Visiting a new brewery on opening day is always a fun and exciting experience. We’ve only had the privilege a handful of times these past few years so when we learn of an opening we always make an effort to hit it. In the past few months we’ve welcomed three NJ breweries into the neighborhood on their birthdays! Man Skirt, Jersey Girl and Twin Elephant.
Man Skirt of Hackettstown, NJ was founded under two principals. The love of beer, and the hatred of pants. The burly men of Man Skirt dawn “tactical kilts” to brew their three flagship brews: Gold Bar Blonde, Better than Pants ESB, and The Great Porter. All very good, but very generic beers. The porter was hands down the best sample we had there.
One unique aspect of Man Skirt is the location. The owners setup shop in an old bank, and this brewery makes playful use of its massive vault; which perfect for a photo op! Since it’s been months since our last visit there we did some digging on Untappd and learned that they’ve expanded their lineup. According to Untappd, the beers we haven’t had average around a 3.75-4.00 rating.
Nestled in a small industrial park in Hackettstown, Jersey Girl Brewing Company must have had the philosophy go big or go home during the planning phase because this behemoth of a brewery did not start small by any means. The 10,000 square foot building is home to a 30 Barrel brew system and can produce up to 5,000 barrels a year; and there is still plenty of room to expand. Jersey Girls strategy seems to be heavy keg distribution, judging by the arsenal of kegs they have stock piled which are Jersey Girl stamped, not those usual blue star rentals with stickers slapped on.
The beer, unfortunately, is pretty generic. Due to the volume of people on opening day, we couldn’t get a flight of their 4 flagship beers (pale ale, golden ale, ESB and a porter) so we settled on a pint of the ESB and a pint of the Chocolate Coffee Porter. Both beers were a nice representation of their respective styles, but we concluded that the porter was a little weak in both the abv and the body. The ESB on the other hand was rich in flavor and nearly as dark as the porter was… Which certainly is distinct considering most ESB’s you see are in the golden to amber range. The 6.7% ESB is the beer we would recommend if you spot a Jersey Girl tap in the wild.
This brewery business plan has its sights set on obtaining a macro-oriented crowd, and probably won’t stray too far away from “safe” beers. As beer enthusiasts, we did enjoy the ESB but it has very little replay value for us. Jersey Girl Brewing Company did a lot of things right in preparation of a large, distribution focused brewery; great space, nice tap room and solid beer. But it will fail to capture snobs and enthusiasts alike who continue to seek more adventurous brews.
Twin Elephant of Chatham, NJ is a tiny two barrel brewery with terrible parking and amazing décor. This brewery made use of an old, destroyed barn and turned it into one of the most modern and “hipster” tap rooms we’ve ever seen.
We met up with friends and were surprised to learn that the brewery was at capacity so we had to wait a few minutes before taking the mandatory Jersey brewery tour. That’s right folks; we had to wait in line, to wait in line, to again, wait in line. It was like Disney! After making our way through the bar line we ordered flights and searched the taproom for an open place to sit. They had an impressive offering considering their limitations; six live taps and two unoccupied taps. Our group decided that the porter and kolsch were the two best brews on the menu.
Normally we try to reserve rating new breweries due to upscaling beer recipe issues; but I think its safe to say that Twin Elephant might be our favorite child out of the three. Their tiny two barrel system could enable them to produce small batches of more exotic flavors, which we hope become a reality since it’s on 15 minutes from my house…
It’s a great time for craft beer; so many new breweries and interesting beers popping up all over the place! We’re excited to see these baby breweries grow and evolve and we wish you all the best of luck.
