New Hampshire - Breweries in Planning & Road Trips

I've been really busy lately, and it's not going to get any more open for a while, so in an effort to get back on schedule, this post is going to be short on details and long on brevity. Except for that first sentence.


A couple quick updates before we get started. This past weekend I had beers from two breweries that I've mentioned in past posts. The first was Cisco (Massachusetts) Summer of Lager. I was surprised to see them on a menu in Philly, so I tried it out. I wasn't very impressed with it, maybe because it was pretty hot out and it was maltier than I expected for a beer with Summer in the name. But it's the first I've tried anything from them, so I won't write them off yet. The other was Flying Dog Tire Bite and it was a great choice for a hot afternoon.


Also, on Sunday my friend and I brewed a batch of what will be dubbed Amy Wombat Wheat in honor of Abby Wambach, her difficult-to-remember name, and the U.S. Women's soccer team. And even though they lost, Wambach scored, so our beer is destined to be spectacular. Either that or you will choke while taking what seem to be very easy penalty kicks, I mean sips.


These breweries are currently being planned in New Hampshire:
1. Prodigal Brewery at Misty Mountain Farm, Effingham. - Don't know much about them. They only have a facebook page, not an actual website.
2. 7th Settlement Brewery, Dover. They are really into community, so much so that their brewery will be a Community Supported Brewery, which is exactly like a CSA, only for beer. The hope to use 100% local ingredients, which is pretty much the entire point of a CSA. You buy 96 22oz bottles up front at $6 each, and then over the course of the year you go pick them up. You get a refund of $1 per bottle at the end if you bring them all back. I think they may need to decrease the amount of bottles you have to buy up front, because people definitely enjoy trying new beers more so than trying new vegetables. But it's a pretty cool idea and I think it could catch on, hopefully with a few tweaks. It doesn't look like they will distribute at all, so unless you live in the area, you won't be trying them any time soon.
3. Throwback Brewery, North Hampton.

The name is a nod to the fact that they want to emulate pre-prohibition brewers by using farm fresh, local ingredients, and by recycling their spent grains by sending them to pig farmers for feed. The guys at Throwback also hope to get to 100% locally sourced ingredients. In any region, climate limits the types of hops, malts, and fruits available, but they want to work with what they can get from New England. They say that there is a good blueprint of doing this if you just look to wineries. Regional winemakers end up making wine with the ingredients that fare the best in each set of unique conditions. That means that wine from each region has its own flavors and are unique to the rest of the world. Throwback thinks that can be done with beer. It's a great concept. They are also looking into using solar power for their brewing. They will distribute mostly in NH, but don’t have a full list yet. They make 7 beers, with pretty good names and interesting labels. Dippity-Do American Brown is my favorite just for the picture.

http://throwbackbrewery.com/beers/dippity-do

Honestly, the ideas of sustainability and using local ingredients are so pervasive in the craft brewing community that I might just stop mentioning it. If a brewery blatantly tries to waste energy or is openly discouraging a sense of community and local identity, then I'll mention it. But otherwise, just assume that each brewery loves local ingredients, recycling, bio-fuel, and pre-heating water with the sun. 

Road Trips:

If you are into hiking, New Hampshire is a state for you. There are plenty of mountains, and the Appalachian Trail runs right through NH, including Mount Washington. Even though I don't hike much, I like the concept of it, so I read a hiking blog called Easy Hiker, and I found an article about the Franklin Ridge hike in New Hampshire. Looks pretty cool.
There are also plenty of places to ski in the state, including Tuckerman Ravine, which is near Tuckerman brewery. And I've learned from a simple wiki search that the ravine is actually part of Mount Washington. The really cool part about the ravine is that in the spring there is still plenty of snow from the winter, so people will hike up the side of the ravine, and then ski down the ravine, even up until July.

Next week I'll post about some of the brew pubs and some updates.