This is a great topic. Support your local brewery is my motto, so I drink a lot of New England beer. And no, Sam Adams is not the best NE has to offer.
I like Long Trail a lot, probably because I wish that I lived in Central Vermont where LT is brewed. I really enjoy their seasonals. The Hibernator is a really good winter beer. The Harvest Ale is good as well. I'm generally not into wheat beers or fruit beers, but I break both of these rules to drink Long Trail's summer offering, Blackbeary Wheat. It's a tasty beer if you're looking for something lighter during the summer months. Hit the Trail Ale, which is an english-style ale, is another solid offering. Their flagship beer, Long Trail Ale, is a bit boring in my opinion. Not bad, it's just that there are many better local beers.
Magic Hat is overrated in my opinion. It's probably the most widely-known of the New England microbrews which is unfortunate. The company is run by hippies and they put little Phish-esque quotes on the underside of all of their bottle caps. Having said that, #9 is definitely enjoyable from time to time. I had a great time this past summer floating around on a large raft with a friend and a cooler of #9 on a Vermont lake. It was just the two of us, a 12er of #9 and some loons out there. It was very relaxing, Vermont living at its finest.
I haven't been a fan of any of the other Magic Hat beers besides #9 that I've tried (Fat Angel, Hocus Pocus, a red ale whose name I forget).
Harpoon is another solid choice. I enjoy hoppy beers and the Harpoon IPA definitely does well in this department. The Harpoon Winter Warmer is reason enough by itself to look forward to the coming of winter each year. It has a very interesting, almost spicy flavor to it.
I had Smuttynose for the first time this winter and was pleased. The Pale Ale is a solid offering, not quite on the level of the elite pale ales like the Dogfish Head or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale but definitely worth a try nonetheless. I liked the Winter Ale I tried better. That's definitely a beer I'll be purchasing again in the future.
That's pretty much it for my New England beer experience. I have been limited by the small size of my local package store. There aren't very many offerings there at all. I do plan on exploring Otter Creek's offerings when I get the chance. I'm am going to start trying to make more frequent trips to the local mega-package store, which has a whole aisle of microbrews.
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