What style predominates each New England state?

I was visiting a friend (and the Hill Farmstead anniversary) in northern Vermont this past weekend, and was reminded (how could I ever forget?) of how much the state's brewers excel at making IPAs--or maybe even more specifically DIPA/IIPAs.

Vermont has the most breweries per-capita, and those breweries are making plenty of great beers in plenty of other styles, but as a group, they seem to be unusually good at and concentrated on making wonderfully floral, grassy IPAs. There seems to be almost a sub-style in local IPAs--not quite East Coast or West Coast, but something almost unique to the state. Whenever I'm in Vermont, I'm struck by how many local IPAs there are, and that's what I look for when I'm visiting. The IPA is the predominant style in Vermont, and with good reason.

That got me thinking about what styles might best fit the other New England states. I can't think of any state where a single style is so predominant as the IPA is in Vermont, and Massachusetts with the most breweries is probably the most diverse stylistically, but I thought it would be interesting to hear what style people identify with the states in New England--whether it's a style that is predominant among breweries throughout the state, a state with multiple breweries making exceptional versions of a style, a style that is hard to find elsewhere, or anything else.

In my native New Hampshire, for instance, the workhouse brown ale comes to mind. It's a style I don't normally turn to, with too many cloyingly sweet mediocre versions around, but several breweries in New Hampshire are brewing more balanced, crisper takes--Smuttynose's Old Brown Dog, Woodstock's Pigs Ear, Throwback's Dippity-Do, Moat Mountain's Boneshaker Brown, and the more unusual White Birch Tavern Ale and Tuckerman Headwall Alt, are all brown ales I gladly turn to. So while it might not be as exciting as the hop-forward IPAs of Vermont, I think the balanced, crisp brown ale would have to be the official style of New Hampshire.

What does anyone else think of as the predominant style of those or any of the other states in New England?

 

I think that's true, and something that came to mind for me. Whatever any of us thinks of the yeast and the system (I still think some good beers can be and are brewed with it, but like anything else it has to be used properly), the prevalence of Ringwood yeast and Pugsley brewing systems in Maine seems like an unusually predominant system in a state. Speaking from limited knowledge, I personally can't think of any other state where a single system is--or at least until recently was--so ubiquitous. I know Maine was at the forefront of microbrewing on the East Coast twenty-plus years ago, and a lot of those early systems where Pugsley, so I'm assuming that's where it comes from, but it's an interesting history whatever you think of it.

I will also say that whatever any of us on here think of the Puglsey/Ringwood setup, a lot of those old breweries have been phenomenally successful--Geary's, Shipyard, Gritty's and so on have been around forever compared to most breweries in New England. A lot of non-BA-types seem to drink a local Puglsey-system-brewed beer in Maine (or in NH, where Shipyard is also prevalent) over macro offerings in a way that I don't see in a lot of places. None of those are my favorite breweries, but they're fairly large compared to some of the boutique breweries in New England that I love. And I think there's a place for the larger scale, locally brewed, crowd-pleaser among craft beers.

 

I hear what you're saying, but as Longstaff pointed out, beers like Hill Farmstead and Mystic are the exception in those states, too. There may be a greater number of creative, top-notch breweries in Vermont than New Hampshire (and per-capita than just about any place else), but outside of a few towns, their beers are very hard to find. I think that's the case in New Hampshire, and less so in Maine and Massachusetts where the in-state distribution even of small, high-quality breweries seems to be better. It's far easier to find Jack's Abby or Pretty Things in Mass, or Oxbow or Rising Tide in Maine, than it is to find Lawson's or Hill Farmstead in Vermont, or obviously Portsmouth in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire, currently, has the added difficulty in that many of the state's top (and most established) breweries are strictly brewpubs. In a way, I think your comment about being "stuck in the first microbrew revolution of the early/mid 90s" is more accurate when you consider where the beer is being brewed rather than what is being brewed. From what I've had, there are plenty of very good (and some excellent) beers being brewed in places like Martha's Exchange, Moat Mountain, Portsmouth or other brewpubs, but for the most part you have to go there to have their beer.

The state has seen far fewer new production breweries that primarily sell their beer off-site in recent years than Maine, Vermont or Mass have. It looks like that's beginning to change a bit, with Candia Road, Earth Eagle and Blue Lobster all opening this year. Obviously, I can't speak to the quality of the two that haven't opened yet, but at least the state is catching up with the nano trend that has spurred those great breweries you mentioned. In addition to those new breweries, Prodigal, is finally greatly expanding production. And breweries like White Birch and Throwback have both received warm receptions in their local areas--every time I've visited either of them, there has been a stream of people filling growlers, buying bottles and doing a tasting. That's something I've seen at plenty of small breweries in Vermont, but until recently never in New Hampshire outside of a brewpub.

The other benefit to more breweries, I think, is the culture within the brewing community. Vermont has a very strong community of brewers, with the Brewers Guild, which puts on the Vermont Brewers Fest and the brewery passport. But more important, many of the assistants and apprentices who work at those breweries seem to be opening breweries of their own in the state. Obviously, not all of them will be in the top-tier with places like Hill Farmstead, but the growth seems positive.

And just one other thing about being "stuck in the first microbrew revolution of the early/mid 90s where brown ales, pale ales and blond ales were everywhere"... the best beers (in my mind) coming out of Vermont these days, and the ones getting most of the attention are pale ales, IPAs and DIPA/IIPAs. With most of these, there's nothing earth-shattering other than the quality. Even Jack's Abby is essentially brewing excellent, high-quality, lager versions of well-known, traditionally ale beers. I love many of the more unusual styles that places like Pretty Things or Oxbow are brewing, but I also love finding a brown ale good enough to make me excited about a style I otherwise overlook. That there are several of those being brewed in New Hampshire makes me think it's a fitting beer style, and one not to be ashamed of. That's just my take, though, and admittedly it's easier to be optimistic about the home front from south of the border.

 

I'm sure that's all true--I was a kid in the 90's, and I wasn't meaning to compare the quality of Hill Farmstead to the run-of-the-mill breweries of the 1990s or today. All I was trying to say was that a handful of breweries in Vermont have been excelling at elevating (and perhaps reinventing) an old and ubiquitous style of beer. I don't think a brown ale will ever be as exciting as an IPA to most people, including myself, but I think some of the brown ales I mentioned in the original post are some examples of inventive (or at least very good) takes on another old, ubiquitous style.

The first time I visited Hill Farmstead in 2010, I was on a barleywine kick (or something, I can't remember exactly what). One taste of Edward had me back in the floral/grassy pale ale/IPA camp, and seeking out other excellent examples of the style. While it's still not my preferred style by a long shot, some of the hoppy, dry brown ales being brewed in New Hampshire and elsewhere (I'm looking at you St. Botolph's), have really changed my mind about what a brown ale can be.