Yankee Brew News Archive

What's Brewing: Massachusetts/Rhode Island

Originally Published: 08/97

By: Kerry J. Byrne

Massachusetts

This comes from the "Beware what you wish for, it might happen" department.

The long, heavily-populated stretch of the South Shore will no longer be the only region in Massachusetts without a brewing establishment. Around Labor Day it is expected that Brew Moon will open its fourth brewpub, this one at South Shore Plaza in Braintree.

The mall was recently heavily renovated, with an entire second floor added, and Brew Moon president Elliot Feiner says it will make an ideal spot for his newest unit, which will join sites in Boston, Cambridge and Saugus as part of the Brew Moon family.

Brion Boyer, who brews at the Saugus site, will likely take over that job in Braintree, Feiner said.

"It's a beautiful mall with lots of parking. I think the South Shore is the right market for us," Feiner said.

Feiner sent an open invitation to Yankee Brew News Editor Brett Peruzzi, a lifelong South Shore resident, to uphold a promise he made about a year ago. Peruzzi said he would personally clean the mash tun of the first batch of beer brewed on the South Shore. Feiner took him one step further, offering Peruzzi boots and cleaning equipment, as well as the very first Brew Moon-Braintree beer to be poured.

Will Peruzzi rise to the challenge, and put his beer where his mouth is? Stay tuned.

The men behind Amherst Brewing Company, 24-36 North Pleasant Street, (413) 253-4400, were hoping for a late July opening. The brewpub will be third owned by Greg Noonan, founder of Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington and 7-Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon, New Hampshire.

Amherst brewer John Korpita said the system will be a "10-barrel Greg Noonan special." Korpita's beers will not be available until a few weeks after the restaurant opens. In the interim a number of local micros, including those of Berkshire Brewing Company in South Deerfield, will be served. Eventually the 12 tap lines will serve a mixture of micros and beer brewed on-site.

Amherst's restaurant and bar will include seating for up to 150, with an additional 30 to 35 seats outdoors. Live music will be featured Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

A brewpub in Amherst seems a long time coming. Ten years ago nearby Northampton Brewery became one of the very first brewpubs in the East. Look for word of another brewery to open in Amherst sometime in the near future. More details here when they become available.

The Bay State's other new brewpub, City Ale & Oyster, Kennebec Street, Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, (508) 693-2626, experienced some slight delays in its effort to open in time for the summer tourist rush.

The pub is small but well-positioned in downtown Oak Bluffs a few hundred yards from the ferry landing and about two blocks from the beach. When I vacationed near there in late June, owner Bob Skydell and brewer Forrest Williams (formerly of Coddington Brewing Company in Middletown, Rhode .Island) were working literally around the clock in an effort to salvage as much of the season as possible.

Skydell said he planned on a mid-July opening.

Rumor has it that an established brewer is looking to open a brewpub in Cambridge. This reporter was unable to confirm the rumor, but if it is true, Rumored Brewery will become the fourth brewpub in the People's Republic.

The John Harvard's family of brewpubs will number 15 by year's end, master brewer Tim Morse said.

This would explain why contacting Mr. Morse recently is like trying to reach God. There once was a time, like way back in the early 90s, when you could call John Harvard's in Harvard Square and he'd be there, brewing away to his heart's content.

Now he works out of some sort of ivory tower, the address of which has not been made privy to the gutter-dwelling likes of myself, and has a phone line routinely answered by an annoying voice attempting to guide you through some sort of labyrinth of a phone messaging system. The only way to beat this God-forsaken hell hole of a message board is to break your telephone into millions of tiny pieces during fits of frustration.

Morse rarely answers it seems, because he's busy jet-setting across this vast land opening yet another brewpub. He already oversees pubs in Cambridge, Framingham and Providence (Union Station Brewery); Manchester and Westport, Connecticut; Pennsylvania (four), Georgia (two) and Washington D.C.

New pubs were slated to open in Lake Grove, Long Island (mid-July), Pittsburgh (late August) and Cleveland (late September).Those content with sampling beer just in Massachusetts and Rhode Island might want to check out the Cambridge, Framingham and Providence sites and compare and contrast the summer ales. The brewers at each site are given guidelines to work within, but, Morse said, "there's always an individual stamp from each head brewer."

"We've been passing beer ideas around, doing a lot of tag-team stuff, and everyone does it a little bit different. Within a four-week span we'll have two or three stores with different versions of the same beer made with the same yeast."

Check the YBN directory for John Harvard's-Framingham and -Cambridge location and Union Station in Providence.

The Boston Beer Company and its various enterprises have, as always, been quite busy.

The three winning entries from the company's World Homebrew competition will be released in September, and, like last year, will be marketed under the LongShot name.

This year's winners are LongShot Molasses Coffee Stout, a creation of Paul and Kari Karasiewicz of Dayton, New .Jersey; LongShot Bock, entered by Meleq Kacani and Rocky Herbert (Hey, I had some of that. I think Ben & Jerry's makes it.) of Simi Valley, California; and LongShot Special English Ale, crafted by Bob and Debbie Gordash of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The BBC also announced that the 1997 World Homebrew competition, which was to have taken place this summer, has been "postponed."

A company release said "the proliferation of craft beer brands in the market has slowed the sales of LongShot and delayed the release of the 1997 winners."

Boston Beer subsidiary Oregon Ale & Beer Company will release its fall seasonal, Hop Harvest Ale, in mid-August. The seasonal is noteworthy because it is brewed with a new variety of hops, Ahtanum, the details of which I was unable to obtain.

Boston's Mass. Bay Brewing Company, brewer of Harpoon beers, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary during its annual Brewstock party at the brewery. Here's to another 10 years, Harpooners! The brewery's summer seasonal this year, bucking the trend toward lighter beers for the hot weather, is an ESB.

Minor league baseball fans can get a taste of Salem Beer Works' Mad Dog Ale at Frasier Field in Lynn, the home of the Massachusetts Mad Dogs of the Adirondack League.

Brian House, head of brewing at Salem and its parent brewpub, Boston Beer Works, said Mad Dog Ale is a very hoppy American-style wheat beer and the biggest seller at the Salem brewpub during the summer. The beer will be served at Frasier Field (located on Route 107, not far from Salem Beer Works) throughout the Mad Dogs' season, which ends around Labor Day.

Those who bring a Mad Dogs ticket stub into Salem Beer Works get a 10 percent discount, House said. Summer visitors to Boston or Salem Beer Works may also want to check out their Watermelon Ale, which House reports is "moving like hot cakes."

At the Boston Brewers Festival I was introduced to the founders of Springfield-based Moonlight Brewing Company. The brewing operation is still in the early stages of development, and there is no word yet on when it will open.

Concord Junction Brewing Company, 152 Commonwealth Avenue, Concord, (508) 371-9929, celebrated its first anniversary July 29.

"It's been a roller-coaster ride," owner John Cahill said, summing up his first year and echoing the sentiments of many new brewery owners. Until now, he and brewer Brett Pacheco had but one product: Concord Pale Ale.

This fall, they plan on adding a second, Concord Porter, which will be "on the lighter end," of the stout and porter spectrum, Cahill said.

"We're finally getting settled in and we're looking forward to the new product," Cahill said.

What's become of the Main Street Brewing Company in Worcester? When we last checked, owners of the massive brewpub, the first in Worcester County, had filed for bankruptcy, but vowed to be back in business. A couple of quick phone calls in June turned up disconnected phone lines and a check with Information revealed that no Main Street Brewing Company is listed.

Any news? Pass it on to YBN.

Rhode Island

Trinity Brewhouse, 186 Fountain Street, Providence (401) 453-2337, recently added a beer engine for cask versions of its beers and a draft line to accommodate Rhode Island-based Lovecraft Cider.

The cask ales have proved a crowd pleaser, head brewer Sean Larkin said.

"We've had an India pale ale, pale ale and now have an oatmeal stout on," Larkin said. "The next thing we'll have on is an IPA again. That was a big hit. Of course, IPA is always a big hit in the restaurant, so we ended up going through it really quick."

The IPA is one of two beers which will represent Trinity at the World Beer Cup this year, the other being an imperial stout. Larkin said he chose not to enter his beer in the 1997 Great American Beer Festival.

Emerald Isle Ale, the newest beer from West Warwick's Emerald Isle Brew Works, has been a big hit.

"We're going like crazy with the new Emerald Isle Ale," owner Ray McConnell said. Until the introduction of Emerald Isle Ale, McConnell brewed and sold only cask ales which required bars to install an expensive beer engine system. The new beer is served via the nitrogen taps which Guinness helped popularize.

Emerald Isle Ale has helped Rhode Island's only craft brewery land close to a dozen new accounts, including some large restaurant chains such as TGI Friday's and Ruby Tuesday's.

Shameless Plug

Looking for more tirades and tantrums from the First Curmudgeon of the Boston beer scene. Check out the Beer Guy in America Online's Digital City Boston.

Yours truly will have weekly beer and pub reviews, as well as events listings and other sudsy seeds of information. From America Online try keyword "Boston" or "Beer Guy." Thanks for coming. You're all very beautiful.