Thursday, January 22, 2015

Northeast Beer Tour - Part 2 (New Hampshire)

After visiting some beer establishments in Upstate New York (discussed in Part 1), we headed over to New Hampshire to visit the Humans' friends and see what the state had to offer for beers.

Portsmouth
Portsmouth is a great New England waterfront town.  And, one of the things that makes it a great drinking town is that it's very "walkable".  We parked the car when we arrived, and didn't get back in until we left.

A morning drive across parts of New York and Massachusetts, and into New Hampshire meant that we needed a little solid sustenance before continuing on with our drinking adventures.  And, when on the New Hampshire coast, that meant we were going to get a lobster roll.


River House (53 Bow Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire)

With nothing but Tripadvisor reviews to go by, we ended up at the River House.  We were able to get a table outside, overlooking the harbor and the lift bridge that allows US1 to continue into Maine.

The River House has a small, but decent, draft list.  Most drafts are from the New Hampshire/Maine area.  They also have a good bottle list; it's not huge, but I expect anyone could find something that they would like to try.

The lobster roll was good.  There was lots of large chunks of lobster, with just enough of a mayonnaise mixture to hold things together.  The lobster roll plate ($17.95 for a 4 inch roll, or $24.95 for a 6 inch roll) also comes with a cup of seafood chowder and hand cut chips.  Overall, we weren't blown away by our lunch, but it was solid.

Earth Eagle Brewings (165 High Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire)
We decided to walk around Portsmouth for a while to try to work off lunch, and stopped into one of the shops. (Important note:  There are shops...oh, are there shops...beware.  If you have a "shopper" with you, just let her...or him...enjoy and plant yourself on a barstool in one of the places mentioned in this post.)  A shopkeeper noticed that we were looking at some beer-related items, and suggested that we go to Earth Eagle.

Earth Eagle is hard to find.  It's on High Street, near the Hilton Garden Inn, and tucked behind A&G Homebrew Supply.

This is a tiny brewery that makes tiny batches of beer.  And you need to stop in here just to give your palate something to think about.  They have 6 taps, and often half of them are pouring gruits.   (I'm usually surprised to find one gruit on tap, so this was just crazy to me.)  By making such small batches, they are free to play and make some really interesting beers and gruits.  But, if you find something you like, you better get a growler because it probably won't be there next time you visit.

When we were there, they mostly had IPAs and gruits on tap, but the menu varies with the season (and the brewer's attitude).  The bartender was great, and tried to find something that non-beer-drinking Mrs. Human would like.  (Everyone seems to do this.  "Oh, you don't like beer?  Here, try this.")  This had the expected result..."Still too beer-y", but we appreciated the effort.

I'd like to go back sometime when they are brewing darker beers.  I bet they have some great winter recipes.

Portsmouth Brewery (56 Market Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire)
Home!  This is where the humans' friends originally found me, and it was nice to get back for a visit.

The Portsmouth Brewery has a typical brewpub feel.  They have around 15 beers on tap; most are their own beers, but they have guest taps as well.  The pub has a full menu, but we didn't eat here.

We bought a taster paddle here, that included the Oatmeal Raisin Brown, Grizzly Pale Ale, Black Cat Stout.  Overall the beers were good, but not great.  I did like the Black Cat Stout quite a bit.  They also often have a "Project X" beer that is a special one-batch beer, if you'd like to try what the brewers are currently trying out.

And, after having a couple of beers, you can wander into the gift shop and get your very own Yeast Spore!


Ri Ra Irish Pub (22 Market Square, Portsmouth, NH)
If you're in the need for an Irish pub to watch soccer, rugby, or even some of those "American" games, then there are a lot worse places to go than Ri Ra.

They have about 17 beers and ciders on draft, and to no surprise...about half of them are European beers.  But, they also keep local beers on tap.  When were were there, there were 4 or 5 beers from New Hampshire and Vermont.







This was a fine place to go, but there was really one main reason that I wanted to check it out.  I love going to buildings that had a different origin, and have been turned into a bar.  (My inner-heathen is quite amused when that building is a church...which I've seen in Pittsburgh and Dublin.)  In Ri Ra's case, the interior of an actual Irish pub was shipped to New Hampshire and placed in what was originally the New Hampshire Bank building.  You can still see the original safe doors in the dining room, and the Georgian dome covers the dining area.  It's a great environment to have a beer.

Thirsty Moose (21 Congress St., Portsmouth, NH)
If you haven't had enough variety while stopping at the other places mentioned in this post, then it's time to go to the Thirsty Moose.  With 116 beers on tap at 2 different bar areas, you'll definitely find something to try.

One of the great things about this bar is that you can build your own sampler of up to 6 beers, with each sample costing between $2 and $4.

If you're in Portsmouth, you should also think about going to one of the "large" breweries in the area. But, since their beers are available in other parts of the country, I was more concerned about trying other things on this trip.

Smuttynose Brewing (105 Towle Farm Rd., Hampton, NH)
Redhook  Brewery (1 Redhook Way, Portsmouth, NH)

Manchester
After our time in Portsmouth, it was time to go visit some friends in Manchester.  And, they were nice enough to take us around to find some beers that we wouldn't find in Atlanta.

White Birch Brewing  (1339 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett, NH)
Our first stop was actually in Hooksett.  We stopped in at the White Birch Brewing store.  This is a  small storefront where you can get bottles and growler fills.  But, they do offer samples there.

White Birch is a small brewery that creates the normal styles of beers over the course of the year (IPA, pale ale, porter, etc.), but when we were there almost all of the beers that they had available on draft were sours.  Unfortunately, that's just not a style that I like, and each one was just a little more mouth-puckering than the one before.

I wish I had been there in the winter to try out some of their other styles, but I'd recommend stopping in just to see if they'll have something you like.  And, if you like sours, definitely go there.

New England's Tap House Grill (1292 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett, NH)
Just down the road from White Birch, is the Tap House Grill.  This was our next stop.

With 48 beers on tap, you definitely should be able to find something new to try.  I was pretty excited because it happened to be New Hampshire Craft Beer Week while we were there, and most of their taps were turned over to New Hampshire beers.  I was able to get a tasting paddle of lots of beers that I wouldn't have been able to try elsewhere.

Milly's Tavern (500 Commercial St., Manchester, NH)
Milly's is Manchester's only microbrewery, and they have 19 of their own beers on tap, across all styles.

This is a bit of a local hangout; the bartenders seemed to know everyone in the place, and many of the crowd were drinking out of their own "mug club" mugs.  The decor's nothing special, but everyone is friendly, and it's a great place to try a few beers.  I had a sampler of 6 beers...they varied from "really good" to "ok" to "one of those rare beers that I can't finish".

We had a great time in New Hampshire.  There are a lot of other places we would have liked to try around the state, but we just didn't have the time on this trip.  Maybe next time.



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