Cisco Brewers Inc.

Brewery, Bar

5 Bartlett Farm Road
Nantucket, Massachusetts, 02584
United States

(508) 325-5929 | map
ciscobrewers.com

Owned by Craft Brew Alliance. Anheuser-Busch Inbev owns 31.5% of Craft Brew Alliance.
BEER STATS
Average:
3.76
Beers:
48
Ratings:
7,251
PLACE STATS
Average:
4.14
Reviews:
22
Ratings:
50
pDev:
16.18%
View: Beers | Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by NoLeafClover44:
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Reviewed by NoLeafClover44 from Delaware

4.43/5  rDev +7%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 5
I go to Nantucket every summer and have to stop at the brewery at least once per trip. The brewery, distillery, and winery form an open courtyard with several tables in the center. Each of the three is wide open to the courtyard with a good sized bar, but no indoor seating besides at the bar. There is very limited parking and it gets pretty crowded by 4 or so with about a quarter mile of cars lining the narrow Bartlett Farm Road. Get there early if you want to do beer or wine tasting because by about 1 or 2 they will stop doing them due to the crowds. I recommend the beer tasting if you haven't had their beers before. It's not a bad value (~$10 for ~10-12 samples and you keep the sampling glass). Most of their beers are in the $5-7 range with the standards in pints and the specialties in 10 oz. pours. The service can get pretty slow when it is crowded, which only annoys me because I have seen some employees standing around socializing. The distillery has specialty cocktails and the winery has several of their homemade wines and sangria. There is no food available, besides the occasional hot dog or pizza vendor, but they encourage you to bring your own.

The atmosphere is great. It's a very relaxed and casual crowd with many people coming straight from the beach still in their swimming attire. There is usually some live acoustic music going on and in my experience it is usually pretty good. There are a ton of dogs around as the employees usually have theirs and they encourage you to bring your pooch. There are some corn-hole and other games set up along one wall.

I highly recommend this place, especially in the rain. They set up a large tent covering the courtyard and the rain keeps away the crowds. There are certainly worse ways to spend a non-beach day on the island. The brewery, winery, and distillery all sell their products to take home as well as several different souvenirs sporting their logos (glassware, frisbees, hats, clothes). If you are on this site and going to Nantucket, you will have a great time at the Cisco Brewery.

Note - They fill growlers but you can no longer drink them there, you must take them home to drink. They say it is due to Mass. law. It was a bit cheaper when you could drink the growlers there but it still isn't atrociously priced for Nantucket.
Feb 01, 2012
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4.43 by Bierbaum from Massachusetts

May 14, 2020
 
Rated: 4 by KMcGrath from Massachusetts

Sep 07, 2019
 
Rated: 2.52 by benbowski from Switzerland

Jun 17, 2019
 
Rated: 4.64 by mdfb79 from New York

Jun 16, 2019
 
Rated: 3.83 by Sprowt20 from New Jersey

Feb 26, 2019
Photo of Izzo
Reviewed by Izzo from New York

4/5  rDev -3.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4
this is a very fun brewery to visit if you find yourself on Nantucket island, it does get very busy and it isn't cheap but there is always live music and food trucks, stumble in from cisco beach and stumble out
Feb 17, 2019
 
Rated: 4.07 by tommyboy985 from Massachusetts

Jan 11, 2019
Photo of hozersr
Reviewed by hozersr from Pennsylvania

3.79/5  rDev -8.5%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4.25 | selection: 3.25
I really fun place to visit. Great food trucks. Raw clams, oyster and beer, doesn't get much better than that. The beer is average but is over priced. But everything in Nantucket is.
Jul 26, 2017
Photo of edthehead
Reviewed by edthehead from Maryland

4.01/5  rDev -3.1%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 3.75 | service: 4 | selection: 4
Easily one of the most fun breweries out there. Decent beer, fabulous food trucks, great music! Seafood sliders, raw bar, lobster, etc ...Don't know what this place is like in the colder months, but in the summer time, party is on at Cisco. And being on Nantucket doesn't hurt! If in Nantucket, this is a must visit!
Jul 23, 2017
 
Rated: 4.49 by jeffreyhill021 from Massachusetts

Mar 19, 2017
Photo of Jaycase
Reviewed by Jaycase from Illinois

4.28/5  rDev +3.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.25 | service: 4.25 | selection: 4.25
A must visit for any beer fan while on the island. Tried to avoid peak times (i.e., keeping to early afternoonish) which worked out well. Food trucks present on premises. Beer options vary but seemed to be about 5-6 core beers with another 4-5 other beers of theirs. Prices I recall ranged from 6-8 depending on the beer which seemed reasonable to me considering the effect the island typically has on prices. Just walk to the beer bar (note there are separate wine & distillery bars for those options), purchase your beer and grab a seat at one of the outdoor tables and relax. Not all outdoor tables are covered so the sun can be strong at times depending on where you sit. Brewery merch and beers to go can be purchased at the beer bar as well. Plenty of bike racks for the preferred method of transportation imo. They have daily tours of the entire facility but I did not participate in one. Also live music as well but I was out the door before the shows started so I cannot comment on that either. Great place to hang out and enjoy a beer when not at the beach. Again I purposely avoided evenings when visiting here so ymmv.
Sep 29, 2016
 
Rated: 4.28 by crewfan1952 from Ohio

Sep 12, 2016
 
Rated: 4.48 by Seebeej from Massachusetts

Aug 02, 2016
 
Rated: 3.11 by Maprezens from Connecticut

Apr 21, 2016
 
Rated: 4.86 by weirdbrewbeerdudes from Massachusetts

Mar 28, 2016
Photo of WeymouthMike
Reviewed by WeymouthMike from Massachusetts

4.85/5  rDev +17.1%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.75 | service: 5 | selection: 4.75
Great setup and a selection for whatever your vice is; beer, wine, booze. Wish there was something in the Boston area that was similar. Will go back anytime we visit the island.
Aug 30, 2015
 
Rated: 3.73 by Resuin from Massachusetts

Aug 19, 2015
Photo of rjd722
Reviewed by rjd722 from Maryland

4.5/5  rDev +8.7%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 5
Great outdoor seating area with live music and multiple food truck vendors with a high quality variety. Didn't have any of their "classic" beers which can be found in stores, but tried a number of their Island Exclusive beers including the 20th Anniversary Grapefruit IPA (Gripah) and their Nitro Bailey's. They run a free shuttle from downtown Nantucket to the brewery; I would come back to Nantucket just to visit Cisco again.
Jul 24, 2015
 
Rated: 3.5 by RKing44 from Massachusetts

Jun 17, 2015
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Reviewed by RBCIPA from Massachusetts

4.86/5  rDev +17.4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5
Best place on the island by far! Great beer great vibe they also have a spirit and a wine bar (all the bars are separate which helps speed service I feel like). If you're not on the beach be here!
May 21, 2015
 
Rated: 4.26 by dwatulak from Massachusetts

Mar 07, 2015
 
Rated: 4.29 by NateF90 from Connecticut

Jan 11, 2015
 
Rated: 3.75 by illpass78 from Maine

Nov 21, 2014
 
Rated: 4.75 by ChurchofPayton from Massachusetts

Nov 07, 2014
 
Rated: 4.75 by ianous from Connecticut

Oct 29, 2014
 
Rated: 5 by TaraF from Florida

Oct 12, 2014
Photo of ONovoMexicano
Reviewed by ONovoMexicano from New Mexico

3.5/5  rDev -15.5%
A cool little spot on some farmland, this is always a must-visit for me when in Nantucket.

Cisco's beers are solid mostly, with some being really great. I loved the gose they had on tap last summer during a visit, but at the same time was quite disappointed by the Russian Imperial Stout. That's kind of the trend with Cisco, hit or miss beer-wise.

While the atmosphere can be pleasant, the place is almost always packed and the crowd is very representative of Nantucket (at least the seasonal crowd) in that you have lots of privileged, self-entitled folks crawling around that haven't learned such pleasantries as "Please," "Thank you," and "Excuse me."

Also, I have to ding this place for the use of plastic cups to serve their beers. I'd hope a brewery would respect the proper glassware ethos without exception or excuses.

I should mention there are coolers with beer for take-home consumption, growler fills available, and a lot of schwag for sale.

The servers here can either be cool, or uppity pricks, so that's always a crapshoot.
Sep 22, 2014
Photo of morebeergood
Reviewed by morebeergood from Massachusetts

4/5  rDev -3.4%
The Pros: they have a bus that takes you back and forth from downtown. There is live music and tons of people having fun. They have beer, wine, and liquors all in one place. The cons: it's expensive. They charge $5 entrance cover on a Sat, and the drinks are not cheap. The $20 tour sucks. You get a small glass and a couple of pours of beer from a growler. You do not get any wine or liquor. Not worth the time or the $20.
Aug 25, 2014
Photo of Jsmick
Reviewed by Jsmick from New Hampshire

1.6/5  rDev -61.4%
vibe: 1 | quality: 2 | service: 1 | selection: 2
It pains me to give this place a one star review. The beer is five stars, and so are the spirits...... however, this place is an absolute ripoff, and that's what I will speak to in this review. We were charged a five dollar cover charge per person for the privilege of paying $20 per person for a tour. For $20 a person, I thought it would be an in depth tasting and tour of the facilities, as they stated that this was a top rated tour in America.

We were passed around a growler of three different beers, which were very commonly available in stores..... none of their special brews. We were then shown the outside building of the winery.... and just the outside, and then the edge of the barrel aging spirit room.... and nothing else. No tasting of the spirits or wines.

The brewmaster who led the tour was amazing.... intelligent, kind, passionate, and thorough. This tour, however, should have been free, and the "cover charge" because some annoying band that I could care less about is a load of crap. Owners, you are ripping off the public, and you should be ashamed of yourselves. I will never frequent your brewery again. Breweries like Allagash don't charge you a cent. Buy their beer at your favorite craft beer store, but steer clear of this wallet vacuum.
Jul 30, 2014
 
Rated: 5 by blackmathdavey from Massachusetts

Jul 28, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by ChipChaight from New York

Jun 15, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by MacCherry from Massachusetts

May 26, 2014
 
Rated: 3.25 by bakerbill from Massachusetts

Mar 18, 2014
 
Rated: 3.5 by buckyp from South Carolina

Mar 17, 2014
 
Rated: 4.75 by david18 from New York

Dec 29, 2013
 
Rated: 5 by 44Herm44 from Massachusetts

Dec 11, 2013
 
Rated: 5 by VictorFranco from District of Columbia

Nov 24, 2013
 
Rated: 5 by KevinDanger23 from Connecticut

Nov 08, 2013
Photo of trxxpaxxs
Reviewed by trxxpaxxs from New York

3.76/5  rDev -9.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5
I visited Cisco this past week on a Tuesday. My girlfriend and I took the one hour ferry ride from Hyannis to Nantucket, hopped on a Moped, and zoomed on over to the farm for a few drinks.

Cisco is basically a Brewery, Winery, and Distillery all in one. There are three huts selling the various products, that open up in-between with tons of seating and a really relaxing/chill setting. I stuck mainly to the brewery.

It looked like there were 20 or so beers on tap, but when I went to order, many of the offerings were not available. I still managed to try three brews, and loved just hanging out in the open space. It has a hippie/gypsy/eccentric/artsy type feel, without being pretentious.The beers were decent overall, but not anything incredible. They had merch for purchase and a bunch of their bottled and canned beer available as well.

We got there at around 2:00, so there wasn't any live music and the raw bar was just starting to set up.I'd recommend visiting if you have plans to spend some time on Nantucket, but I don't know if it's really worth going to on its own. We had a good time, but it is quite a trek.
Sep 08, 2012
Cisco Brewers Inc. in Nantucket, MA
Brewery rating: 3.76 out of 5 with 7251 ratings