The NEIPA takeover continues to dominate southern New Hampshire tastebuds with an endless barrage of haziness and juiciness — and we are there for it!
The weather’s getting a little warmer, but the menu is still full of dessert beers and meads. A couple barrel-aged meads are coming out in March, and 603 Brewery is kicking off a three-month series of pie-themed barrel-aged stouts.
Plus, Candia Road and Great North have come out with twists on their flagship double IPAs.
WHAT’S ON TAP?
Long Blue Cat
Long Blue Cat Brewing in Londonderry will be releasing its Dearg Irish Ale (4.2 percent) on Friday March 13, and it will be on tap along with an Irish themed food menu for St. Patrick’s weekend. The brewery will be hosting parties on that Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Pipe Dream
Pipe Dream Brewing in Londonderry recently released Juice Maze Sour (5.7 percent), which is a wild sour ale with fruit flavors. It’s aged on 900 pounds of blackberries and raspberries.
Also on tap is Chicks Dig the Longball NEIPA (3.5 percent), a juicy New England IPA packed with flavor, double dry-hopped with citra and still light enough to be “super crushable.”
Pipe Dream also released Chicks Dig the Galaxy NEIPA (3.5 percent), a hazy New England IPA that is very sessionable, double dry-hopped with Galaxy hops, which provide juicy flavors and notes of citrus, peach and passion fruit.
Backyard Brewery
Backyard Brewery in Manchester will be bringing back four popular labels in the coming weeks.
They’ll be re-releasing Lazy Daze (6.2 percent) a popular New England IPA with fresh citrus, mango and pineapple flavors. It’s made with flaked wheat and oats to create a full-bodied mouthfeel and the hazy effect one comes to expect from an NEIPA. It’s double dry-hopped with six different hop varieties at different points of conditioning.
The Lawn Mower (5.8 percent) will also return. The lager is described as having a noisy body combined with a fresh hoppiness, making it refreshingly sessionable.
Backyard is also dropping its year-round favorite Belgian witbier Snow Squall (4.9 percent), which is made with authentic Belgian wheat and pale malt to make an easy-drinking and full-bodied witbier. It’s more flavorful than a typical wit, the brewers say, with healthy doses of fresh coriander, orange zest and a secret ingredient.
Finally, a Belgian tripel, Labatch 400 (9.5 percent) is coming out as part of a celebration marking their 400th batch of beer made at Backyard. This tripel is made with locally-grown Cascade hops from Gorham, Maine. It’s described as effervescent with hints of strawberry on the nose.
Candia Road Brewing
Candia Road Brewing Company in Manchester dropped two new beers at the end of February.
On Friday, Feb. 28, they tapped Separate States (6 percent), a French-style saison, brewed with Danko rye and spelt from Hadley, Massachusetts. It’s described as “clean and simple, just the way we like it.”
Then, on Saturday, Feb. 29, Candia Road dropped Big Conez (8 percent), a bigger and bolder version of Cone Zone, a double IPA made with Citra and Mosaic hops.
Ancient Fire
On Thursday, March 5, Ancient Fire Mead & Cider is releasing a new honey wine named Goldenwood (14.1 percent). It’s a four honey blend aged in a Four Roses bourbon barrel for nine months, creating a complex mead with a long, smooth finish.
Between March 11 and 15, Ancient Fire will be dropping four new meads to celebrate it’s second anniversary (see events section below for more details). The first three will be available on March 11.
The first is Winter Hum (7 percent), which they released for the first time at their first anniversary celebration. It’s a draft style mead with cold brewed coffee and maple syrup. The cold brew comes from Swift Current Cold Brew and the maple comes from Four Saps Sugar Shack in Lyndeborough.
Next is Jackpot! (7 percent), a brand new draft mead, made from Hawaiian coffee blossom honey and flavored with vanilla bean and tart cherries picked at the Ancient Fire property in Manchester.
They are also releasing Bucka-Wheat Bonzai (15.3 percent), a barrel-aged honey wine made with two honeys and apple cider. It was aged for 10 months in a rye whiskey barrel. It’s described as being rich, complex and super flavorful like a baked apple dessert, but still smooth and approachable.
Finally, on March 13, Ancient Fire is releasing a new apple draft-style mead called Yet Another Cyser (7 percent), made with mesquite blossom honey and New Hampshire apple cider from Fall 2019.
Great North
Great North Aleworks in Manchester released two Moose Juice variants on Thursday, Feb. 27. They started with the original Moose Juice IPA recipe and gave it a twist, in celebration of Portsmouth Beer Week 2020.
Firstly, Moose Juice Extra IPA (6.6 percent) is short for “extra special,” made with English ale yeast instead of their house American ale yeast, resulting in a more melon-forward flavor with a softer bitterness.
And Moose Juice Farmhouse IPA (7.3 percent) also switched up the yeast, but in this case they use Belgian-style ale yeast. The result is a crisper, dryer beer that features a Belgian spice character with a hint of clove.
They will only be available for a limited release on draft at the Great North tasting room and at all Thirsty Moose Taphouse locations in Portsmouth, Manchester, Exeter and Merrimack.
603 Brewery
603 Brewery in Londonderry just tapped its new Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Pecan Stout (9 percent), which is available now at the beer hall. This is the first of four variant pie-inspired barrel aged stouts to be released over the next three months.
The next one coming out in April is based on blueberry pie.
EVENTS
Ancient Fire’s 2nd Birthday will be celebrated from March 11 through 15. They will be celebrating with the release of four new meads (see above) and will be hosting two VIP ticketed events on March 11 and 12, and then open hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday that weekend.
To close out the celebration, they will have Sangria Sunday on March 15 and will be bringing back a fan favorite sangria, the Tai Fighter. This is a riff on a Mai Tai cocktail, made with lime juice and a house-made bitter orange and brown sugar syrup and topped off with their mead Making Sand Castles, which is made with Hawaiian macadamia blossom honey.
They plan on making this concept into a mead and releasing it later this spring.
