Yankee Brew News Archive

Brewpub Review: Elm City Brewing Company

Originally Published: 06/96

By: Mark E. Hall

"You can always go home". It's a phrase I heard a lot when I was a kid, but didn't fully understand until I was an adult.

In this case, it's my hometown of the last 18 years: Keene, New Hampshire. It's great to go home and see mom, but over the past few years I've been greeted with a K-Mart, new malls and even an appearance this past summer by actor Robin Williams, in town to film part of his movie "Jumanji".

With the recent opening of The Elm City Brewing Company, there's now another good reason to go home and visit Keene. Opening at the Colony Mill Marketplace on December 10th of last year, the Elm City Brewing Company almost didn't become a reality.

The brainchild of Debra Rivest and brothers Tony and Peter Poanessa, Elm City was in the planning stages for three years and earlier anticipated on opening in another location in town. According to head brewer Tony Poanessa, they were going to occupy a building located just off main street in the "downtown revitalization area," before an array of problems necessitated a change of plans.

"After planning for three years we had all of our design done, lined up the sub-contractors, ordered all the brewery equipment, and had a signed lease. At the last minute we encountered a few problems and decided it would be better if we moved to a new location," Poanessa recalled.

The interesting thing about this group is that they all wanted to turn their hobbies into businesses, and for one, its been Debra's lifelong ambition to own a pub. Debra and Tony owned a store that made custom sun rooms for houses and also sold and installed spas. Peter on the other hand worked in Alaska as a commercial fisherman, and after spending time in art school, became a sign maker. To further raise cash, they sold their homes.

Peter and Tony started homebrewing "years ago" building and creating their own one-barrel system. In addition to his home brewing background, Tony took the Microbrewery and Pub Operations course at The Siebel Institute in Chicago. Although they have never owned or run a brewery/restaurant before, their strong backgrounds in their individual businesses have given them a good head start.

The next step after the previous building fell through was to find a new location without missing a beat. Actually the owners of Colony Mill area went after them. The Colony Mill Marketplace which has been around for 11 years, and is the former site of the Douglas Toy Factory. It is an original turn-of-the-century building complete with exposed beams and bricks that became home to many new and old businesses in Keene when it was refurbished.

After the Bench Cafe Restaurant went out of business, they received a call to see if there was an interest in utilizing a space in the Mill. Across the parking lot from the former restaurant was a spot which contained the type of ambiance they were looking for. Taking over the site in July of last year, they spent the next four months constructing the restaurant and brewery. The Colony Mill handled the construction of site expansion which now houses the main dining room. The owners designed the brewery, restaurant, and laid the floor themselves, spending up to eighteen hours a day working on their new entity.

The completed restaurant/brewery seats 152 patrons, and as of January 10th they began serving their own beer. The majority of the equipment for the seven-barrel brewery, including used grundy tanks, conical fermenters, and a bulk milk tank (used for the hot liquor tank) came from Stainless Steel Specialists in Montreal. The brewery itself lies in the back part of the dining room in a glass enclosed room which is visible from both the dining room and parking lot.

Elm City debuted with Lunch Pail Ale, which according to Tony is an ordinary bitter, lightly-carbonated copper ale. He uses Fuggles hops for a slight bitterness. In addition to Menton's malt, he is also using Dewolf-Cosyns (from Belgium) in some of his creations. In addition to Lunch Pail Ale, other offerings to date have been Pothole Porter, Full Pail Ale, Mill Creek Wheat, and West IPA.

Supplementing their own beers are seven other tap offerings that include Guinness, Nutfield Old Man Ale, Oregon Raspberry Wheat, Anchor Steam, Shoals Pale Ale, Sam Adams Winter Lager and Newcastle. Other beers previously rotated were Otter Creek Copper, Otter Creek Stove Pipe Porter, Sierra Nevada Porter, and Catamount Porter. Tony was adamant in saying that he wants to support other micros.

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Tony also plans on introducing into the mix a nut brown ale, oatmeal stout, a "Vienna-style" beer, and an Extra Special Bitter. In fact, response to the beer has been so good, Elm City is thinking of purchasing additional fermenters and are planning on applying for the necessary expansion permits.

The restaurant itself is a mix of booths, dining room tables, "English pub style" high top tables and bar seating. Taking a look around, it seems much larger than its 152 seats. Entering the restaurant you are greeted by a glass case containing old beer bottles and various items for sale including t-shirts, mouse pads (really), sweatshirts and of course....beer newspapers.

The first part, which I would call the "lower room," is just outside the kitchen and contains six booths. An added touch to the decor is a pile of malt bags which Tony uses in his beer creations (there's not enough room in the brewery). Going up the steps to the bar area there are a few pub style tables to the left of the bar. Presently, Elm City offers beer, liquor and soft drinks, and is planning on stocking a great selection of single malt scotches. There is also a Mug Club in the works which should be in place by the time you read this.

Straight away from the bar you step down to the "beer hall" which is at the same level of the lower room. There are small tables, medium tables and a couple long tables which try to get across "a pub atmosphere" says Tony. The combination screen/glass windows which take up most of the wall facing the parking lot will be opened when the weathers calms down a bit. Overall, the restaurant is quite utilitarian and spacious enough to allow the wait staff to easier serve their patrons.

Head Chef Reid Hannula characterizes his menu as "gourmet pub fare". His interesting creations are all freshly prepared and include a brewmaster's special, smoked salmon breadboard (Peter's Alaskan connections help out here), and a Welsh rabbit and salad. They also have some tasty ribs which they smoke in the kitchen on their own smoker. All entrees are under $10 with the exception of a few daily specials that check in at $11.95.

The brewpub/restaurant has caught the locals' eye, as business has grown steadily from the start. Being from Keene, I can honestly say that something like this wouldn't fly ten years ago, but Keene has grown and I guess you can't stop progress. Maybe the staff from the new K-Mart will stop by for Friday Happy Hour.

Mom, I guess I'll be visiting home more often.

Elm City Brewing Company is located at the Colony Mill Marketplace, 222 West Street, in Keene, New Hampshire. Call (603) 355-3335.

Photo caption:

A turn-of-the-century NH factory is the home of Elm City Brewing Company.

Pull quote:

Elm City was in the planning stages for three years and earlier anticipated on opening in another location.