Brewpub Visit: Martha’s Exchange Brewing Company

Martha’s Exchange
185 Main Street
Nashua, NH
603-883-8781

So Laura (my wife) and I headed out on Friday with baby in tow. We had a big night planned as Will Ferrell's character Frank from Old School would say:

Frank: I told my wife I wouldn't drink tonight. Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. You guys have a great time.

College Student: A big day? Doing what?

Frank: Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper; maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.

In my case it would have been Friday and Bernie and Phyl's in Nashua. Since we were up in Nashua we decided to get some grub, and since you know I love to compliment any meal with beer. My wife and I decided to go to Martha’s Exchange.

Downtown Nashua is on the up and coming, if it is not there already. If you're in the area, Nashua now has a lot of shops and restaurants that are very nice. Also Jasper’s, a local homebrew shop across the street from Martha’s exchange is a great place to pick up some beers and homebrew ingredients.

For a Friday night it wasn't very busy, we got right in and were seated. We asked the waitress if this is how it normal was on Friday and she said “no it was usually much busier”. Well that was good for us, no crowd. The first thing I did was look at the beer menu it was very nice. There were 5 beers on tap and one beer in the cask.

The six beers they had were, on cask "India Head Red" and on-tap Volstead 33, Golden Perch IPA, Alt Beer, Winter Magi, and The Abbot's Habit. So I started the night off with the cask, if you have an opportunity to try "real ale" do it. "Real ale" or cask conditioned ale is unfiltered, unpasteurized and contains live yeast that continues to ferment the beer in the keg (also known as "secondary fermentation") which produces a richer tasting brew.

So as I tasted the India Head Red, it was pretty good a great nose on the brew full of toffee, cocoa, vanilla notes but lacked in taste on the palate. My wife and I proceeded to order our food. I ordered the bacon cheeseburger w/fries. For beer, I got a sampler of all 5 beers on tap in about 5 or 6oz pours for $6.95 that is correct--a great deal. Please note that the sampler was not on the menu, but a quick question to the server, she was able to get it for us. I proceeded to try all the beers from the tamer styles to the more aggressive a simple rule I usually use so your palate isn't beat up and that your pilsner doesn’t taste like water by time you get to it.

Martha’s menu consists of wide array of dishes some of the most memorable is their tapas menu with the beef tenderloin crostinis for $10 and the lobster stuffed haddock for $19. Entrees range from $8 for sandwiches to $21 for the Rib Eye and on the Bistro menu available after 5pm Orange Balsamic Scallops and the Tenderloin Medallions with merlot demi-glace make it worth the trip. The beer ranges from $4.95-$6 depending on style.

So let's get to the pairing of the night:

Cask India Head Red
This beer coming from the cask served cask temp, I was excited to see what this beer was going to offer. It poured a very dark amber that left a thin lace. The smell is awesome, packed with a wallop of toffee, chocolate, caramel, strong vanilla presence very sweet smelling. The taste was well under expectation considering the nose of this brew. It starts with a bitter hop feel on the palate laced with a tannic tanginess. The body is lacking, somewhat watery when compared to the nose. When an aroma is that powerful all your senses get going and the palate is ready to taste but it feel far short of what I expected. I paired this beer with a bacon cheeseburger, the cheese I put on the burger was aged cheddar which had a sweet buttery feel on the palate to mirror some of the malt sweetness I found in the ale. The smoky grilled flavor of the burger just really cut threw some of the sweetness in the cheese and beer as well so every bite really played with your palate. It went from sweet to smoky to buttery to bitter then finished with a sweet honey feel mostly from the bread and beer.

Golden Perch IPA
Pours a burnt butter gold that has a sticky white head. The aroma is nice, lots of herbs, hops, flowers, honey, spice. The taste starts with a hop bitterness blast followed by some smooth warm caramel consistency (syrup but not thick) sweetness that finishes with a grapefruit squeeze. I like this beer a nice IPA that I could sip all day. I paired this beer with the whole grain bread on the table, fantastic! The wheats, grains, and honey from the bread just brought out the herbal spicy caramel flavors in the IPA.

Arkenstone Alt
This beer pours a Macintosh apple red, and leaves a white lace for a head that disappears quickly. The aroma seems off a bit; it has a fruit (grape), sour smell, followed by a bit of smokiness. It starts on the palate with a tart bite, followed by hop bitter flavor and finished with some smoky, tobacco essence, and then all of a sudden caramel malt presence can be detected. Not bad for the style, a little weak on the body, I was expecting a little bit more. I paired this beer with the strawberry ganache mousse, oh yeah. Although I was slightly disappointed with the brew I was still able to pair this brew with the strawberry ganache. The tangy tartness in the brew actually goes well with the sweetness of the strawberry which also brings a tanginess due to the highly acidic strawberries.

Finally my favorite pairing of the night:

The Abbot's Habit
This beer pours a golden raisin color and leaves a thin white lace that sticks to the glass to let you know some sweet notes are about to happen on your palate. The aroma is delightful, candied fruit, plums, figs, bananas, and sweet overipened fruit. The taste is sweet not overpowering, rum soaked fruit is what comes to mind. As I let this sit on my palate a little more, some buttery notes began to rise finishing like a fine apple brandy with the alcohol presence. I paired this dessert with the chocolate raspberry cake; wow a lot of pleasant sweetness. Nothing overpowering in terms of sweetness, but the chocolate in the cake goes so well with the fruit, buttery notes in the beer. Then "The Abbot" just hits you with just enough hoppiness and carbonation to slice through the sweetness of both the cake and the brew itself.

- Frank Bennett

Frank Bennett