The Craft: Rhode Island (documentary)

Will have to watch and good to see some love.

Admittedly, RI for years was only surfing, HC shows and an occasional Tim Horton coffee to me.

 

You forgot to include Matunuck Oyster Bar.

I lived in RI in the early 2010s. There was, to my knowledge, only Trinity. As soon as I left all of these breweries started popping up.

 

Yup, the brewery scene came a long way. While our state's laws are still on the short end of our surrounding states with respect to take away limits (2 cases total per brewery per customer). Grey Sail started up as a distro brewery in 2011 with the Byzantine laws still in place then, but still made a name for themselves in the stores with Captain's Daughter. Still a very good beer to revisit often!

Then following the allowance of actual brewery sampling and takeaway of an entire 72 ounces of beer (wow!), the next series of breweries came into being starting the end of 2012. The first wave of breweries in 2013 consisted of Foolproof, Proclamation and a few others. Tilted Barn followed over a year later and Long Live awhile thereafter, and things are really looking good here. In fact, there are a handful of breweries opening these past few years which are supposedly pretty damn good but are more than 20 minutes away from me and it is easier to just stick with the great beer that I know. 10 years ago you could do a RI brewery crawl in a single weekend.

 

Haha my bad. Or seeing Yellowman at the Ocean Mist.

I definitely remember Trinity as listed above. I may even have a random glass or coaster packed away from their.

But yeah, the beer scene was rough down there. Although we did go to Newport Oktobefest a few times maybe early to mid 2000’s. Once I believe the line was so long we left and just sat at Benjamin’s until our eyes went sideways.

 

I remember Newport Storm when I was at URI in the late 90’s. Wasn’t great.

Wakefield Liquors had a great (for the time) wall of craft and import beers for mix 6’s. Got to try tons of interesting stuff.

Mew’s Tavern has around 90 beers on tap with flights. Always some great options.

Now there are a bunch of great breweries/etc.

I’ll be back in the area for the Finback Whale Watching Fest in May.

 

It was Foxtrot Zulu at the Ocean Mist when I was there. Always a fun time. They did a power hour on Tuesday nights I think. All you could drink for an hour.

 

I had to do some digging but I believe this is Trinity and I know it was august 2011. If it’s not trinity I remember one other brewery. We went to two downtown. One was darker and kind of cool inside and one had the patio you see there(unless trinity was the darker inside one?) It was the weekend of the rock and roll half marathon we ran and it rained horrifically the entire fucking race! I believe that’s one of those shitty race gear bags they give you. Anyone able to QC that menu?

Also for all the newbies…see the clear beer

 

Spoken like a true rhode islander. 20+min might as well be a day long excursion

 

That picture is from the patio at Union Station Brewery. Trinity has some cool wall art in the dining room and their flights have always been served on wooden paddles. They have a patio as well, but not as big as Union Station's.

 

Union Station was awesome when it first opened in 1993. One of the earliest brewpubs in New England. The beer was delicious and there was almost always something on cask. They had a great menu with creative dishes as I'm pretty sure the kitchen was like a lab for Johnson & Wales culinary school. The food was top quality! Then it was bought/absorbed by John Harvard. The beer became all John Harvard recipies and the menu was pure John Harvard. So much for the independent greatness it was founded on.

 

Foxtrot Zulu - what a blast from the past!

 

That’s right! We went to both though.

My other fond RI memory was us leaving a 25 ta life show at the Metcafe. Some dudes rolled up on us in a car and told us white kids to pull our pants up. We were 5 hardcore kids in camo shorts, black/white t’s and vans. The opposite of low sag pants kids. So quite perplexed we kept walking and never said anything figuring maybe mistaken identify of some beef or something. They came around the block and smashed a bottle over my friends head unprovoked leaning out the window of the car. He hit the ground full sack of potatoes. I’ll never forget that. Wonder what style of beer it was?Ahhhhh Providence

 

Newport Storm sold maybe 5-6 years ago and the renamed Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling is currently undergoing a beautiful buildout on their original site and some adjacent land they purchased. That whole north end of Newport should be improving as the obnoxious maze of ramps between the Pell Bridge and the old Newport Grand casino get knocked down.

The Ringworm yeast laden Amber Ale hung on a bit too long, but their current lineup is solid if unspectacular. (And they have cocktails to suit those tastes as well.)

 

My best broke college kid excursion in the late '90s was to the old Brew Masters in Wakefield, believe it was either Tuesday or Wed night that a $5 cover charge got 2 hours of all-you-can-drink $1 Rolling Rocks.

 

I should clarify: not due to distance, but because there are 8-10 breweries less than 20+ minutes from me. And I don't have the bandwidth to add another handful to the rotation.

Believe me, I am astounded by the desire to not travel more than 15 minutes from your house as someone who grew up in northern New England!

 

Yeah, Trinity was the original, followed by Union Station, maybe the other way around. Checkin' my list.... I've visited 45 (!) Little Rhody breweries over the years, some of very high quality. Of course some have shuttered.

 

Yea my beer purchasing was strictly done at Pier Liquors and Wakefield Liquors (which I’ve heard has, sadly, gone down hill) or visiting Mews for a pint or two.

Proclamation opened the month I moved back to NY. Tilted Barn opened around the same time, IIRC.

 

Was just about to comment on this. I remember my neighbors in Gansett said they hadn’t been to Newport in 2 decades because it was “too far”. I couldn’t stop laughing considering it takes me 2.5 hours to go 25 miles where I grew up/currently live.

 

The 20 minute thing is real, lived in MA for 20 years. Day trips and weekends away all over New England/Canada. Lived in Rhode Island for 5 years and driving 30 minutes to the damn airport feels like an expedition.