Brew England Vistis: Watch City Brewery

So as I explained in my last post, I started a homebrewers club. For our first official meeting, we congregated at one of my favorite local brewpubs – Watch City Brewery, which is located on Moody Street in downtown Waltham, MA.

Sarah and I visited the brewpub for the first time several years ago, upon the suggestion of our friends Dave and Caren. Watch City Brewery, founded in 1996, is the city’s only brewery, featuring delicious hand crafted beers, and serves some pretty tasty food to boot. It’s typical for the bar to serve up six or seven beers, and you can often find a beer served out of their cask.

I should point out that Watch City’s cask beers are not as enjoyable as their other beers. It was explained to me from the bartender at the Coat of Arms in Portsmouth, NH (read our review here)that a beer served from the cask should not be room temperature, but rather slightly chilled – typically served around 55 degrees. However, Watch City Brewery’s beers from the cask, at least the ones that I’ve had (2-3), have been warm/room temperature. This was what initially made me stay away from cask conditioned beers; however, if done properly the beers are enjoyable, and often have different flavors to those of their chilled brethren.

At any rate, their beers are typically very good and their staff is pretty friendly. Sarah used to get her hair done in downtown Boston, so I would often drive her in and shoot down to WCB for a few beers and a cup of chili. I’m not one to typically go to a bar by myself (though I have a few times if in need of a beer/food), but when I did go there by myself, the bartenders were always friendly. They have some TVs at the bar and around the restaurant, almost always on NESN, and even count down the days until spring training for the Sox, when in the off-season…just incase you forget!

To further support my claim of how great their beer is, they have won numerous awards and distinctions for their beer at not only the Great Northeast International Beer & Cider Competition, but the Great American Beer Festival.

Their beers are also featured at some of the bars and restaurants around the Waltham area. Their beer is also served up occasionally at Boston area beer and food festivals, such as Lamb Jam, where they served their Troika beer. Troika was one of their specialty beers, which was brewed with three distinct versions of squash - blue hubbard, buttercup, and butternut, along with a variety of spices, which made this a very distinct and amazing beer.

So, if you're in the greater Boston area, or are looking for a nice trip, definitely stop by Watch City Brewery. Their prices are good, and ther beer is great. If you do stop in, let us know how you liked it!