Northampton Brewpub

Ahhhhhh Northampton, MA. That kind of quaint little town you could spend all day just walking around and taking it all in. Little shops and cafes are as far from commercial franchises that you can be, and a brewery which is not only friendly to the environment, but friendly to your beer pallate. Northampton Brewery is linked via family to Smuttynose Brewery. Owner Janet is the sister of the Smuttynose owner, who helped her open the Brewpub almost 22 years ago. The building was originally a carriage house, but recently underwent a massive 10 day renovation putting earth friendly plaster on the walls and also included a smart comfort control system in place to run the air/heat only as needed depending on the amount of people in the building and the conditions inside and out. Another AMAZING thing they do, and quite frankly I don't know why other places don't, is recycle. Out back you will find many, many large trash containers divided into waste and recycle, not to mention one lone container they put all their used hops into for compost. As far as their used grain, it is sent to local farms to feed moo cows (lol). So, after hearing about trash from manager Chris, he led us to the brewing area to meet the brewer, Donald. Donald was in the mists of making a German rye beer. While he worked he took a few minutes to enlighten Lauren and I about his beer making abilities before he loaded the grain into the auger. As a little side note, both Chris and Donald are hopheads (w00t). Donald told us about the main brew kettles. They are used and as old as the brewery, which in fact were originally brought out from Washington state. This is mainly because back in the 1980's the small scale brewing world was not what it is today, so equipment was hard to come by. Going up the sides of one of the boilers were various recipes used and developed over the years by the various head brewers who have stood in Donald's galashes. While Donald discussed beer, he let us taste the Nanatuck IPA directly from the fermented cooled the day before and due for a dry hop before being served to the public. Let me assure you though even in this unfinished stage, it tasted awesome with a clean bite and smooth finish. We let Donald get back to work and followed Chris up to the outside deck. This was quite a spot. On such a beautiful day, if we didn't have plans immediately afterwards, I think Lauren and I would have parked it up there and tied one off. There is a bar upstairs with all the current beers on tap along with various types of good liquors in the well stocked bars. Next, we headed inside and admired the custom artwork painted locally for the brewery. The tables were topped in copper and fit beautifully in the eclectic atmosphere. Finally it was time to head downstairs again to taste the wares. Chris had some manager duties to fulfill, so he left us in the very capable hands of Jaime, their tenured bartender. We were cutting it close on time, so we couldn't sample every beer, but we did get to try 3. Lauren tried their Graduation Ale, which was a lighter-bodied beer a fruity aroma and taste and a clean finish (as described by Lauren). I'm not one for really fruity beers, but I found this one very pleasant as it wasn't overwhelming. This is a one-time-a-year beer that is made with 60 lbs of strawberries and raspberries. I started off with the Hoppily-Ever After. This is a project by Donald in which he Divided the batch into 3 before dry-hopping and then proceeded to dry-hop with a different type in each. The one they had tapped when we were there was made with Cascade hops and had a nice bite and was balanced all the way through with a medium body. We were able to try one more beer before we hit the road and that was at the recommendation of Jaime. It was called the Alpha project and it's an experiment by Donald in which he used one type of Hop throughout the entire brewing process (this particular batch was made with only Horizon hops). It was a medium to full bodied amber beer that started off malty like it wanted to be a lager and then finished with a bite like an IPA, yet kept an even keel all the way through. It was the Alpha project that we took with us in a Growler. I should mention that we didn't get a chance to try the food because of time constraints, but I'm told its is California influenced but really is a bit of everything. We will be sure to try the food next time we are up in the area. We would like to thank Chris, Donald, and Jaime for taking time to hang with us and hope all of you will go see them at Northampton Brewpub. It will not be a wasted trip, I assure you. *clink*