Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
Just figured I throw in a recap here. First visit was Springdale Barrel Room on the way to our destination - definitely a worthy place to visit. Great room, superior staff, and you can order pizza/appetizers from Jack's Abby kitchen. Sort of a traditional bierhall vibe, but modernized with some social amenities - games and such. Almost empty when we got there, half filled by the time we left. DIfferent feel vs Jack's (which we also enjoy) entirely. Branch and Blade - think this is a real up and coming brewery. Tried five beers there and all were good to very good - a very nice milk stout and an excellent IPA. Small room, but nicely done and the brewery looks great. Maybe as they build some momentum they can do the food truck thing - plenty of parking is one thing they do have as a bonus. Looks like there is a motorcycle training course in the paved area behind the buildings - lots o' space. Whetstone Station - not too impressed with the food or the tap list, honestly. Seemed to lack the local offerings one would expect. The food was very much mediocre - burgers were cooked as requested, but bone dry and hardly as flavorful as the descriptions implied. But what a great location, and the vibe/decor of the place was pretty good. I can see it being a fun place to hang with the biergarten and the outside seating, but just did not care for the food (admittedly, small sampling but no real incentive to return) and felt the beer selection could have been better with more local offerings besides their own. The Brattleboro Food Co-op - a decent selection in the beer area, but if that's all you are looking for it would be a let down. Otherwise - what a fantastic food store. We poked around in there quite a while - fun just to visit and see the possibilities of what food shopping can be. Hermit Thrush - well, I am fond of wild ales and sours, so this was kinda my thing to begin with. Was not disappointed - the beers were top shelf, server was mildly distracted but knew her stuff, even re-tasted a beer she hadn't tried in a while. Small, but nicely appointed room. Sticker shock at the price of a four pack, but really on a per ounce basis not much different than the similar styles I buy from Allagash. On the way home, Gardner Alehouse - decent food, poorly trained server (if he'd been trained at all) and lousy beer from Moon Hill Brewing. Nice place - lots of space, rustic wood/brick decor, clean, kinda dark inside. Beer game really needs to step it up - no guest taps that we saw, either. Discovered a really good Thai restaurant in Keene, NH - so imaginatively named too - Thai Garden. Not a beer spot, but good food - lunched there twice. And found another place to avoid - Jim Eddie's. Stopped there for some takeout BBQ and absolutely wish we hadn't. Owner of the cabin we stayed in recommended it...just not good quality BBQ. Seemed like reheated leftovers, honestly, and even worse leftovers the next day...yikes. Random beers - a good saison from Belgian Mare Brewery and a fun (but maybe ultimately forgettable) "spicy Bohemian pils" from Throwback found in a funky little artisan marketplace that had a small beer cooler along with wine and cheeses.
Never knew this site existed! Just joined tonight. I am Rick, I am the owner, brewer, bottle washer and delivery guy for The Outlaw Brewing Company. I realize this was posted in August but I hope you enjoyed your trip and if you make it back, here are some tips. Come visit us and drink our beer! You can find our American Blonde, English Brown Ale and Pale Ale at several area retailers. Brewtopia, Monadnock Co-op, Gomarlos, Kulicks and Cha's. Some carry all three, some carry only one. You can also find us at Greg and Janes & Bert's Better beers if you aren't in the Keene area. Our blonde ale is spot on and a great "gateway" beer for those who are afraid to come over to craft beer land. It has been a great beer to transition those "yellow beer" drinkers to something that actually tastes like beer. We have 8 beers on tap in our taproom that isn't one bit "sketchy". We are out in the country and definitely not fancy. But if you care about good beer, you should come and see us. Some of our taps are brews you can only get in the tap room. Others are ones you will find in limited edition in area restaurants like, Luca's, Local Burger, Odelay and Jimeddies. For local food we recommend, The Rustic Table for a nice sit down meal or A1 pizza for a pizza joint kinda thing. Both are in Winchester. As for breweries in the area, there are far more than people realize. You have us, Ashuelot, Granite Roots, Branch and Blade, Elm City, Nye Hill Farm, Belgian Mare, Monadnock Brewing, Post and Beam & Froggy (opening soon). In Vermont right over the NH border Whetstone & Hermit Thrush are great breweries and not to be missed. Over the border into MA, we like Honest Weight, Lefty's, People's Pint, & Brick and Feather. There is Vanished Valley, Fort Hill, Abandoned Building, Brew Practitioners, Building 8, Stoneman, Hitchcock, New City, Stone Cow Northampton Brewery, & Element (which is a distillery and brewery). All in western Ma, right in this corner where NH, MA, and VT all meet. How often can you brewery hop to three different states in an afternoon. (We've done it, it's a good time.) And back to speaking of distilleries there is Sweetwater in Winchester, Copper Cannon in Chesterfield. and Saxtons River in Vermont. If you'd like to throw in a winery there is Cameron's right in Northfield MA, not too far from our brewery. You can even book a night or two at the vacation rental we have on site at the brewery and have yourself a tour of all these places. I'd say for a rural area, we are far from a desert. Just be adventurous and be sure to have a DD.
Thanks for the great recap (which I appear to have missed until the thread was bumped). That's a real bummer about Gardener Ale House. I enjoyed the beer quite a lot the last time I was there but that was years ago before their brewer left to start up Flying Dreams. Hopefully they get things figured out because it was pretty cool to have such a decent stop out there on the way home from Monadnock country.
