Posts Tagged ‘Portsmouth’

22 Jan

Two Things In Life…

Posted by foresttrailbrewery in Adventures with Other People's Beer. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

There are two things in life that are absolutely necessary. Good food and good beer.

It was called the Great Coastal Beer Adventure. We left late Friday morning, dropping the child that would soon come to be known as “La Terrorista”, (and thus will keep the staff of FTB from boarding planes for years in the future) off at her Nana and Grampa’s to spend the weekend with her favorite person: Tucker (or ‘Tahta’).

We drove north, the “we” being Lauren and Matt, and pointed the Explorer towards Portsmouth NH, home to a branch of Red Hook, and the birthplace of Smuttynose. Two hours or so later we pulled into the parking lot of Red Hook Brewery’s Northeastern home, an enormous building that housed a brewery, pub, offices, and gift shop. Prior to the tour we each had a pint at the bar: Lauren had the Nutcracker Ale, a take on their normal Winterhook winter seasonal. Matt had a Copperhook Copper Ale, casked with Saaz hops. Both were enjoyed, and we finished just in time to start the tour.

The tour at Red Hook was informative, though not as authentic as other tours we’ve been on.  Rather than bringing us directly into the rooms where wort is actually boiled, yeast actually pitched, and beer actually bottled, you walk into a couple of rooms and look down on the brewery through windows.  The first set of pictures is from this tour.  The tour was followed by some shared pitchers in their tasting room. We tried their ESB, Longhammer IPA, Nutcracker Ale, and Copperhook Copper Ale, in no particular order. All in all the beer was fine, the tour was unspectacular, and the tour guide was collegial enough to mention that we had plenty of time to make the 3:00 PM Smuttynose tour down the street.

About ten minutes away, just on the opposite side of the traffic circle, in a nondescript business park, we found the home of Smuttynose Brewery.  We knew we’d come to the right place when we could smell the mash the second we opened the door!  It was already a completely different experience from Red Hook.  It’s a small (maybe 200×200) building, even after a space metal add on to accompany three more fermenters, it contains a few offices, the brewery and storage/distribution space, and the Hospitality Room.  We entered the building, walked through the offices, and into a room containing an enormous fermentation tank and an equally huge bright tank. In the corner there was a refrigerator much like you’d find in a convenience store, filled with beer sitting next to a six handled tap. This is the hospitality room?  Yes.  And it felt like home!

We were joined by Bill Harris, NH Field Manager, one of the people from the office whose turn it was to guide the tour, who immediately offered beer. We tried the Big A Imperial IPA, Wheat Wine Ale, Shoals Pale Ale, Star Island Single, Robust Porter, and their IPA. Then, we started the tour.

It was quite obvious that we were in a functioning brewery. As I mentioned above, you could smell the mash as soon as we opened the door. Inside the floor was wet, it was loud, and the brew kettles were steaming. We followed the path malted barley takes from the malt mill to the mash tun, to the fermenters and bright tanks, to the bottle line and keg filler. This tour was everything the Redhook tour was not: loud, wet, dangerous (to the beer, anyway!) somewhat hands-on. Just look at the pictures, Lauren nearly lost an iPhone getting a photo of the mash tun. Here, the beer was fantastic, and we left with a few bombers of their “Big Beer Series”, including the magical Wheat Wine Ale, the tour was incredible, the staff was happy to see us. And they gave us free drink cards for the Portsmouth Brewery, the brewpub that spawned the Smuttynose brand.

We moved on, dreaming of taking over the space Smuttynose would soon be vacating (see their blog for more info about the site of their to-be-built 40,000 barrel brewery) checked into the hotel, and got ready for dinner at Portsmouth Brewery.

Portsmouth Brewery was the brewpub that started it all for Smuttynose, and they still brew on premise, combining pub only brews with Smuttynose originals. Our goal for the evening: The Brewer’s Table, a menu developed by Chef Todd Sweet and Head brewer Tod Mott, that pairs high class food with beers available at the restaurant.

We started with the “Brewer’s Flight”, small tastes of all three appetizers on the menu, accompanied by 3 oz. tastings of the beers recommended. The shrimp salad was delicious, and Matt has a (completely unfounded) contempt for shellfish. The ginger-hoisin marinated tofu with grilled polenta was inspiring, as neither Lauren, nor Matt had ever given tofu more than a passing sneer. Even the mushroom strudel was great, and the beer pairings really enhanced the flavors. Lauren’s entrée was the Winter Bean Stew, with a grilled chicken breast, and paired with Smuttynose’s Star Island Single. “It was good,” Lauren said, unimpressed, mere days after she raved for hours about how amazing it was to eat an almost all vegetarian meal that wasn’t a salad (she knows…chicken breast and shrimp do not = vegetarian…but she could have gone without either of those and been wholly satisfied!)

Matt had the hunter-style venison. It was by far, the best meal he’s had in the last year. It was paired with Portsmouth Brewery’s award winning Barley Wine. Dessert was chocolate hazelnut cake, paired with the Brewery’s own Stout. It was a totally fantastic night of food and beer.

After a great night’s sleep, we headed out for Portland, Maine, where we would discover the greatest bar known to man. But first, a stop at Shipyard Brewery, for a brief video tour, and a view of their bottling line. The tastings consisted of Export Ale, Old Thumper Extra Special Ale, IPA, Prelude Winter Ale, and Bluefin Stout. The beers were great, the tour was so-so. We did leave with the Shipyard “Pugsley’s Signature Series” Collection, which includes 4 bombers of: Barley Wine, XXXX IPA, Imperial Porter, and Smashed Pumpkin (a bigger beer based on their famous “Pumpkin Head Ale”). Three breweries down, and we were finished with tours. And we only had 7 bottles of big beer to take home. The winner of the weekend was Smuttynose, great tour, great beer, great food.

So Novare Res. It’s hidden away in an alley. Almost an alley off an alley, hidden by an alley. After we finished our Indiana Jones-like quest to find this place (actually, it was a total accident, Beth Musser told us about this place (and the Great Lost Bear, another great beer bar in Portland) and while not looking for it at all we walked by the sign that pointed us down the alley towards it) we found it to be a quiet, dim lit bar, filled with low, lengthy tables and benches. We sat near the bar, and were immediately helped by Erika, who dropped the 24 page menu on the table between us.

24 pages. One cover, one page of meats, cheeses, and breads. One of wine. One of tequila and scotch. That’s 20 pages of beer. It’s overwhelming. Luckily we had Erika, who was willing and able to help us sort through the beers to find something we wanted.

For Matt it was simple. A Belgian IPA, something new for the Belgians, as they’ve really let their yeast do the talking for them over the last 300 or so years of beer making. For Lauren, however, decisions were a bit more difficult. She wanted malty, but dry, not sweet. Color didn’t matter. Erika took that and ran with it, serving Lauren a German weizenbock, a beer she thoroughly enjoyed. Round one was Lauren: Schneider Aventines Dobbe, Matt: De la Senne Taras Boulba (it was alright, the Belgian yeast really competes with the hops for flavor… some, like my lovely wife, may call it complex, I call it busy).

When Erika returned, it was to a number of questions: What does the name mean? (“To come together, like for a revolution. It’s Latin.”) What’s that room for? (“It’s where we keep the special carafes.”) How do I get a special carafe? (“You start by drinking everything on the menu.”) What’s up with the warning about lambics? There was a style description before each section in the menu, the lambic description was quite lengthy and was more of a warning, about taste, your taste, and how there are no refunds on lambics. (“Don’t worry about it, if you know what you want, you’ll be fine….let’s start with the Gueuze”) She was right. Matt ordered the Cantillon Classic Gueuze (pronounced gooze, and defined as a mixture of 1, 2, and 3 year old lambics) and it made the top ten, if not the top five, of all time. Lauren went on Erika’s suggestion again, and was served a Monschof Festbier, which she also liked.

Round three began early for Matt, because as much as he wanted to taste the remnants of his lambic all night, he had another goal. See, the Cantillon was Matt’s first traditional lambic, now he wanted his first rauchbier. Schlenkeria Maerzen Rauchbier was the choice. Lauren put it best when she described it as “tasting like pulled pork smells”… It was an experience, and if offered it again, in lieu of any other drink, Matt would drink it again, but he wouldn’t order it.

For round four, Lauren went on a limb and pseudo-ordered for herself, picking a beer and letting Erika convince her it was a good choice: Geants Noel Lightly Spiced Holiday Warmer, which, according to the menu, is brewed in an authentic medieval castle. Matt’s choice was the light and refreshing Saison Dupont, a farmhouse ale that finished the night off well. Unfortunately, the staff of Novare Res would be spending Sunday night at their Holiday Party, and the bar would be closed to customers. Looking back on it, we should’ve stayed longer and drank more.  But we’re old, and parents, and thought SLEEP was a good choice, too!

All in all, we learned that both Portsmouth and Portland are amazing beer towns, filled with friendly people, not to mention the rest of our trip, which while it had nothing to do with beer, was awesome all the same!  Shout out to Katie Dwyer and Marc Dupuis, and our concierge Siso for suggesting Street & Co.  Amazing seafood dinner our last night in Portland.  No.  We didn’t drink beer.  We shared a bottle of wine.  But judging from the beers on the other tables, we could have written another paragraph had we gone that way.