MANCHESTER, CONNECTICUT
Opened 1997, Manchester’s JOHN HARVARD’S BREWHOUSE may’ve been the best franchise brewpub in the Northeast chain. But it closed in the summer of 2011 and was replaced by Tullycross Tavern & Microbrewery in November.
Visited May ’10, this freestanding mustard-hued maroon-trimmed pub was located across Manchester’s Plaza at Buckland Hills. Typical pub fare such as appetizers-pizza-burgers and expanded Americana dinner menu went fine with brewer Frank Fermino’s well-crafted stylistic libations emanating from rear glass-encased brew tanks. Rectangular center bar with opposing TV’s served wood-furnished side dining booths, pews, and roundtables.
I enjoyed ‘Pick-A-Pair’ clam chowder and Cuban half sandwich with lighter fare such as snappy Saaz-hopped corn-dried vegetal-soured Harvard Light, funky earthen-grained grape-soured bourbon-burgundy-whirred Black Lager, and pallid spice-hopped red-fruited tea-like John Harvard Pale Ale.
Better were hand-pumped cask-conditioned water-softened fungi-wafted coffee-creamed butter-nutty English Brown Ale, resinous bark-dried pine-needled lemon-seeded peach-toned pekoe tea-like C n C IPA, and chocolate-soured walnut-charred ESB.
Creamy cascade-headed caramel-malted yellow-fruited green-hopped English Pub Ale stayed milder than ESB. Dark ale fans will enjoy hop-charred grain-roasted peat-malted Shovel-Head Porter, with its cedar-burnt hazelnut, walnut, and Baker’s chocolate illusions adjoining port-burgundy wining.