Upon embarking on a brewery tour, the unmistakable scent of hops will greet you and your senses will heighten with the sights, sounds and tastes of hop-filled magic. These 5 breweries in the Northeast should be on every wanderer’s list, and the beautiful locations, happy people, and delicious brews will make the journeys memorable ones.
Spyglass Brewing Company
Nashua, NH
Delicious beer is a science. Spyglass Brewing, in Nashua, New Hampshire was started by four engineers who enjoyed excellent beer and traveled far to enjoy it. The Spyglass founders used their knowledge of trial and error to create their own beer in many varieties. In the summer of 2018, they opened a nano brewery located in a small retail strip mall with a garage/warehouse area around the back that housed their brewery. Because of the founders’ meticulous nature and passion to create the best tasting brews, Spyglass was discovered by many for its creative and extraordinary beers. Spyglass quickly grew out of its small space and built a large facility down the road from the original location. In its new location, Spyglass now offers delicious food onsite, trivia nights, and other events to support the local community.
Spyglass enjoys naming its beers based on outer space and science themes, and it offers many highly rated hazy IPAs such as - Escape Velocity, Double Helix, and Aspect Oriented to name a few. It also collaborates with other local breweries which inspires the brewers to experiment and brings them back to their engineering roots. Spyglass does not offer shipping or distribution, but it allows a few local businesses to pick up beers to sell at their establishments. The best way to enjoy their beer is straight from the tap for the freshest pour, and customers can also take some cans to go.
‘Hop’ on over to Spyglass Brewing Company
Ommegang Cooperstown NY
Visit this breathtaking authentic farmhouse brewery established in 1997 on 140 acres located near the banks of the Susquehanna River in Cooperstown, New York. Ommegang helped introduce the United States to Belgian-style beer, and the brewery itself has a Belgian countryside brewery vibe. The brewery is named for the Brussels Ommegang Festival, Ommegang meaning "coming together”. It locally sources ingredients such as malts, corn, and apples for its beer and cider brewed on site. Try the Bourbon Barrel Adoration for a strong dark ale as well as the brewery’s famous Belgian Quadrupels, but you may want to savor them slowly since they each have over 10% ABV.
Enjoy a beer in the taproom, at an event, in the café, at a music festival, or while playing a free game of disc golf on the site’s 9-hole disc golf course. Ommegang hosts a summer concert series called Firepit Fridays as well as a Sunday Bingo brunch.
Say “Cheers!” to Ommegang
Trillium Brewing Company
Canton, MA
Trillium Brewing Company is a family-owned craft brewery that opened in March 2013 with 3 employees, originally located on Congress Street in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood. Currently, Trillium has more than 300 employees with locations throughout Boston, as well as a production brewery in Canton that showcases a new restaurant, taproom, and outdoor beer garden. Trillium also has a working farm in North Stonington, Connecticut where it incorporates produce into the recipes served at the restaurant with future plans for it to become a farmhouse brewery.
Trillium serves many high rated beers that include Imperial Double IPA, a variety of IPAs named after streets in Boston, barrel-aged stouts, fruited sour Berliner Weisse, along with hard seltzers and wine. The brewers create artisanal beverages for a diverse audience and keep pushing the boundaries of innovation all while being committed to bettering the environment by reducing their carbon footprint. Not planning a trip to Boston? The brewery offers some limited beer shipping to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Kentucky, and Washington D.C. Check out the “wicked” good Trillium Brewing Company
The Alchemist Brewery Waterbury & Stowe, VT
The Alchemist is a family-owned brewery committed to adding value to the community. The Alchemist first began in 2003, when The Alchemist Brew Pub came on the scene in Waterbury, Vermont as a 60-seat establishment. After an 8-year run of success with the brew pub, the owners, the Kimmich family, decided to open a production brewery also located in Waterbury. Unfortunately, when Tropical Storm Irene blew through the area, the brew pub was shut down due to devastating floods. The family focused its efforts on the brewery and distributing its famous Heady Topper ale and other beer selections through truck pop-up sales and community events. Growing pop-up sales and high demand for the product led to the 2016 birth of the Alchemist Brewery & Visitor Center in Stowe, Vermont. The Alchemist Brewery & Visitor Center created a place for fans of the brand to take tours, visit the beer garden, and sample limited release selections only available for on-site consumption in the beer café.
The Alchemist Brewery is also a certified B-Corp and takes sustainability very seriously. From its solar-powered operation to its clean water and recycling initiatives, the brewery’s mission is to leave this world a better place than it was found. Head on over to The Alchemist Brewery
Tree House Brewing Company Charlton, Sandwich, Deerfield, & Tewksbury, MA
Tree House Brewing Company began in a small red barn in Brimfield, Massachusetts in 2011. Once a 5-gallon brewhouse, it now has grown into a state-of-the-art, 1860-gallon German engineered brewhouse in Charlton, Massachusetts. Tree House is dominating the IPA world with top-rated beers like King Julius, Very Green, and Very Hazy. Because it does not ship or distribute its beer, you must visit one of its locations and purchase a beer ticket or place an order for pickup on site.
Five years ago, the demand for Tree House beers was so great, the brewhouse had difficulty keeping up as people would come from all over to wait hours in a relatively unknown area of Massachusetts (Charlton) to get limited quantities of the beers that were newly canned that day.
Today the primary brewery, coffee roastery, and distillery still operates in Charlton. But now, Tree House also has additional locations in Sandwich, Deerfield and Tewksbury, Massachusetts, where customers can enjoy beer, spirits, seltzers, canned cocktails as well as canned cold brew and coffee beans to go. Each location has food trucks or local vendors selling food on site, but the Deerfield location also offers pizzas and hosts events and concerts. If you enjoy hard cider, Treehouse also has a Woodstock, Connecticut Farm where it makes hard cider, which can be purchased on location on a seasonal basis. Be sure to check out detailed information about the locations’ hours and operations.
Raise a glass to Treehouse Brewing Company.
We hope these breweries are on your ‘to be wandered’ list! If you have visited one of these breweries, let us know by reaching out to us at WinniWanderer@winni.com. Hearing from you will make our day!
By Staff Contributor