Tag Archives: HITCHCOCK BREWING

HITCHCOCK BREWING COMPANY

Image result for HITCHCOCK BREW BERNARDSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Overlooking Sugarloaf Mountain inside a former Harley Davidson shop at the tiny northern Massachusetts town of Bernardston, HITCHCOCK BREWING COMPANY enjoyed its grand reopening October '19 after converting a barn to a nanobrewery at a different nearby location (then closed August '24). Now housed in a green aluminum-sided, tan brick-bottomed factory, Hitchcock runs a ten barrel farmhouse brew system. Many of their brews flirt with unconventionality while maintaining straightforward stylistic tendencies, especially the endless line of India Pale Ales. A red umbrella-lined outdoor deck with gray pavers welcomes brewhounds to the midsize pub. A lacquer wood topped bar spreads across the middle of the pipe-exposed, black-ceilinged, epoxy-floored interior. Rear brew tanks are stored across a small stage area and an overhead door gets utilized for deliveries and climate control. An IPA-centric menu included four such ales alongside a brut sour, helles lager, witbier, kolsch and nitro stout. My wife and I sank a flight of ten Hitchcock brews, July '21. Crisp breaded graining toasted Little Wizzer Helles Lager, an herbal Hallertau-hopped moderation with slightly green-peppered lemon spicing. Herbal fungi musk saddled yellow-orange fruiting of Cascade-hopped Crossover Golden, a dry pale-malted light body. French breaded spelt graining centered Isolation Kolsch, leaving herbal lemon flesh upon its maize-dried grist bottom. Tangy orange-peeled banana and clove sweetness prodded Better Days Belgian White, a mildly soap-stoned moderation with wispy wheat spine. Dry brut-champagned kettle sour slid pureed banana and salted strawberry tartness across lime-soured plantain smidge for Strawberry Banana Kettle Brut, caressing its delicate white wheat base. Sour green grape tartness nipped mild lemon-peeled yellow grapefruit bittering for Single Bottom, a sunny Citra-hopped East Coast IPA. Orange-dried lemon rot and dry honeyed black tea bittering anchored the floral-perfumed herbage of Double Bottom, a New England IPA with salty yogurt-milked guava and pineapple remnants. Tropical fruited beige-marbled NEIPA, Wicked Yummy, brought orange peel zesting to limey yogurt-soured guava, green grape and gooseberry illusions and mild yellow grapefruit tang. Yet another NEIPA, Galaxy Hopper 42, plied dry spiced lemony tangerine tang to pale malt sugaring in a conservative manner. Nutty dark chocolate chalking and roasted coffee bittering anchored Nitro Stout, a traditional Irish stout.