Visiting Boston (Summer '13 Edition)

Discussion in 'New England' started by Auror, Jun 27, 2013.

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  1. Auror

    Auror Pooh-Bah (1,641) Jan 1, 2010 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Inspired by some other cities' threads and by the many repeat questions we get, I decided to make a visitation guide for Boston. So, if you plan to visit Boston this summer or beyond and want to drink good beer, this resource is for you. Boston residents, please add comments and suggestions.

    BA Places Guide: Boston

    General Boston Notes:
    Parking is generally difficult city-wide, so you may want to plan for this if you do decide to drive into the city.

    The MBTA is Boston's public transportation system. By and large, it is decent and many locals rely on it in lieu of a car (although we all love to complain about it). Google Maps has the T (the sometimes above-ground subway) and bus lines integrated into it, and is fairly reliable. For complete schedules go to MBTA.com.

    The T shuts down around 1am, so overpriced taxis will be your only way to get home from bars, which mostly close at 2am. Boston city cabs are required to take credit cards (but will often protest), but the same is not true for Cambridge and other surrounding towns. There are also taxi service apps (such as Uber or Lyft), but use these at your own risk.

    Massachusetts stores are not allowed to fill growlers or operate taprooms. Also, breweries are only able to fill their own branded growlers, so keep the cost of the growler in mind when estimating costs. It is also illegal to have happy hours in Boston, so don't bother searching for the best drink specials.

    Map
    This guide in mapform.

    Breweries
    Ordered loosely based on community visit preference. Be aware, some breweries have limited visitation or tour times.

    MBTA Accessible
    Cambridge Brewing Co. - Brewpub and growlers
    Night Shift Brewery - Tours, samples, growlers
    Idle Hands Craft Ales - Tours, samples, growlers
    Mystic Brewery - Tours, samples, growlers
    Trillium Brewing Co. - Tours and growlers
    Harpoon Brewery & Beer Hall - Tours, samples, growlers, pints
    Boston Beer Co. (Sam Adams) - Tours and samples
    Watch City Brewing Co. - Brewpub and growlers
    Boston Beer Works (Several locations)- Brewpub, tours, growlers
    John Harvard’s Brewery & Ale House (Several locations) - Brewpub and growlers

    Driving
    Jack’s Abby Brewing - Tours, samples, growlers
    The Tap - Brewpub, tours, growlers
    Mayflower Brewing Co. - Tours, samples, growlers
    Cape Ann Brewing Co. - Brewpub, tours, growlers
    Newburyport Brewing Co. - Tours, samples, growlers
     
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  2. Auror

    Auror Pooh-Bah (1,641) Jan 1, 2010 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Bars / Restaurants
    Ordered loosely based on community preference (but reasonable minds will always differ). Sam Adams and Harpoon have been a mainstay in almost every bar in Boston for a long time, but Boston has seen a tremendous increase over the last few years of craft tap and bottle lists at most restaurants, especially newer ones. You will probably find something decent at most places, however these are some (but definitely not all) restaurants and bars with a heavy craft emphasis. I limited this to Boston/Cambridge area just from sheer volume.

    Cambridge / Somerville
    Lord Hobo
    Redbones
    Cambridge Common
    Atwood’s Tavern
    Olde Magoun’s Saloon
    Flatbread Company @ Sacco’s
    Green Street Grill
    The Asgard
    Russell House Tavern
    Meadhall
    Bukowski Tavern

    Allston / Brighton / Brookline
    Publick House
    Deep Ellum
    Sunset Grill & Tap
    The Avenue
    The Abbey
    Hops ‘n Scotch

    Back Bay / Kenmore
    Salty Pig
    Parish Cafe
    Eastern Standard
    Lower Depths
    Island Creek Oyster Bar
    Yard House
    Bukowski Tavern
    Cornwall’s

    Downtown / South End
    Saus
    jm Curley
    Stoddard’s Fine Food & Ales
    Picco
    Kinsale
    Tip Tap Room
    Coda
    Local 149
    Jacob Wirth
     
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  3. Auror

    Auror Pooh-Bah (1,641) Jan 1, 2010 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Stores
    City stores are in alphabetical order, because I couldn't really get a good consensus on order. Each of these will carry a majority of what's available in distribution or have a nicely curated selection. Check the map above for closest to where you will be. Suburb stores are the ones most frequently recommended outside the city. Also note: Due to liquor store chain laws, some locations of large supermarket or convenience chains will carry alcohol and some will not.

    Greater City
    Ball Square Fine Wines & Liquor
    Bauer Wine & Spirits
    Baystate Foods
    Blanchard’s Liquors of Allston
    Boston Wine Exchange
    Charles Street Liquors
    DownTown Wine & Spirits
    Federal Wine & Spirits
    Liquor World
    Marty’s Fine Wines
    Social Wines
    Streetcar Wine & Beer
    Whole Foods Market - River Street

    Suburbs
    Craft Beer Cellar
    Julio’s Liquors
    Gordon’s Fine Wines & Liquors
    Redstone Liquors
    Yankee Spirits - Attleboro
    Berman’s Wine & Spirits
    Colonial Spirits - Acton
    Granite Liquors - Weymouth
     
  4. FrankLloydMike

    FrankLloydMike Maven (1,284) Aug 16, 2006 Massachusetts

    Thanks for creating this! Even as a local with my own preferences, it's great to see bars and such organized by neighborhood.
     
  5. tehzachatak

    tehzachatak Initiate (0) Sep 19, 2010 Massachusetts

    Mods, please sticky this. Thanks, Auror. GREAT post.

    Worth pointing out for those who do not check the maps - Night Shift and Idle Hands are quite literally next to each other and in the same building - so you get a two for one there. Mystic requires some transportation from there, but is also VERY close - one could knock off three great (and a point worth making - all very different!) brewery visits (and upward of 15 ticks, fo free, if you're into that) in less than an hour.
     
  6. Auror

    Auror Pooh-Bah (1,641) Jan 1, 2010 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    I don't forsee this getting stickied for a couple reasons, so just link it when a question comes up. Also comment if anything changes (like Trillium getting samples, etc.)
     
  7. commis

    commis Initiate (0) Jul 21, 2009 Massachusetts

    This is great. Obviously, there will be some threads asking for specific info not covered here but I think this is a great way to address most of the repeating topics.
    One thing I noticed though, Trillium does not offer tours. They gave tours as part of some kind of South Boston Art Walk or something about a month ago, but it was just for one week. Unless things have changed in the past few weeks, it isn't something they normally do.
    Thanks for putting this together. I'll be linking it whenever applicable.
     
  8. Auror

    Auror Pooh-Bah (1,641) Jan 1, 2010 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    I actually messaged the brewer, because I had no idea if they did or not. I stupidly left the convo, but he said something along the lines of "We're small and it's not much to tour, but we'll take people on them."
     
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  9. emannths

    emannths Initiate (0) Sep 21, 2007 Massachusetts

    Is this what the bros meant when they said they were replacing beerfly guides with something better? Yowza.

    While there are no happy hour drink special, several places offer discounted food, like dollar oysters or $5 apps. The Boston Chowhound board is probably a better source for this (and other food-related) info--I don't know offhand which if any beer places offer food deals.

    Also, visitors should consider walking instead of taking taxis or the T. Boston is geographically tiny, and if the weather is decent it beats the pants off of dealing with the T. For example, you can walk from the Boston Common to Fenway Park in 40 minutes. Fighting the Green Line out there will probably take nearly 20 minutes.

    Also, visitor should make use of SeekABrew.com. Note that while some bars have occasionally have bootleg cans of Heady Topper (e.g., Lord Hobo, Eastern Standard, Deep Ellum, and The Publick House), and a keg or two of Hill Farmstead shows up in the area from time to time, we generally don't have access of Alchemist/HF/Lawson's here in the Boston area.

    I'd also consider moving Watch City to "driving." You can get there on the commuter rail or the express bus, but you can also take the commuter rail to Jack's Abby, The Tap, Cape Ann Brewing Co, and Newburyport Brewing Co.
     
  10. Auror

    Auror Pooh-Bah (1,641) Jan 1, 2010 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    I wasn't sure initially, but there seems like pretty regular busses that go out there, even fairly late, so I decided to put it in MBTA accessible. Thanks for the other stuff. Whenever the next update happens I'll add a link to the Chowhound board and some of your other notes.
     
  11. Auror

    Auror Pooh-Bah (1,641) Jan 1, 2010 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Just noticed that some of the store links got very oddly broken up. That'll get fixed next update as well.
     
  12. kinopio

    kinopio Savant (1,013) Apr 30, 2009 Massachusetts

    Can't stress enough how bad of an idea driving around here is, especially if you are having a few beers. Its by far the worst way to get around town. The T will get you wherever you need to go and the Boston core is very walkable.

    If you visit Sam Adams in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood there are some good spots around there. Brendan Behan, Canary Square, Vee Vee and a couple others always have interesting stuff. Street Car is a very nice craft beer store.
     
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  13. ThirstT

    ThirstT Initiate (0) May 5, 2012 Illinois

    My plane landed 10 hours ago, thanks for the gold here OP
     
    Auror likes this.
  14. cappy201

    cappy201 Zealot (504) Mar 25, 2012 Massachusetts
    Trader

    Also, if you tour Sam Adams, you can take a free trolley bus to Doyle's, a vintage watering hole with solid food where you get a free Sam Adams glass when you mention the brewery tour. Doyle's is classic Boston, and the trolley tour is a hoot--my kids still talk about the disco lights and hilarious trolley driver
     
  15. BearsOnAcid

    BearsOnAcid Pooh-Bah (2,215) Mar 17, 2009 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Its pretty easy to get to. The 70 will get you there from Cambridge/central red line stop without transfers and runs late. It just takes a while. But I would never recommend that place to anyone looking for good beer anyways.
     
  16. brikelly

    brikelly Pundit (781) Apr 11, 2010 Massachusetts

    EPIC. Thanks!
     
  17. pveilleux

    pveilleux Zealot (664) Feb 3, 2012 Massachusetts

    Or the commuter/purple line. It's the S. Acton/Fitchburg train, which you can get from North Station in Boston or Porter Sq., Cambridge. The 70 and the commuter rail drop off a block from each other. Just cross over the river and Watch City is on the left at the first light, 1 block from the stops.
     
  18. BearsOnAcid

    BearsOnAcid Pooh-Bah (2,215) Mar 17, 2009 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society

    You can also add SideCar to the apps for getting transportation. They are testing out Boston as a new market for peer-to-peer rides. And don't forget Hubway! Bikes are arguably the easiest way to get around town if you like the exercise.
     
    Auror likes this.
  19. Psychmusic

    Psychmusic Initiate (0) Jun 22, 2012 Massachusetts

    Bikes are also a great option if you're really itching to get run over by an MBTA bus
     
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  20. bramsdell

    bramsdell Initiate (0) May 27, 2011 North Carolina


    MBTA buses are to be feared and respected. Just like a hippo, they're absolutely fine as long as you understand how they operate. You stay the fuck out of their way and you make sure you anticipate where they will go next. They're pretty predictable. That said, they don't give a fuck about cyclists, so it's on you to know where they will be.

    I commute to and from work every day on my bike. You learn to live with them.
     
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