At the end of April, me and my wife landed in American soil, where we planned for a honeymoon brewery road trip around the east coast. We had a blast, and here’s part of our story.
We started off by renting a car at JFK airport in New York and headed straight away out of the city.
Equilibrium
Equilibrium was our first stop, located in Middletown (NY) — about 141 kms (87.6 miles) away from JFK.
As this was the beginning of our brewery tour, I had to start with my custom made t-shirt :)
People at #eqbrew gave us a very warm welcome and even gifted us a few beers for our special occasion. We tasted every Double and Triple IPA they had on tap.
Well, we also had some stouts :)
And if that wasn’t enough, we took some back to the hotel in addition to buying a lot of merch!
Next morning, we headed over to a little bagel shop named Bagel Shop & Deli that we totally recommend. Most delicious breakfast bagels we ever had (no pics, sorry)! Wish we had one back home…
After getting our bellies happy, it was time to continue driving…
Fidens
Our second stop was the amazing Fidens, located in Albany (NY) — about 182 kms (113 miles) away from Equilibrium.
The road to Albany was quite calm and scenic.
After a while, we made it to the brewery, which was still closed to the public.
However, a month before going on our trip, I emailed them to see if we could visit the brewery and I’ve been told it might be possible, depending on the amount of work they had on that day.
Lucky us, upon arrival I met Tim outside the door and introduced myself mentioning the email I had sent. Without doubt, he stopped his work and dedicated 10 minutes of his time to showing us the brewery and giving us a taste of their new release that day: Raoul, a delicious double IPA hopped with Nelson, Citra, NZ Cascade and Motueka.
Although it was a short time, it meant the world to us. Don’t ever lose your humility guys, you rock!
Not long after our fortunate private tour, it was time to open to the public, where loyal customers start queueing up around 30 minutes before opening time.
I chatted with a couple of them, all happy people passionate about their beers. Fidens will forever be in our hearts, we absolutely loved it there and keep on buying their beers whenever we get a chance.
Oh… We didn’t leave empty handed :)
The brewery doesn’t have a pub at the moment, so we decided to continue driving.
Tree House
It was a long driving day, so we stopped by in a small town named Sturbridge for a few nights.
The following day we had planned a visit to Tree House, located in Charlton (MA) — about 202 kms (125 miles) away from Fidens. We stayed in Sturbridge because it is the nearest town.
Next day, we headed over to Tree House, only to be rejected because we didn’t have our passports with us, and they didn’t accept our driving licenses as a valid ID; quite disappointing.
The story doesn’t end there: customer service is quite unfriendly, and it seems we are not the only ones thinking alike. Lots of folks I chatted with had similar experiences. If you want to know the full story, I’d be happy to share the details in private, but I don’t think they deserve any more mentions in my blog.
A real disappointment, but it is what it is. Suffices to say we don’t recommend visiting them…
Altruist
Since our plans with Tree House didn’t work out as expected and we were still in town for another night, we decided to check out a local brewery we’ve been recommended: Altruist.
They have a great venue and a sick logo! This was a brewery pub, and that evening they were having a trivia night about It’s always sunny in Philadelphia, a show I absolutely adore.
We started out with a flight of beers to find out what we were up for.
Their NEIPAs were on point, so we decided to stay longer and have a great time.
It turns out the owner was sitting right next to us at the bar, only as another customer! I don’t recall his name (apologies), but he was awesome and gifted us a couple of things, such a lovely place.
Apparently, they are used to welcoming disappointing people coming from Tree House, if that’s not saying… Anyway, if you’re around the area, make sure you pay these awesome folks a visit, you won’t regret it.
Trillium
Next day we headed to Boston (MA), which is only 96 kms (60 miles) away from Sturbridge, or an hour of driving.
The main idea was to visit Trillium, which has three different locations in Boston!
We started at Fort Point, an amazing venue in the heart of the city.
We got lucky that same week they were releasing Really Big Bird, an incredible Double IPA.
Of course, we tasted all the IPAs they had on tap that day, and ended up buying some more big birds to go.
Next day, we did some walking around the city and headed over to Fenway to visit their other location.
It was an unbelievable sunny day, couldn’t have asked for more. Folks at both locations were super friendly (take that TH), and Boston is a really nice city, so we promised we will be back some day…
The following day we drove back to New York City — about 343 kms (213 miles) away from Boston — to return the car and stay in the city for a while. Once in NYC, the Really Big Birds kept on rolling with a Manhattan view!
In the second part, I tell you all about the breweries we visited in the Big Apple.
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Cheers.
