On the Deck at the Portsmouth Brewery

On Friday, I needed to make a trip to NH for some errands, so I figured we should just stay in NH for lunch. Eventually, we'll get Dave to Bowdoin, but this week I had a drop dead return time of 4:30pm.

Errands run, car loaded with all the stuff I needed to get, and we drove up into beautiful downtown Portsmouth. I've been to many restaurants there, but one had eluded me for the past couple of years, and that was the Portsmouth Brewery.

The bar was full, which bummed Dave out as it is his favorite place to roost. But the day was gorgeous so when they offered seating on the deck, I felt we needed to head there.

Our waitress informed us that it was Firkin Friday, and we decided to start there. I'm not 100% sure which beer was in the firkin, but I think it was the Smuttynose Big A IPA.

The beer was beautifully cloudy, I love unfiltered beers. It smelled wonderful, a touch of fruitiness and spice. But the taste just wasn't working for me, and turns out it wasn't for Dave either. He said "there's something not quite right about this one," kind of overpowering. The mouth feel was heavy, the after taste really strong. It had great promise, but disappointed me.

I was reminded that Dave really didn't like the Smuttynose Pumpkin last week, so I was starting to fear that he was getting into an Anti-Smuttynose mode. There isn't a brewer that he doesn't like on this planet. Sometimes there is one brew by the brewer that doesn't fit his liking but he can always move on to another pint of something else by the same folks and be happy.

The waitress came back and Dave asked if there was a flight or a paddle option. Of course there was!

She brought us a huge paddle with ten beers on it. Watching her handle it coming out of the door was impressive. That's a lot of real estate! Now, knowing most places usually offer four, maybe five, on a flight...  this was a treat.

A cheat sheet was handed to Dave so he knew which was what, but it also matched up to the chalkboard on the wall outlining what today's fresh beers are (as opposed to yesterday's stale beers).

Going top to bottom, or right to left from the perspective of the photo of Dave with the flight above, here is the run down of what I thought about each one.

Keeping in mind that basically when sharing a flight you get two sips off each sample, it's hard to make a true, lasting judgement. A couple of these will require a pint-visit for me to make a real judgement on them.

Dirty Blonde: No overwhelming scent, flavor was very gentle.

Thaizenheimer: Kind of a "step up" in power from the Dirty Blonde, it had a great smell, great flavor. I liked it.

Gose: Another step up in flavor and scent... very wonderful. I really loved this one.

Milkstout: Outstanding stout, very dark but not heavy and weighty. Had a very light mouth feel, and I think that people who don't like stouts and porters would actually like this one.

left to right, Kölsch, Milkstout, Thaizenheimer

Kölsch: Fantastic. The Milkstout probably should have come after this one as the progression of the other beers would have been completed with this one. I had a glass of this after the fact, I liked it that much (It was a hard choice between this and the Gose). 

Fruit Gruit: I had to ask what a Gruit was, and our waitress knew her stuff. Before the advent of hops usage, beer or ale was often made with herbs, and this beer spoke strongly to that tradition. It was absolutely flavorful, rich in aroma, made me think of cold fall nights or snowy winter days. While it was delightful, I don't know that I could drink more than a glass of it.

The Portsmouth Brewery lists their "sister" company as being across town at Smuttynose. All the beers that came before this point on the flight were brewed in house at the Portsmouth Brewery. Spotlighting the following Smuttynose beers are the next three:

Smuttynose Old Brown Dog: I personally think this is the best of the Smuttynose beers, and on the flight it was indeed the best beer. Dave loves this one, and had a pint of it after we went through the flight. It is a standby, a loyal beer, like an Old Brown Dog. Loved it. 

Smuttynose Old Brown Dog, Fruit Gruit, and the Kölsch.

Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale: A very nice pale ale, nothing remarkable or outstanding. A great flavor.

Smuttynose Finest Kind IPA: I had this a few weeks ago. It is a very nice IPA, if you like IPAs! And I do!

Northcoast Scrimshaw Pilsner:  The last beer on the flight was from far away California. It stood out from all the others because it was just different. All the others, from the Smuttys to the Portsmouth  brews had a craft brew feel to them. This was more ... Familiar. Kind of like... a Budweiser. And being a pilsner, you sort of expect that ... 

Compared to all the other beers on the flight, it is the kind of beer that I would have my dad get if he had been at the restaurant with us. My dad (shudder) drinks Budweiser and PBR. He used to be a Schaeffer man, before Schaeffer went out. Then he was a Meisterbrau man (the first word in German I knew was, sadly, Meisterbrau). And then that went out. So he drinks Bud, or PBR, and when I take him to fancy brew pubs and craft breweries, I have to ask the barkeep "what is the closest thing you have to Budweiser?" so he can have his beer.  I would recommend this to him.

I neglected thus far to mention the food. I got Buffalo style beer battered chicken tenders, I think there were five on the plate, which seems like the perfect amount for one, but if you're sharing that's not a lot. They were, however, absolutely delicious. 

Dave got the Mussels. They serve them up in two styles, and Alehouse style or spicy curry style. Dave went with the Alehouse style, and it was delicious. I would love to sample the spicy curry version. 

The amount of mussels that he had in front of him was borderline obscene compared to my chicken tenders. There was enough in the bowl for four people to easily enjoy as an appetizer. Dave finished off all but the one that I stole. I'm not a huge mussels fan, so the one I ate did the job for me. Instead, I used his garlic bread and dipped in the alehouse sauce while he worked his way through the pile and we sampled the beers. It was delicious. Highly recommend the mussels there.

We then had sandwiches, because Dave really wanted their special sushi-grade seared tuna wrap. He would have gotten it if the tuna was offered as an appetizer, and as you know he's a fan of the sushi grade tuna appetizers in this world.  The wrap was filled with tons of tuna, so worth the price. He used the wrap as a bowl almost and ate the tuna out of it with a fork. I got the lemon dill chicken salad sandwich. It was delicious, but I think the bread would have been better toasted. Lemony, dilly, chickeny, delicious.

I was enjoying my Kolsch and Dave was on his Old Brown Dog when a fine young gentleman approached us with a tray of sample sized beers. His name was Brennen, and he was offering samples of the Thaizenheimer to entice people into trying it. 

We'd had it in our flight but took samples anyway, always happy to receive offerings of free beer. Brennen told us that there was a brewery tour starting at 3pm but Dave wanted to sit and drink another beer before we had to head home. A brewery tour could wait. Enjoying the sample of the Thaizenheimer, I almost regretted having a Kolsch for a second... but I got over it. 

It was time to head home, but before we left I wanted Dave to take this picture of me. 

The sign says "slow" and it is an old wooden street sign from who knows where. I liked it, because I was sitting there with Dave talking, eating, drinking beer, talking about the kids, talking about the food, talking about the beers... and doing it slowly.  We were enjoying the day, the sunshine, the deck, looking at the people on the deck. A girl with very purple hair. A very old couple. A guy in the most orange T-shirt either of us had ever seen in our lives. 

It crossed my mind, that life should be lived a little more slowly sometimes. So I wanted to hold onto this philosophy for a second or two by immortalizing it in a photo. I don't usually have pictures taken of me, I don't like my skin tone and I'm fatter than I see myself in my mind's eye, but this was worth taking the shot for.  I'm not making fun of "slow" people, or indicating somehow that I think I am "slow" and that's funny. I just really want you to slow down, have a beer (or whatever you like to have... a Shirley Temple, a glass of chardonnay, whatever) and spend time talking with a friend.

I think this is what the shenanigans blog is all about at this point in our lives.