Hidden Gem breweries

Track Three may have been too hidden, already closed after just 8 months.

 

There are plenty of breweries popping up in NH that are brewing legitimately good beer. Places like Schilling, and Kettlehead are doing great things, but they're pretty well-known, at least locally.

I'm going to say Moat Mountain Brewing in North Conway, NH. They brew all kinds of styles and always have a decent taplist. The beer isn't phenomenal by any means, but it's definitely good and you can't go wrong with any of them, honestly (they brew one of my favorite Oktoberfest beers). Also the food is excellent.

 

You Chicago folks should check out Pollyanna if you get the chance. The original brewery is in Lemont but there are two other locations in Roselle and St Charles. Brian is a fantastic brewer that kills lagers and Belgians, but he makes some solid IPAs and will even drop some haze for the new kids out there. Definitely worth checking out if you get a chance.

Agree 100% about Dovetail that someone mentioned earlier. Loved that spot.

 

Port City in Alexandria, VA

If you live in teh DMV you've probably heard of these guys, but since moving here we have fallen in love with them. They have a lager series that puts out a new lager about once a month, and I've yet to have a bad one in nearly 1.5 years. These guys absolutely own the lager game, including their year-round lagers. Everything else is really solid as well. They are about the exact opposite of their more famous neighbor in Alexandria, Aslin, but for my money I'll take Port City everyday.

 

Awesome beer and a real cool space. Felt like I was sitting in a buddy's garage drinking beer with friends.

 

Some Canadian ones that dont get much love in the wider market (but should0

Godspeed in Toronto
Merit in Hamilton
Dominion City in Ottawa
and my favourite Ontario brewery - Half Hours on Earth in tiny (3200 people or so) Seaforth. So good that I would not think twice about driving 2.5 hours one way to pick up a load of sours and farmhouse ales.

 

It looks like one hidden gem in NJ is about to became famous
https://www.tapinto.net/towns/kenil...OQWLTsrZQeiJeJxssYiaPVGp6O5h8dOfsa9GWVIXafuFo

 

I second Schilling, and definitely think it qualifies as a hidden gem.. Great selection of European beers! And there IPAs brewed by their "side-project" brewery Resilience are also delicious.
On the New Hampshire topic - Iron Furnace in Franconia is also brewing quality beer.

 

Agreed. Branch and Bone is creating some great IPAs and mixed fermentation beers. They won a medal@ FOBAB (bronze in the Wild Ale category) last year. They also done some excellent collaborations with other Ohio breweries like Jackie O's, Brink, Little Fish, Fifty West, Hoof Hearted, Fifth Street and Listermann. Mostly brewery only sales but a few releases make it some of the better bottle shops in the area.

 

Having visited many breweries over the course of decades... literally... I can tell all my fellow BA's that https://stedji.com/ is about as hidden and a gem as you will ever encounter. Though not our local by any stretch. Very few breweries approach the magic of this place in our 25+ years of searching. For it to be a true gem, it just must happen. No amount of hype or marketing can fill that ticket.

So read on...

Many years ago in the world of beer, and by many I mean 15 or more of course, visiting a brewery was really an adventure. Way back in the early years of the new century if you stopped by Allagash, or perhaps Vermont Pub and Brewery you would indeed meet Rob Tod or Greg Noonan (God rest his soul). Where today you will meet Brenda, the fifth tour guide in as many years who gosh darn it is going to give you the best tour possible. For a fee. Thanks Brenda it is appreciated.

Stedji... not so much.
Way off the path (as is pretty much everything in Iceland) you do stumble on this gem. The owner lives up front. We accidentally entered the owners home because who could tell?
The brewer is from Germany, living an Icelandic adventure and seemingly having the time of his life. No joke. The beer is for real. The experience is from another world. A gem? Yeah. A diamond. Best beer ever? Debatable. But the experience is for the record books.

And to all you tickers, evaluators, lost souls searching for the next big thing, settle down junior. Drink a finely crafted Icelandic beer. Take in the scenery. Ask the brewer why they got into this gig. Have them pour you a fresh pils direct from the bright tank. Wonder why you are a wage slave and where it went wrong. But most of all enjoy the magic of a hidden gem of a brewery so far off the beaten path it convinces you that you are not alone.
These gems are out there. Put down your note book. Now go and find them.

Cheers.

 

Millstream, in Iowa, have been brewing since 1985, and that's really incredible, put them ahead of even most of the west coast's old guard. Their best beers are older-school American styles, though (they make the best Marzen I've ever had), so they're not completely up to contemporary tastes. But if you're ever within their distribution area I highly recommend them.

For more contemporary styles, Key Brewing in Maryland are consistently excellent and I'm a bit perplexed as to why they haven't generated much hype. Maybe a lack of rare one-off's or discourse manipulation?

 

@dcotom, is this the place that is on your (our?) bucket list?

 

As long as he doesn't have anything against breweries that use whales in their beer....

 

I've had some Millstream beers, and it seems like the beers have a German commonality to them. Thanks for bringing them up. I'll check that out to see if I can add the brewery to my German-style breweries list that I am trying to compile. Have you been there, and does their pub have a German feel to it?
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/best-german-style-beer-food-venues-in-the-u-s.632830/

 

That's because people outside of New Jersey don't want to travel there.

 

JAFB, Wooster, Ohio

Laxton Hollow, Lexington, Ohio
(Laxton is one of only about a dozen breweries in the whole US of A that brews nothing but English style cask ales.)

 

This one's easy for me - Greenpoint. Not only are they the closest brewery to where I work in the city but none of their beers have ever let me down and their can artwork is highly underrated as well. When I'm in line at Other Half, no one ever has it for trade and those I've traded with have always said how much they enjoy their brews. Given how many high-quality breweries there are in this neck of the woods, I'm alright with that!

 

I like the Pine Barrens, the Cape May and Egg Harbor area and far northwest N.J. in a slight mountainous region (Smoke Rise, Butler). Please read William Carlos William's poem Paterson......where the quote, "hold up your pecker Paterson" appears.

 

Conclave - Flemington NJ
Schilling Beer Co - Littleton NH
West Kill Brewing - West Kill NY

 

I will throw in Elmhurst Brewing. Need to try it again to make sure it wasn't situational but seemed like it fits here