New Hampshire - The "Pass-Through" State?

Schilling is (thankfully!) on my way to Portland from NW VT, so I always make a point to stop for their marvelous lagers. Portsmouth area got it going on, but it's always a stop on the way, and rarely a destination for me.

 

What does that mean?

Lots of good breweries in the greater Portsmouth area. Stoneface would be at the top of my list, with Deciduous not far behind. Add in Liars Bench, Earth Eagle, Great Rhythm, Loaded Question, Portsmouth Brewery and Garrison City and you have more than a half dozen to choose from, with Tributary just across the river in Kittery. Stoneface has a great tasting room and restaurant when it's open, which makes it even more of a must-visit in my opinion (again, under normal circumstances). Portsmouth dining is not on the level of Portland, but lots of good restaurants and bars to choose from and tough to beat that waterfront in the summer.

 

I think he was referring to the fact that they offered their beer in 16.9 oz. glass bottles (similar to MBC, which also has lost a bit of momentum in popularity relatively speaking) when they first opened. They could have offered cans, leading to a different reaction from the consumer, but I think that argument is a bit weak. If the beer is good, people will buy it.

I should also add that I grew up in the Monadnock region of NH, and still go back to be with family a couple of times a month. Between Branch & Blade's fruited sours, ModestMan's IPA's, West LA's great selection & Post & Beam's offerings in a beautiful old school New England town, I think more people should absolutely make a trek out that way for a long weekend, especially with a new brewery having just opened up basically at the bottom of Mt Monadnock.

 

I agree with you. Stoneface is good. I think the format that their beer was offered in held them back some. They were still in bottles while people were going crazy for can releases. IMO, not being in that format held them back from catching some of that wave.

I don't know the strength of the argument, @jlandry462. I was just speculating.

 

I feel shame that I’ve lived in NH for 15 years and have never heard of these places. Granted I am 1.5 miles from VT border.

 

Haha! No worries - they are all very new to the scene - B&B is 2 years old, West LA is right around 1 year, & ModestMan is only about 6ish months in. Post & Beam I'm not sure of, but the new brewery near Mt. Monadnock is brand new as well. Definitely worth hitting all of them, although I haven't been to the Mt. Mond brewery yet, but I'm assuming the scenery alone is worth the trip.

 

We decided to mix it up for our Portland vacation last summer and do the first night in Portsmouth, and the next two nights in Portland.

After the first night we decided, “Shoulda just done three nights in Portland as usual”.

The food and beer spots in terms of quality, volume, and proximity are light years ahead of Portsmouth. I had a good time, but it’s just not as good. In fact, we had dinner in Kittery at Black Birch, so we didn’t even do dinner in Portsmouth (lunch was at Lexie’s, love that place).

Regarding NH in general, I do have to say there’s nothing like Schilling (even though I’ve never been) in either VT or ME. Sorry Von Trapp.

But it’s too damn far when I have Notch right here in MA. Looks really pretty though. Plunk Schilling down near Portsmouth and now we’re talking.

I went to the tasting room for the first time during the trip I mention above, I felt like it was like any other tasting room. Kinda reminded me of half of the Nightshift Everett tap room, only less of an open space.

 

While I understand the sentiment of your statement, I disagree. I think MBC brews great beer and I refuse to buy it anymore. 30 bucks for a 4 pack of pale ale/(I)IPA pounders (plus 3.6 ounces) is ridiculous.

I know most of my beer buddies feel/act the same.

 

I also don't buy MBC for the same reason, but they're a very successful brewery because of the hype stirred up by Dinner releases back in the day. Without that beer, they wouldn't be where they are now, regardless of format & pricing. Stoneface never put out a beer anywhere near as popular as Dinner, and in turn, have not put themselves on the map like MBC has.

 

I do like the fact that NH seems to be out in front of getting beer delivered to your home from some breweries, such as Veil and EQ (probably others that I am not aware of). Hopefully this will continue to be a thing when this is over and hopefully other breweries will jump on that as well.

 

Plus NH seems to be an option for a lot of the “virtual” beer festivals happening, where you get cans shipped and they have online sessions with brewer/industry discussions throughout the day.

 

I mean, I would also look at their distribution model too. Most of the breweries mentioned distribute to other parts of New England to the point where many would say it doesn't feel necessary to venture out to the brewery to acquire beer.

I will definitely be stopping at Schilling the next time I head up to Vermont.

 

With the exception of Schilling and Stoneface, I'm hard pressed to think of other NH breweries that I can easily get access to in the Boston area.

 

Agreed.

And Definitive, Battery Steele, Rising Tide, Austin Street, Allagash, Foundation, and Lone Pine all distribute to MA.

But Portland is unanimously considered a better beer destination than say Portsmouth.

I actually can't think of any Portsmouth breweries off the top of my head that are distributed to MA.

Then if we move away from Portland there's MBC and Mast Landing...the list is quite long.

 

Cask & Vine, CAMRA aficionado….Andy Day’s new project is something to keep an eye on -

+ onsite might be commencing soon

 

Stoneface is distributed in MA. I think Great Rhythm used to send cans to MA when they contracted with Smutty or Ipswich.

 

I think Portsmouth vs Portland speaks exactly to what the issue is for NH vs ME (and MA and Vermont as well). On its own Portsmouth is an awesome destination with great food and great beer. Most areas of the country would be excited to have such a great place. The problem is not with Portsmouth but that Portland is just so incredible. I believe Portland has one of the highest number of restaurants per capita in the country. Add on the amount of breweries in Portland and its pretty hard not to be shadowed by that.

All that being said, its interesting that Definitive opened up their new taproom in Kittery. Seems like the area has more untapped potential, granted Kittery isn't Portsmouth but they are just across the river from each other. Maybe in another year or two the Portsmouth area might hit its stride and be a contender.

 

Fair. IMO those are the breweries that could have drawn people up to NH. All of these other small breweries that you can't get easy access to would have benefited from having these anchor breweries. I mean this from a timing standpoint as far as when they started. I personally haven't heard a lot of buzz about any of those small/newer NH breweries, so I'm not interested in going to them at the moment. This is while I'm drinking more Schilling than I ever have. I should also caveat this by saying that I'm not a "check out a brewery because it's there" person. I've been to too many <less than good> breweries that I have left me wishing I had spent that money at breweries whose beers I actually enjoy.

 

It's kind of funny that Smuttynose doesn't even enter this conversation (other than the quick blip in one or two messages on this thread). Even barring their financial issues they never capitalized on their potential to be a destination in NH. Had they understood who their customer was or the changing market they could have been much more of a destination and brought the overall beer scene into the forefront. Maybe they would have done better being a scaled back outfit just outside of Portsmouth rather than in Hampton (granted it isn't that far but people would be more apt to visit their brewery if it was closer to someplace else they were looking to visit, in all the times I've been to Portsmouth I've never gone to Smutty). Don't know but had Smutty been more successful would NH have been more of a beer destination?