I made it up to Nashua this weekend with a few friends, and was reminded again how fortunate that city is to have the brewing talent it does. Brett Marcy and John Jepson at Martha's Exchange and Darryl Goss at the Skyview Cafe are constantly brewing a wide array of styles, and each interpretation< is quite on the mark.

We stopped at Martha's first and enjoyed the crisp, malty Main Street Pilsner, well balanced with a grassy, herbal hop finish, domestic Hallertaus as I recall (I had taken tasting notes but lost them in the course of the day). The Alt beer had good malt body and appropriate hops in the finish, and the porter (Paddy Wagon? John?) was a sheer delight, slightly roasty but not overly so, rich, smooth, and chocolatey, dangerously drinkable.

Another special treat was the smoked oatmeal stout, the beer was on a while back but not when we visited, fortunately John had bottled some for us and it was absolutely divine. I still have a swingtop left and will post my thoughts on it later.
 

Update 12/17/1998: I'm drinking a pint of this wonderful beer from a swingtop John Jepson was gracious enough to supply me with. A generous tan head forms on the beer as I pour, but it's the nose that grabs my attention: quite smoky at first, but as it breathes a bit a rich chocolate character moves in and takes over. As I take a sip I get a smoky hickory flavor which balances perfectly with the silky smooth contribution of the oats and the impressive notes of chocolate and coffee. A big roasty and hoppy bitterness in the finish round out the beer nicely. Overall, I really love the balance of this beer. Nothing really predominates, but each element interacts with all the others to make the whole more than the sum of it's parts. Absolutely world class.



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