Where beer is born at Stone Path Malt

Date of Visit: November 24, 2021

I am not sure if we just aren't paying attention or if we are just railroaded into going to one restaurant and one restaurant only by my mom when we visit, but there is a hidden gem incredibly close to where my folks live that I had no clue about. 

Stone Path Malt Taproom in Wareham, MA

Stone Path is a malt distributor and they have a taproom where they feature beers brewed by their customers. So they aren't a brewer themselves, but super essential to the brewing process. 

If you're reading this blog, you know what malt is, but, if you stumbled upon this site somehow completely by accident, I recommend reading this write-up from Stone Path, and another good one by Allagash Brewing Company where the malting process is explained.

We arrived at 4pm, when they opened and came in to find the regulars already lined up and playing cornhole and ping pong. We met the owner and co-founder, Mark St. Jean. He was running the taps, greeting the regulars, and taking care of business. I don't usually seek out the management, but we seemed to grab his attention, and he was super friendly. We pointed through the woods to where my parents live and I had visions of my dad figuring out this place was within walking distance for him if he was feeling up to it, and him planting cheeks at the bar.

The taproom is in the front of the warehouse, where you can look straight back and see the giant stacks of malt packaged up in bags, and the shining steel silos or tanks where barley goes to be stored or malted (I'm not sure of the actual name of the containers) and the game area right in front of where the business action is. 

From left to right: Porter's Porter from Broad Brook; Moat Mountain Czech Pilsner; and South Coast Saison from Moby Dick Brewing Company.  Not sure why the glasses look warped, but I love this picture and think the shot just came out kinda neat! 

When I read on their site that they served the beers their customers made I initially thought maybe this was super nano or hobby brewers, like Joe's Basement Beer in Barnstable (making that up, of course)  

Thankfully, my brain was wrong. 

These are not hobby or basement outfit breweries. Stone Path features draft beers from a lot of breweries I've been to or have enjoyed their beers over the year: Jack's Abby, Moby Dick, Buzzards Bay, Aeronaut, and others (Tap list is here). Gotta admit this was much to my joy. I wasn't sure if I wanted hobby brew sampling time but I'm sure that would have been fun too. 

I had the Porter's Porter from Broad Brook Brewing, Suffield, Connecticut. It was a nice dark and bready porter - exactly as the name says it is a "porter's porter!" 

Doug had the Czech Pilsner from Moat Mountain and we both agreed was clean and crisp. 

Geoff got to enjoy a brew from Moby Dick Brewing that was not on tap when we visited there in June - The South Coast Saison. 

I also enjoyed the House Lager from Jack's Abby (pictured left). 

Back when I first started the blog we went to a couple of Beer festivals with Dave and Jack's Abby was always there. 

Here's a link to the Haverhill Beerfest Shenanigans we enjoyed, TEN YEARS ago!!!!  Find the picture of the dude in lederhosen, and there's your Jack of Jack's Abby (with Abby, naturally!) I have not made it a habit of going back and reading old posts, but knowing that at the time both Doug and Dave thought Smoke & Dagger was too smoky is kind of funny. Jack's Abby, according to their website, was founded in 2011, so we were enjoying their brews from the get go. 

The Jack's Abby Red Tape Lager was a really nice brew  Smooth and easy. Great offering from them. And unlike the Red Tape they had to cut through to open their brewery, this nice and easy version is a fantastic experience. 

Sadly, we never got to go to their taproom in Framingham when we lived in Massachusetts, and that's a regret. The beer and food menu look great. Love to see them still crafting great flavors and by all appearances doing really well. 

And we know where they get their malt! 

After a while, I was feeling incredibly wiped out due to a poor night's sleep (our dog was very anxious all night, and I was up with him for quite a bit of it). Doug and Geoff decided to go visit Lucky Goat in downtown Wareham and Buzzards Bay Brewing to continue their beer tour along the canal towns. 

I didn't go to Lucky Goat so I don't have a write up to share, and we've been to Buzzards Bay in the past. We did get back there on Friday night after a day touring around to see my mom's family. And because Buzzards Bay uses Stone Path, here are some pictures of beers I had on this visit that I didn't enjoy on the last visit, which you can read about here. 

Here is the Dumpling Rock Bock, which was great - and the video games behind it were not there when we came to visit in June. 

And here is "Boo" which was a wonderfully malty brew. Not listed on their website, I think this is a lager (if I recall, I should take better notes and not rely on the websites). I enjoyed this with some pad thai from the restaurant next door. Beer was far more flavorful than the dinner. I'm not usually disappointed by pad thai, but. This was not the best. 

We have become fans of Buzzards Bay, so I'm already looking forward to another visit back to Wareham for Stone Path and Buzzards Bay! 

Backbeat Brewing, Beverly MA

Date of Visit: November 23, 2021

We visited Massachusetts to spend Thanksgiving with my parents. We opted for a day up at ye olde stomping grounds on the North Shore. Our friend Natalie visited a couple weeks ago and told us that her husband Caleb is the assistant brewer at Backbeat Brewing Company. 

To see Caleb and have nice beer, well. There's a thing to be thankful for. 

We got there on what I'd consider the early end of things at 11:30am, but they actually open at 5:45am! Located across the street from Beverly Depot, commuters can grab a breakfast sandwich and coffee to go on the train.

Indeed, the brewery has a restaurant, great coffee, and a mighty fine selection of teas as well! 

Our friend Amy does not drink coffee or beer and she came to mind when I saw the tea selection on their website, so we invited her to join us for lunch. 

For sure this is the kind of place that makes welcome all the varieties of people in the world from breakfast wanters, to imbibers wanting of non alcoholic items, lunch seekers, and craft beer lovers at any hour. Great ideas for the location in wonderful downtown Beverly.

A quick note, when Doug and I were first married we live here in town, brought our first baby home after delivering at Beverly Hospital. There are few towns I'd want to maybe go back and live in, and Beverly is one of them. 

I started with the nitro Bobby O'Brien (pictured above/left) which is described on the website as an Irish Red. 

There was no notable red to this - it was a pretty dark brown, photogenic for sure, and quite tasty. (I forget exactly what Geoff and Doug had on the first round because I was focused on taking in the menu for my next choice. Doug may have had the Czech Dark Lager if I recall).  

We ordered lunch, Doug and Geoff got the mac & cheese with pulled pork on top, and Amy and I each got the chicken pot pie. 

I got the Background Vocals Blonde Ale (pictured below) to go with the pot pie, and it was a very nice pairing. The pot pie was delicious, toasted nicely on top, and very hot.  And the guys loved their mac and cheese too because it got inhaled by both of them without me getting a li'l taste. 

Amy recalled that a friend of ours, Jim Infantino, has a song called Background Vocals and we talked about the lyrics and laughed. We chatted about Jim, music, musical friends.

One of the fun things about the brewery is that the Union Jack British Market that used to be located up on Rte 1 south in Peabody has relocated shop here. We had fun looking at all the chocolates and the cut-out of the queen. Amy went home with some Walnut Whip from Cadbury with promises of a review on it. 

Next, I had Express Lane NEIPA (pictured left) while we all four split a toffee graham square as a treat. 

The cookie was delightful, chocolatey and tasty, wonderful. 

I maybe should have gone the way of a stout here with Coffee/Toffee/Chocolatey tones to go with but the Express Lane was really fun, and I do not regret getting it. Bitey, hoppy, flavorful, it was contrary to the sweetness of the desert, and wonderfully delicious. 

Doug also had gotten the two beers on cask, the Bitter an Ale that isn't on the tap list on their website. We aren't sure it even has a name maybe? We both liked that one more than we liked the bitter. 

But to be honest, the bitter was not bad, it's just that the ale was better. 

This is a fun sentence to say out loud a few times. 

We finished our visit up, said our goodbyes and went on our way to drive around Beverly, look at the water, head up to Ipswich where I always fantasy house hunt, and we didn't go to the Ipswich Brewery because we were having dinner somewhere else. 

Next visit "home" to the North Shore we'll be sure to be back and check out the Old Planters (closed until April, according to the website) and Gentile Brewing (steps away from Backbeat). 

Beverly, I miss you already. 

Oh, and here is a picture of Caleb and me. I look awful as I was super tired from the travel up to this point. 

Sour Sapwood Treat

I'm a procrastinator. It is well known across all the land. Famously, most recently, was the EZpass registration I didn't complete back in June. I went to register it online and it told me that I couldn't. Calling customer service, they said I could go to the RMV or come see them in person.  Seeing as we need it next week, well. I needed to unprocrastinate my life.

We opted to go in person to one of the EZpass offices in Baltimore, and then make a day of it. And, of course stop at a brewery in or out of town. Baltimore has a lot to offer, and we were looking forward to food and drink! We did our errand and I was relieved to get the EZpass all set up (whew!) heading to Federal Hill and Mount Vernon in B'more for a walk after the deed.  Normally we'd probably head to Max's Taphouse in Fells Point because the beer selection there is outrageously good, and the food is too. But we wanted to hit up somewhere we had not been before.

The plan was to visit The Brewer's Art for a winning combo of lunch and tasty brews, but found they don't serve lunch until 4pm on Saturday (basically nothing in the area was open until 4pm either!). No lunch for us! We will have to go back one night for dinner! We'll see you soon, Brewer's Art!

Thinking of our pivot as we walked back to the car after grabbing a quick bite at a beerless restaurant, Doug said had been wanting to visit Sapwood Cellars, and told me that one of the founders/brewers had written the book "literally" on sour beer. We had to basically drive past there (sort of) anyway to get home, so off we went. 

One point to make quickly is I work in web content for a living. It's really nice to have a brewery put up a website that has content, which Sapwood has done. 

There's a lot to read here, a great "About" section where you can learn all about the brewers' philosophies and their beer styles.

Michael Tonsmeire runs his own blog called the Mad Fermentationist, and Scott Janish has his own blog too. I tend not to dive in too much before going to a place we haven't been yet (which I didn't have time to do anyway because we made a spur of the moment decision to head there) because I don't want to go in with preconceived notions put out by the marketing team. Gotta say though, I had a great time reading through the site, brew/beer descriptions, and the blogs with a take-home can by my side.

Their main site and both blogs have a beer science vibe, videos, and lots to learn about the process that makes the flavor. Knowledge of beer science and the visual proof that they know what they are talking about meant that we were in for a treat.

Another brewery located in an office park (seems to be a thing here in Maryland) they did have a sign out on the street letting us know the tasting room was there so there was no getting lost. We had grabbed lunch in Baltimore sans beer as I mentioned, so we didn't get to check out the food truck, sadly. It looked pretty great so I'll give them a shout out here - DM Sliders. This is their Facebook page and it turns out yesterday was their last gig of the year until next March at current fave True Respite! We'll make a note of it.

Sapwood Cellars presents a beautifully appointed tasting room, lots of wood (naturally, based on their name!) and a really cool mural wall on the right side that made for a nice backdrop for taking pictures of the beers for Untappd (and here!)

Doug and I usually like to sit at the bar so we can chat with the bartender, but it was full (happy for them to have a ton of visitors!) so the table would do just nicely. 

I started with Pillowfort (pictured above), and Doug went with Threat Level Morning (pictured left). 

Pillowfort is a delicious hazy DIPA, and at 8.5% ABV I'd be building me a pillowfort if I had too many of them. It has a really strong aroma coming up to the face, and a fantastic flavor. 

Threat Level Morning is a coffee version of their Threat Level Midnight stout. We probably should have ordered one of each for the compare contrast. Suffice to say, the coffee notes in this "Morning" version were notable. Very flavorful and a fantastic aroma. Note to self to try the Threat Level Midnight next time round!

I had a friend once ask me if people actually drink beer for breakfast, noting that there are so many coffee or breakfast themed stouts. I personally don't but hey - if you do, you do you! Coffee, or oatmeal to carry on the breakfast theme, are flavors just like any citrus or banana or anything else you'd expect in a beer. So many breweries go with the breakfasty "theme" for those products. 

Next we headed towards the sour offerings. I had the Plush Pop, and Doug went with their Sekund: Cab Franc Wit. They look somewhat similar, but the flavors and experience of each are for sure different. 

Plush Pop (below, right) was almost like a raspberry lime pie, or soda. Amazing flavor, tart and juicy. Sekund indeed had the wine flavor from the second-use grapes, as described on their menu. Embodying more of a strawberry flavor, it had a totally different feel and flavor to it than Plush Pop. 

They both were unique and flavorful, really a joy if you like this kind of thing. I'm a fan of sour beers but usually if I'm out, I can't have more than one. Sometimes sour beers are too tart, or taste like the Spree candies of my childhood, with sort of a tasty candy beginning and then a sour stab of a tang that hurts your tongue the longer you suck on those solid little discs (if you are not familiar with Spree, I feel for you, friend. Read here from Wikipedia!)

Figuring we still needed to get home it was time to pick our last hurrah. We opted to split a bottle of Opulence 2021, served in these beautiful stem glasses and a lovely pouring basket. This made me think of great opportunities for picnics out in the wild in the spring (which I'm already looking forward to) with lovely blankets, dappled sunlight through the trees as the new leaves emerge, and interesting sandwiches. It would be a really sweet little thing to impress my friends with to pour out of this basket for them! 

I think I could have done better for taking a photo, but the light was weird behind my head and I didn't want my hand and camera in the shadow. 

The beer was delightful. Again, a lovely fruity and flavorful brew. I'll copy right off their incredibly helpful website and share their own description here: 

With each step of the brewing process our goal was to saturate Opulence with rich dark fruit flavors. We began with a base of toasted and caramelized European malts to deliver fig and plum. Fermentation with a red wine strain enhanced the jamminess of the early dose of dried sour cherries. Aging in Bourbon and red wine barrels creates oaky depth. A final infusion of fresh local sweet and sour cherries from Milburn Orchard (Elkton, MD) instills a bright cherry pie aroma.

No lie. No joke. Jamminess. Sour Cherries, aged in Bourbon barrels (which I didn't take any flavor of and that's good because I'm not a fan of beers from Bourbon barrels). The bright cherry pie aroma is there, and lingers long after a sip. 

Damn fine finish to our visit! 

Realizing we've barely scratched the surface here if you go look at their full beer list, we'll have to come back through.  Looking forward to that like I'm looking forward to picnics in the spring.