Yankee Brew News Archive

What's Brewing: Massachusetts/Rhode Island

Originally Published: 06/97

By: Kerry J. Byrne

The Modern Brewer, 2304 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge (617) 498-0400, once the only brew-on-premise, homebrew shop and microbrewery in New England, recently underwent a number of changes.

Jeff Pzena moved his company from Davis Square in Somerville to its original Cambridge location, dropped the BOP facility and has introduced bottles of his much raved about Fat Cat ESB--in amber growlers no less.

Fat Cat is one of the first beers -- if not the first -- to use the new amber growlers designed specifically for the beer industry. The glass is thicker than that used in clear growlers, allowing the containers to withstand higher pressures. Another benefit, of course, is that the amber glass will provide beer better protection from the harmful effects of light.

As of May, tap versions of Modern Brewer beers could be found at nearly 30 Boston-area accounts.

"The brew-on-premise just wasn't bringing in enough business,'' Pzena said. "And with the success of Fat Cat we decided to focus on the microbrewery."

Modern Brewer beers are brewed under contract by Concord Junction Brewing Company, 152 Commonwealth Ave., Concord, (508) 371-9929.

The Tremont Brewery (a.k.a. Atlantic Coast Brewing Company), 50 Terminal Street, Charlestown, (617) 242-6464, will celebrate its third birthday June 28 with a beer and music bash.

The event is co-sponsored by Boston's Cherry Disc Records and will include local bands such as Quintaine American, Count Zero, Boy Wonder and others.

The cost is $5 to enter with a cash bar.

Featured again this year will be the "unstoppable cask of festival bitter," owner Chris Lohring said. "The tap has no off or on and when it's drained it's drained."

On April 4, The Tremont Brewery officially opened its million-dollar bottling line and introduced bottled versions of its flagship product, Tremont Ale, making it the only beer brewed and bottled in Boston, at least until Harpoon Brewery begins doing the same this summer.

Lohring said the bottled beer should be available at most major package store in the Boston area, including the Kappy's, Blanchard's and Marty's chains.

Mass. Bay Brewing Company (a.k.a. the Harpoon Brewery), 306 Northern Avenue, Boston, (617) 574-9551, has three big beer blasts planned for the coming months.

Brewstock X, celebrating the 10th birthday of the largest craft brewery in the state, will be held June 12-14 at the brewery. The outdoor party will include 15 bands (Clutch Grabwell and the Ledfoot Horns, the Ray Corvair Trio and Rippopotamus among them) and 16 guest beers from members of the Massachusetts Brewers Association.

The brewery's first outside-of-Boston event, Harpoon Summerfest, will be July 12 and 13 at the Newport Yachting Center in downtown Newport, Rhode Island.

The end-of-the-season Hot Summer in the City party will be held August 15 and 16 at a Boston site still to be determined.

For information on these events call 888-HARPOON.

Locally-bottled versions of Harpoon beers should be available in August. At present, the Boston brewery produces only kegged beer, with the bottled beer made at F.X. Matt Brewing Company in New York.

A 36-valve bottling line was scheduled to arrive at the Boston facility in June. When it is up and running, Harpoon beers will join Tremont beers as the only to be brewed and bottled in Boston.

"This is to complement what we're doing at Matt,'' not replace it, Harpoon marketing director Nick Godfrey said.

The tourist-laden Faneuil Hall area of Boston has a new location for the beer enthusiast: The New England Brew Pub, 19 Union Street (617) 723-8080, is near venerable and popular bars and restaurants such as the Union Oyster House, The Green Dragon and The Bell in Hand.

Though technically not a brewpub, the new locale does live up to its name: It is a pub which serves only New England brews, some 24 of them on tap.

"It's long overdue for the smaller breweries to get some of the attention in this area," owner Chris Evans said.

Among the New England-made offerings are Geary's London Porter, Catamount Amber Ale, Middlesex Raspberry Wheat, Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale, Modern Brewer's Fat Cat ESB, Woodchuck Cider and Cider Jack.

The Pacific Northwest is loaded with pubs which feature local beers. There are many beer bars in Boston, but few cater to the local brewers the way New England Brew Pub intends.

Fort Hill Brew House, 125 Broad Street, Boston, (617) 695-6700, has joined the growing list of brewpubs to venture into the microbrewery market.

Draft versions of Fort Hill's beers can be found at great Boston beer bars such as The Hill Tavern on Cambridge Street, Woody's Grill and Tap on Hemenway Street, and should soon be at Redbones, The House that Pork Built, in Somerville, Fort Hill brewer Mike Munroe said.

"We have a really big system for the size of the restaurant and were trying to maximize its potential,'' Munroe said.

Munroe is proud of his new American Pale Ale, which he said is "along the lines" of the classic Anchor Liberty Ale, with the bountiful nose provided by all Cascade hops.

He'll also have on tap a Helles Bock, a light-colored bock that's "still a potent big beer with all Noble hops."

Horst Dornbusch, owner and operator of the Dornbusch Brewing Company in Newburyport, has his eyes on a new brewpub/microbrewery in Gloucester.

He expects to open Gloucester Brew Kettle at 16 Rogers Street "ideally by winter of 1998." The actual opening date "is in the lap of the licensing gods," he said.

Dornbusch and his partners, Mike Sova and Maria O'Brien, rented a 19th-century building. In it they plan on building a 7-barrel brewery and homebrew supply shop on the bottom floor, with a restaurant and bar upstairs.

Liter bottles of Dornbusch beers, presently brewed under contract by Ipswich Brewing Company, will be produced in Gloucester when the facility is complete. Six-packs of Dornbusch beer will continue to be brewed at Smuttynose Brewing Company in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"The new site will allow us to expand the types of beers we're offering in liters and in kegs," Dornbusch said.

Dann Paquette, chief beer man at North East Brewing Company, 1314 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, (617) 566-6699, has been in a Continental mood lately.

In April he introduced to the brewpub his new French Bier De Garde called Le Mechant ("the wicked one"). It is made with Vienna malt and Styrian Golding hops, both of which were imported from France and Belgium. He describes it as a big beer with over 7% alcohol that he attempted to brew along the lines of the classic Jenlain.

He also planned to have on tap a Saison and a Schwarzbier (a black German lager) in the spring and perhaps into the summer.

The Schwarzbier includes five different malts, one of which he described as a "rare roasted malt imported from France."

While many brewers have turned to distributors to boost sales, the folks at Wachusett Brewing Company, 175 State Road East, Westminster, (508) 874-9965, remain on the slow, steady path of self-distribution.

"It's very, very trying," Wachusett President Ned LaFortune said. "We're essentially running two businesses here. Sometimes it feels like we're a distributorship that happens to make its own beer."

Whatever the case, they've been successful so far. The distribution area has grown from just northern Worcester County a couple of years ago to include 450 accounts from the Pioneer Valley to Boston.

Wachusett's newest beer, Summer Breeze Wheat, a hefe-weizen with lemon essence, was made available in April in growlers and 12-ounce bottles. It should be around throughout the summer.

"With the path we've chosen it has restricted growth, but our retention rate on accounts has been extremely high. We're definitely in this for the long haul," LaFortune said.

In order to keep up with the recent growth, Wachusett recently added a 70-barrel fermenter.

One of the best beer events on the local calendar is the New England Brewers Festival in Northampton, sponsored by the Northampton Brewery, 11 Brewster Court, (413) 584-9903.

This year the event will be held June 20-22 and organizer/Northampton brewer Chris O'Connor expects it to be the biggest yet with 40 breweries and about 18,000 visitors expected.

Along with great beer, the festival will include a number of well-known area bands, included C.J. Chenier and his Hot Louisiana Band, the Iguanas and Duke Robillard.

Northampton Brewery itself is in the midst of a celebration of its 10th year in business. It is the oldest brewpub in western Massachusetts, the second oldest in Massachusetts and believed to be the fourth oldest in the Northeast. Last issue this writer incorrectly reported that The Brewery at 34 Depot Street in Pittsfield was the oldest in western Massachusetts.

O'Connor will brew Decadent Ale, a strong ale to barleywine strength beer, to mark the occasion.

On tap in the early summer months is Northampton's Graduation Ale, produced yearly in recognition of those moving on from the schools of the Five-College area. This year Graduation Ale is a Raspberry Strawberry Wheat made with real fruit, O'Connor said.

Northampton's beer garden opened in mid-May, and has been noted by two area publications. Both the Valley Advocate and the Valley Optimist named Northampton the best microbrewery and home of the best outdoor dining in the Pioneer Valley.

"In our 10th year we're still going strong and looking forward to the next 10 years," O'Connor said.

Rhode Island

Emerald Isle Brew Works, 1454 Main Street, West Warwick, (401) 828-2537, has undergone rapid changes in recent months.

The brewery was, until May, the only one in New England to claim it exclusively distributes cask-conditioned ales.

That title was lost, but a new product was launched and a distributor was chosen--both of which brewer Mike McConnell feels will make his fine ales "more accessible to bars."

Emerald Isle Ale will be a kegged version of Bank Street Ale, the brewery's flagship cask ale. The new beer was introduced May 9 at Twin Willows in Narragansett.

Twin Willows was the first bar to carry the beers of Rhode Island's oldest brewery when Emerald Isle opened in 1994.

To manage the expected increase in production, Mike McConnell and brewery owner Ray McConnell recently doubled the size of the facility and added a new 10-barrel conditioning tank and two new fermenters.

Emerald Isle Ale will not be like most other kegged beers, however. It will be served using the same kind of nitrogen taps which give Guinness its creamy head and texture.

"Emerald Isle Ale won't be conditioned in the cask like our other beers, but we're still going for the appearance and mouth feel of cask-conditioned ale," Mike McConnell said.

His beers will be sold by Wayne Distributing of Cranston.

The founders of Great Providence Brewing Company, (401) 273-3120, are waiting to see how much capital is netted from its stock offering before going forward with plans to build its brewery at 161 Clifford Street in Providence's Jewelry District.

"The stock offering is going well, we got approved to sell shares in Massachusetts and we're pursuing a loan from the city," Great Providence co-founder Greg Hutchins said in late April. "I'm thinking that in a couple of weeks we'll place orders on the equipment."

Much of the design for the brewery is done, Hutchins said, "but we're debating between a 30- and 50-barrel system."

He said there were over 4,000 people on the waiting list to buy stock.

At present, Great Providence Pilsner is being brewed under contract by Independence Brewery in Philadelphia. The recipe is that of head brewer Kurt Musselman, formerly of Trinity Brewhouse in Providence.

A stout will be released in the fall, Hutchins said.

Great Providence Pilsner, and perhaps Musselman, will appear in the movie "Strangers in Transit," filmed on location in Providence by the director of "Federal Hill."