Smuttynose and the Portsmouth Brewery

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

If you don't want to download the podcast, you can STREAM IT HERE.

On December 29, 2011 we visited JT, the Minister of Propaganda for Smuttynose Brewing and the Portsmouth Brewery, and Tod Mott, the head brewer of the Portsmouth Brewery in Portsmouth, N.H.  Thanks to a too-full minidisc, the informative and interesting interview that we did with Tod did not properly record. We'll need to meet up with Tod again, and this time have a blank disc on hand.

J.T., B.R., T.M. and B.W., in the Jimmy LaPanza
lounge of the P.B.

Though the interview with JT thankfully took, and he told us about both the 7-barrel brewpub in downtown Portsmouth and the 50-barrel brewery on the outskirts of town. The brewpub was founded in 1991, four years after the Northampton Brewery in central Mass. -- both started by siblings Peter and Janet Egelston.

At one point they split the business and Janet took control of the Northampton Brewery, the oldest brewpub in New England, and Peter got the Portsmouth Brewery. Being from N.H. I can tell you first hand that the pub was an immediate rage -- and for good reason, too. It wasn't just a novelty as the first modern brewpub in this food-centric New England port town, but it was a very impressive brewery, offering extremely well made beers and very interesting atypical styles.

A few years after the Portsmouth Brewery was underway, another local beer business, the Frank Jones Brewery, was started by a descendant of one of the most successful and wealthy entrepreneurs of the 1800s, Frank Jones, who in the late 1800s was one of the largest producers of beer in America. Unfortunately, the gene for business acumen didn't make it down the line, and the enterprise was soon bankrupt and its assets sold at auction.

As the story goes, Peter went to the auction just to "check it out", but came away with a new business -- the Smuttynose Brewery.

In this week's podcast you'll hear the details about the history of both breweries, their relationship to one another, and also the exciting new plans for a new Smuttynose brewery to be located on a farm in Hampton, New Hampshire!

At the Portsmouth Brewery.

 

The Smutty bottling line from afar.
Smutty barrel aged beers.
	I can't hear you -- can you make it LAUTER?!
	These tanks held the 2011-12 Winter Ale.
Hey beer nerds -- my eyes are up HERE!
Pat F.'s motorcycle gang has a long reach.
	This bridge is history.

Kuhnhenn Dark Heathen Triple Bock Lager

If you don't want to download the podcast, you can STREAM IT HERE.

I noticed a lot of bottles of the Kuhnhenn Dark Heathen Triple Bock Lager on the shelf in the cooler at Good Beer the other day. I've heard of Kuhnhenn and I might have had one of their beers once at Barcade or somewhere else, but I wasn't that familiar with them.

"Triple Bock" got my attention, as did the 12.5% avb listed on the 12-ounce bottle. The $8.99 price tag seemed a bit steep, but why not give it a go?

B.R.'s famed horsehead bottle opener.

This bottle was brewed some time in 2011. The label offered the following information.

"First brewed as a collaboration in 1999 with Erik Harms of the Dragonmead Microbrewery which is also in Warren, Michigan."

"This Dark Heathen Triple Bock is a ruby red lager beer. Made using the decoction process. Munich and Vienna malts make it taste very malty, smooth and complex. Serve at 35-42F (2-6C).

It was hard to see any red highlights in the color of the beer, which looked very dark brown/blackish. It had very little foam -- just a trace of a dark tan head along the side of the glass.

The aroma was very malty, a bit sherried, a little alcohol all mixing with dark dried fruit aromas, a sweet malty toffee note and some estery notes.

The beer drank very thick and viscous, with a good dose of bitterness through the sweet malty backbone, and that pleasant sort of oxidation that adds more to the beer than it takes away.

This is a nice sipping beer or desert treat. Though it might benefit from a few years of mellowing -- to round out the flavors a bit. $9 for a 12-ounce bottle might seem pretty steep for this one, but perhaps in 2 years time that price will seem justified!

Norway or No Way!

On Saturday March 11, 2012 a courageous band of homebrewers set out to attempt to replicate two different beers devised by one of the most reputed international craft brewers we know, Nøgne Ø of Norway.

Because they were using the state-of-the-art HRMS system at Bitter & Esters, it made the daunting challenge a little bit easier.

The morning crew brewed a clone of the Nøgne Ø porter.

While the afternoon group took on the Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew. 

For now, the photos tell the story better than words, though not as well as the finished (or Norwished) product will in a few weeks!

It ain't brewin' if there ain't beer!

Grind over matter.

Run of the mill.

Charlie says, relax, have a homebrew.

B.R. inspects the kettle for Kjetil.

Hop salad.	Kind cones.
Mash mash mash...	mash mash mash...
get your mash on...	stir your mash pot!
Flavor hops, added with flourish.	Get those grains outta that pot!
Spent.	Wort up.

Cask Beers At DBA Brooklyn

Friday night, on the way home from the Brooklyn Brewery, where we enjoyed the cask Irish Stout, Mary's Maple Porter, Ama Bionda and others.

We had both cask beers on offer, the Castle Rock Harvest Pale Ale and the Adnams ESB --  both British brewers.

The fact that we saw Alex Hall of the Gothim Imbiber and Wander Start Brewery and his lovely wife Felice there was a sign that we were at the right place for cask ale!

Brew Like Kjetil

Bitter and Esters host the latest installment of the Brew Like a Pro Series, cloning a beer from the reputed Nøgne Ø brewery of Norway. You can sign up HERE, and get more info HERE. Beer Hear! will definitely be attending this one!

What's Bob Drinking Now?

Pretty Things has been a favorite brewery for a while, now. St-Botolph's Town is in regular rotation in the fridge, and Jack D'or also makes regular rounds at our table.

When we saw the latest new pretty thing in the cooler at Good Beer, LOVELY SAINT WINEFRIDE, it was a given that we'd be trying it before long.

L-St-W is billed as a "brown lager brewed using a decoction method to mark the end of winter." Good timing, then, as the temperature is to climb to near 60-degrees this week!

The beer is a very dark brown color, as viewed from a wide goblet. The color reminds me of Turkey Pond in Concord, N.H., which has a slightly iodine color just on the top, super dark brown just inches below the surface, and then quickly brown to black. St-W has a modest, tan lace along the edge of the glass.

There is an assertive, bold, long lasting and consistent mild roast aroma -- it's strong without being acrid or burnt. There seems to be some real fruitiness, but from hops and not yeast? You don't expect that from a lager, unless it's fermented a bit warmer than usual -- and as their website notes, it was fermented a bit warm, "as low as 53-degrees" which might account for the dry frutiness, á la a Steam Beer or Kölsch.

The flavor is also roasty, and extremely chewy!  It's very malty, mildy roasty and bitter. And, again, not acrid bitter, but rather hoppy bitter. Perhaps the decoction mashing added a hint of darkened caramel flavor, mixing about the hop bite.

Of course, decoction mashing means that a portion of the mash is brought to a boil and then re-added back to the main mash, in order to step up the temperature to help activate different enzymes to convert starches to various sugars.

At 7% abv, it's not quite a session beer and not quite a 10-ounce pour, but it's a richly flavored solid dark-brown beer best savored with relaxed patience and prolonged enjoyment. Let St-Winnie bless your tankard!