New Hampshire - The "Pass-Through" State?

They did't capitalize at all on the haze craze that Trillium/Tree House/Bissell/Alchemist/MBC built their brand on. I think they were stubborn and tried to stick with their core lineup/glass bottles thinking that it may differentiate them enough to thrive off of their niche crowd, but apparently they were very mistaken. Their location is one of my favorite places to visit - they have a really good farm-to-table style restaurant, on-site disc golf course & a relatively new brewery, but their lack of quality beer really detracts from all of that.

 

Stoneface is obviously close by, but it's not in Portsmouth.

I don't recall ever seeing Great Rhythm on shelves in MA, even if it was/is I was more referring to breweries that are regularly in MA.

For example, I could have mentioned Tributary when speaking about ME, but I rarely see them in MA stores, granted their Helles was a recent purchase in MA.

This is fair. And it's not just the concentration of restaurants, it's that there's so many that are fantastic. It's one of the most popular restaurant destinations in the country, and now it's incredibly dense with breweries as well.

It's only about 45 minutes up from Portsmouth, so why would you spend a weekend in Portsmouth when Portland is right there?

I can do just about everything I want to do in Portsmouth in 2 days. At this point even with 4 days Portland can be difficult. And there's nothing in Portsmouth that's not just equivalent but in many cases better in Portland.

If Finest Kind was Heady Topper or even say something like Substance it might have.

 

I have not seen a mention of Kettlehead in Tilton, in my opinion, they are one of the top producers of hazy IPA's in the state of NH. But again, they are in Tilton and not close to much of anything else.

Easy stop off of the highway and excellent food too, but they always seem to be packed (pre-COVID-19).

 

I think their issues were multi-faceted and ran far deeper than not just jumping on the haze craze. Look at Allagash, they never did. They just have a focused niche, and make amazing beer.

Smutty has made some stellar beers over the years. But the consistency in both their brews and their overall theme left much to be desired as the years went on.

 

NH taprooms and restaurants opening @ 50% capacity indoors today. Not sure if I'm ready to belly up to an indoor bar quite yet, but I've been enjoying the great weather the past several weeks on patios.

However, temps are going to hit the 90's this weekend and outdoor drinking/dining will be rough.

 

Allagash didn't get caught up in the haze craze, but the haze craze didn't really a pose a threat to them. Their money maker is White and who is trying to compete with White. Smutty's flagship was being attacked by these upstarts and they weren't nimble. They didn't try to reformulate Finestkind or release a hazy version of Finestkind. Honestly, I'm not sure how much Smutty changed their production schedule based off all of the old product on shelves. I think that Smutty made some great strategic moves like building a destination brewery or starting an experimental brand, but they're execution in utilizing those assets was very poor. In many ways, they were rudderless.

Of the "legacy" breweries that are still independent, I would look at Sierra Nevada and Bell's as the hop centric producers who have prevailed. SN has been creative in creating buzz through their beer camp and oktoberfest collabs and agile by creating beers like Hazy Little Thing. Bell's has largely thrived off the back of Two Hearted and might be the more apt comparison here. What did Smutty do wrong that Bell's has done right?

Smutty is a very interesting case study.

 

Kettlehead is legit I'll be there Saturday! Not just the IPAs that are good either.

 

Yeah, everything is good, but seems like the IPA's are known of a bit on here and regionally.
Have fun on Saturday!

 

I agree. I think a good comparison to Smutty is Wachusett or Harpoon. Both breweries have hazy offerings today but I don't think that's the only thing that's kept them successful. I think of the 3 you could probably argue that Smutty might have had the most potential and ability to create higher quality beer.

You can point to cans as well but I think your point regarding "theme" might be one of the biggest. Anyhow Smutty has been discussed in depth in other threads so I won't rehash a lot of that but bottom line is that they could have succeeded had they done any number of things differently. I'm not sure the new "ownership" is doing any better other than keeping the lights on. Clearly no one on BA really thinks about them at this point.

 

I've heard there isn't a lot of mask wearing in NH...

Blue Moon?

 

I have only been out to Garrison City in Dover and Kettlehead up in Tilton but the people I saw (and myself) all wore masks in to be seated and when exiting, as well as when going to the restrooms. The staff at both places made clear this was the expectation but people seemed to know it ahead of time.

 

You could throw Spyglass in too.

 

People are wearing masks in NH where their being made. Outside of that not much mask wearing. But everyone pretty much knows the rules at resteraunts.

 

Haha, it's speculated that Blue Moon actually helped Allagash in a lot of ways because people recognized that Allagash was a "better Blue Moon" in the markets they competed. It helped create a market for Allagash and probably saved Allagash a ton of marketing dollars that they did not have. https://downeast.com/food-drink/allagash-white/ (search the page for "Blue Moon" to get to the part I'm talking about above)

 

I have a friend with a beach house in Seabrook. His take was that Hampton Beach and the tourist heavy areas around the seacoast were an absolute shit show when it came to masks and crowding. Bars were open and it's looked like a pretty typical summer weekend on nice days. People on decks and inside bars, masks were hanging around necks if being worn at all. I'm sure it will only get worse now that rules are being eased (and I'm sure people from MA will be blamed for any COVID surge).

 

It's possible but we have been opened for 2-3 weeks now. Our cases have never been lower hospitalizations and deaths are way down as well. Fingers crossed it stays that way. I can't speak for the Southern part of the state but there is very little mask use where I live. Of course we have had virtually no cases throughout this entire thing on the western part of the state. It's a great time to live in the middle of no where. LOL

 

Spyglass is legit. For my money they are making the best hoppy stuff in the state.

 

I don't understand the point of this thread.

Are we upset New Hampshire doesn't have the hot spot breweries everyone flocks to to check into Untappd on and take selfies and beer pics? Because, I'm kinda fine with that.

 

I don't see how this can go well considering nothing has changed since March.

It takes much longer than 2-3 weeks for the important metrics to crop up as issues. Hospitalizations and deaths. It also takes time for people to infect other people and for the virus to spread.

Yes, you have up to 14 days before symptoms appear, but that's short sighted.

We're the only major country that opened up this quickly except for Sweden (who never really shut down in the first place). It didn't go well for Sweden in the end, but that took a long time to bear out.

Get back to me in July, and maybe as late as August.