The Craft: Rhode Island (documentary)

Forgot providence used to host the big beer event. Before EBF, Boston beer summits and any of the more niche ones to come later.

It was a very simple name too. Something like craft brewers guild summit(but not that exactly) for many it was their first time visiting an even all you can drink with lots of breweries here in the Northeast. It was early 2000’s I believe. But I remember it being a huge deal then.

 

forgot about that, too. Was it called Great International BF, or something close? It was at the RI convention center next to the arena

 

That was it!!!! Yes!

 

Forgot to mention, but Union Station is now operated by a local group since John Harvard bailed in 2019. I've heard nothing but good things but haven't made it there recently. There are many Union Station cans and draft in stores/bars in the wild, which never was the case before.

To build on the GIBF, yes that was a shit show every year. You had like 20% of the crowd being actual beer aficionados, then the rest only drawn for the "all you can drink". To be fair, there were a very limited number of beers there that you'd want to sip slow to uncover all the tasting notes.

 

Me being the beer person.

My cousin and his group going being the other for sure

 

RI Monthly has a neat little write up about their coverage of the local beer industry over the last two decades:

https://www.rimonthly.com/on-tap-brewery-and-distillery-news-in-rhode-island/

 

Me and my buddy are 3 breweries away from visiting every brewery in RI. Some gems here, from the obvious Long Live and Proclamation to the underdogs like Origin and Crooked Current

 

The RI HC scene is getting really cool these days. Still a lot more shows in Mass but if you know where to look in RI you can have a good ass time

 

I know what you mean! I'm west bay and I remember when any west bay brewery was in the rotation with an occasional foray over the bridges. These days, I still haven't made it to West Passage (haven't heard inspiring reviews), the new Ragged location, or gotten back to Pivotal, despite liking them. When Long Live, Buttonwoods, Origin and Proclamation are within 10 minutes of me and so solid, there's decreased motivation. If Iron Stag Brewing in Rolfe Square ever opens its doors, my beer world probably becomes even more constricted. I will have almost as many breweries near me as Dunkins!

But that was always the goal right? Drink local.

 

I'll share a link as well, though I imagine most here would be very familiar with it. Yankee Brew News is a great way to stay on top of New England brewery news and a friend just took over the RI column.

 

There is an article in today's Projo on Iron Stag opening in July.

 

Nothing will ever top those insane BeerAdvocate Christmas parties at Track 84. Whatever happened to that place? I had heard a year or two back that it was reopening as a craft beer bar again?

 

https://cranstononline.com/stories/trouble-coming-down-the-track,173294

All I could find was this article from last year about liquor licenses. Not clear if they are approved for the use. Hopefully the "high end tavern" talk is to make it sound better for the neighbors and will not be reflective of a sterile atmosphere.

In the article it indicates there used to be far more police incidents within that neighborhood than occurred at Track 84. I used to love the vibe there circa 2000s, all the regulars at the bar would say "try this one it's good", always giving tips on the new taps. The Harpoon Barleywine was quite a regular there and the only place in RI that offered it. Many casks found their way there.

Sometime around Halloween there would be a great dark beer night with big stouts from Stone and Dogfish amongst others.

 

I went to Narragansett in 2019 and had a really great time at Mew's. Great food and amazing taplist. It gets REALLY busy. It was nice to be able to try a lot of the under the radar local breweries like Whaler's and Shaidzon.

Tilted Barn was a really nice visit. They had some weird can limits, but I think that had to do with state laws?

I'm still dreaming of the fried scallop sandwich that I had at Monahan's. Never had scallops that sweet in my life.

 

RI is finally up to 2 cases pp allowed, but in 2019 it was probably 1 case max allowed.

Only bummer about the Mews is I found they got rid of the burger cooked in hemp oil, I'm not the biggest burger fan but that one was so tasty.