Blue Lobster Brewing experiences?

Several growlers showed up at a tasting on Sat. Mostly hoppy offerings - I enjoyed the Hampton Weisse Berliner. Could've been more tart for my tastes.

 

I've been there a few times and haven't met the beer I didn't like. The Stalkhome Syndrome Wheat IPA and Gold Claw Pale are both top notch. It's my understanding that the brewer used to work at Hill Farmstead.

 

I just grabbed a round of tasters on Friday. The wee heavy(a life of Sundays) was my favorite. The peated rye porter(ragged neck rye) was a nice surprise for me. All were well crafted beers.

 

Berliner was all tart and not enough flavor, but A Town Called Earth and Love On A Farm Boys Wages were great beers, i'm most excited for the Biere De Garde aging in the port barrel though.

 

Yes! I've been a few times and am pretty impressed with what I've had. The brewer (David) seems to be a really cool guy and took the time to answer some homebrewer questions. I don't know if the owner is a bit prickly or not a big beer conversation guy, but he was OK enough (and he put up some serious money in stainless in the back room - it's friggin gorgeous.)

A Town Called Earth is good and Gold Claw is excellent (and could be considered a dead ringer for HF Edward, though they use a blend of hops which is very similar to Edward.) The big standouts for me were Stalkholm Syndrome (pale wheat ale) and Excess is not Rebellion/Double Galaxy.

The yeast profile is very similar to HF - I'd not be terribly surprised if it wasn't from the same bank.

To me this is HF quality ales right off Route 95 - I'm a fan for sure and have sent a few folks out there.

 

Just to clarify, Edward lists the hops on the RB entry. Columbus, chinook, centennial, warrior, and simcoe. Gold claw lists the hops as Ahtanum and Falconers Flight.
Cheers!

 

Stalkholm Syndrome was amazing. The rest I've had (Gold Claw, Ragged Neck Rye Porter, Excess is Not Rebellion, Red Door (Paint it Black), Red Sky At Night) have been good as well. The only one I didn't really care for was the Wee Heavy, but I heard that went into a barrel, so... yum.

 

I will be there this Saturday, can anyone recommend a place for lunch that is near the brewery? I am coming from the south.

 

If you want to stay within a few feet of the Brewery you'll be parked in front of the Community Oven, pretty good pizza and decent taplist - which will usually include a Blue Lobster offering. If you want to stay in the beer exploration mode you can head North on Rte 1 about 5 miles and check out WHYM craft beer cafe.
If you do that, you can pop in to Throwback brewery which is half way between the two.

 

This place is right next door: http://www.thecommunityoven.com/

You can sit outside and bring your own beer to Brown's Lobster Pound in Seabrook.

 

Every beer I have tried from them has been solid or excellent. I loved the Berliner weisse they just put out, and Gold Claw is a can't-miss hop-forward pale ale that is great any time of year. Rumor has it they will be bottling the current barrel beers (Wee Heavy and Biere de Garde) this fall.

 

Thanks guys! In return if you ever go to Treehouse in Brimfield, MA you can bring beer to BT Smokehouse after getting your growlers. http://btsmokehouse.com/

 

Personally I've been impressed by all their offerings. Dave, the brewer, is not only super knowledgable, but also a really nice guy. I don't get the comparison to HF Edward outside of the fact that they are both very well crafted PA's. I'm very excited for their future.

 

Yep. Falconer's Flight isn't a hop variety but a blend of some of the more popular aroma and flavor hops that are found in American IPAs today. Aside from Warrior I think FF has most of them covered.

To me this is all a good thing - beer the level of HF right off Route 95.

 

FF also has Citra and Sorachi Ace, so I don't think it's necessarily a similar profile, even if FF does have the three Cs.

 

Yes its a blend, but the profiles are very different to me on those two beers. Can you cite your information for the blend makeup? Theres two propietary OSU hops in the blend as well. Trust me when i say if you throw centennial, simcoe, and chinook together you wont get a falconers flight profile.
Cheers!
David

 

Dave apprenticed with Shaun Hill for awhile before he started Blue Lobster - that may account for some similiarities in style?

 

I remember seeing some posts on HBT with conjecture of which of the C hops plus some 800 lb hops like Simcoe and Soriachi Ace, but I definitely don't have a list of the confirmed varieties and how much of each is used in he mix. What I do know is that when using it in home brewing it makes for a damn tasty and great smelling IPA.

I'm sure if I had the two beers side by side I'd be able to (or at least should be able to tell) significant differences between the two - unfortunately the closest I've had the two were the better part of a month. I guess the bottom line for me is that it struck me a reminding me a lot of a really highly regarded/world class beer - maybe I'm a bit of a homer and am giving it undue praise, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case.

 

No worries, I didn't mean anything by it. I'm a touch biased, but I do really love them both. Although I do find their hop profiles dramatically different.