HYANNIS, MASSACHUSETTS
Escaping to the Massachusetts shoreline for a long weekend in July ’13, stopped by reliable CAPE COD BEER for a few pints (picking up each flagship beer in bottled versions as well). Inside a white sheet metal industrial building just off the main drag in Hyannis, this multifaceted microbrewery (with cement-floored back tap room, beer shop, retail store and large silver brew tanks) opened in 2004 and has grown in size over the years.
A comfortable beach-styled front porch with eight patio tables fills up this afternoon as my beers get poured inside. Presently, Cape Cod’s suds are only sold in the eastern Massachusetts area, but slowly the brewery’s range has expanded. Going from lightest to darkest brews during my one-hour stint, each efficient offering proves to be not only stylistically forthright but also intriguingly original.
Crisply light-bodied Beach Blonde brought cereal-grained Vienna malting and soft Cascade-hopped bittering to a refreshing sugared citric finish, gaining musky Czech pilsener-like lemon-rotted vegetal nuances along the way.
Medium-bodied signature beer, Red Right Return retained a toasted amber-grained hop spice reinforced by pallid crystal malt sweetness. Its centrist flavor will please pilsner, lager and pale ale imbibers.
Engaging hot weather moderation, Summer Hefeweizen, pleated its lovely banana-clove insistence with lemony Cascade hops and honeyed wheat.
Dry-bodied India Pale Ale loaded woody Chinook-hopped grapefruit rind bittering atop lightly smoked pale malts, picking up a sharp alcohol burn that nearly muted the ancillary peach-pineapple tang.
On the dark side, nutty mocha full body, Cape Cod Porter, worked its dark-roasted grain bill into Brazil nut, hazelnut and walnut illusions as well as molasses-sweet brown chocolate chalking and roasted coffee undertones.
Afterwards, spent two days at beautiful Orleans beach and windy Yarmouth inlet to try bottled versions (reviewed at Beer Index).