Boston is often at the ass end of jokes when compared to other major cities in the states. Whether due to its puritanical roots, violent history, or the region’s seemingly eternal winter season, Boston has had to endure its fair share of jabs and pokes for being a bucket of crabs…but all that’s beginning to change. Newly elected mayor Marty Walsh has already issued 75 new liquor licenses as well as extended the weekend night hours of the subway system. This is great news for us closeted degenerates who want to howl at the moon, lifting pints until the early morning.

This also means that new watering holes are opening up across the Boston metro area.

Night Shift Brewing – Technically in Everett, MA (but who’s counting), the brewery offers a great set and setting for making your way through a flight or for hooking down multiple pints at their spacious and industrial brew hall. With ample on-street parking, the demure façade outside belies the hip space within. Food trucks and local restaurants make use of the space to feed hungry and thirsty beer geeks from across New England.

This jewel in the rough has been cranking out so many new beers. Thanks to their former setup turned pilot system, you can drink a new flight of beers every few weeks. This is a noticeable improvement from their previous location, a building believed to once crank out munitions during World War II that ironically looked like it had suffered through Blitzkrieg 70 years ago. Now with almost 6 months under their belt at the new location, Zagat has rated Night Shift one of Boston’s hottest beer gardens.

The Lawn on D isn’t a brewery – but it is an awesome place for drinking beer. South Boston’s newest addition amongst a vast stretch of industrial wasteland, The Lawn on D gives the keys to the playground to us Millennials (which appears to be a dirty word similar to the dreaded Hipster moniker) and we’ve decided we want beer, swings, and music. This tenuous social experiment with outdoor drinking, activities, music, and community projects only lasts until Halloween, so make sure you get down there, and abide by the rules, which really can be summed up with “don’t be a shithead.” You don’t want to be the one responsible for why we can’t have nice things here in Boston.

Aeronaut Brewing Company – One of the cities latest fully operational craft brewery-meets-adult playground, Aeronaut combines the awesomeness of beer, food trucks, 3rd wave coffee, and farm-to-table food with a renovated factory space in Somerville; oh, and there’s often live music too. Not only can you go down to the brewery, hang out, and drink craft beer while listening to music, there’s a rock-climbing gym next door (although drinking and rock climbing may not mix all too well).

The brewery is currently working through its initial startup stages, crowd logistics, and entertainment management, but the plans this sort of collaboration offers look promising. Aeronaut also wants to open a business incubator of sorts focused on fermentation and bioscience technology. This is the sort of creativity that the youth-led beer industry, and Boston, needs to move forward as a serious contender in the business world. Whether or not the ingrained nepotism Boston is infamous for will muck up such creative endeavors, as it did with marijuana dispensary licenses, is another story.

With the growing saturation of the craft beer market, and the looming threat of a bubble on the horizon, breweries like Aeronaut that can diversify their space for multiple projects are a home run. In the past, brewpubs have been successful in providing an eating and drinking experience, as well as the opportunity for customers to take beer home, without distribution headaches and fights for shelf space. And if beer interactivity is the wave of the future – Aeronaut Brewing is already on it – so suit up and grab a surfboard.