What is the best brewery in NJ?

I *like* Carton more because I like their weirdness, great tap room and super cool staff, but Kane is probably more likely to win tbh

 

the comments with peoples nominations are interesting... so many small places I've never heard of.

Agree that Kane is likely to win - but if you follow Pete Genovese's best "xxxx" series (hamburger, pizza, etc), he doesn't always go with the odds-on favorite, so may be interesting to see.. is he really a craft beer nerd? will he bring in qualified co-judges?

will be interesting to follow none the less...

 

If you go overall diversity of beers, quality of beers, consistency and longevity its hard to pick anyone other than Carton or Kane. I like what Glasstown and Brotherton have been doing but they just haven't been at it long enough to call them the best in NJ. Just my opinion, tho. I often disagree with Pete so i'm curious how he goes.

 

As I stated somewhere else... I'm afraid of what this list will end up looking like. I get that this is completely subjective, but if it ends up being something completely random where Beach Haus is in the top 5, I'm flipping this table over.

 

Lots of replies mentioned smaller/lesser known ones over Carton/Kane.

 

Exactly. Just posted on the Reddit thread about this. For people like us on BA, we'll nominate places like Conclave, Troon, Brotherton, etc. because we're REALLY into the beer and they offer some of the highest quality NJ beer, even though they have tiny (or no) tasting rooms/set ups. However, its NJ.com so a lot of people voting are probably more casual craft/local beer drinkers and take the space and brewery experience into account a lot more. They'll vote for places like Lone Eagle for example because it's their local option and a cool place to hang out on a Friday night to grab a fresh, local beer, not because they think they have the best tasting beers. Unlike the majority of us here, who travel all over the state/coast/country in search of the top beers (not top brewery spaces), and are discussing and dissecting flavors, hops, off flavors, etc.

 

I am not a New Jersey resident but my 'vote' is for Carton. I have only had a half-dozen or so brands of Carton beers but I loved every one of those brands.

If only obtaining Carton beer was easier.

Cheers!

 

Exactly. I know a guy that lives in Flemington and he brought a growler of Lone Eagle to a party. He presented it as an awesome brewery by his house. I go, "Oh nice, you brought Conclave!" But he hadn't even heard of it. This is someone who is into craft beer enough to be on Untappd and seek out new and different beers in the store, but not enough to know about a brewery people on here consider one of the best.

 

Yes. The guy you just described is who I feel will be the majority of the voters for this poll. So I expect the results to be a bit interesting...we'll see.

Basically, just remember we are not the majority.

 

Exactly. I know people in my town who are into craft beer who never heard of Kane or Carton.

 

An example of the mindset of some of the posters on their story claimed in the comments that "Cricket Hill pretty much started this craft beer thing in NJ and without them we would still be drinking Bud."

 

Yeah that statement... sadly... isn't even true. Climax has been open longer.

 

River Horse started in 95 and Climax and Flying Fish have been around since 96, 6 years before Cricket Hill. And The Ship Inn has been a brewpub since 95.

 

but at least it was settled that Pinelands was the best brewery from someone who has visited 40 NJ breweries...

 

kane/carton is the answer and has been for the past few years imo

It's nice that there are some new options that are pushing towards that Kane/Carton level. such as Conclave/Troon/Brotherton/Magnify/Spellbound all make outstanding beers and getting more attention

excited to see how things keep shaking out as the NJ beer scene explodes with new places, names, faces and best of all... more good local beer!

 

Just my personal stance on this: No disrespect to the smaller guys but if their beer is only accessible at the brewery or it doesn't get distributed past the local area, I don't think it's fair to declare them as best brewery in the entire state when only a small population of the state has easy access to their beer.
Carton and Kane appear to have made it a priority to take care of the entire state since they opened up shop, maybe not with cans and bottles but always with kegs. For me, they're head and shoulders above the rest.

 

As long as Magnify doesn't win I'm ok.

 

Don't forget Ramstein, which was founded in '96. Carton and Kane are great, I'm a big fan of both, but I find myself at Ramstein more than either of those and I live the same distance from all three. Their Maibock is about to come out soon and I can't wait to try it again.