Notch Brewing (2019)

Checked out Notch for the first time yesterday. I don't venture into the north shore much at all, but my buddy and I took the 90+ minute drive yesterday. It was definitely worth it.

I had the Standard, Cerne Pivo, and Zwickel. My buddy had the Standard, Hang The DJ, and the Zwickel.

The Standard is outstanding. Really hard to beat that one. I loved the Cerne Pivo as well. Zwickel was super solid but a bit lackluster after the previous two.

I wasn't interested in any high abv beer on this day, but I had a couple sips of my friend's Hang the DJ... that's about as good of a NEDIPA as I can recall having. Absolutely nailed it. Perfect carbonation, not chalky in the slightest. Delicious Mosaic qualities which can be a hit or miss hop for me. Juicy but not too sweet like a lot of NEDIPAs trend. Granted, I only had two sips, but I was very impressed and I'm a bit over NEIPAs lately. Was tempted to buy some cans but I've been trying to keep big beers out of the house.

Great spot. If there's one complaint, it was busy!, but that's to be expected I guess on such a gorgeous day. There was a line for beer but not too bad, 5 or 6 minutes tops.

Had some delicious mussels down the road afterwards as well. Salem is a pretty solid little city.

 

Sounds like you had a great time!

A few suggestions for the next time you go...

1) I'd try some stuff that doesn't hit distribution (this is of course without knowing what gets distributed to your area). My area gets The Standard, Cerne, Hang the DJ, and the Zwickel.

I had the Kolsch and Altbier for example when I was there. The Kolsch is amazing.

I can't knock getting The Standard though. On their imported draft system it's just about a perfect beer.

2) If you're concerned about drinking too much and/or higher ABVs, they do serve "schnitts" or half pours of everything. They don't do flights, but this is a nice way to try more beers while you're there.

3) If you go back and are looking for more food, you have to try Howling Wolf. Probably the best burrito and nachos I've ever had.

4) If you're curious, you could order a Mlìko pour. It's actually really good, like creamy malt flavored foam. Notch is the only place around that I know that has the draft system to do this. Pretty authentic too. My cousin just returned from Prague and most places served these pours.

 

I'm not anti-flight in general, but flights at Notch would be genuinely absurd. Good call on their part, because people would for sure order them if they were available.

(Half pours, of course, are the best and should maybe be required by law.)

 

While I agree at Notch, I like their format, but I heard beer flights actually may have originated in Germany. Here's a picture of a flight at a brew pub in Darmstadt.

 

Unless the scale in those pictures is wonky, that looks like just lining up 5 nearly full sized beers up on a tray and calling it a flight. To be clear, that sounds like the best kind of flight

 

Unfortunately, basically everything is stuff that doesn't hit distribution. I live on the south coast and am in the Marlborough area regularly and all I ever see on shelves is Left of Dial.

Yes, I'm aware. Next time I'd probably do a couple of schnitts to end the day, but I wanted a full pour of the Standard for sure, partly because if it's really that good I'd want more of it, but partly because that's a good test of a pils. I was half tempted to order a quart .

I lived in Sacramento a number of years, so best burrito is a pretty high bar, but even "really good" would be much appreciated.

hmmm.. there was quite a bit of head on mine, but I didn't order it that way. First few sips were through a sea of foam, which I personally like. Even at home I pour most beers rather aggressively to throw a large head on it, which is also why I prefer imperial pint glasses.

 

I don't blame you. The first time I ever had The Standard was at the brewery, and I ordered the full half liter.

I assume your pour was more like the mug in the back of the picture of Cerne Pivo.

I think they pour to the line on the glass which is likely 16.9 oz. (I think) and that leaves plenty of room for that awesome creamy head. I love the cans too, but I think you can only get that kind of creamy head from their draft system.

 

Hmm, 2.5%, I'm very curious how this one turns out.

Especially considering The Standard (4.5%) seems to be well liked and is beefier than the Notch Pils, and Cerne Pivo was also beefed up to 4.5% from 4.

I'm not saying anything I've had from them at ABV's <4.5% hasn't been good, I'm just curious how a pale lager THAT low will turn out.

 

Interested to know how they actually did it. If it’s only gonna be 2.5% and starts out at 8.5 plato the finishing gravity will be rather high. Only like 58% attenuation by the yeast. Kinda hard to do with lager yeast I think???

 

It seems like it's going to be the perfect biergarten beer to me.

 

The Cerne was moved from a 10P to 12P, it's almost a different beer, and the Czech's would agree. We have two Czech 10P Pils - Tenner and Session Pils, one 11P - At the Swans, and one 12P - The Standard. With the new 8P Pils (name to be determined) we will be pouring four Czech Pils off our Czech tower and faucets this summer 8P, 10P, 11P and 12P.

 

I forgot Tenner was only 4%. I had it on draft at Deep Ellum. It was just as good if not better than The Standard.

 

At the LoveJoy wharf Night Shift location they're currently serving a 3.5% German Pilsner and I didn't think it was very good. Not awful, but basically tasting like one might fear it would.

Notch obviously has better lager cred so I'm guessing they have a much better chance of pulling this off

 

They already brew Tenner, which is amazing at 4%. And obviously their standard Session Pils is 4%. They've also had a beer or two as low as 2.8% I think in the past?

I think they''ll do alright.

 

The first "session" beer that blew me away was their tafelbier (2.8%). I remember buying a few of them and doing this really informal dinner where they were just sitting out and people were pouring them. How fancy -- pre-children -- I was.

 

Ah yes, that's the one!

It came in bombers. One of the few beers that I actually felt were ok to come in bombers, being 2.8%.

 

Anyone know what they’ve been pouring this year at the Mobile Beer Garden at the Trustees of the Reservation events? There is one in Walpole today - would love to know what they’ll be pouring.