The best part of third wheeling on this trip around Boston Area was that one half of the couple was my best friend and the other half was a beer enthusiast. This combo resulted in a lot of great beer tastings. At first I had a hard time finding breweries in the Boston area that also had tasting rooms but together we were able to sniff them out. I don’t want to call this a versus post more just sharing the places we went. I do have a favorite brewery from the ones we visited but in general I was impressed that New England breweries have a lot of lighter, wheat, whit, German type beers as opposed to the Californian IPA crazed brewery. The change was very much appreciated by me. You will notice that that I mostly ordered flights so that I would try as many beers as possible from a single brewery rather than chugging down pints.

Cambridge Brewing Company – In order from closest to furthest are Time Away, Hay is for Horses, Berliner Kendall, and the CBC Hefe. If I can remember Hay is for Horses was my favorite. My friend goes for the deeper, more bitter flavors so he had a very different looking flight. We both walked away happy and impressed with our first try at New England brews. CBC is located close to the MIT campus with a large tasting room and food offerings, it is a great hang out spot.

Beer Works – So the interesting thing about this place is that there are multiple locations and they all brew onsite so depending on the location you have access to different beers. And they really do brew on-site, I would tell from the constant smell of yeast billowing around our table and from watching the brewmaster work.

I went for the Fall Flight, going from left to right, consisted of the Pumpkin Works, Oktoberfest, Hay-Ryder, and Curly’s Irish Stout. My favorite here was the Hay-Ryder. I was disappointed with the Pumpkin works, the cinnamon sugar rim distracted from the beer itself and left me unhappy with the after taste. Out of the three breweries this was my least favorite.

Aeronaut Brewing Co. – The brews, the art, the people, the music, the vibes…this place had it all. If you find yourself wandering over to Somerville (next to Boston proper) then make sure this is one of your stops. This was a great experience for travelers since we were able to experience local brews, art, and music. I wish I got the name of the musicians but I forgot, I can say however that they were amazing and didn’t over take the space by blaring anything too loud.

Here is a sample of some the art. A lot of it was done on multimedia surfaces which made for entertaining discussions.

Compared to the other breweries Aeronaut is much smaller which results in a smaller menu. But this doesn’t impact the quality of the beer. As is obvious from this picture we had a lot to choose from. My favorite was the Kristallweisen. The most unique was the Lichtenhainer Weisse, I have never before had such a light beer with strong smoky flavors.

Enjoy!

Ximena.