High Nine Brewery

Soooooooooomebody didn’t check the hours of operation on the pages of a certain local little brewery. Had they, we would have been in the know about them being closed noon to 3 today, which they are and we’re dead in the middle of just now. Quick! Google machine! And we successfully pivot and there were High Nines, all around…

Yep, an industrial space. It’s not a hanger, but it’s a long low space in a building as such. Okay, it is kind of hangeresque with its seemingly rounded ceiling. Walls in white painted or corrugated play. Concrete block floors, giant arched widening I-beams, and that plasticy puffy ceiling type thing happening. Ductwork pasted with brewery stickers. Snowboards, skis, & bicycles suspended from the ceiling above or surfing the ductwork. Strung filament bulb lighting lining the barback, bar counters, and elsewhere everywhere throughout. Potted & hanging plants. A Hiigh Nine logo (mural) wall piece.

‘L’ shaped light wood slat topped bar, dark vertical plank base, and piping foot bar. Seating for a dozen on wood chairs. A baker’s dozen non-descript alt height high & low handles on a phat subway tiled panel to one side of the cold room fronting, horizontal wood plank barback wall. Beers listed on small slat boards above the taps (beer, style, ABV). Buddy board to the right (buy your friend a beer). Is your name up there? No? Hmmmn, maybe you could be a better friend. Yeah, what about that? Snacks (chips, jerky), vinyl and a turntable countered, and glassware shelved below. A corner can cooler & merch on the wall alongside.

13 tables, high, low, shared, small, and a bar counter ledge spread into 2 zones. Foosball and table shuffle board here, brewery to the rear. Racking on the far wall; a slight cushy set up near there, and darts for the throwing down there, too.

8 taps (Flugie, Kolsch, 4.5%; Viva!, Italian Pils, 4.5%; Smitty’s, Pale Ale, 5.5%; Hop Glop, NE IPA, 6.5%; Sunspot, WC IPA, 6.5%; No Joe, Oatmeal Stout, 5%; Joe, Coffee Stout, 5.5%; Fruit Club, Fruited Sour, 6%), + bottles (Joint Custody, NE IPA, 8%; Tart Saison, Saison, 4.3%; Panic Drank, Fruited Sour, 6%), cans (Bubble Hard Seltzer done Pineapple, Passion Fruit, & Tangerine or Kiwi & Strawberry), and cider & wine (red, white, rose).

Fair range spread for 8 taps. Drafts served in full and half pour (hooray), as well as sampler. Shortied my way through a bunch of ‘em (Flugie, Kolsch, clean, easy, & delightful; Viva!, Italian Pils, crisp, quite nice; Smitty’s, Pale Ale, citrus, pleasant; Sunspot, WC IPA, good bitterness, solid; No Joe, Oatmeal Stout, creamy, oaty, chocolatey goodness). Kolsch & Italian Pils for the wins, but really, I had nothing of the suck here.

Outside holds a wraparound seating space front & side corner. Upwards of a dozen tables, tarpy overhang as they do. You know, a taco truck in the parking lot would be a welcome addition to this scene. Decent crowd this Saturday shortly after opening. Some sweet 70’s tunes being played today. Bar kid seemed to know his what what. Yeah, I’d do this again.

 

 

 

Cool sheet steel warehouse on the outskirts of the tiny village/town of Deep River. Spacious interior with large L-shaped bar and plenty of tables and counter seat adjacent to the brewhouse. 9 beers on tap, I had the Hop Glop which was very nice. They sell single can, so I've 4 more of there beers to check out later. Friendly bartender.

 

I am going to start by saying that I went to High Nine on their 4th day open. So any flaw I saw may be attributed to opening confusion.
The interior space is larger than I expected and well out fitted with an L-shaped bar that seats probably 20. There are high tops, booths, beer shelves, a dart board, a shuffle board table and a fuse ball table.
Service was kind of slow, not due to the crowd, but a disorganized staff (see my opening statement).
Our table had 2 great beers and 2 mediocre beers. Additionally, a friend that we ran into, that I trust on beer opinions, had a fifth beer (a double IPA) that he did not like (see my opening statement).
So what's with the name.? Well the owner's mom was busing glasses and we asked her. Turns out one of her sons (not the owner) is missing a finger, so High Nine. We thought this was great, especially the fact that her son embraces his missing digit in this manner. Later on my son pointed out that no one says "high ten" and the name lost a bit of cache with us. Still kind of a good idea though. (High Four???).
Beers that were good - Hop Glop and Joe. I would say that Joe had the best coffee aroma of any coffee stout I have ever experienced. On the other side of the coin, Smitty, a pale ale and a Kolsch that we can't remember the name of, seemed to suffer from oxidation (again, see my opening statement).
Edit 1/22/2020- I have changed my quality rating from 3.5 to 4.5. Since my original review I have had two amazing beers at this place- A coffee stout that has the best coffee smell I have ever experienced in a beer and a Czech Pilsner that was text book quality. I am excited to see what else they make. On my third visit I was literally let down that the coffee stout was in the tanks and won't be ready for a while.