10 Best Breweries In Northeast America
Take a Brewery Tour Through Northeast America.
By Eben Diskin | Published on April 25, 2022
Breweries are the beating heart of craft beer. They're where the malting, fermenting, and bottling magic happens. But today, they're more than just manufacturing plants — they've also become popular places to gather, rooted in quirky individualism that reflects the character of the craft beer-loving community as a whole. The Northeast is home to some of the oldest, most innovative, and eccentric breweries in the country. These are 10 of the best breweries in Northeast America to visit while traveling on vacation.
1. Allagash Brewing Company – Portland, Maine
Best Breweries In Maine
Allagash started in 1995 and quickly grew to become one of the most popular and best breweries in Northeast America. The 15-barrel brewery uses local grains, plus it created a recycling co-op and has a clean water initiative as part of their commitment to sustainability. They offer tastings, brewery tours, a beer garden, and an onsite food truck serving lobster rolls (a Maine must). Allagash is known for its classic Allagash White, but stout lovers should check out the Allagash North Sky — a Belgian-inspired creation that balances a fruity sweetness with a roasty malt.
2. Smuttynose Brewing Company – Hampton, New Hampshire
Best Breweries In New Hampshire
Smuttynose Brewing Company takes its name from Smuttynose Island, one of the islands that forms the Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire. The tasting bar and beer garden has a constantly changing menu to reflect seasonal offerings, but the brewery is particularly known for its range of sour beers, including the Raspberry Lime Rickey Sour. And if there's a wait for a table (which there often is), you can pass the time by playing disc golf on the brewery's nine-hole course. Having a disc golf course is pretty much a surefire way to crack into any list of the best breweries in Northeast America.
3. Hill Farmstead Brewery – Greensboro Bend, Vermont
Best Breweries In Vermont
The scenic drive to get to Hill Farmstead Brewery — in Vermont's rural Northeast Kingdom — is reason enough to visit this place. Located on a hilltop and surrounded by green countryside, Farmstead's beers are named after members of the Hill family tree, as well as philosophy texts (think "Beyond Good and Evil," "The Birth of Tragedy," and "Genealogy of Morals"). Much like their beer names, visiting the rustic brewery in the bucolic hills feels like stepping back in time.
4. Treehouse Brewing Company – Charlton, Massachusetts
Best Breweries In Massachusetts
Treehouse Brewing isn't an actual treehouse, but it's pretty close. Surrounded by 70 acres of woodland, the brewery is accessible via a mountain bike trail that connects to the Capen Hill Nature Sanctuary. There are also onsite orchards and beehives, and a huge lawn where you can sit and enjoy your drinks in peace and quiet. IPA aficionados will want to try King Julius Double IPA, a beer that packs a citrus punch akin to a mango smoothie and orange creamsicle.
5. Oxbow Brewing Company – Newcastle, Maine
Best Breweries In Maine
This rural farmhouse brewery is in the woods of Newcastle, Maine, where farmland meets the tidal waters leading to the coastline. Oxbow has a rustic tasting room serving drafts and bottles, plus a small orchard and farm where they raise pigs and backwoods trails for hiking, biking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. If Maine is the rustic adventure capital of New England, that makes Newcastle the rustic beer capital of Maine.
6. Brewery Ommegang – Cooperstown, New York
Best Breweries In New York
You'll find Brewery Ommegang on 136 acres of peaceful New York farmland in Cooperstown, the baseball capital of America. Ommegang offers brewery tours and tastings, which include a bite to eat at the onsite cafe, bar, or out on the patio. The brewery regularly hosts events like Sunday bingo and live music performances, so be sure to check their events schedule. While you're sipping on their famous Neon Rainbows IPA or Solera golden ale, take a stroll through the brewery's nine-hole disc golf course, which is open from dawn to dusk.
7. Plan Bee Farm Brewery – Poughkeepsie, New York
It might be called Plan Bee, but this brewery should be Plan A if you're visiting Poughkeepsie, New York. Plan Bee's uniqueness makes it a stand-out among the many incredible breweries in New England. The husband-and-wife team that owns the brewery ferments their beers with yeast isolated from the farm's own beehives. Barn Beer is their signature beer, with notes of lemon meringue and fresh hay. The tasting room has picnic tables, live chickens, goats and barn cats, and on the weekends the farm comes alive with food trucks and live music.
8. Tilted Barn Brewery – Exeter, Rhode Island
Best Breweries In Rhode Island
Rhode Island's first farm brewery, Tilted Barn, was initially located in a century-old barn, with the attached horse stables serving as the production room. They have since relocated just up the hill into a new barn, but the place is still imbued with an early 20th century farm feel. Now, a huge tasting room — with up to 19 beers on draft — overlooks the brewhouse. With ingredients grown right there on the farm, their refreshing beers are certainly unique. Their Sunrise Over Sea beer, a sour fruity gose, is a fan favorite. Food trucks are also available whenever the tasting room is open — though you're also welcome to bring your own food, and every Thursday is live music night.
9. Crooked Hammock Brewery – Lewes, Delaware
Best Breweries In Delaware
Right on the Delaware shore, Crooked Hammock feels more like a summer camp or coastal retreat than a brewery. In addition to cornhole, live music, trivia nights and yoga sessions, there are plenty of hammocks where you can swing away your troubles. While you're breathing in the salty ocean air in your hammock, try the Hand of Buddha cream ale or the Kornheiser Belgian Tripel — two of their most popular brews.
10. Rusty Rail Brewing – Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania
Best Breweries In Pennsylvania
Housed in a converted carriage manufacturing building, Rusty Rail Brewing's rustic character makes it one of the best breweries in Northeast America. It's the largest brewpub in Pennsylvania and houses a game room decked out with billiard tables, darts, Foosball and wild game trophies, as well as hand-painted murals and restored Ford trucks from the early 20th century. It kind of feels like walking into a Western hunting lodge. There's also an outdoor beer garden with Bavarian-style beer tables, where you can often find live bands to complete the ambiance.
The best way to explore the northeast — and its brewery scene — is on one of Royal Caribbean's Northeast cruises, stopping at scenic destinations across New England and Canada.
