This New Hampshire Brewery Is Taking A “Fresh” Approach

by Brendan Smith
Weirs Times Editor

Directly behind the Northwoods Brewing Company in Northwood, NH, is approximately forty acres of usable farmland that is targeted to soon be growing pumpkins and hops as well as housing bee hives for honey, among other things to be used in future beer creations of this start up brewery.
The statement on Northwood’s Facebook page sums up their ambitions: “focusing on hoppy ales, farmhouse beers, bakery inspired dark ales, and alternative fermentations.”
Though there is no outside sign yet for Northwood Brewing Company, the place is easy to find. It is right next door to the famous Johnson’s Seafood and Steak on Route 4 in Northwood. In fact, the two businesses have the same owners but are very different establishments.

Nick Evans, the Director of Operations of Northwoods Brewing Company, has been part of the Johnson’s Seafood and Steak family for years.
“I actually started with the company when we opened the York River landing in York Maine. I was the original beer buyer and bar manager,” said Evans. “We’ve always had a strong craft beer focus here, We have been working on what styles of beers we would like to offer long before construction of the Brewery even began in 2017.”

Northwoods Brewing Company brewed their first official beer just a few months back around Thanksgiving 2018 called “Getting To Know Ya Vol.1”
“It really was a test batch to help us refine our brewing efficiency,” said Evans who also noted that their brews are unique in that they don’t filter or pasteurize their beers. “It’s a fresh beer.”
In fact, Northwoods has a 3-barrel pilot system (about 93 gallons) in their brewery along with a 15-barrel (about 460 gallons) brewhouse which is the main system.
“The three barrel system is a low cost way for us to try out new brews and put them out to the public to see what they are interested in and which brews we will expand on,” said Evans.

In charge of the brewing production is brewmaster Cathi Frakes who has been in the restaurant business for years, later taking an interest in homebrewing. She worked as a brewer in Boston before moving to New Hampshire to brew beer in Somersworth and then finally coming to Northwoods.
The brewing facility itself is impressive and it is situated behind a glassed in wall that sits a few feet lower than Johnson’s newly added function room. (Patrons can walk from the brewery to the restaurant and vice versa without ever going outside.) The brewing facility is also visible from behind the back wall of the bar in Northwood Brewery’s tasting room. If you are there on the right day you might get to witness their canning machine in action where about three dozen, 16-oz cans of brew can be carbonated, filled and lidded in about a minute.

Right now the brews at Northwoods Brewing Company are only available in their tasting room as well as in 16-oz, 4-pack cans sold on the premises. All eleven of their brews are also on tap next door at Johnson’s as part of their extensive 48-tap system.
“We really want to make sure we have enough to fulfill our internal market at this point and to satisfy everyone coming in our door before we really start expanding our distribution,” said Evans.
Two of their standard favorites are their Double Dried Hop IPA and their Classic American IPA
The tasting room at Northwoods Brewing Company, which has a nano brewery license, offers 4oz pours as well as full pints when ordered along with one of the fresh handmade pizzas on their menu.
The forty acres mentioned at the beginning of this article is also planned to play a big part in the future of Northwoods Brewing.
“Our goal is to eventually produce a fully estate grown beer,” said Evans. “We’ve got plans for different acreages to be used to be rotational crops of barley, wheat and also berry bushes and fruit trees. We also want to slowly develop a small yard for hops. We also do some wild yeast captures with the idea of having our own house flavor.”
Along with what might arguably be the freshest beer in New Hampshire, the tasting room at Northwoods also features The Rise and Shine Bakery Café which is a popular stop.

“When we were building the brewery we knew we had to move the bakery here from next door to give them more of a center stage,” said Evans “They really do some amazing creations. Their crullers have been very successful.”
Northwoods Brewing Company has been expanding their horizons to the beer tasting public. This past weekend they took part in Portsmouth Beer Week when they were featured at the WHYM Beer Café in Portsmouth as the featured tap takeover.
After visiting Northwoods Brewing Company one gets the feeling that you will be hearing and tasting a lot from these folks for years to come.
They are open Sunday through Thursday 11am to 9pm and Friday and Saturday from 11am to 10pm.
Find out more at www.facebook.com/northwoodsbrewingco