New England Report 13:2008-07-24 (Greenfield -- Amherst)

We left Greenfield in the morning and first decided to have some sightseeing outside the normal beer tracking events.

So we had a short drive outside Greenfield and went to the beatiful area of Shelburne Falls. The place is famous for its falls and also the so called "Bridge of flowers", a former trolley bridge over the Deerfield River that is now maintained by the Shelburne Falls Women's Club as a floral display from April through October.

It was raining quite much during the staty but we enjoyed the short stay and checked out the bridge plus the nearby falls with its famous glacial potholes that has been formed by the Deerfield River.

After this it was time to continue our beer trip so we started the GPS again and went south towards the city of South Deerfield and the "Berkshire Brewing Company" brewery.

As it was not much to see and it seems they had nothing opened for public we simply took some pictures to have it counted (all counts, :-)) and then continued south again.

Northampton (MA) and the "Northampton Brewery" was the next stop. This is a centrally located brewpub in Northampton and it was opened for business. It was opened for lunch we had not the time to test anything of their food. Instead we ordered in the samplers and even got a new beer from the brewer himself. The beer was not on but it was being prepared so we got a chance to sample his new brew, it turned out to be a very nice red ale that we really enjoyed.

The rest of the samplers included;

133. Blue Boots IPA

134. Raspberry Brown

135. Old Brown Dog

136. Blackberry Stout

137. Redheaded Stepchild Red Ale (the new one)

138. Sandshovel ESB

They do quite decent beers here and something to recommend. The ESB was really good and I also enjoyed the IPA. The place is quite large and they also have a outside terrace that you should check out. We sat as we normally do in the bar but I think a lunch at the outside terrace is also a great experience.

The place is located in downtown Northampton and suitably located on "11 Brewster Court", yes it is true the place is called brewster. Northampton has been around for quite a while, they opened up the doors already in 1987. They have a large variety of beers and it seems a very popular outdoor, rooftop beer garden.

Very friendly staff and having a conversation with the brewer regarding our visit to the Vermont brewers festival (that he had also visited) is always fun, and a free beer is always great. Great experience and something we can recommend.


Crossed the connecticut river and went east to the city of Amherst where we in downtown visited the "Amherst Brewing Company". It was pouring down with heavy rain so we had to walk in the rain from the parking lot. Time for lunch and some more beers was on the list. We had a great lunch and sampled the following beers;

139. Cascade IPA

140. North Pleasant Pale Ale

141. Seeing Double IPA (amarillo/cascade)

Very tasty beers and beers that was really big in hops, something that is mostly popular among us hopheads. Everything that has loads of hops in it is most often a hit for us.

The food is also great, an excellent pub menu with many daily specials. Both the Cascade and the Seeing IPA is normally available on cask and it seems they do it very well. A good place to hang out and have some beers in Amherst.

After lunch we decided to stick in Amherst for a while longer as we went down the street towards the bar "Moan and Dove". But that needs its own entry completely, so lets continue with Moan later on.