*photo credit to Jeremy Heflin Photography

There may be no “typical” brewer of craft beers, but Tod Mott’s journey to becoming master brewer at the Portsmouth Brewery on Market Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has a familiar ring to his colleagues.     

“It all started when my wife gave me a home brew kit,” says Mott, who has seen his latest creation fetch more than $300 a bottle on eBay. “That’s how I started. I am a traditional brewer with a little bit of an edge.”

Mott’s “Kate the Great Stout” has won the coveted title of Best Beer in America and second favorite in the world by the BeerAdvocate, a member organization of self-acknowledged “beer geeks.” Such accolades have not only helped Mott but the region’s other microbreweries that have had a growth spurt over the last three years. This cottage industry has grown from one-man shops to an industry that now includes restaurants, brew tours, branding, company stores, tourism and national distribution. These small breweries can’t compete with the brewing giants but they do take nine percent of the national beer market.

Trying to fit more flavor into the same package is both the challenge and the creative side of brewing. Robust, fruity beers such as Blueberry, Maple Porter and Pumpkin Ales are now poured alongside more traditional ales, like stouts and pilsners. At the Portsmouth Brewery, eight brews are on tap but Mott will brew from 50-60 different beers over the course of a year. Though the brewery runs at full capacity, only 1100 barrels (31 gallons per barrel) are produced per year where one Budweiser plant in New Hampshire produces 1200 barrels in just one day.

Unlike most of the smaller regional breweries, the Portsmouth Brewery does not distribute its beer. If you want a taste of what Mott is brewing, then you must go to the Market Street brew pub in Portsmouth, a multi-tiered open concept dining space that seats more than 350 guests. Overlooking the dining room and encased in glass is the brewery that has made this spot a destination for many travelers planning their vacations. Visitors have been known to plan their stay in the port city around the schedule of brews available at the brewpub, billed as the Granite State’s original.

*photo credit to Jack Bingham Studio/Tim Sullivan

That original idea of showcasing beer in a casual dining establishment has taken hold in New England since the concept was launched in the mid-1980s. Since then, crafted beer often finds itself alongside New England family-style cooking in serene settings. Woodstock Inn Station and Brewery, near the Loon Mountain ski resort, offers up brewer’s weekends, lodging and a variety of ales, specialty and seasonal beers as well as nonalcoholic root beer.

“We have a good product and it is word of mouth that keeps us busy,” says Errol “Butch” Chase, master brewer since 1995. “When you are a kid, you like hot dogs and ham-burgers but as you grow up, you enjoy more flavor on your palate and over the last few years breweries, like your favorite restaurants, like to try something new.”   

Like the Woodstock Inn Station and Brewery, Moat Mountain Smokehouse & Brewing Co. has taken their brewery out of a warehouse setting and put it in a country setting where the scenery complements the flavor of the beer. Located in an 1840’s historic building in North Conway, New Hampshire, the 174-seat brew pub and restaurant features brews made with mountain water.  The brews are available on tap or by the keg.

Brew master Will Gilson produced 880 barrels last year and is aiming for 1000 this year. “The big boys are going for a less challenging flavor profile,” says Gilson, who started brewing with a friend as a UNH graduate. “The people who drink the beers from the larger brewers will drink them all day but with stronger microbrews, people will drink less. They are drinking the beer for the taste and the flavor. ”

*photo credit to Bill Lee Imaging

“We’ve seen excitement over the last few years with micro-brewers creating their own styles,” says Gilson, who uses three different types of yeasts in his brewing. “There are now hoppy and fruity and floral beers. For years, we have mimicked the Europeans and now they are copying us. It runs the gamut of flavors, a broader taste spectrum.”

In Massachusetts, where some of the first breweries and brew-pubs started, is Mercury Brewing, home of Ipswich Ale which produces unfiltered English-style, full-bodied ales as well as premium sodas. Mercury Brewing, started in 1999 when Rob Martin, director of operations for Ipswich Brewing Company, purchased the company. That purchase has resulted in a 44 percent increase in sales since 2006. The brewery currently produces more than ten ales including its signature Ipswich Ale with its well-know nautical logo. The brewery distributes throughout New England as well as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

“People are looking for more flavor,” says head brewer Jim Dorau. “Once they have tried a microbrew they want more. The consumer is getting a little more educated. None of these beers are designed to please the entire U.S. market. It is more locally defined. The attention now is more personal. Beer drinkers are getting more sophisticated and the bigger companies realize that. Even Anheuser Busch is coming out with ale.” 

With the growing popularity of microbrews it is sometimes hard to see where the big boys start and where the smaller brewers begin. Since 1994, Shipyard Brewing Company has been making hand-crafted beer from recipes developed by master brewer Alan Pugsley, who is considered to be one of the most influential brewers in America. Pugsley is responsible for more than 65 breweries and brew pubs around the world. 

Shipyard ales are available in more than 35 states around the country. The brewery is supported by Federal Jack’s Restaurant & Brewpub and its gift store in Kennebunk, Maine. In 2007 alone, Shipyard Brewery shipped more than one million cases (or over 82,000 barrels) which represents an almost 17 percent increase over the previous year. With its current production capacity, the brewery can double its production in the years ahead and is now the 16th largest craft beer company in America. Pugsley sees variety and diversity as key to the success of the industry.

“Overall craft beer is still a small sector and there is plenty of room for growth as people experiment and get into different flavors from around the world,” says Pugsley from his Ipswich office. “In reality, we (Americans) are more diversified. In America, there are English ales, German lagers, Belgian ales. America is a melting pot of flavors.”

Smuttynose Brewing Company, named after one of the Isles of Shoals eight miles off Portsmouth Harbor, currently produces roughly 20,000 barrels of beer per year and has doubled in size every year for the last several. Not only do they distribute such locally famous beers as Old Brown Dog and Shoals Pale Ale in New England, but these beers will soon be distributed as far south as Florida. Company president Peter Egleston’s next big project is happening locally with his second brewery and brew-pub in Hampton, New Hampshire. Though not a copy of The Portsmouth Brewery, this new venture will take the best attributes of the Portsmouth brew-pub and triple the current brewing capacity. The target date for completion is spring of 2010.

“The important thing to keep in mind is that what is happening in the industry now is different from what has propelled the industry in the last 35 years,” explains Egleston, who came to Massachusetts in 1986 and, with his sister, opened the Northampton Brewery, the oldest brewpub in the Northeast.

“The industry has been driven by fads. You see light beer, ice beer, dry beer, ultra light, hard beverages and the latest thing is chilata beers; all designed to last about six months to a year. When micros started to pop up in the late 80’s, most assumed it would be a fad. What people didn’t realize, but producers understood, was that our wagon was attached to a different team of horses. What has driven the craft beer industry is a different economic engine. It has a sense of authenticity, for people’s desire for beers with more flavor that have a real story to them and often times it is tied to a local producer, something people have a connection with and that they will always come back to.”

“It’s quality versus quantity,” says Tod Mott of the Portsmouth Brewery. “If you have something that tastes good, then people will want to enjoy it.”

George Hosker-Bouley is an award winning writer, director and choreographer in the Seacoast Theater. He was won a NH Press Association Award and has won the NH Spotlight Best Play Award eight times for his original work. He currently performs nightly in the stand-up historical romp the Underbelly Tour.