Family Friendly Brewery

November 13, 2014January 20, 2015 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

Four-beer flight at Tributary Brewing

October in Maine is a bittersweet time of year. The sun is still warm, the trees are at their peak color, but the days are so short you feel like you’re going to cry when you think of the dark winter soon to come. I was feeling a little bittersweet on recent — and perfect — October Maine day when I visited Tributary Brewing for the first time. Sun crashed through the large storefront windows, brightening up the deep, steely blue that covered the place from floor to ceiling. People had told me the room was supposed to feel like you were underwater, but the atmosphere that Saturday was more airy than under-the-sea. It was like sitting lake side, sipping from a fresh beer, flanked by my friends on one side and my daughter on the other. The brew, the room, the band playing jazz standards were slowly curing what ailed me.

I’m not sure how it happened, but I’ve been writing a lot about beer lately. A few freelance assignments headed my way, and a few pitches about craft beer were picked up. The money was good and beer makes a good subject. I was thirsty for more assignments. I just needed to do a little research.

The problem is, visiting breweries is not an easy task for me. As the parent of a two-year-old who is also married to a craft beer lover, trips to a tap room can be tricky. Neither one of us wants to be Those Parents — pounding back pints while their toddler ruins everyone’s day drinking. I could ask my husband to stay home with our child while I sample fresh and interesting beers with friends, but that just seems mean. Instead, I scan news clips and beer blogs for family friendly pubs where our daughter can stretch her legs without disrupting others in the brewery. Thankfully, there are more and more of those in New England these days.

Tributary Brewing taproom bar

West Coast breweries figured out long ago that parents need a pint just as much as the childless. Even more so, on some days. Breweries in Portland, Oregon now offer kid’s menus and Hopworks Brewery even features a play area for the tots. As the number of tasting rooms has grown in the Portsmouth/Kittery area, I’ve appreciated their welcoming vibe when my daughter is in tow. Neither the bartenders nor the brewers at Earth Eagle Brewings blinked an eye when we brought our daughter in last winter to fill our growler. When Tributary Brewing opened, I heard former Portsmouth Brewery head brewer Tod Mott was doing great things with beer. I also heard that parents of well-behaved children need not fear the stink-eye from the establishment.

Plenty of room to stretch out at Tributary Brewing’s picnic tables

Mott is best known in beer circles as the master behind the highly-rated stout Kate the Great. He owns and runs Tributary with his wife, Galen Mott, out of a storefront in small shopping plaza two doors down from the Kittery Post Office. Tributary Brewing is not located in the booming Foreside neighborhood, where you’ll find the beer-lover’s mecca, The Black Birch, but the little plaza is home to the summer farmers market and, for many, is on the way home from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

I ordered a four-beer flight, which included 4-ounce pours of all that Tributary had on tap that day. It started with a Pumpkin Ale, not a typical choice for launching a flight, but it’s October, so who cares right? At 5.2% ABV, this delicious ale was light on the pumpkin spice, allowing the hops to shine through. You say you’re not into the pumpkin beer thing? Well if any pumpkin ale is going to convert you, this one will.

Next was the Oatmeal Stout, a smooth, chocolaty, far-too-drinkable beer. I tend to stay clear of stouts and porters before the snow flies, and then only in moderation, but at 6.2% ABV, I could cozy up with a few of these and a cribbage board on a Friday night and be perfectly happy. The odd-man-out in the flight was Tributary’s Bier De Garde, a bright, bubbly and tart light beer that left your mouth smacking after the first sip. Not my favorite of the bunch, it was the strongest at 6.9% ABV. Following two beers that signal the end of the year, the Bier De Garde seemed more fitting for April than October. My final sample was Tributary’s IPA. At 6.5% ABV, this beer was perfectly balanced and a little bittersweet. Overall a completely drinkable beverage for a Saturday with friends.

I was downing my last gulp of IPA around the time the jazz combo started packing up their gear. It was getting dark and my daughter had eaten all the snacks we had brought. As glasses emptied, we brainstormed about finding dinner across the Piscataqua. Tributary Brewing was an easy weekend meet-up for a group of friends both with and without kids, but now we were on to the hard part — dinner for seven in Portsmouth on a Saturday night.

Will Travel for Beer

July 23, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

With the boom in small craft breweries, it seems like every small town has their own tasting room stocked with beer brewed fresh out back. State tourism boards have noticed too, and are trying to boost their appeal by promoting their locally made ales and lagers alongside other attractions, such as skiing, hiking, and even work conferences. It’s not that hard of a sell. Who wouldn’t want to throw in a craft brewery tour on their vacation? For the story, click the link below.

“Will Travel for Beer,” Market Watch June 2014

About Kittery, killed it

May 1, 2014July 15, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

The following post was to be published elsewhere, but did not make the cut. Here’s the piece, aimed at an out-of-town audience.

Getting Out in Kittery

I had been suffering from a bad case of cabin fever, so I suggested to my husband we get a babysitter and do a date night. Not wanting to spend half the evening looking for parking in downtown Portsmouth, we took a quick drive over the Sarah Long Bridge and enjoyed an evening of beer drinking and eating delicious food in Kittery, Maine.

Up until recently, Kittery had been a sleepy town with a tiny downtown – known as the Foreside – that included few things to do at night. But in the past few years, an infusion of young entrepreneurial energy lured Kittery residents back to the Maine side of the bridge for their drinks, dining and entertainment.

Old Memorial Bridge looking from Portsmouth, NH to Kittery, Maine

My husband and I started at the Black Birch, a low-key and tiny space known for its small plates and a killer beer list. We started out with the deviled eggs, three halves each with their own twist on the summer picnic classic. The wasabi-spiced was the clear winner. For dinner, I had the duck with a sweet citrus glaze, which left me scoping the sticky yumminess up with my fork long after the duck was gone. My husband had the brick chicken – a dish that left me wondering how they could make plain-old-chicken taste so good. My husband sampled the darker beers on the list – of which there are plenty – while I started with the 2 Govt., a bourbon-based cocktail named in honor of the Black Birch’s address.

If whiskey is your thing, you’re sure to find something to make you happy here. Not only do they offer a solid selection of bourbon and rye, the Black Birch also has a constant rotation of seasonal whiskey-based cocktails on their menu that go above and beyond the seen-all-too-often twist on an Old Fashioned or Manhattan.

Next to the Black Birch is Buoy Gallery, founded by young artists looking for a space to showcase emerging art both local and from away. If the gallery looks like it’s having an opening or an event, stop in. Buoy focuses on innovative and captivating shows. If it’s not open, don’t worry. The Black Birch and Buoy are connected by a back hallway and you can usually take a peek in the gallery near the restaurant bathrooms.

Old Memorial Bridge, close forever

Down the street is Anneke Jans, a fine dining restaurant with a casual yet classy bar attached to the main dining room. For nearly 10 years it’s been a trendy after work spot for Kittery’s professional class, and more recently inherited a top-notch chef to revamp the menu. If you’re going for cocktails, I suggest anything served in a martini glass. If you’re more of a wine drinker, there’s plenty to keep you happy on their list, too. Make sure to order the mussels, with bleu cheese. This once-weird combo is one of Anneke Jans’ signature dishes for its mix of briny and creamy tanginess.

The Foreside is not the only place of interest in Kittery. There are the shopping outlets on Route 1 which are easily accessible from Interstate 95. Here you’ll find Levis, Nike, Coach, and an entire building dedicated to the Gap-Banana Republic brand. There are your typical fried food restaurants along the strip, as well as the slightly upscale fish eatery, Robert’s Maine Grill, which is a must-stop for oyster lovers. For good food, good drinks and (slighty) less cost, drive north on Route 1 just past the outlets to the When Pigs Fly company store and restaurant. Here they elevate the classic pizza joint with craft beers, freshly made pizza, and oh-so-good sandwiches made on their own bread.

Lights over the Old Memorial Bridge

Kittery has long been the little sister to Portsmouth’s many great restaurants and was considered lacking when compared with the city’s art and music scene. But as rents climb and Portsmouth grows, young chefs, bartenders, artists and others from Seacoast New Hampshire are taking their ideas into Maine. This exodus has largely been Kittery’s gain and now those who come to visit Portsmouth have a whole new downtown to go to.

Stay Work Play: Beating Cabin Fever

March 5, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

I am tired of being in the house. I am tired of looking at a snowy roof outside my office window. I am tired of being cold. I am tired of the dark. Can you tell when you read this post?

photo courtesy of Polly’s

Writing about beer

February 5, 2014May 28, 2014 / Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment

I don’t know if it’s because beer is perceived as a “dude thing” or if it’s because beer making and tasting has become a haven for snobs, contrarians and haters, but I find writing about beer very intimidating. Coming up with the words to describe the beer before me is far more of a struggle than writing about wine or spirits. The accepted language for those beverages is so much more forgiving and subjective, but with beer, if you don’t have your hops, malt and yeast palate honed razor sharp, you open yourself up to rigorous ridicule.

That’s probably why I took a more nostalgic look at the new Dover brewery, 7th Settlement. The quality of beer, the menu and the over all feel of the bar and dining room is such a gargantuan leap above the shit-holes where I once drank in Dover, I felt it needed mentioning. You will see me shy away from getting too deep into the beer tasting notes, for the above reason. No amount of liquid courage this day could conquer my fear of the critics.

7th Settlement picks up the craft beer mantle in Dover

When I last lived in Dover, there were very few places to go for a beer. This is many years ago, before the Barley Pub and the Brick House. Those places had just opened by the time I packed up my belongings and moved to Portsmouth. In the years since, many of my Portsmouth friends have moved back to Dover, a far more affordable place to live and do business, and as they’ve gotten to know Dover, I too have gotten to know Dover again.

I was sad to hear the Barley Pub closed down earlier this year. That establishment deserves a lot of the credit when it comes to making Dover nightlife what it is today, proving that a chill place to grab a beer and listen to live music could be done in Dover. Up until the Barley Pub opened, it was a town of rowdy beer halls and sports bars.

The Barely Pub will be missed by many, but its departure was almost simultaneous to the opening of 7th Settlement brewery at 47 Washington Street. Founded by two young entrepreneurs, Dave Boynton and Josh Henry, 7th Settlement is billed as New Hampshire’s first “community supported brewery.” This new kind of brewery runs similarly to community supported agriculture, where patrons buy in to the business of producing an edible product, reaping special benefits in return.

The founders are dedicated to supporting local farmers when it comes to making their beer, and when it comes to the food they serve in the brew pub. A few weeks ago, I met some friends there and was knocked out by the stylishly revamped mill space. High ceilings, exposed brick walls, room-length bar with plenty of high-top tables for meeting and eating with friends. In the back was a separated space, which I soon learned was for families. While this may seem somewhat cruel to quarantine parties with young children to a separate eating area, my husband and I breathed a sigh of relief when we realized we could let our daughter squeal and run around the table without child-free parties staring us down.

Gardner State

Writing my way around New England

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