It's fitting that during the week of the Fourth of July we celebrate our independence with the state whose motto is "Live Free or Die." New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify the constitution and the first so far that has managed to nail both the motto and the nickname. You gotta be tough to live in The Granite State. Live Free or Die? Ballsy.
Let's celebrate our independence from average beer by taking a look at what New Hampshire has to offer to the American craft brew scene.
Stats:
Population: 1.3 million (42nd in the U.S.)
Size: 46th largest state in the U.S.
#of Microbreweries: 5 (with 3 additional in planning)
# of Brewpubs: 7
Cities: Concord, Portsmouth, Nashua, Manchester
Cities I could have named without Wiki's help: Concord.
Tax Policy: I compare New Hampshire's tax policy to how one of my neighbors views the general societal norm of wearing shirts. He only wears shirts in the case of extreme cold and in that case, it's a wife beater or nothing. You cannot box that man in and tell him what to wear! He'll have none of it. In that same way, New Hampshireites hates taxes. No sales tax (cheaper cases of beer). No state or local income tax (more money to buy beer with). They keep their hard earned money and buy shirts with it. Cuz shirts are awesome. Let's try to spread that word. Because old tattoos and beer bellys everywhere are begging to be covered by some extra household income.
Brewers in New Hampshire very quickly took advantage of more lax homebrewing and brewpub laws once they were put into effect something like 25-30 years ago (I have no intention of checking that timeline, but it feels right). The bland beer that dominated for decades following Prohibition didn’t stand a chance in New Hampshire or in neighboring Massachusetts. The brewpubs that opened eventually became the full breweries that make up New Hampshire’s beer backbone and the three new breweries that are starting up are welcomed by a thriving Northeastern craft beer culture that New Hampshire played a pretty good role in cultivating. However, in no way did I do any research to back that last statement up. Again, it's a feeling. Writing down facts is more of an art than a science anyway. Just read any newspaper.
Brewers in New Hampshire very quickly took advantage of more lax homebrewing and brewpub laws once they were put into effect something like 25-30 years ago (I have no intention of checking that timeline, but it feels right). The bland beer that dominated for decades following Prohibition didn’t stand a chance in New Hampshire or in neighboring Massachusetts. The brewpubs that opened eventually became the full breweries that make up New Hampshire’s beer backbone and the three new breweries that are starting up are welcomed by a thriving Northeastern craft beer culture that New Hampshire played a pretty good role in cultivating. However, in no way did I do any research to back that last statement up. Again, it's a feeling. Writing down facts is more of an art than a science anyway. Just read any newspaper.
Five of the eight breweries are in the Southern part of the state, close to the major cities and the other three are located father upstate. There seem to be more than a few notable brewpubs so, I'll be delving into those in later weeks. I've noticed that probably half of the brewpubs in New Hampshire bottle their own beer, which makes it difficult to only call them a brewpub. But in my arbitrary mind, if you have a full restaurant at your brewery and you don't list where you distribute your beer, I'm considering you a brewpub.
For the record, I’ve never been to New Hampshire, but my Mom lived there for several years growing up, so by genetics I am qualified to speak about it. Next week I'll probably be talking about the five breweries that are currently in operation.
For the record, I’ve never been to New Hampshire, but my Mom lived there for several years growing up, so by genetics I am qualified to speak about it. Next week I'll probably be talking about the five breweries that are currently in operation.
Lastly, when you have a blog, Google tells you how many people click on your page, what websites they came from to find it, and what their search terms were. Most of mine are boring, like "PA brewery map." But some are awesome. So, if you are the guy in Russia who searches "beertrails.blogspot.com" once a week on the search engine yandex.ru, leave a comment or email me or something. I'm really interested to learn how you found this site. I guess all of those bus-stop ads I put up in Moscow were worth it.
Hahaha I love the story about your neighbor. Also, too bad you don't live in New Hampshire - with all the money you'd save on beer without taxes, you could probably double your Moscow advertising budget.
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