Sawbelly Brewing following my heart to beer in Exeter NH

Date of visit: June 17, 2022 

(Pictured right: Cauliflower Shawarma, pickled pineapple, SaWheat Heffe) 

We took a trip back up to the homeland, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in mid June. We got to spend a lot of time with friends and family. At some points, we did absolutely nothing but sit on the porch at camp, listen to birds, enjoy the breeze, and bask in the temperature not being 9,000 degrees like it is in DC in mid June (or like it just was in New Orleans, as I recall our walk to Brieux Carre that day. Voof!) 

New Hampshire. Delightful. We have missed you.

My best friend recommended we take a ride over to Exeter and visit Sawbelly Brewing for lunch and beer. She doesn't drink beer herself, but she did love the food there when she visited, and figured heck, if the beer is as good, it'll be wonderful. We always take her recommendations. 

The sky was threatening rain in the distance with giant, friendly, puffy white clouds backed by grey thunderheads. We had our dog with us, so we were a little worried that the gentle sprinkles that we were feeling would turn into deluge in no time. We sat outside (obviously, because Dog) and were close to the Jeep in case one of us needed to jet to get the dog in for dryness, and the others would jet inside. We figured we'd rotate spending time with the dog in the car if that was necessary. No worries. 

We ordered the charcuterie board with the chef's cheese selection, naturally, and the thing that blew our minds was the pickled pineapple. We ended up asking for another wee jar of that because we just could not get over how magnificent it was. 

Because three of us were present (Geoff was with) we had more beer than usual, and swapped and shared. pictured below, in the full glory, four of the beers we enjoyed that I checked in to on Untappd: 

In It to Win It, New England Hazy IPA
Very friendly great starter to our visit

Broken Luck, Kölsch
My Untappd review simply says "Awesomeness." Crisp and wonderful.

Sonic Yute - West Coast IPA
Noting that I enjoyed a Sonic Youth in 1983 at Courtyard, I guess they're hot in the craft brewing world! 

Interstellar Love - Sour
It wasn't very sour, but with the little pickled pineapple jar, this was a wonderful way to end the meal. Beautiful color, unique, and pretty

The beers were spectacular, and our meals were great too. I had the Cauliflower Shawarma, my husband can't remember what he had because all he can do is talk about the pickled pineapple. Geoff had the double deluxe cheeseburger. And he inhaled it. Ten thumbs up from our crew on this trip. 

And again, because the pineapple is so well loved here, another shot. We also noted that the plates felt familiar to us. After we ate, we flipped one over to find it was from Homer Laughlin China Company. Hats off to Sawbelly for using one of our very favorite restaurant quality dinnerware!  We have been to the Fiesta factory store, and there is a gorgeous seconds outlet on either side of the building, one for Fiesta and one for Homer Laughlin. If I owned my own brewery foodrinkery, I'd be taking a truck to West Virginia to bring back a mix-and-match collection of hundreds of plates, coffee cups, saucers, bowls, everything. 

We also had a great time talking with our server, I can't recall his name, but it was a lot of fun spending time there talking beer and business. There were not a lot of people there when we were lunching, but when they have live music the place is busy and lively. Their website doesn't show their calendar for music but their social media is up to date and active. Makes me want to be there on a lovely fall night. 

Thankfully, the rain totally held up, the food was fantastic, and t-shirts and a sweatshirt came home with us. Looking forward to next visit to the north country. We'll be back. 

Pictured: my back, with the Sawbelly T-shirt at Mad Science Brewing Company a couple months later. Get a lot of compliments on this shirt. Gotta love it!