OEC Brewing / B. United Trip.

OEC Brewing / B. United Trip.

Oxford, CT

Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking a road trip down to one of the newest New England breweries that just opened called OEC Brewing, short for Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores, which translates to "the order of eccentric brewers" or just "eccentric brewers". I have been excited about the opening of this place since I caught wind of the project at an open house B. United had held a year or so ago. If your not familiar with B.United they are a great importer that brings some excellent selections of beer to the US from places like Belgian, Germany, Italy and Japan just to name a few. Some of my favorite breweries they import from are:

Birrificio del Ducato / Birra del Borgo / Baladin / Wild Beer Co.

Loverbeer / BFM / Bahnhof / Hanssens / De Dolle / Alvinne / Hitachino Nest

and the list goes on....

I won't go into a lengthy explanation why I love this importer or the great lengths they go to make sure the beer they distribute is served with the integrity and care that the product deserves and the brewers expect. Along with a dedication to the product B.United is also bubbling with creativity that is very apparent when you tour the warehouse and come across the renowned Zymatore barrel room where the importer sources some of the most obscure and niche barrels and fills them with some of the very beer that they import. This is possible because they also do a good amount of their own kegging and bottling in house and choose to have the beer they import shipped over via tanker trucks and small batch containers. A very unique perspective that I have never thought of as a possibility. My mind was blown when I visited last year and a tanker truck was parked in the driveway serving different variations of Bahnhofs Berliner Weisse from a tap on the side of the truck... its true there was a oat and potato berliner being poured out of a tanker truck !

Here you can see the side of the warehouse of B.United. 

Oh did I mention that the trip wasn't just about visiting OEC brewing but they were also holding a "Meet the Brewer" event so the place was crawling with some of my favorite brewmasters from all over the world !

As usual B.United threw an amazing party with some BBQ being served in the parking lot, a few tents were pouring great selections from the brewers on hand, a jazz trio was setting the mood and the brewers were lingering and sharing some great info about their process as well as things that were in the works. 

The crowd was mellow and my co-pilot and I ended up running into a good amount of familiar faces as seems to always be the case when good beer is being served.

On the grounds they also have started a small vineyard and orchard where they are growing Marechal Foch grapes, Mission & Kadota Figs, Peaches and a greenhouse full of obscure fruits like Kumquats, Yuzu as well as lemons and limes that all will find their way into barrels and batches of the Zymatore project and OEC brews.

Inside the brewery was an impressive selection of beers, spotless equipment and a clearly enthusiastic staff who were as excited about serving the beer as I was about drinking it !

I found the beers to be way above average across the board and the styles to be right up my alley.

On draft for samples and 750ml's to take home, they had a few sour saisons, a berliner, a grodziskie, porter and sour porter ! Along with growlers they offer sample paddles, full pours, glassware and a relaxing environment to sit chat and take in the focused brews that were offered.

After a lot of sipping, in depth conversations about beer and of course some relaxing, we were able to get a behind the scenes tour of the warehouse and the Zymatore room.

Warehouse

A new container that will be used to ship beer across the Atlantic for limited small batch goodness!

I think we interrupted a secret meeting happening just outside the Zymatore room...

Barrel Aged Goodness.... Keep your eyes peeled for bottles and draft options of the highly esteemed Zymatore project !

Long blogpost short. If you love beer and are looking for a new place to visit, go check out OEC brewing and forage some tasty growlers when you arrive ! 

Cheers.

MontreHaul and Vermont Sipcation. Part I

MontreHaul and Vermont Sipcation. Part One.

Looking for a roadtrip ?  

Here is a nice little vacation my wife and I recently spent visiting some wonderful spots, sipping some serious suds and foraging some cellar reinforcements !

Portland > Waterbury > Burlington > Montreal > Greensboro > Portland

One of the best parts of this trip is the lack of highway driving involved. From Portland you head west through the hills of Western Maine and across New Hampshire right through the White Mountain National Forest... one of my favorite ranges in the White Mountains has always been Crawford Notch.

From there its through the rolling green hills of Vermont where we come across a super spot for lunch, dinner or just an app and a few great draft selections.

Prohibition Pig

Waterbury, Vermont

ALways nice to grab a few half pours to try some new things and make a decision on what to have a pint of... that along with great service, down home goodness on the menu and a stellar draft and cocktail list make this place a must stop when out foraging in Vermont !

Always order the pickled veggies... draft selections were:

Hill Farmstead Mary

Hill Farmstead Edward

Siren/Evil Twin/Grassroots Siren

Lawsons Finest Sip of Sunshine

ProPig Pale Ale

ProPig Kombucha

The boards speak volumes to the menu offered and even the bill comes wrapped in a reconstituted hop bag billfold. Mmmm Citra.

From Waterbury we hit the road toward Burlington where we secured a hotel via hotwire. It landed us in Essex at the Essex Resort which was a nice place to stay but we didn't spend time exploring all the spa's and resort amenities we could have but rather jumped back in the car to hit up...

Fiddlehead Brewing 

Shelburne, VT

I've had the pleasure of drinking a few IPA's from this brewery and have been pretty impressed with the quality of the beer they have been putting out and heard recently they have been releasing 16oz cans of some of their batches so decided to make the 25 minute trek over from Essex to visit the place, digest our Prohibition Pig lunch and try a few more Vermont brews. The only tasters offered at the brewery were the solid Fiddlehead IPA that I have had before and a slightly lackluster hefeweizen that was definitely drinkable, it just lacked any complexity or focused yeast character for me to get very excited about purchasing some. I inquired about cans and they happened to have 4pks of their Hodad Porter which is a toasted coconut, vanilla and chocolate porter that is pretty tasty and worth picking up a 4pk for sure. The person working the tasting room was pretty friendly and also directed my attention to a barrel aged maple sap beer they had just released in collaboration with the Vermont Folklife Center who shared some old time sap beer recipes with Fiddleheads brewer Matt Cohen.

The description: 

"This year, brewer Matt Cohen has something extra special cooked up, "We're doing a little twist on our Sap Beer and aging it in bourbon barrels for a few months.”

What is sap beer? Stated simply, sap beer is beer brewed using fresh maple sap in place of water. Sap beer is traditionally made with sap collected late in the season—the “frog run” as sugar makers call it--when the sound of peepers fills the air and trees are getting ready to bud. The history of sap beer runs as deep in Vermont as the roots of a sugar maple, and Frog Run Sap Beer is a contemporary sap beer tied to Vermont’s traditional sugar making and brewing cultures.

Fiddlehead Brewing Company’s Frog Run Sap Beer is made from sap provided by Moonlit Mapleworks in Bristol, VT, and the result is a bright, refreshing ale with a crisp, subtle maple finish. "

I noticed the barrels he said the beer had aged in to be Stranahan's bourbon and inquired a little more about the process and the final product. Questions like how much sap was used in the boil as well as what type of yeast strain was used in fermentation of the beer... all these questions were answered with the classic, "well thats a trade secret, bub !" and after a few of those answers and the possibility of being called bub once more...I reluctantly purchased a 750ml bottle of it seemingly blindly for $20, stay tuned to see what this bottle is all about in a future review.

From there we proceeded down the road to downtown Burlington where we took a relaxing stroll amongst the ever increasing chain stores that line up along the main pedestrian walk way... these days aren't quite as special as the old days being that of the early and mid 90's when the magic of Phish was in the air and the local breweries like Magic Hat, Longtrail, Catamount and Otter Creek were producing beers that at the time I found to be most unique and interesting. Well times have changed and now it kind of feels like a large open air mall but there are still a few choice spots to catch some tasty food and the new breed of Vermont brewers that have taken the reigns and pushed the envelope of what a great beer should taste like.    

For dinner we chose:

The Farmhouse Tap & Grill

Burlington, VT

Looking back I cannot quite recall exactly what we had but I know there was pickled vegetables involved, a nice slab of local meat that was braised to perfection and salad that incorporated a strawberry vinaigrette very nicely. The atmosphere was laid back but bustling with people... we actually had to chill on the back patio and wait for a seat for a half hour but it was an easy wait sipping some Lost Nation Gose and talking about what the rest of our adventure through Montreal was shaping up to be ! Presentation was spot on and service was fantastic... we opted on a to go dessert which was a great desicion upon arriving back at the Essex Resort to share a piece of dark luscious black chocolate cake with a can of Fiddlehead Hodad Porter to wash it down with.

-----Day One Complete---- 

Portland > Waterbury > Burlington, DONE.

Hill Farmstead Trip....

So sometimes you just need to travel to a sure spot to go foraging for bottles.  Sometimes these places are not just in your backyard... what that means is a road trip !  What does a road trip consist of? First thing is find a co-pilot, pick a day and watch the weather. I spent the month of October doing this as well as alerting other bottle searchers in my local circle about the upcoming journey. That way not only would I be helping them snag some beer but with a little order fee I could alleviate the cost of gas and focus my hard earned dollars on BEER.  This particular journey was a small bounce through western Maine, over through the white mountains, across the green hills of Vermont and northbound to a little spot that is very quickly becoming the epitome of New England farmhouse brewing. Hill Farmstead.

Here is a glimpse of the trip.... through the eyes of my co-pilot.

and our final destination... 164 miles 3.25 hours.

Once there we stretched a bit and used the portapotty... there wasn't one last time!

Inside we found a packed house of about 10-20 people steadily marking down orders, sipping beer samples and watching Shaun Hill check his Iphone, mark down notes and help wash glasses. We ordered through our samplers and finalized the large haul that we prepared. Growlers and 750ml pours for myself and a large array of bottles for the Portland crew.

All in all it took 2.5 hours to grab some samples, work out a side order for another brewer friend and get everything loaded up and ready for the journey back into Portland.

We did make a quick stop in downtown Hardwick to pick up a few snacks a coffee and some Jasper Hill cheese. We also had to double check that we couldn't snag some Heady Topper from a spot that worked out last time I was in town.

Night fell as we weaved through the ominous white mountains... a quick stop at Moat Mountain for a little dinner and a Iron Mike Pale Ale. Then back to Portland to unload.

Total Haul:

Draft Fills

Growlers : 2x Abner

750ml Fills: 3xAbner, 1xSusan, 1xGeorge, 1xS&S #5, 1xEdward

26 Twilight of Idols

18 Arthur

17  Anna

6  Clara

4  Juicy

2Anchorage Bitter Monk

1 Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza

1 Grassroots/Mikkeller Wheat is the New Hops

*not including a hefty lil order by my co-pilot

As I type this Im cleaning up a 750ml of Society and Solitude #5.... looking at my calendar and figuring out the next road trip to the Hill !