
Smuttynose Brewing Company was founded in 1994. The story started before that, though. In 1987 siblings, Peter & Janet Egelston, along with partners, started the Northampton Brewery in Northhampton, MA, which is now the oldest brewpub in New England. In 1991 they started the Portsmouth Brewery, New Hampshire’s first brewpub. In 1992 Peter and Janet bought out the other partners. In 1993 Peter attended the bankruptcy auction of the Frank Jones Brewing Company and bought the brewery that would become Smuttynose. In 2000 Peter & Janet Egelston bought each other out of their partnership, splitting the brewery ownership. Janet remains owner of the Northampton Brewery; Peter and his partner, Joanne Francis, own Smuttynose and the Portsmouth Brewery. Smuttynose Brewing Company was located in Portsmouth, NH up until this year, when they moved to their new location in North Hampton, NH.

Eric explaining the brewing process
They have a wet grist mill, not dry as many breweries are.

Plenty of beer here
They also use whole malts instead of split malts.

Their bottling line, which you can kind of see in this picture, can do about 300 bottles a minute. They were going a little slower when we were there because they were doing mixed 12 packs, which need to be separated and boxed by hand.


Fermentation tanks
This is certainly one of the biggest breweries we have been to. Look at all those tanks.

They made a lot of decisions to be a green facility.

Plenty of natural light. They also have motion sensor LED lights, which are much more energy efficient than fluorescents. They actually did such a good job in making green decisions that they are a LEED Certified Gold facility.

A rain garden outside that helps with absorbing water into the ground and avoiding the sewer system.
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Showing off our safety glasses on the tour
At the end of the tour you can sample 4 beers. We tried to split up our tastings between us so we could try beers we haven’t had before.

Vunderbar Pilsner – 4.9%
One of the better pilsners we have had. Light but good flavor.

Farmhouse Ale – 7.2%
We both really liked this. Fruity with a slight earthy taste. Unfortunately they didn’t have any in bottles or we would have bought some.

Just hanging out
Big A IPA – 9.5%
Strong IPA, not overpowering considering it is 9.5%. Good flavor, has a nice- little-something-extra taste to it.
Old Brown Dog – 6.7%
Described as having a ‘rich, malty flavor’. It is a little more flavorful than some brown ales.

Smuttlander – 9.8%
Double bock, smoother than expected, hints of toffee and molasses.

Robust Porter – 6.6%
Flavorful, but light bodied to us. Good coffee flavor, hints of chocolate aftertaste. This is their most award winning beer.


The table Mark is leaning on is in the tasting area for people to gather around. They are made from recycled shipping containers from their new brewing equipment and double as storage. Staying green.

Part of what they are able to do with the new facility is produce more beer, but also different lines of beer. They started in 2007 with a short batch series which has become the Smuttlabs series. They say that:
our brewing staff has many ideas that can’t be done on a large scale; this is where Smuttlabs comes into play. From barrel-aging and beer souring to culinary collaborations and special projects that just don’t fit anywhere else, if a project is out of the ordinary, unique or time consuming, you can bet it’ll bear the Smuttlabs name.
We bought 2 different types of the Smuttlabs to try at home.

Mark deciding what Smuttlabs beers to buy
Herbaceous – 2014 wet hopped ipa – 6.75%
Darker in color than a typical IPA. A hoppy flavor but a little smoother than a Big A or Finestkind.
Shebang – 2014 Triple IPA – 10.5%
Definitely a heavy beer, dark color, heavy malty flavor. Tasty but you have to be in the mood for a big beer.

Big Beers and Smuttlabs

Plenty of swag and beers in the gift shop.

They have lots of plans for the land surrounding the brewery. The farmhouse that was on the property is currently being renovated to be a farm to table restaurant.

They have plans to renovate the old barn that was on the property to be a function hall.

Do you recognize this old trailer? Maybe from the Finestkind IPA logo?

They have plans to turn this into an outdoor beer garden during the nice weather, serving beer from the trailer with seating outside. This way you can actually come and hang out at the brewery and have a few beers.
TOUR THE BREWERY!
Tours and free samples daily. Last tour leaves at the posted time:
M-W Tastings: noon – 4pm
M-W Retail: noon – 7pm
Thursday: noon – 5:30pm
Friday: noon – 6:30pm
Saturday: 11am – 6:30pm
Sunday: 11am – 3pm
NO RESERVATIONS NEEDED