MANCHESTER, CONNECTICUT

Opened 1997, Manchester’s JOHN HARVARD’S BREWHOUSE may be the best franchise brewpub in the Northeast chain. Visited May ’10, this freestanding mustard-hued maroon-trimmed pub is located across Manchester’s Plaza at Buckland Hills. Typical pub fare such as appetizers-pizza-burgers and expanded Americana dinner menu went fine with brewer Frank Fermino’s well-crafted stylistic libations emanating from rear glass-encased brew tanks. Rectangular center bar with opposing TV’s served open space wood-furnished side dining booths, pews, and roundtables.

I enjoyed ‘Pick-A-Pair’ clam chowder and Cuban half sandwich with lighter fare such as snappy Saaz-hopped corn-dried vegetal-soured Harvard Light, funky earthen-grained grape-soured bourbon-burgundy-whirred Black Lager, and pallid spice-hopped red-fruited tea-like John Harvard Pale Ale. Better were hand-pumped cask-conditioned water-softened fungi-wafted coffee-creamed butter-nutty English Brown Ale, resinous bark-dried pine-needled lemon-seeded peach-toned pekoe tea-like C n C IPA, and chocolate-soured walnut-charred ESB. Creamy cascade-headed caramel-malted yellow-fruited green-hopped English Pub Ale stayed milder than ESB. Dark ale fans will enjoy hop-charred grain-roasted peat-malted Shovel-Head Porter, with its cedar-burnt hazelnut, walnut, and Baker’s chocolate illusions adjoining port-burgundy wining.

www.johnharvards.com

If you like this, try:

1. JOHN HARVARD’S BREW HOUSE – LAKE GROVE
2. JOHN HARVARD’S – CAMBRIDGE
3. JOHN HARVARD’S – FRAMINGHAM
4. MC KENZIE’S BREWHOUSE
5. ROOT ORGANIC BREWING COMPANY
6. CARSON’S BREWHOUSE
7. SIX ARMS (MC MENAMIN’S)
8. THE ALCHEMIST
9. MILLY’S TAVERN
10. DELAFIELD BREWHOUSE