McNeill’s Brewery

Great selection of beer and a friendly staff. We were turned off by all the negative reviews but are happy we decided to try this dive out! It could be cleaner and better laid out but it gets the job done and the beer is delicious! Definitely going to make sure to stop here again next time we’re in town! The Ruby Ale was our favorite! Thanks for the suggestion Emily!

Visited this Brewery in the middle of a snow storm and they were still open. Although this is more of a tasting room, it has the environment of local dive bar. All of the patrons and staff were friendly and the beer was great. Many table games and other entertainment is available. I just wish they had samplers or flights available at the time.
Street parking is available but there is a parking deck next door to utilize.

After reading all of the negative reviews, my husband and I decided that it was worth it to take our chances to come in and get our beer passports stamped. Unfortunately it wasn’t even worth that. Not only does this place have a really weird vibe, but the beer was literally the worst that I’ve ever had. There were 3 of us so we tried 3 different beers and they all had the same terrible sour, skunky flavor (and none of them were sour style beers, mind you). It almost seemed like the tap lines have never been cleaned. The bar room itself was really divey in a bad way and the bathroom was dark and would be the perfect set for a horror movie. Needless to say, we didn’t try any of the food but it looked like it was all prepared via microwaves, which were set up about 10 feet away from the bar. We all only took about 3 sips of our beers before we decided that we couldn’t stand any more and left. I think it goes without saying, but we’re never going back.

Um no. This bar was terrible. I am not from Brattleboro or Vermont but my boyfriend and I had wanted to stop for drinks and we happened upon McNeils. As soon as we walked in, everyone was staring at us. Made me feel very uncomfortable. The cheese plate was fine, but just cheese and tricuits. It was hardly a cheese plate. The «flatbread» was microwaved pizza. Fruit flies everywhere. Bartender was uninterested and distant. Not sure what kind of establishment goes out of their way to make people uncomfortable but that’s the scene here.

Stopped in yesterday because I was visiting all of the breweries in Brattleboro… I hate giving a Vermont brewery a bad review, but it’s unacceptable for a brew-​pub to serve warm, almost-​skunked beer. Out of the 21 brews they claimed they had on tap, at least 5 were out. The four that I sampled were all warm. Two of them tasted like they were just about skunked. (Just as an FYI, $ 1 a sample, they use a shot glass for tasting). I didn’t try the food. It was about 3pm, and they football on the TV. There were maybe 5 people there other than my group. I heard that McNeills had gone downhill, I guess the rumors are true. It’s incredibly disappointing because McNeills does have decent beers, I do like the Lazarus and the Firehouse Amber. It’s just the brew-​pub part has not been kept up.
These were the four beers I sampled:
Abbey Dubbel
McNeill’s Green Mountain Gold
McNeill’s Exterminator Doppelbock
Slop Bucket Double Brown

Good grief, what the hell is happening to Brattleboro? We moved back to Vermont in June and this was one of the first places we wanted to go — Indian food at India Palace across the street (CLOSED! wtf) and then McNeill’s. Because that’s what we do. Or that’s what we’ve always done.
Since moving back to Vermont in June we’ve been back to McNeill’s twice and both times it has been downright AWFUL. There is NO NEED for 21 beers. That’s part of the problem. While they used to provide quality, English style casked beers now they have like four or more IPAs. Um, you can’t cask an IPA — it needs to be cold.
I always loved the divey-​ness of this place but now it’s just dirty and stinky. They need to shut down for like three hours and just clean. While all breweries have a certain smell — brewing is not an odor free process after all — McNeill’s has got a little too much of a scent. And I’m a little worried about the general cleanliness considering the huge amount of flies — far more than should be inside. And while I’m happy to be a Vermonter, I’m not the kind of Vermonter who can fish a fly out of her drink and continue to drink it. Blech, no thank you.
Ray has been at the bar, drunk and rude the last time we’ve been there. Also seriously not cool. And, icing on the cake: a girl was puking her guts out in the bathroom recently and no one went in to check to see if it needed to be cleaned up. I’m sorry, but that’s just disgusting. It was also very disgusting of her but she got sick… we can’t undo that. Could someone please go freaking check and clean the bathroom?
Hugely disappointing to come back and find that this place has completely gone down the tubes (they’re officially down to one dart, also… can someone buy them a set since they clearly just don’t give a f’ck about anything anymore??). We’ve tried another place in town that makes sours but we’re not fans of sours. I want the old McNeill’s back. But until they get their stuff together and clean it up a little I’m done. Two miserable visits is all I can take.

Bartender was cool and some of the beer was good. Not as good as some of the other breweries but it had its own vibe like none other we visited. Didn’t try the food.

The best part about this place is that it’s a total dive bar. With quirky décor and fun games to play at the bar, McNeill’s is a neat little brewpub to visit if you’re passing through the area. They offer lots of house beers on tap, and you can try a whole bunch for just $ 1 for a sample glass or $ 3 for a half pint. I appreciate the effort with the wide variety of beers, but of the six or so beers I tried, I only liked maybe two of them. We didn’t stick around for food, but I thought it was cool that options included pizza from Zuppardi’s in Connecticut and tamales. Based on the beers alone, I wouldn’t travel out of my way here, but it was a nice place to hang out for a few rounds.

McNeill’s turned me off the instant I walked in because it was incredibly dirty. Like, old food and plates stacked on tables, flies and bugs, hasn’t been cleaned since last weekend’s party dirty.
It was not the kind of environment I would want to order food from OR beer. Despite that we tried their brewed beer and it was okay. The whole time I couldn’t stop shooing away gnats and flies.
Honestly, we booked out of there ASAP. Maybe it was a fluke, but I felt like I was drinking home brew in someone’s make shift garage brewery.
I would not return, it was just too gross.

Delicious gnoshing. Super staff. Quirky art and dark pub interior. Decent pricing. Dark Angel Ale is crisp & a bit spicey but light in the mouth. Brewery on site… get a tour.

As we were making our rounds in Brattleboro the other day after work we decided to give McNeill’s a shot, and have to say that we had a blast here. When we walked in the door on a Monday afternoon, we were the only people in the bar which was great because we had the place to ourselves.
As a group we bought a bunch of different brews, and as usual I picked up a cider on tap. All of our drinks were great, and the prices were reasonable as well. The bartender was great, and at one point while we were playing a game she jumped in and had a blast with us! She was also really knowledgeable about the drinks. The only critique is that some of the beers on their tap were unavailable which was a bit sucked a bit!
Overall, this place is a nice chill spot to catch a quick drink and hang out with friends. Just be aware that this place is cash only!

Went here this past Saturday (3÷8÷14) around 1:00PM to grab a beer and maybe some lunch, but the place was empty, dark and doors locked. The sandwich board was out on the sidewalk but I can only assume it was left out from the night before? Their website is down so no way to check hours. Their facebook page says «always open.» Apparently not. Shame, I would have loved to have tried some of their beer. There were 8 of us, would have been a nice sized check for them. Oh well!

I was skeptical about this place because of the other reviews on Unilocal.We stopped here on our way home to hit one last brewery on the Vermont Brewery Challenge before we left. When we walked in, there was a large group singing traditional folk songs acapella. Kinda strange, but very cool. We sat at the bar and the bartender was extremely helpful and friendly. We each had 2 4oz tastings — so reasonably priced and so delicious.
The place is definitely a drinks only place — we saw a board outside indicating food specials but inside all we saw was a strange little kitchen area with a microwave and such. So I wouldnt eat here, and it is a little dumply, but I would definitely go back for the beer!

Great beer bar with some solid options, friendly bartender, good music and fun clientele. It’s not really a dive but has the feeling of fun pub. They offer samples at a cost of $ 1.50 so you can try the entire lineup which I did instead of committing to an entire beer. Some of our favorites were: Warlord, Oatmeal Stout and Firehouse Amber. The bartender was also very friendly and knowledgeable about the beer. The cash only part is a bit annoying and prevented us from overindulging.
Overall a good experience and worth a stop if your in the area.

Where to start… They no longer brew on premises, don’t offer tasters, and I caught the bartender microwaving a burrito as standard practice. I’m sure the locals love it as the place was full of drunks at 1PM on a Saturday, but it dosen’t impress me.

Pretty good beer. Really dumpy and dirty though.

This is a review update as I have been here recently:
— Really great English beer and they have at least 3 beers on cask, ie hand pump.
— Friendly bartenders who will let you sample a beer before committing to a pint.
— Cash only! This is quite problematic especially at a brewery that has food and when one can lose track of pints.

This place is kind of a dump besides the beer which is ok at best. As someone who’s been to pretty much every single microbrewer in VT, McNeills falls short. I wouldn’t dare eat here and the place was pretty much empty when I went on a Sunday evening. Surprising for a brewery that serves good beer.
I had the stout on cask and it was mostly half full after the carbonation settled. This pretty much was a poor man’a Guiness. At $ 5 a pint on a Sunday in a dingy bar I’d expect a least some specials that you’d see in better brewpubs.
Thank goodness I didn’t eat here because the place should be on Bar Rescue. It’s dirty and I don’t trust a dirty bar that serves food. This place looks like it was rode hard and put away wet. It’s sad because this place could be so much better if more investment was made on the food and look of the bar.

The brilliant thing about food adventuring is that you never really know what you’re going to get. Even if you read all the reviews and downloaded all the menus, there’s still a mystery until you’re actually there (and «there» could be anywhere for the food adventurer). Such was the feeling when my wife convinced me to stop for lunch in Brattelboro on a trip through Vermont.
Snow was falling and I had a craving for a cozy Ale house. Enter McNeill’s Brewery! Perched on the end of a side street, McNeill’s is a classic Vermont spot, slightly ramshackle, thrown together with love, and full of good beer. The young bartender was super nice and the only folks in the place was a father with two toddlers, who were soooo cute they seemed to fit right in to the ambiance.
The brew pub itself was really simple and down-​to-​earth with communal wooden tables and benches, a wooden bar (stocked with not just beer, but some good lookin’ whiskey too), and a few bar games. The beer however was not simple, but full of yummy complexity and goodness. My favorites were the Pullman Porter and the Deadhorse IPA. The IPA was spot on with a beautiful floral aroma and a clean bitter finish. The bartender let us know that if we wanted food they had some soup, but that we could order sandwiches from next door (another interesting looking bar). So we settled down with our beers, had a big cup of homemade Black Bean soup, and felt right at home.
All in all, McNeill’s is a great spot to stop on your way up North. Infused with a VT hippie vibe and a laid back atmosphere, the beer is cold and good… the food is, well, food… but the beer is cold and good, and hey that’s what really matters…

As soon as you walk in you can tell this place is the real thing. You can tell it has great beer but just looking at their food menu. Yeah! Nacho with cheese, pita with humus and something else (can’t remember).
The beers are amazing. All of them. Even on a hot summer day, a beer that was at room temperature was refreshing and tasty.
Wifey and I had such a good experience one day while visiting Brattleboro that we had to come by the next day before we made our way back to New Haven. With such short time we asked the bar tender for a flight of beers, to get a good taste of everything available, and she hooked it up. For a $ 1 per sample she gave us 7 extremely generous glasses. Needles to say that we had to postpone our return for several hours.
For all the real beer drinkers, this is a must when visiting Brattleboro.