What is your favorite Beer? (Canton: restaurant, costs, design)

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Lunch is ok. Dinner is better. Both are really overrated for what they are. It's kind of an easy off easy on brewery for tourists. Maine has better brewers. Though they still can't really compete with VT.

I said "most well known." I didn't say "best." Seriously though, I do enjoy most of their beers and Lunch is a really solid IPA. It's better than a lot of other beers you could pick up in a store.

Hard to beat what you can get in VT. I'm a HUGE fan of Hill Farmstead and up until COVID I usually make 2 trips a year up there. It's just such a long drive. My biggest complaint about the current beer climate is that the best beer is so hard to get. You can't buy it in a store. You have to go directly to the brewery and a place like Hill Farmstead is a drive of several hours. At least Tree House and Trillium are more close by.

Originally Posted by charolastra00

I only drink local craft beer at this point - especially now where I know my money is going directly to my neighbors rather than a large company.

Haven't bought a beer from a national brewery or even a brewery owned by a national brand in years. There are just so many good local breweries that there's no point.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

Hard to beat what you can get in VT. I'm a HUGE fan of Hill Farmstead and up until COVID I usually make 2 trips a year up there. It's just such a long drive. My biggest complaint about the current beer climate is that the best beer is so hard to get. You can't buy it in a store. You have to go directly to the brewery and a place like Hill Farmstead is a drive of several hours. At least Tree House and Trillium are more close by.

Vermont is still the New England leader by a good margin. Even with Alchemist past the peak of its popularity (Heady/Focal are on shelves at every convenience store), there are so many. Foam, HF, Lawson's, Red Clover, River Roost, etc. There are several groups on Facebook that facilitate trades/sales, but I've never done it. Seems like a lot of work. HF is one of our favorites too, and my girlfriend's parents live about 1.5 hours from there, so it's not terrible driving. But they're closed weekends and only doing curbside during the week. Haven't been able to justify that personally, and on a larger level, I want to respect their efforts to discourage out of state visitors.

I agree, it's exceptionally hard to get the best without going to the brewery. We've tried to be on top of releases around here. Some have done a great job of keeping stuff in stock. Vitamin Sea isn't selling out within the first hour or two anymore. Most of their stuff survives two days before becoming unavailable. It's been nice to show up at 3pm on Saturday and walk right up (they move the line fast). But we've also set alarms for other breweries. Channel Marker was doing bi-weekly releases for Friday/Saturday pickup. Orders went live at 6pm on Thurs and they were often sold out before 6:05. It was pretty amazing. Trillium has done a good job keeping stock, and it looks like Tree House isn't selling out minutes after opening either (but their 1 case minimum has deterred us from going during COVID).

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

I said "most well known." I didn't say "best." Seriously though, I do enjoy most of their beers and Lunch is a really solid IPA. It's better than a lot of other beers you could pick up in a store.

Hard to beat what you can get in VT. I'm a HUGE fan of Hill Farmstead and up until COVID I usually make 2 trips a year up there. It's just such a long drive. My biggest complaint about the current beer climate is that the best beer is so hard to get. You can't buy it in a store. You have to go directly to the brewery and a place like Hill Farmstead is a drive of several hours. At least Tree House and Trillium are more close by.

.

True enough. I'm am, or was outside of the pandemic, in the NEK several times a year for outdoor sporting events, so it wasn't hard to stock up.


But yeah, I rarely buy beer in a store, at least outside of VT as at least then I can get some sours (Backacre, etc) in stores.

[GeePee]

Ive been loving Green State Larger from Zero Gravity in VT. Fairly cheep, nice crisp and easy.

[OutdoorLover]

I just came across Sam Adams "Porch Rocker" - they call it a "Bavarian Radler". Whatever it is, it's a refreshing summer beer with nice flavor, and it doesn't break the bank.

[charolastra00]

I had planned a beer road trip through the NEK, Maine, and Mass with one of my oldest, dearest friends this summer before the SHTF. He lived in Europe and would fly out to Hill Farmstead once or twice a year to stock up and ship stuff back. I feel like that's proof enough that it's great - he's definitely not the only one who travels halfway around the world for it! He'd often only be around for a weekend and we'd meet up at Prohibition Pig (great vanilla stout) down the street from the Ben & Jerry's factory or I'd shuttle him around eastern Mass to Trillium, Bone Up, Night Shift, and Deep Ellum (RIP). Now that he's settled in the States, we were hoping to take advantage of the closeness to do a big old trip. That's on hold until at least next year. Something to look forward to, I guess!

[western mass and love it]

Sloop brewery in East Fishkill NY makes excellent beers. Everything they offer is top notch, their most popular is the Juice Bomb. Vanished Valley is also great, Two Weeks Notice is putting out quality beers. Back East brewing in Ct is a must try , as well as Connecticut Valley Brewing company.

I feel as though TreeHouse has dropped off in quality, everything tastes the same from them now. Trillium is still top notch though.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by western mass and love it

I feel as though TreeHouse has dropped off in quality, everything tastes the same from them now. Trillium is still top notch though.

It's been 6 months or more since I've had anything from Tree House - I hope they haven't slipped. They've spent a fortune on equipment specifically to ensure quality and consistency. A lot of people have been ragging on Trillium for quality slips though. I had a few of their Mettle Alloy series over the past few months and they were garbage. But for the most part, I think they do an excellent job. I love the Cutting Tiles series, and I enjoy the lighthouse series too (Gay Head Light and Minot Light are the two best). My girlfriend is hooked on the Daily Servings. We both got our hands on the Trillium/Bissell Brothers collab last week which was good (and I think Bissell is wildly overrated). We're lucky to have them so close.

[BostonMike7]

I feel that Trillium has risen a bit in standing with myself to be almost on par with Tree House. Maybe some of that has to do with the fact that Tree House is a hike from me so I rarely make a trip, and I can get Trillium delivered to my house? Needless to say, my garage fridge is stocked with quite a bit of Trillium these days.

[Louisville Slugger]

Allagash, Ommegang, and Lord Hobo.