MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Occupying a gray brick depot in an unassuming residential spot, TO SHARE BREWING COMPANY sports a spiffy post-mod mosaic mural and overhead doored concrete side deck. A friendly neighborhood pub, this Manchester chestnut opened its doors in springtime 2019.
Owned and operated by homebrewing couple Aaron and Jenni Share, who decided to take their hobby seriously after heading north to the Granite State from D.C., To Share’s communal spirit spreads to hosting live music and other local events.
Besides being a seven barrel nanobrewery, To Share also spins vinyl records for the local denizens lurking inside its plastic-seated, butcher block-tabled, concrete-floored, corrugated-sided, red brick walled confines. Plus, a beautiful cartoon robot mural takes up a whole side wall, reinforcing the novel contemporary pop feel.
Serving a goodly rounded selection of beers along with light pub fare, To Share’s spirited tunes fill the air on my September ’22 visit. I tried all seven available handcrafted suds at the alleyway side deck.
Mild metallic-cleared light lager, For Heck Yeah, let wet-grained corn husk astringency get prickled by a sour lemon spritz.
Dewy Community Canvas Helles Lager, seeped mild lemony orange oil into its pasty honeyed wheat base, dialing back its musky raw graining and grassy-hopped herbage.
A sour tiki cocktail, limey passionfruit and lemon-soured green grape tannins contrasted less prominent cherry-sugared cotton candy confection of fruited Berliner Weiss, Secret Wizard Handshake Hurricane, leaving pencil shavings on the back end.
Fluffily cumulous-headed session IPA, Baby Sweluga, brightened its vivacious orange-peeled pineapple briskness and lemony grapefruit bittering above herb-tinged piney hop dryness.
Sedate lemony grapefruit and pineapple bittering picked up dry wood tones and herbal-licked juniper snips for Smokey’s Kangaroo, another sessionable West Coast IPA.
Dry flagship NEIPA, Gold Civic, plied lemon zest and mild grapefruit bittering to resinous pine-lacquered clay hops, gaining ancillary mango, peach and pineapple tanginess.
Best bet: Majestic See Sun Saison let candi-sugared lemon meringue, banana cake, peach cobbler, mandarin orange and tangelo fruitiness absorb light vanilla creaming contrasting white-peppered herbal spiciness of foamy cumulous -headed golden-hazed medium body.
Dark coffee-roasted bittering and hazelnut-pasted molasses treacle gained moderate lactic acidity for Hugs And Belly Rubs, a cold brewed coffee stout.