REVOLUTIONARY WARES
BATTLE ROAD BREWS TAKE INSPIRATION FROM COLONIAL QUAFFS
Brand-new Battle Road Brew House opened last week in Maynard, pairing historically inspired ales with an expansive menu of Southern-style barbecue.
Guests can sip an inky, lightly hopped Midnight Rider Porter, much like Paul Revere might have consumed with the Sons of Liberty in the taverns of Boston in 1775, while nibbling on pecan-smoked baby back ribs or sweet corn IPA batter corn dogs, among other offerings from executive chef Jordan Mackey.
“Victory isn't all we took away from the South,” declares the menu, representing an intentional mishmash of historic periods. The beers pay homage to the Colonial fight against the British in the American Revolution, first fought by the Minutemen of Maynard (then part of Stow and Sudbury) and surrounding communities. The bold menu declaration is, of course, a reference to the Civil War and to the Dixie inspiration behind the food.
Battle Road Brew House sits beneath the landmark belfry of Clock Tower Place, an old textile complex on the Assabet River Mill Pond in the heart of mighty little Maynard. The Assabet Woolen Mill sat on the same site in the 1860s and was one of the nation's largest producer of uniforms for the Union Army.
“We wanted the restaurant to reflect all the historic inspirations behind the brand,” said Greg Hill, the WAAF radio personality and managing partner behind Whole House Group, which operates the restaurant.
The beers, for the time being, are being brewed under contract by Sly Fox Brewing Co. in Pottstown, Pa. They're available at the restaurant and in cans and on draft at select on- and off-premise accounts in southern New England.
The production will be moved in-house in the days ahead, pending final license approvals, with the gleaming new brewing system managed by Jeremy Cross, a veteran of Bay State brewers Ipswich Brewing Co. and Boston Beer Works, who founded the Battle Road brand in 2013.
The beers are contemporary American craft beers inspired by local lore. But the porter specifically has historic street cred. It's made with molasses, much like a famous recipe for porter recorded by young George Washington during the French and Indian War.
“Porter was very popular in the American Colonies and our recipe was designed to be close to what they drank back then,” Cross said. Additional historic accents include flaked maize and cherry-wood-smoked malt that gives the beer a whiff of smoky nuance.
The cherry wood is a cheeky cap tip to Washington lore. But, as Cross notes, “All beers back then were smoky because they were roasting the malts over open fire.”
Additional offerings include the flagship 1775 Tavern Ale; Barrett's Farmhouse Ale, a Belgian-influenced saison; easy-drinking Minuteman Gold, brewed in the style of a German kolsch; and the relatively mild (53 IBU) Lexington IPA, accented by a blend of Azacca, Centennial, Citra, Columbus and Mosaic hops.
When the new brew house goes online, Cross will add to the menu Powder Horn Pale Ale, Lord Stirling's Scottish Ale and First Martyr Belgian Stout, a chocolatey, complex ale that pays tribute to Bostonian Crispus Attucks, the first man killed during the Boston Massacre in 1770.