My Cape Cod Beer Expedition

November 15, 2008

Homer: I can’t believe they stuck us at Taxachusetts! Hey, you know, I once knew a man from Nantucket.

Bart: And?

Homer: Let’s just say the stories about him are greatly exaggerated.

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. Okay that sentence does not apply to the trip. I just wanted a good opening line for once, so I decided to pay homage to the Simpsons’ homage to “A Tale of Two Cities”. In reality, we had a great time on Cape Cod. Best of all we got acquainted with a few local beers.

My first step in this journey was to do my homework. We were planning on traveling 13 hrs in 2 days with a two month old baby which could have spelled disaster. I wanted to come up with possible stops for lunch and diaper changes. I used both Craft Beer Locator and Beer Advocate to find out if there just happened to be any brewpubs on the way there to stop for lunch. I used CBL’s mapping to find that about 4 hours into the trip Erie PA had two breweries that we could visit. I have already had some of Erie Brewing Co. beers and have enjoyed them a lot so I wanted to stop at their brewery. We needed a brewpub for lunch so we stopped at a brewpub in Erie called The Brewerie.

The Brewerie is a brewpub located in an old train station. It is a beautiful and unique space. The food was reasonably priced and good. They had me at home cut fries.  We weren’t too impressed with their beer but do not let that stop you from going there, if you’re passing by. They have a large variety of local craft beers from the area. I was able to buy a Voodoo Brewery’s Gran Met in the bottle. I got it to go so I could drink it when we arrived at our hotel in Syracuse that night. I enjoyed this Belgian Strong Ale. It is 10.5% ABV and it showed smell and taste. Yet, it did not overpower the beer.

Our second stop in Erie was Erie Brewing Co. which was a stop I was very excited about. I have enjoyed their Misery Bay and Railbender. They were extremely kind to us there and I even got to hold their bronze medal form the GABF. They won a bronze in the Scottish Ales with their Railbender Ale. We took a short tour and ended up in their tasting room. Sarah and I split some tastes. Sarah liked Mad Anthony which is American Pale Ale and I dug the Heritage Ale which is Old Style German Dark. I am a sucker for roastiness.

Finally, the next day we arrived at Cape Cod. The search for local Cape beer was underway. They have 3 breweries that are actually on the Cape and Islands. They are Cape Cod Beer, Off Shore, and Cisco Brewers.

Whenever, I am on the road I always compare other places beer scene to Michigan’s. What I like about our scene and what I wish we could adapt from their beer scene. I know we only drew on a small sampling of restaurants but every restaraunt I ate at served local beer. I’m not sure if that’s because they were not chain restaurants so they don’t need to be told by the home office what to serve. That is a plus on their side but we have the advantage in breweries and number of beer styles available in stores. I tried for a week to find a good local stout for our friend Cindy but I failed.

The main brewery on the Cape is Cape Cod Brewing Co. I like this brewery a lot and they also taught me a lesson. Growlers can hang in your refrigerator for a week and a half unopened. The only way this beer was available was in growlers. However, the growlers were for sale in most stores. My favorite of their beers was their porter. Porters when brewed to style are beautiful beers. The beer poured with a brown body topped with tan head and had a cocoa and coffee taste with some roastiness.  Very drinkable. I also recommend the IPA and red. They do offer tours but they only offer two a week and neither times fit into our schedule.

Other craft beers that were easy to find in local stores is Offshore Brewing’s Amber and IPA and to a lesserdegree Cisco’s Whale’s Tale Pale Ale. Both of these breweries are located on the islands with Offshore has a brewpub in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard and Cisco Brewers on Nantucket. I really wanted to visit Cisco but the ferry to Nantucket is both expensive and time consuming so we made the trek to Offshore.

We stopped at Offshore for lunch and I have huge remorse because I didn’t get the double garlic pizza. Even though I pulled a boner (Hee hee) with what i ordered, I still had a pretty good lunch. The brewery is in a great old building. You can see the grain stored on a loft and the brewer preparing his next beer to be brewed. The best beer that I had of there’s was the IPA which you can find in bottles throughout the Cape.

A friend of ours works at High Rise Bakery in Boston and they sell Cisco’s beer. He’s the one who introduced me to their beer. I remember really enjoying their beer and was interested to see if my memory was right. While there I drank a Whale’s Tale which is an American Pale Ale. It was a beer with nice balance and easy drinking. A good beer to enjoy while sitting by a fire on the beach. Also available in bottles is the Grey Lady and Sankaty Light. Grey Lady made the trip back home with us so i could share it with Rob. This Witbier gets an A- from BA and is well deserved. I hope by the time I go back their beer is more readily available so I can try more of thier beer. Either way, I will definitely make the trip to the brewery on my next visit. All the homework I have done shows that you need to visit the brewery to really enjoy the beer Cisco brews.

We didn’t stop at any breweries on our way back from the Cape. I tried to pick up a growler from Buffalo Brewpub but they were charging fifteen dollars for the bottle alone with no beer in it! Beer Advocate verified that I made a good decision. I was hoping that Maggie would need a diaper change and feeding in Cleveland so we could stop by Great Lakes B.C. but she was asleep when we hit Cleveland so we decided to keep going.

When we got back home I was glad to be back in the “great beer state”. Home of some the best breweries in the world. So please next time you are in the store support our state’s great beer scene.

Posted in Beer Vacation