New England Beer Tour

I've been very quiet with this blog lately but it's just the calm before the storm.  Activity starts to pick up again starting this weekend with a tour of various New England beer venues.  My friend and kinsman Bill and I last year started what hopefully will become a regular annual tradition of touring New England brewpubs and other good beer venues.  I feel quite lucky to live here in New England.  Personally, I would not live anywhere else in the US given the choice.  We've got it all here.  Nice scenery, 4 distinct seasons, history, attitude, and very nice little beer culture that rivals most anywhere in the US.  So for the second year in a row, starting this coming Thursday, we'll venture out to experience some of these places.  Our tour this year will take us to the following locals:

1.  We'll start out in the University town of Amherst, Mass.  I've got a soft spot for Amherst having spent 4 great years attending school at Umass Amherst.  One thing they have now that they didn't have then is a cracking brewpub.  So in addition to visiting the nice beer bar called the "Moan and Dove" we'll also spend most of our time in the "Amherst Brewing Company" brewpub.  A brewpub with a very  nice selection of beers and a nice atmosphere and location to drink in.

2.  On Friday we'll drive from there up to the mini-beer mecca of Burlington, Vermont.  Most likely we'll stop at a place or two along the way such as the "People's Pint" in Greenfield, MA.  Burlington got a few good stops.  Vermont Brewing Company, American Flatbread, Das Bierhaus, the Farmhouse, and who knows what else we might find.

3.  All beer roads in New England ultimately lead to the great beer city of Portland, Maine.  On Saturday we'll make the long trek across Northern New England from Burlington to Portland with possibly a cool stop on the way like Bray's Brewpub in Naples, Maine.  Now Portland I could easily dedicate a blog entry to and I probably after this visit.  To me it's one of the early adopters of the US craft beer revolution with a few classic places (Gritty's, Great Lost Bear) and a bunch of newer ones cropping up the past few years (Novare Res, Mama's Crow Bar).

So I look forward to the upcoming weekend.  I should be a lot of fun and a good warmup to the epic Franconia beer excursion coming in July.