2 Breweries Welcoming Families

Echoing the German tradition of beer gardens as places where family travelers can spend a weekend afternoon with friends, many American breweries encourage families by adding play spaces and kid-friendly activities. Two breweries in central Massachusetts lead the trend, one of them on a family farm that’s already a travel destination.

For Moon Hill Brewing Co. in Gardener, Massachusetts, Red Apple Farm in nearby Phillipston makes for the perfect setting for a casual taproom and beer hall with a large outdoor terrace overlooking the orchards. Teaming up with the Rose family, fourth-generation owners of Red Apple Farm, widened the audience for both businesses and created a destination for family outings, festivals and seasonal harvest events.

Red Apple Farm built an outdoor barbecue kitchen with a wood-fired pizza oven, adding to its other attractions of an ice cream window and pick-your-own apples, berries and pumpkins. The Moon Hill Brew Barn hosts live music, kids can feed farm animals and families can take wagon rides through the orchards. Shopping at the farm’s atmospheric country store in the centuries-old barn reveals fresh-made cider doughnuts, 50-plus flavors of house-made fudge, cider, candy corn and apple dumplings.

Families are also welcome at Moon Hill’s in-town Gardner Ale House, a casual restaurant where the $8 kids menu includes a choice of main dishes plus a drink and ice cream. The main menu goes beyond the usual brew pub fare, with Italian favorites and several deftly crafted seafood entrées.

Closer to Boston, Jack’s Abby Beer Hall & Kitchen in Framingham also makes special efforts to include families, taking the classic German beer garden traditions as its model. Inside, long tables have plenty of room for families and also encourage engaging with other guests in a community-oriented environment.

Outside, the large, fenced beer garden features picnic-style tables, umbrellas for shade, half-kegs filled with bright flowers, and a play area for kids (another play area is inside in the beer hall). The German atmosphere carries into the menu, with pretzels, schnitzel and sizzling wursts, along with American brew pub favorites.

In December, the beer hall is the scene of a German Christmas Market, complete with festive decorations; children’s activities; vendors; and even a Bavarian band playing authentic folk songs complete with yodeling, cowbells and alphorns.