Iconic Woodstock Inn Brewery is a jack of all trades for your winter getaway

Woodstock Inn Brewery brews and cans craft beer on site and has a full-service restaurant. (Woodstock Inn Brewery)

In a region full of skiing history, the Woodstock Inn Brewery offers a guest experience to match. Located in North Woodstock, N.H., about 10 minutes from Loon or Cannon, the inn offers a full-service guest experience with 40 rooms available in the main building, plus three adjoining houses with four to six bedrooms in each separate unit.

The building originally was a train station in the late 19th century and became a way station for pioneering skiers when Cannon opened in 1933. Scott Rice purchased the building, which had become a defunct doctor’s office, in 1982 and has been running the family-owned business with his daughter, Molly Rice Norby, who serves as general manager.

In 1984, the original train station building in downtown Lincoln was sawed in half and shipped to the inn to be installed as a dining room. The area known as “The Station” still contains the original ticket office along with the inn’s brewpub, built as an homage to a cozy English-style pub. It continued to expand over the next two decades, and in 2012 the inn built a huge addition to the restaurant and bar area, along with a function hall on the second floor, creating capacity for up to 450 patrons.

“It’s an experience that offers a bit of anything for everyone,” said Rice Norby. “It’s a short drive to go ski at Cannon, or you can hang out in front of the fireplace. A lot of our employees have worked here a long time, so you get a more local vibe than you might at the chain (hotels) down the road.”

Woodstock Inn brews and cans craft beer on site and has a full-service restaurant offering three meals per day, except for lunch on Thursdays. Guests can order breakfast as early as 7 a.m. on weekends and 7:30 a.m. on weekdays before hitting the slopes or enjoying any of the tourist attractions offered in the western White Mountains, such as the Ice Castles maze and light show, or the Polar Express train experience.

“Our saying is, ‘Come to play, plan to stay,’ ” explained Steven Rouse, a manager who has worked at Woodstock Inn since 2016. “We’re in the heart of the White Mountains, so all the ski resorts are a short drive and the 48 4,000-foot mountains of New Hampshire are all just a stones’ throw away.”

The main bar area features a large fireplace that is lighted during open hours from Nov. 1 to April 1. Woodstock Inn hosts live music four nights a week, with a full band playing from 8:30-11:30 p.m. on weekends and solo artists scheduled for the same time slots each Thursday and Sunday night.

Behind the bar, a 30-barrel brewery produces beer for sale on site, and for distribution throughout northern New England. Electricity and hot water are generated with help from a large solar panel on the roof, and the bakery uses recycled grains from the brewery.

While the bar and restaurant don’t allow pets, all of the lodging rooms are pet-friendly. Parties can rent out the 180-person function hall on the second floor for weddings or other events, and an outdoor patio can seat up to 186 patrons from May to October.

Breakfast is included for all rooms except for the Corbeil, Keegan and Loweden houses. The inn asks parties of six or more to make reservations for breakfast.
Nights without live music can still present weekly entertainment, including music bingo and karaoke.

The inn offers a couple of accommodation packages, including a “Romance in the Mountains” double occupancy with dinner for two, champagne and chocolate upon arrival for $210 plus tax. Anyone can capitalize on the midweek special, offering 50 percent off for the third night of a three-night stay on standard weeks. Both of those specials are not available on holiday or vacation weeks.

Woodstock Inn partners with Loon, offering discounted ski passes and passes to the Mountain Club on Loon, which has a spa, pools and fitness center at the base of the resort.

Scott’s wife, Peggy, is the event manager, and his son, Keegan, is head of marketing and social media. Rooms can be booked online, and brewery tours are offered Friday through Sunday for $10 per person.

“We’re a unique place to stay, but we cater to everybody and give everybody a good time,” Scott said. “It’s a fun place, not a stuffy place, to come and enjoy yourself.”