United Nations of Beer

Flying Goose Brewpub

by Ray Mongeau
(Beer Delegate, NH, USA)

Flying Goose Brewpub
New London, NH, USA

This week's search for microbreweries in New Hampshire turned up The Flying Goose Brew Pub and Grille.

There must be a brewery that's not up to par somewhere in New Hampshire; so last week was spent searching the Internet for the written opinions of others. The idea was to select a microbrewery that had received the most negative reviews. The Flying Goose won hands down.

This review should have been a good one: a brewery whose brews were dreadful enough to advise readers to steer clear away, but that did not turn out to be the case.

In fact, it is an exceptionally high-quality brewery with several finely brewed beers. Though I did not try them all (zigzagging your vehicle home is not appreciated, especially by the men in blue), four of the brewpub's prominent beers were sampled.

There is no foundation for a word of discouragement against the brewpub's ales, service or food and the adversity of the individual critics who wrote the reviews seem to be unfounded. Maybe they have some personal grudge against the Flying Goose Brewpub or some of the pub's staff; whatever their rationale, there was nothing uncovered to substantiate their claims.

Brewmaster Kevin Kerner started his career at the Flying Goose working as a dishwasher and then graduated to waiting on tables. He later became a bartender and finally, after working in the brewery and serving an apprenticeship under Jack Hill, who is now at Triumph Brewing in New Hope, Pennsylvania, became the brewmaster. Kevin is constantly reading new books and on the web to keep abreast of current brewing trends.

The Flying Goose Brewpub's brewery has seven stainless steel dairy tanks used to ferment the beer, along with their own hop garden growing the hops used to flavor the ales.

They also have three house yeasts that are used in their fermentation process. The spent grain is used to make beer bread that is one step short of heavenly manna. Even if you don't like beer (unthinkable!), the taste of the bread itself is worth a stop at the Flying Goose Brewpub.

Enough, let's get to the brews. There are seventeen brews on draught at all times in the brewpub. Links to my reviews:

Perley Town IPA

Porter Place

Isle of Pines Barleywine

Crockett's Corner Oatmeal Stout, which was tasted along with a Teriyaki Steak plate. The stout is also one of the ingredients used in making this yummy teriyaki sauce. The steak was served with a complement of grilled veggies and mashed red potatoes.

This meal was excellent! The sauce was tangy without biting back and the steak, which was ordered medium rare, was delivered just as requested. The outside was grilled to a charred crisp while the meat almost melted in your mouth. The meal cost $14.95 and is worth every penny, not bad considering a lot of establishments cannot come close to this quality for the price.

There are several seasonal wheat brews that weren't tried: a blueberry, a raspberry and regular wheat ale. Also, there are Flying Goose Brewpub ales that can be found in two other establishments: Bellissima, a brick oven pizzeria, in Newbury Harbor on lake Sunapee; and The Millstone, a casual dining, high-end bistro, also in New London, NH.

Both of these restaurants can be accessed on line through the Flying Goose Brewpub website.