Latest reviews from Jamaica Plain
| 72 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Newly renovated just before or during corona. 16 taps, many of them new, limited releases. Outdoor seating. Was completely full when we went, which was a bit difficult, but a good place. Flights available.“ |
| 68 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Stopped in while in town. Clean, attractive place, with the look of an old fashioned brewery. The tap selection is a little disappointing, some unusual stuff, not a lot, and most of the standard stuff there. Decent value, the the sense that it wasn't expensive to drink there. Strange in that it closes early, especially for a tourist place. Friendly service, attentive. Worth a stop.“ |
| 86 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Took the morning mash-in tour. Got to sample four beers, then go thru the gift shop to the tasting room. Sat at the bar, bartender was very knowledgeable. Suggested a few brewery only releases, so we tried those. The brewery isn't as big as we expected, were told it is their experimental brewery now. It was worth the trip, to say we have now been there.“ |
| 82 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Took the free brewery tour. Very entertaining host. Three beers were available to taste. Nicely decorated.“ |
| 70 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “We were guided around by a funny and very knowlegdeable guide called Bratt. The tour is free and includes 3 beer samples at the end. If your ever in the area it’s worth it to take the tour.“ |
| 68 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “I think we were quite lucky with our guide through this tour, we was a good presenter, knowing what he was talking about and quite funny too. The beers served at the end of the tour were not the most interesting, but hey, it was all for free. Got a chance to buy growlers and four different special releases at the shop afterwards, so that helped. A good use of time.“ |
| 76 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Stopped in years ago, never though to rate. Nice presentation for the unaffiated in the craft movement with the brewing process. Nice to sample beers at the end. Bottle sales at decent prices.“ |
| 66 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Toured on July 4th, 2014. A brief tour, loud and noisy with large groups. Staff was friendly. Very short tour. They do offer the chance to taste different varieties of malt which was unusual. Small tasting with three different beers. I had the Oyster stout, which was new to me. I am glad I did it once. Beer and very expensive souvenirs for sale at the end of the tour.“ |
| 88 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “If you are in the Boston area you have to make your way over to Jamaica Plain to take a tour of this place. It’s a free tour and instead they ask that you donate to one of the charities they provide for. Jameson and Graham were the tour guides for my group and they were extremely entertaining and knowledgeable. We were able to sample three beers at the end: Boston Lager, Summer Ale, and Rebel IPA.“ |
| 86 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Boston Beer Company’s strategy is to make good, accessible beer and to educate and thus convert the swill drinkers, this tour did a fantastic job of that. The free tour was highly entertaining and interactive with a knowledgable and personable host. I’ve heard how beer is made probably a thousand times by now, but it was described in a fun and entertaining way on the tour. The tour ends in a large tasting room and everyone gets three samples of beer. We had a Boston Lager, Summer Ale and an Independence IPA. I highly reccomend coming here as a fun, touristy thing to do. It is also free.“ |
| 78 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “We really enjoyed the tour here, and bonus, it is free. We went on the first tour of the morning, and didn’t have to deal with any of the crowd related issues mentioned by others. The little museum type area where you wait has some cool stuff to check out. The tour itself is fairly standard, but we had a friendly and entertaining guide. They only make one-offs, experimentals, and barrel room stuff here pretty much, so there’s no bottling line or anything. Our tasting was 3 pours, Sam, Sam Summer, and a one-off I hadn’t tried before (Independence IPA). Generally I think they try to have one of the 3 be a one-off like that. The gift shop had some of the barrel room beers for $10/750, so not a bad price at all. Also, if you take your ticket to Doyle’s and buy a Sam Adams beer you can get a free one of their Sam Adams glasses.“ |
| 60 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Not much going on except for the tour, which is definitely worthwhile. Only got to see a limited part of the brewery due to construction, but the tour guide was awesome. As one of the most well-known craft breweries, they do a great job making craft beer culture approachable to non-beer drinkers. Only get to try 3-4 beers at the end of the tour, but you can get a special one from time to time. Timing worked out that I got to try the 26.2 Brew made each year for the Boston Marathon. Cool place and it’s hard to beat free.“ |
| 66 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “The free tour is brief but pretty good. You don’t see much of the brewing equipment but they do give you barley and hop samples to taste and smell as well as three free tasters. Try to arrive early to wander around the mini-museum before the tour starts.“ |
| 50 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Went here a few years ago as one of my first tours, its was a nice tour but the pitchers of a couple beers was pretty lame.“ |
| 76 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Stopped by for the tour which lasted about an hour. Typical tour, not too exciting, tasting room the highlight. Staff was very friendly. Felt like I needed to visit Samuel Adams. Did get a free tasting glass.“ |
| 72 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Cool place. Feels like making a pilgrimage. Us beer owes a lot to sam, but tour is ok. Free beer us good though. A worthwhile stop.“ |
| 62 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Visited this place at the end of April 2012. Plenty of people on a Saturday afternoon but the tours are well organize and they are able to accommodate quite a few people. This is basically free since they only request small donations. The tour last about one hour and takes you through the different beer brewing steps. It was quite neat to try different malt and see the barrels for aging the beers. The tap room is interesting with three free samples. I think this warrant the detour since it is quiet easily accessible by train.“ |
| 60 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Wandered in here after an art event nearby. This place was out of control! They were pouring samples of various test batches, there were huge lines for the tour. I felt like a sheep. The beer paraphernalia was pretty cool, but this was run a bit too much like an Applebee’s for me to really enjoy the experience.“ |
| 66 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Located in a busy area in Jamaica Plains. There’s hardly a place to park, so driving there might be a challenge in the end. The brewery itself is very small. While I was there, they were renovating the place, but the tour was still very interesting. It consists of going into a little area and just standing there listening to a guide talk. He was very knowledgeable and I learned quite a bit. After he was done talking, he then brought us into a tasting room where we tried 3 different beers. After that, the tour ends right into the gift shop (very clever). Prices were reasonable for Boston but still a bit high. Overall, I’m glad to have taken a tour here.“ |
| 80 /100 The Haven (Bar) 2 PERKINS ST “Nice little Scottish place. Actually, I think that this is the only Scottish place around the Boston area. The bar section is kind of small, but it gives a nice comforting feel. A lot of woodwork is shown here. The tap list isn’t really that big, but they make up for is by having not your average beers on tap. Mainly a Scottish selection. There is a good number of bottled beers to chose from if the tap selection doesn’t take care of your beer fix. The food here is incredible though! I had my first haggis here and I will always remember it. Oh if only I lived closer.......“ |
| 58 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “It was cool to check out the brewery, but the tour isn’t much. There was maybe 5 minutes of looking at any actual brewing equipment, with another 5 minutes on ingredients and 20 minutes in the tasting room. The tour is mostly an ad pitch where they tell you how great their beer is, but that’s to be expected. The tour guide was clearly talking to us like we were a bunch of meatheads looking to get hammered on free beer, which maybe the case for most of the people who come in. The waiting room has a bunch of awards (medals, ribbons, banners, trophies) which are cool to see, and a nice little gift shop. They appear to brew very little beer here (most of production is in PA and OH). Not a bad place to stop by, but certainly not an essential brewery tour.“ |
| 60 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Missed the tour. So there was only merchandise shop for me. Lots of not so interesting clothing. Only three beers on bottles (Barrel Room Collection) available.“ |
| 56 /100 Blanchard’s (Beer Store) 741 CENTRE ST “This one was not as good as the one in Alston. Little selection.“ |
| 64 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “A must if you are in Boston. The tour is free and you get a small Sam Adams glass to take home and use for sampling. Their sampling room was unique...it had that beer hall / home bar feel to it. We got 3 samples but I wish they let us sample something odd. I understand giving us the Lager and even a seasonal but I wish we got to have one of their special beers. Still a great value and easy to get to from the train!“ |
| 76 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Definitely worth a visit. Decent tour, but it’s not the main facilities. They use this more as a testing facility for new releases -- and guess what? They are going to test it on you. Expect to try some Sam Adams variety you’ve probably never had before. They usually try it out here before deciding whether or not to release it.“ |
| 72 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Decent tour. You don’t actually see the whole brewery, but a small part of it that is attached to the tasting room. In the tasting room we got 3 samples, including 2 that hadn’t actually been sold. The samples were poured into a small tasting glass that we got to keep for free. One of the unsold beers we tasted was actually really good, I’m surprised they didn’t go ahead and make more of it. Overall defiantly worth stopping by, but I hear that they can fill up tours hours in advance so watch out.“ |
| 64 /100 Harvest Co-Op Market (Grocery Store) 57 SOUTH ST “Food is overpriced. Small beer section but mostly a solid selection of local and regional brews. An organic grocery store so the prices are higher then other spots.“ |
| 78 /100 Brendan Behan Pub (Bar) 378 CENTRE STREET “A really cool pub in a cool part of town. No TV’s, but some board games and cards are available. Good music is normally playing. Lots of taps and most are solid locals which is great. Cash only. Not cheap, but reasonable for the area.“ |
| 60 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Took a brewery tour. Fun stuff. Informational, free, and fun. Great way to start a saturday.“ |
| 70 /100 Blanchard’s (Beer Store) 741 CENTRE ST “Good selection. My beef here is that the price tags are very hard to find on 90% of the beers. But the selection is good and its 1/2 mile from my house.“ |
| 70 /100 Bella Luna and the Milky Way Lounge (Restaurant) 284 AMORY STREET “Living in JP, I hit this place up quite often. The pizza is great, I have never had anything else in the line of food, but it all looks good. Beer selection is good. Being in the same building as the Sam Adams brewery, they have 5-6 Sam Adams taps along with seasonals from Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada along with a couple random taps thrown in. Bottle selection is decent and features some regional beers from Long Trail, Ommegang, and Harpoon. Worth a trip if you are with your family and want a decent place for lunch or dinner after a brewery tour.“ |
| 48 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Pretty standard brewery tour with the emphasis on "fun". That involved the tour guide attempting to get everyone to whoop and holler "spontaneously" as loud as possible every time she used the phrase "free beer". Three free samples and a free small glass after the tour. It saved me hunting around for the Boston Brick Red but the other two were just the standard lager and the Octoberfest, which was the current seasonal so available pretty much everywhere anyway. I think they are changing they licensing conditions as the 3 newly released specials (which was what I was there for really) were on sale in the shop (but nothing else). A somewhat obligatory visit in Boston but you will most likely not miss anything too essential if you skip it.“ |
| 76 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Had a blast here. Good information, good cheesy humor. Fun times in the tasting room. Worth a trip for sure.“ |
| 60 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Cool standard tour with some free samples, got the Blackberry Witbier vs Coffee Stout contest on my visit, nothing special in the tasting room, but a nice gift shop that wasn’t too crazy expensive.“ |
| 72 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Great tour, very informative. You get to taste the barley and they teach you the proper way to truely taste a beer.
You also get to try a beer that isn’t on the market - and that may never make it onto the market.“ |
| 80 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Neighborhood has a slightly depressing "once was" feeling to it. The estate is fairly large. The brew tour was excellent and only 2$ donation which also gets you a nice sampling glass. Very informative and upbeat guide. We group sampled 3 offerings while the tour guide explained the ins and outs of each beer. Then, to my approval they asked us to sign a petition for the state to allow Sam Adams to serve guests more than the maximum limit of free beer.“ |
| 84 /100 Brendan Behan Pub (Bar) 378 CENTRE STREET “Pure neighborhood bar with ample taps and good selection of bottles comprising a nice selection of both local and notable national craft beers. Always a hardy selection of Smuttynose, Harpoon, Allagash, and other New England beers, along with the less frequently seen Left Hand, Stone, and Anchor type beers that typically only reside at much larger tap stores. Guinness poured with love, naturally.
Nicely wooded and aged, feels like a pub that’s earned it, not put it together from numbered parts. Neighborhood vibe. No food, but next door to an excellent pupusa place and close to many other options. TV screen deployed for big games and the like, otherwise music only. Perfect in that regard.“ |
| 68 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Visited on a recent trip to Boston. Missed the tour on this visit (purportedly the best part) but we were still able to tour the grounds, visit the giftshop and sample a few beers in development in the beer tent out front. Definitely worth a trip when in the area, but keep in mind that the tours fill up fast, so go early!“ |
| 60 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “The first brewery tour I went on in the US, it’s quite good fun. A fairly easy location to get to via the T (as are most places in Boston, mind). The tour is free although they do ask for a small donation. It was one of the best brewery tours I’ve been on from an informative and entertaining point of view, it was fairly lengthy, but not boring. They gave everyone a free Sam Adams glass and passed around samples of three of their beers (Lager, Ale and White), it was slightly disappointing that they didn’t have a larger selection of samples, considering they have so many different beers (apparently they don’t have the correct licenses for that), also you can only buy merchandise from their shop, no beer for sale (again with the licenses). It’s definitely a fun tour, it’s just a shame that you can’t try that many of their beers.“ |
| 58 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “A lengthy and decent tour. They give you a free 7oz sampling glass along with samples of three beers. The tour host was knowledgeable and amusing (a little drunk, too - he accidentally spilled some beer on my wife :)“ |
| 42 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Nice brewery tour - 2 dollar donation to get in (optional)... Very informative - at the end they let you try some fresh beer. One trick sit at the end of the table or the front so that you get to drink the leftovers.“ |
| 82 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “hard to get to but so is everywhere in boston thank god for gps. great tour very informative got to sample four brews plus got 2 free glasses. oh yeah it is in a bad nieghborhood“ |
| 76 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “I love going to this brewery. The are so helpfull, friendly, and so into their job. But the best part of going is hopefully the suprise of the tasting. With your free small SA glass, you try 3 styles for free. Usually they start with regular SA larger, then a seasonal thats out or coming out next season, and a good suprise like a beer that’s not going to be produced, hopefully. I have a GPS in my car to i found it fine, but i can imagine it would be hard to find without it.“ |
| 60 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Probably the best, most informative brewery tour I’ve ever been on. The place is magnificent and very hands-on. Tasting included only three beers, and the special was the Sam Adams Schwartzbier. Worth the trip for a great tour, at least.
I recommend taking the T. It was really easy to get to, although there were no signs until we were practically on top of the place. An easy four block walk through an interesting neighborhood.“ |
| 54 /100 Blanchard’s (Beer Store) 741 CENTRE ST “Left the Boston Beer Company tour, and went to Blanchard’s, was hoping to find maybe a rare or two. This store was small, the selection was limited, i walked a long way for not a lot. The one in Allton was way better.“ |
| 70 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Got there via the subway and walked a few block till i found the place. Paid the $2 donation and proceded on the tour. The tour was extremly short but they only produce the beer for Boston itself at this place. After the tour you go into the tasting room for 30 minutes and have as much as you can sample. The best thing about going here was the had Old Fezziwig on tap as much as you could drink in the half hour. Oh yea they let you keep your own glass. Worth the time getting here.“ |
| 62 /100 30 GERMANIA ST. “Tour was a $2 donation, which isn’t bad considering you get to keep your tasting glass. The tour itself was fine. The tasting was a little disappointing, as you only got to try two beers, one being Samuel Adams Boston Lager. The other I had was their Octoberfest. Both beers are very good, but I was hoping for more options.“ |
