Cape Cod Beer has been around for three years and it certainly seems to be a growing success. They moved about a year ago from their original location in downtown Hyannis to an expanded, 3,000 square foot location in what we would call a light industrial business park. Cape Cod's draft accounts have surged more than 50% since the end of last summer (to 130), and growlers are available in 60 stores across the Cape. It is a small enough operation to offer a decidedly personal touch. Our informal tour was given by owner and brewmaster Todd Marcus' wife, Beth. She started us off with some
small samples and then showed us around the warehouse that houses brewery.
The strength of the tour was Beth's interaction with the group and the tidbits of inside information she could give us. Much better than your standard, forgettable, stick-to-the-brochure tour led by community college student. Or half-assed effort where a sweaty, disinterested guide is clearly going through the motions before calling it a day and grabbing a beer of his own (we're looking at you, Shipyard). But we digress.
Beth Marcus told us that the brewery had always been her husband's dream, not hers, but the enthusiasm was obvious as she talked about fielding a call from someone interested in distributing their product in Viet Nam, only to have to explain that she was more worried about getting beer across the bridge into Plymouth. Or the logistical difficulties of delivering both a child to soccer practice and a keg to a local restaurant account in the same trip.
She knew that they had increased from three fermenters when they moved into the new facility a year ago to seven now, and the new excess holding tank came from the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory. She told us about early branding missteps and other lessons learned while building a company literally one tap handle at a time. We are a big fan of the craft beer movement in general, but a tour like that should make it difficult for anyone not to feel at least some connection with a small brewery and what they are trying to do.
It didn't hurt that the beer was damned tasty as well. The
year round offerings are Shark's Tooth IPA (It's got a Bite!), and Channel Marker Red (Red, Right, Return). The IPA was a pleasant surprise, strongly hoppy up front, with a smooth, sightly citrus finish. The Red was pretty fine in it's own right, balanced, with an underlying bit of hops to keep things interesting. We must say that it was much better than the pint we sampled with lunch at a nearby overpriced and overly pretentious clam joint before visiting the brewery. The seasonal, Summer, was a very good rendition of a Hefe-Weizen. We imagine that one will only grow more enjoyable in direct proportion to the amount of sun on Cape Cod this summer. Our group took home a growler of each, and two of the IPA.
The Good: Plenty to like here. The tour. The beer. A bunch of friendly dudes from the local home brewing club were boiling up a delicious pot of something while we were there. Just a great overall experience.
The Bad: The samples were tiny. We're talking a couple of ounces. Your beer is
good, make sure we have no doubts of that by the time we walk out your door. No distribution "off Cape," and no real plans to do bulk bottling anytime soon. Guess we'll have to visit again.
