Food

A Guide to North Conway's Breweries

A small-town brewery scene with real range, ~30 minutes from the loft.

The Mount Washington Valley has quietly built one of the better small-brewery scenes in northern New England. If Salt & Barley is your dinner pick from our restaurant guide, these are where to go before or after.

Tuckerman Brewing Company

Founded in 1998 and named for nearby Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington, this is the valley's original craft brewery, located a few minutes south of the village. It keeps things simple — a pale ale, an Altbier, and a stout year-round — brewed the way it's been done since it opened. Worth a stop if you like your beer without a gimmick attached.

Moat Mountain Smoke House & Brewing Co.

Right in North Conway, Moat Mountain is part brewery, part smokehouse restaurant, part inn — one of the valley's longest-running craft beer producers, in business since 2000. It's the easiest one to combine with dinner, since the smokehouse food is a destination on its own.

How to work it into a day

Most of our guests treat this as an after-hike or after-ski stop rather than the plan for the whole evening — a pint at Moat Mountain after a day at Cranmore, or a stop at Tuckerman on the way back from Diana's Baths. Neither is far enough out of the way to require a special trip.

A note on driving

Route 302/16 through the valley has more traffic on summer and holiday weekends than the drive length suggests — build in a little extra time getting back to the loft on a Saturday night in July or during foliage season.