Ahead of the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, we asked beer writers from across the country to offer lists of can’t-miss breweries in each region showcased at the festival — and add a few wild cards they want to check out.
Our 2016 GABF previews start with a report on the New England region from Joshua M. Bernstein, a beer, spirits, food and travel writer who lives in New York. He is the author of “Brewed Awakening” and “The Complete Beer Course.” His newest book is Complete IPA: The Guide to Your Favorite Craft Beer,” the ultimate road map to the most popular craft beer style in America. The colorful book spotlights the best IPA makers and offers itineraries for great craft beer adventures.
Here are Bernstein’s GABF 2016 picks:
Gun Hill Brewing Co. (The Bronx, New York): For years I’ve run a homebrew tour in NYC, taking drinkers into the apartments of the city’s most promising brewers. Chris Prout always stood out, making Belgian-style sours and honey-smoothed IPAs. After a stint at Greenpoint Beer & Ale, he’s now running the Bronx’s Gun Hill, making crushable IPAs like Roll Call, a Berliner weisse crammed with coffee beans (called Wired Hessian) and Void of Light, a foreign-style stout that acquired gold at the 2014 GABF awards. Gun Hill might not have as much buzz as other Big Apple breweries, but the Bronx crew is worth visiting for an ounce or two.
Von Trapp Brewing (Stowe, Vermont): That name ring a bell? The Von Trapps are the eponymous family from “The Sound of Music.” Moreover, they operate a ski resort and lodge in mountainous Vermont, recently adding a brewery into the mix. Befitting the family’s European heritage, the focus is textbook continental lagers, including the crispy and peppery Bohemian Pilsner, richly smooth Dunkel Lager, and the refreshing Golden Helles that could become your everyday glugger.
Night Shift (Everett, Massachusetts): The Boston-area brewery (named after the trio of brewing buddies whose homebrewing exploits lasted long past midnight) is among the best of the new breed of Northeast breweries doling out jazz-smooth, fogged-up pale ales and IPAs as fragrant as a bowlful of ripe fruit. Night Shift’s bounty includes the Whirlpool pale ale and Santilli IPA, as well as a collection of Berliner weisses seasoned with the likes of strawberries and kiwis. But Night Shift is no one-trick pony: The brewery’s brewed diversity includes the Pfaffenheck pilsner and Awake, a robust porter infused with coffee.
Cambridge Brewing Company (Cambridge, Massachusetts): It’s easy to forget about breweries that have been around five years, much less a quarter-century. Old news, right? But some breweries get even better with age, especially Cambridge Brewing. Since 1989, Cambridge has just crushed it with everything from Belgian-style tripels to gruits, as well as peppercorn-laced farmhouse ales and one of America’s most forward-thinking barrel programs. Recently, I’ve been a huge fan of their canned offerings, namely the brisk and beautiful Remain in Light pilsner. Brewmaster Will Meyers doesn’t make bad beer.
Prison City Pub & Brewery (Auburn, New York): After a Paste Magazine blind tasting named Prison City’s Mass Riot the country’s best IPA out of 247 entrants, demand went haywire for brewer Ben Maeso’s 6.4 percent ABV mainline hit of hazy, tropical goodness. Not bad for a little brewpub in upstate Auburn, home to the brewery’s namesake maximum-security prison. Chain yourself to Prison City’s table to sip some IPAs and whatever else Maeso has made.
Kane Brewing Company (Ocean Township, New Jersey): While working on Wall Street as an investment banker, Michael Kane refined his homebrewing skills, earning gold and silver in 2009’s prestigious National Homebrew Competition. He soon left to launch his eponymous coastal New Jersey brewery, which since 2011 has cooked up spectacular IPAs, Belgian-inspired blondes and strong ales and Night to End All Dawns, a monstrous imperial stout mellowed in bourbon barrels for more than a year. No wonder it nabbed gold at GABF in 2014.
Other breweries (from other regions) I’m excited to try:
Scratch Brewing: Their foraged beers made with every bit of a tree were some of the most innovative beers I sipped last year.
Cervecerìa Cruz Blanca: This is the brewpub run by renowned Mexican chef Rick Bayless. Curious to see what they’ve cooked up.
Union Craft Brewing: I’ve heard great buzz about the Maryland brewery’s Duckpin pale ale, done up with New Zealand and Pacific Northwest hops.
Fair State Brewing Cooperative: Scuttlebutt on the street is that the cooperatively run Twin Cities brewery is turning out stupendous sours.
Revelry Brewing: I popped by this Charleston outfit when I was in South Carolina this summer. Their foudre-aged sours were banging. I want more.
Melvin Brewing: No one does dank better than this Wyoming outfit. It’s where I’ll go when I want to bathe my taste buds in double IPA.
