Yankee Brew News Archive

What's Brewing: Massachusetts/Rhode Island

Originally Published: 06/96

By: Kerry J Byrne

As we New Englanders collectively end our winter isolation and began to walk erect again, it's comforting to know that summer hot spots such as Boston, Cape Cod and the Islands, Newport and the Berkshires offer, more than ever, places to stop for a pint or two of locally-made libation. So without further adieu, or without again thumbing my nose at the corporate power structure intent on keeping the working man down while stifling democratic movements across the globe in the name of the all-mighty greenback, here we go:

Massachusetts

In Boston you know summer has arrived on that one weekend in which the Back Bay suddenly becomes engulfed by streams of pedestrians seeking a spot to dine al fresco, as they say in hip circles.

The harsh winter made business difficult for many restaurants in the area, including Back Bay Brewing Company, which had the great misfortune of depending on walk-in business while opening in December of the snowiest winter on record. Ouch.

Brewer Tod Mott used the slow time to develop one of the finest beer selections in New England. "We're going balls to the wall with the food and were gonna do it with the beer," said Mott, who then grew agitated.

"We not gonna make a light or a fruit beer. There's plenty of places to get that stuff. It's not my rap." Mott's Boston Strangler Russian Imperial Stout was balanced and deceivingly strong. Some beers of the style are encumbered by a woozy alcoholic nose, but not this one. Be careful: it still weighs in at 7.5 percent alcohol

The Olmstead Lager, with three Saaz-only hop additions and a malty backbone, was simply superb. I'm not a big lager guy, but if there were more like this, I might be. The Saaz leave it pungent, aromatic and tasty. I was also impressed by the aromatic cask ale, the dry IPA and the burly Park Square Porter made with a heavy dose of black malt.

The Cape Cod Brewhouse in Hyannis is preparing for another tourist season. Brewer Blair Potts introduced an IPA in April and it should remain on tap through the summer. A Cranberry Ale, which made its debut in the fall, has been re-introduced as a year-round brew because "the public demanded it," said owner Bob Melley. I have not been to the Brewhouse since last summer, but both myself and YBN Editor Brett Peruzzi, the Italian Stallion of the beer world, gave the libations favorable reviews on separate visits.

I hear rumors that a brewery in Nantucket, either Cisco Brewers or Nantucket Brewing Company, is scheduled to open in June, but have been unable to find much information on it. If you, or someone you love, has concrete information please send it along. In return you will be given lavish praise in this space.

Just north of hoity-toity hot spot Tanglewood is The Brewery at 34 Depot Street in downtown Pittsfield. The brewpub's five year-round offerings include a golden ale, pale ale, Irish red ale and two unfiltered beers, a stout and an IPA. Last summer they added to the list a selection of fruit ales and brewer Mike Merrill probably will do so again.

Twenty minutes south of Tanglewood is the Berkshire Beer Works in Great Barrington. Brewer Andrew Mankin has four year-round beers at the brewpub: Mohican Amber, Hopland Pale Ale, Barrington Brown and Black Bear Stout. Last summer they tapped a wheat beer and were looking to do "something with blueberries" this year, said one brewpub representative. A bock should be on tap through the spring.

Owners of the Northeast Brewing Company are hoping to open a brewpub at the site of the former Armadillo Cafe on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. According to Bill Mason, one of three partners in the project, they are shooting for a mid-June opening. Mason said that they researched potential sites from Rhode Island to the North Shore and are "very happy about (our) location." The brewhouse will have a 15-barrel PUB system with 105 barrels of fermentation space. According to source 'In The Know,' they are going all-out renovating the building, which once housed legendary college dive Play It Again Sam's.

Northeast will challenge Fort Hill Brewing in a race to become the seventh brewpub in Boston/Cambridge.

Bar and restaurant owners are now able to get individually-brewed batches of beer made at The Modern Brewer in Somerville's Davis Square, as the home/U-brew shop has become the fourth--and smallest--brewery in the Boston area. In April owner Jeff Pzena received final licensing approval to convert part of his U-Brew facility into a microbrewery. He said it will be "absolutely no problem" for the Modern Brewer to make batches of beer for bar and restaurant owners. All the owners have to do, said Pzena, is get label approval for bottled beers.

Modern Brewer will be brewing a number of its own standard beers, including tentatively titled Fat Cat ESB, Modern Brewer Brown Ale and Big Shoes Ale. According to Pzena they already have accounts at two Davis Square establishments: Redbones (where Viking men and women go to devour beast and slake thirst) and a restaurant called Gargoyle's.

Speaking of Redbones, April to May is Maine month at the House that Pork Built. Featured will be 42 beers from 15 Maine breweries.

The two newest brewpubs in the Bay State, Watch City in Waltham and Main Street in Worcester, opened within days of each other in March. Profiles of the two are elsewhere in this issue.

Atlantic Coast Brewing Company is not a baby anymore. A celebration of its second birthday will be held June 8 with a bash in the lot outside the Charlestown brewery. Beer, bands, wanton babes, the whole nine yards. Call (617) 242-6464 for more info about the party. Also, the Tremont Boys (or is it Young Men now?) added two 40-barrel fermenters and two 40-barrel conditioning tanks to increase their capacity from 3,000 to 7,000 barrels per annum, as they say in Latin. Before you know it they'll have an automated phone answering system which I'll hang up on in a fit of frustration. Believe you me they won't get free ink in this space anymore. They'll rue the day!

Rumor has it that Rock Bottom Brewing, the brewpub chain based in Colorado, is coming to Boston. However, Ned Lidvall, Rock Bottom's vice-president of operations, said a brewery in Boston is still well over a year away. At present the company, which operates 10 brewpubs nationally, is aggressively seeking expansion. They are scheduled to open four more brewpubs by the end of this year. According to Lidvall, they are looking at "every major metropolitan site in the country," including Boston.

The Boston Beer Company brewing machine continues to pump out an amazing array of beers. Its new seasonal, Summer Ale, should be available by the time you read this. It is based on spicy, fruity Belgian white beers and is brewed with wheat malt, lemon and Grains of Paradise, described by Boston Beer as "a long forgotten and mysterious spice once thought to have aphrodisiac qualities."

Boston Beer will also make available in May three beers from the winners of the World Homebrew Contest the company sponsored recently. The three will be: American Pale Ale, created by James Simpson of Ridgewood, New York; Black Lager, crafted by Jeffery Griswold of Victoria, Canada; and Hazelnut Brown Ale, developed by Doug and Vicki Parker of Leesburg, Florida. The beers will be marketed under the name "LongShot," in reference to the chances of winning the contest, which had 1,680 entries. For information about the 1997 World Homebrew Contest, call (303) 786-7790.

Mass Bay Brewing Company introduced in April its newest summer seasonal, Harpoon Snakebite. Snakebite is a combination ale and cider which a roguish apple taste and aroma up front, and a clean, tight ale finish. The last two summer seasonals introduced by Harpoon, India Pale Ale and Alt, have both met with great success and have become year-round offerings from the Bay State's largest brewer.

I am the intrepid traveler of the local beer scene and it is my never-ending quest to bring you news of places in the area serving up great beer. And for this reason I am rather ashamed to have learned that a place right under my nose happens to be one of the coolest beer bars around. I'm talking about the Union Street Restaurant & Bar in Newton Center.

Union Street opened in 1989 (in the midst of my college years) and is about a mile from my alma mater, Boston College. Not once during my years in school (at least not once that I can remember) did I set foot in the place. In fact, it wasn't until this March that I went there for the first time with good friend and former roommate Mike Pratt. He put it best when he said: "What are you? A geek?"

Anyway, the bar is tucked in a corner of Newton Center (107 Rear Union Street) and features a large tap selection which includes a number of New England beers. Spread across several floors, it has rock, acoustic and blues bands, dart boards, a pool table, good food (relatively cheap) and just about anything else you'd need for a night full of good, clean beer fun.

Rhode Island

Brewer Forrest Williams of the Coddington Brewing Company, minutes from Newport in Middletown, has added a few beers to slake the thirst of the summer hordes of Beautiful People. One of the most exciting is a Lightfoot Ale, which is "loosely based on a Vienna recipe," said Williams. The brew has cara-Vienne, Munich and biscuit malts and 20 pounds of honey per 7-barrel batch. It is lightly hopped with Columbus hops. "I wanted to brew a beer that wasn't handcuffed to one style," said Williams. "I was tired of making a golden over and over."

Newport is a great place to try the cask beers produced by Ray McConnell's Emerald Isle Brew Works of West Warwick. Three Newport bars carry Emerald Isle's superb and authentic English-style ales. The Wharf Pub features a pair of beer engines dispensing two of McConnell's four beers, which include Bank Street Ale, Porter, IPA and a Kolsch which should be available soon. Other Newport bars with Emerald Isle beers are the Red Parrot on America's Cup Avenue and the Officers Club.

New pubs scheduled to carry Emerald Isle's beers are Fat City in Warwick and Chezwicks in Warren.

Brewer Norm Allaire of the Union Station Brewery in Providence is getting in the summer spirit with Smokin' Joe's Barbecue Lager, which he named for executive chef Joe Protano. With the help of Protano, Allaire smoked malts with hickory, maple and cherry woods "for a quite a long time," he said. I haven't had it yet but Allaire described the rauchbier as "deep amber in color, full bodied, with a nice smoked flavor and aroma."

Calls to Lovecraft Draft Cider Limited of Providence have not been returned. I've been trying to find information about where a facility will be located and what products they will be making. This does not appear to be a two-penny operation. In an ad in the last issue of YBN they announced an offering of 350,000 shares of stock being sold at $5 per share. They also have plans to open a facility in the Carolinas by 1998. For information on the offering call Lovecraft at (800) 416-5464.