True Innovators: A History of Beer In New England
Welcome to a very special article where I will take you into the long history that New England has when it comes to beer and some of the places that were at the forefront of the new craft beer Renaissance. Now as I said in the first article on here, with this blog, it is never my intention to try to teach you about anything here. But with this region so rich in it's tradition with beer, I can't help passing out an opportunity to talk about it. Think of it not as being taught something, but more like obtaining new information about the region you live in that you never knew existed.
Imagine you are in another part of the country and you're at a local brewery somewhere and you strike up a conversation with either a patron or maybe the person that is serving your beer and you guys end up talking about all things beer, maybe they ask where you are from and you say that you come from New England. The other person might just say "Oh, so you must be big into the Sam Adams beer. I've never been a fan of those." and that is probably what the casual drinker from outside the region would probably say to you. Heck, go anywhere in the West and they would probably start a friendly little argument saying how their craft beers are far more superior to anything we do out here. But don't worry because to the people that know good beer and probably have studied up, there is a sort of respect to New England's role in micro-brewing. No matter if it's an IPA or a lager, you'd have a hard time finding something of very low quality in New England.
What better place to start off than in the state that started it all? The very first brewing license in America was given to man who owned a tavern right in Boston by the name of Robert Sedgewick in 1637 for the purpose of serving beer commercially . Now back in these days, brewing was moreso used by crews of ships for trips between the colonies and England and during much of the 17th and 18th centuries, most of the profits for the sale of beer were aimed at ships. However, it wasn't until after The Revolutionary War that beer began to be produced for larger scale consumption. The West Boston Brewery was the first brewery in New England, which opened in 1796 and lasted for almost 20 years. But the first truly successful brew company came in 1828 with the original Boston Brewing Company, which was one of two companies,alongside lager-based Heffenreffer and Co, to distribute their products outside the region, going as far as New Orleans. Even when Prohibition hit, both of these companies were able to survive and thrive in many cases. Unfortunately, by the middle of the 20th century most drinkers began to favor more larger known brews and soon, both saw their success drop and soon enough, they had to close down (Boston Brewing Company in 1957, Heffenreffer in 1964)
Which brings us to today's craft beer renaissance. Now many people believe that New England's participation started with Jim Koch and the new Boston Brewing Company that launched in 1984. However, the first brewery to actually start commercially selling and distributing beer in the region goes to the Harpoon Brewery, which opened in June of 1987 to the public in an old warehouse in the Boston waterfronts. Koch however, started out by doing contract brewing down in Pittsburgh before opening the Boston Brewery in 1989 and soon enough, the Sam Adams brand became a nationwide favorite and to this day, you can find it in almost every bar across the country.
Going away from the city and further inland, we didn't see much in the way of beer production until the craft beer renaissance kicked in. A few of these include (but are not limited to) The Berkshire Brewing Company, which began in 1994 and is best known for their Steel Rail Lagers and IPAs, The Wachusett Brewing Company, known for their Blueberry Beer (which I have tasted in the past and do recommend for anyone that feels like a fruity beer for any reason) and The Treehouse Brewery, which recently made the list of having three of the five best brews in America according to the Beer Advocate.
Compared to other New England states, New Hampshire history with beer making wasn't as well known, but the city of Portsmouth has been no stranger to the practice over the centuries. Back in the mid 17th century, the Strawberry Danke neighborhood did brewing activitites from time to time, but most of the beer was left to the taverns until 1859 when businessman and Franklin Jones teamed up with an English man by the name of John Swindell to create the Frank Jones Brewery right in Portsmouth. It soon grew to be the largest ale brewery in the country and for a short period, even expanded their activity to Boston. After having survived a period where Brititsh companies were buying out many regional breweries during the 1880s and 1890s, the brewery closed it's doors for good in 1917 when Prohibition began. Soon after that, the New Hampshire beer scene went dormant for decades until 1970 when St. Louis based Anheuser-Bush decided to open a regional brewery in the state.
As I mentioned before, as this new craft beer renaissance has gone on, New Hampshire has a bit slower than everyone else. A Seattle- based brewing company by the name of Redhook opened up a brewing factory in 1996, but the first well-known craft beer to come out of New Hampshire came two years earlier when the founder of the Northampton Brewery Peter Egelston moved up to Portsmouth and started the Smuttynose Brewery. They started with an initial offering of the Shoals Pale Ale and soon, expanded to 25 different varieties of beers. Another well known brewery in the state is the Tuckerman Brewing Company, founded in 1998 that's core brews include the Tuckerman Pale Ale, and a stout that goes by the name 6288, named for how high the Mount Washington Observatory is and proceeds from the stout go to maintaining the observatory. It took awhile but New Hampshire is finally starting to catch up with the rest of New England.
When it comes to the state of Connecticut, it's hard to really know how to go about their brew scene. Sure there is a rich history of brewing and it has it's fair share of good producers (just look at the stout that I reviewed from a local brewery that caught me by surprise) but the thing is, they have been missing that one brewery that really makes it stand out within all the other in New England. But even with that, there is still many things to talk about this state's past with beer.
From the time of Colonization until the mid 19th century, most of the beer production in Connecticut was left to the home brewer. But after refrigeration and pasteurization became commonplace and German immigration grew , the state saw a rise in breweries in urban areas. Soon after, darker beers began to replace the more traditional lagers. The Yale Brewery was a prime example of the change of direction as the brewery began life as The Quinnipac Brewing Company in 1881 focusing on lagers to the New Haven area. However, due to crippling debt, the founders declared bankruptcy and soon sold the company to a man named Nathaniel W. Kendall who turned around their fortunes by adding in 25 ton refrigerators and hired Germans to make the beer. Pretty soon, Yale was making fifty-thousand barrels of beer a day. Unfortunately Prohibition forced the company to close its doors in 1922 Fresicus Brewing was another well known brewery in Connecticut, founded in 1852 and run by a German immigrant by the name of Phillip Fresicus and made mostly ales and lagers. Fresicus died in 1888, but the company continued and just barely kept itself going through Prohibition by making profits off sodas, but it would only be a short term rescue and it closed up for good in 1936.
When the craft beer renaissance began, Connecticut wasted no time jumping on board, especially in New Haven. Elm City Brewing was the first well known brewery to come onto the scene. Although it's lifespan was short, it did lead to it's three head brewers the opportunity to try their luck at brewing. One of them was Rob Leonard, who went on to start The New England Brewery. Otherwise, Connecticut had to deal with a lot of unsuccessful ventures that came and went. One thing that there is a lot of support with is the local brewpubs. In more recent years, the brewpubs in this state have just started to allow growlers of their beer to be sold from within them and that has become their way of staying afloat and getting their product out.
Many people like to point to the fact that most of the breweries in Connecticut can only be found along the I-91 highway with none anywhere west or east of that line as the reason for not as much success cross state for breweries, but I do see the future getting better for them. Perhaps more people in those areas will try to take the chance and make an aggressive approach to getting their breweries out there. As for a stand out brewery, I do think New England Brewery could be the one to do that, but only time will tell.
You may think because Rhode Island is a small state, that there can't possibly be such a large following and such a large history with Rhode Island and brewing. Well my friends......you are sadly incorrect. Even at the time of the state's founding, beer played a big role in everyday life. Let's dive into it shall we?
So shortly after Roger Williams founded the state of Rhode Island, the very first brew house was found in 1703 by William Bauston in the town of Portsmouth that also doubled as a place for entertainers and a winery. Another brew house opened in Newport run by George Rome, which was in operation until The Revolutionary War and he returned to England. The first brewery in production in the state came in 1817 with The Providence Brewing Company. The Holmes Brewery was found 7 years later by Oliver and Otis Holmes, who had left Massachusetts to start their brewing careers. When they started, they were producing 8 barrels a day. After their deaths, the company continued to be run by the family until 1867.
I know you're thinking "Awesome, but what about The Narragansett Brewery?" well calm down, I'll tell ya! So the famous Narragansett Brewery was founded in 1890. When it was first built, it included many things, including a barn, seventy five horses, a blacksmith, both gas-powered and electric trucks and five refrigerated train cars and in December of that year, the first brew was sold to the public. Innovation quickly followed and in just under 20 years, Narragansett became the largest lager brewery in all of New England. Unfortunately, as the 20th century went on and new owners came and went, as well as moving production to outside the region, many felt that the quality of the beer was beginning to drop and sales soon dropped. The brand lives on today thanks to investor that were seeking to revitalize the the name Narragansett Brewing. Up until recently, the beer was made through contract brewing but recently, a new brewery was announced to be built in Pawtucket.
Since the craft beer renaissance began, Rhode Island has seen quite a bit of success. Hope Brewing was the first one to be successful, nabbing two Great American Beer Festival medals before having to close down in the mid 1990's. For more modern choices, Revival Brewing has become a favorite with locals with a couple brews like their Double Black IPA and the Burnside Pale Ale. But one place down their that I hope to visit sometime is The Foolproof Brewing, which has become known for their porters and stouts, especially their Peanut Butter Porter and Chocolate Oyster Stout.
The tradition seems alive and well in Rhode Island and things can only go up from here for the newer brewers looking to leave their mark in Rhode Island's brewing history!
To me, the story of brewing in Maine is one of redemption. For so many decades, this state wanted nothing to do with brewing and made many measures to stunt any activity from occurring there.
The first thing you need to know is Maine in the 19th century was there was what known as a temperance movement, which rallied for the abolition of alcohol. At it's peak, it was made up of over 1.5 million members and in 1846, they were successful in getting all alcoholic beverage abolished in the state, which caused a chain reaction in other New England states and soon enough, more states across the country began to following the model set forth by Maine until a nationwide ban was finally made in 1919. No record of any sort of brewing was made for decades after.
In 1986, all of that would change with a husband-wife combo by the name of David and Karen Geary who decided to open up their own brewery. The days of the temperance movement had long passed, so the people of Maine were eager to jump aboard the craft beer movement. David had been previously working in both England and Scotland at the breweries over there. By the time he got back, he and his wife put out a business plan that would get everything together for their own place. In December 1986, the first pints of Geary's Pale Ale was sold to the public and a little over 3 years later, they began distributing outside the Northeast. About two years later, a new player in Maine popped up. A man by the name of Alan Pugsby had been running a consulting business that helped out local breweries just starting up (Geary was one of his clients) but after Pugsby returned to his home in England, he began studying the brewing process and when he returned to Maine, he brought with him a yeast strain that would be used to develop his own brew and in 1994, he joined businessman Fred Fosley in creating the Shipyard Brewing Company.
The one thing that really sticks out with Maine and their brewers that sets them apart from the other New England states is that most Maine brewers only go up to three hundred barrels of beer a year. Sure there are probably quite a few that would like to expand their business, make more beer and make a name for themselves. But most are just thankful just to be serving their community. That is something to be admired for sure.
It is fair to assume with all that has happened with Vermont in the modern day craft beer renaissance that this is a state that has a rich history with beer. Surprisingly enough, that isn't the case. But unlike Maine, this wasn't just due to temperance movements more so than finding the funds to kick start brewing activity, some even had to do yearly lotteries. For the longest time, there was no such thing as a beer tradition.
While there had been small scale brewing going on shortly before then (only a small handful dating back to 1791), a law was passed in 1798 that restricted sales of any alcoholic beverages. But unlike Maine,there was protest and the law only lasted until 1814. The first big production brewery came in the form of the Burlington Brewery. Statistics showed that this Brewery made up to 13,000 gallons of beer a year. An arson set the building on fire,completely destroying it in 1840, but within a year they had managed to rebuild it and continue production. But this didn't last because just a few years later, another beer restriction law passed that made it so county commissioners to approve licenses for brewers with a provision that a local option can be allowed. With the temperance movement still strong in Vermont, it was clear that brewers would not find any support and in 1853, a state prohibition began.
Vermont's entry into the craft beer renaissance started with a guy named Greg Noonan, who wanted to build the first brewpub in the state. It took him 3 years to try to convince the state legislature to legalize breweries and brewpub, but he finally won the battle in 1988 and soon after, the Vermont Pub and brewery was created. It wasn't easy at first for Noonan as he only had enough money to cover the cost of payroll, but as soon as the money poured, all his worries were gone and in 1991, the Vermont Pub and Brewery won a Great American Beer festival gold medal for their Irish Ale and it was here where the Black IPA was created.
From there on out, the floodgates for new breweries opened and soon enough, Vermont quickly became the state with the highest amount of breweries per capita. I could make a whole list of ones that stick out in New England, but I'll keep it to a few. When Magic Hat was still an independent company, it was renown for it's "#9" apricot flavored ale. The Alchemist has also been praised for their Heady Topper, which is a double pale ale, although the only way you can get it is to take a trip up to Vermont as it's surprisingly not sold elsewhere. Lawson's Finest has also scored very high with their "Sip Of Sunshine" IPA. Heck go to the Hill Farmstead and get just about anything from there and it would be a quality drink. Vermont's IPAs are among the best in the country, so if you plan a brewery trip, don't be shy and try a few.
New England has a vast and rich history of brewing and I hope that this piece has made you understand just how involved this region is to this new craft beer renaissance. So next time someone asks how we fit into it, just let them know we are the true innovators.
Thanks for reading everybody, this was a fun process getting all this information. Hope you had fun too. Until next time, this is Andrew saying cheers to you!
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