Ipswich Ale Brewery - The Brewer's Table

I'm not sure when the Ipswich Ale Brewery expanded their operations to include a restaurant. I'm not sure at all how I missed this news.

Taking the train into Boston on a regular basis, I did notice that the building had expanded, and figured it was just a bigger operation there now.

We were looking for a place to take a walk, stalking Pokemon (Yes, we play Pokemon Go on a regular basis). Doug suggested Ipswich, and usually we'd head to the Choate Bridge Pub for a meal and a brew or so. I wrote about the Choate here when Dave and I visited in April, 2011.

But in poking around the internet, Doug discovered the Brewer's Table at the Ipswich Ale Brewery and suggested we visit there instead.

The brewery sits on a little side street just off downtown Ipswich. Brick interior, great lighting, big long bar and a really adorable tap system based on their mobile tap vehicles.

We settled in at the bar and were quickly taken care of. We ordered beers and a charcuterie "Riverbed Platter." I had the Rte 1A DIPA to start, as it is named for the road that runs through town. Doug enjoyed the Smoked Helles, which went very well with the meats and cheeses on the platter. I then enjoyed the "SIPA" the Session IPA and Doug the Rte 101, which is a California IPA, kind of the counter to the 1A of the East Coast.

The Riverblend platter was delicious, and the beers fantastic. Our bar staff was super friendly and she humored me when I asked her if she could set one of the flights up on the bar before serving it so I could take a picture. 

We even joked around about the Session IPA being labeled as "S.I.P.A." and I pronounced it "Sippah" like someone from New England just might. I loved the presentation - the two tiered small glasses of IPAs or Seasonal beers were just gorgeous. 

We pondered whether or not we should order a meal but figured if we sat and stayed put eating, we'd end up never going out to hunt Pokemon. So we ordered a Cranberry Beret (the kind you find at a second hand store, sing it with me!) to finish up our visit. 

Before leaving, we noted that the restaurant isn't full of wall to wall TVs, or even one TV. So headed there to watch the Big Game on Sunday isn't an option. That was kind of refreshing because so many places are just wall to wall tubes. 

We figured that we'll be back and will enjoy a full meal. Menu is probably subject to change now that Fall is here, but for now that link will show you the great meal choices at hand. 

I also will mention, I recently bought a new camera, and I've been loving how my pictures come out, whether of beer or scenery or people. I should have upgraded to a DSLR long ago. 

Find yourself some time and visit Ipswich, and the brewery, and the Pokemon hunting there is pretty decent too. 

Enjoy some more photos if you like that sort of thing. 

Unibroue and beautiful Chamblay, Quebec, June 2016

We've been fans of the artwork (and brews) for the Unibroue beer company for a long time.

Back in June, Doug and I planned and executed a 25th anniversary trip that was about ten thousand times as much fun as we expected.

We went to Quebec City for three days, Montreal for pretty much 18 hours, down to Chamblay, Que., and an overnight stop in Vermont at our friend's bed and breakfast.

The stop in Chambly was specifically to go to the Unibroue brewery and restaurant.  This was a must-see for Doug, and he was very much looking forward to this.

Located about a half hour east-south-east of Montreal, it was on our way to our friend's B&B, and am such easier border crossing that 89 in Burlington VT.

We bypassed eating lunch in Montreal, because Doug wanted to do the beer and food thing at the brewery. We were borderline hangry by the time we made it to Chambly.

Doug had the address for the brewery in his phone, and when we got there, we discovered that they did not have an hospitality suite, or restaurant, so he was grossly misinformed. A quick Google and Yelp search turned up Fourquet Fourchette around the corner.

They touted themselves as the unofficial official Unibroue restaurant. It was about 4:00pm, and the restaurant was empty, but a few patio seats were occupied. The waitress set us up out back, and we noticed that a wedding would be taking place.

The guests began to fill in, and they had a whole portion of the patio set off with a tent and beer all set up for everyone to pre-game before the bride and groom arrived.

We ordered beers and sat back to watch the wedding. We couldn't hear anything, and it was funny to hear their guests, about 50 in all, giggling and laughing. They exchanged vows and kissed, and everyone cheered. For those of us on the patio, the cycling family of 5, the party of 10 friends who had gathered together for drinks and sunshine, Doug and me... we all raised out glasses and clapped along.

As for our beer and food experience, we had grilled cheese, apple and sautéed onion sandwiches, and a charcuterie plate that was gigantic and amazing. I don't know half of the meats we ate. The waitress couldn't remember how to say what things were in English. So eventually Doug said "that's okay - we'll still eat it." And that we did.

We crushed it. Absolutely crushed it. And basked in the deliciousness, sunshine, light humidity, summery feeling by the lake near the fort. Bliss.

That's a very happy Doug with his Blanche de Chambly and the great display of meat and cheese.

We paid our bill, got some fancy Ephemere beer glasses and some bottles of beer (we didn't go overboard because heck, we can buy it in New Hampshire, five minutes from our house).

Enjoy pictures of food and beer!

Sandwich, grilled cheese, apple and onion. Amazing.

the amazing Charcuterie plate. 

Beautiful little leather-bound menus,

Tempted to bring one home but the picture will suffice.

Beautiful brewer's lace

Cheers!

Long overdue update

Howdy, to anyone who still stops by or has an RSS feed for this blog. It's been a while - mostly because my beer intake has been greatly decreased while I attempt to lower my A1C and keep away from the carbs.

That doesn't mean that there have been no beers coming into my hands over the last three years.  (whaaaat?!)

I do have tales to tell, but not with Dave. My shenanigans have mostly been with my husband Doug as I ended up with a full-time job in Boston, and my Dave time has been greatly reduced. I miss my buddy, and I should probably ask if he wants to go out and bend an arm sometime.

I'll try to update with a few bits of adventures over this last year. Thanks for visiting!

Cheers!