Elm City Brewing, Keene NH
28 May 2026
It’s been a bit since I last visited a new (to me) brewpub and I was so excited I forgot to take a photo of the exterior! To compensate, here are a few indoor shots:
Elm City is in a beautiful old brick building and has plenty of space both indoors and outdoors; what you can see in the photos above is just a part of it. They pride themselves on not just their beers but also on their fresh, locally-sourced food. Everything is recycled or composted including the spent grains from the brewing process which become animal feed.
I wasn’t in a hurry today and I had two flights of four beers plus a sandwich. Here’s the first flight, described left to right:
Keene Kölsch – Kölsch, 5.1% – I carry a little beer notebook around with me (thank you, Maya!) and among other things, it has a 1-10 rating scale for each beer I try. I rarely give a 10, but this was an easy 10! It’s one of the very best of this style I’ve enjoyed over the years with perfectly balanced flavor and bitterness. There’s plenty of character here but not so much that it would get old quickly.
Poppy Pils – Pilsner, 4.8% – I could hardly believe my taste buds — another 10, and perhaps ever so slightly better than the Kölsch! This could very easily (and very dangerously) be an all-day beer. There’s just the right bit of flavor to it that made me want more (but there were so many other beers to try).
Wit’s End – Wheat Beer, 5.2% – Absolutely solid, very good, but so very normal for this style that I couldn’t give it the highest score. If I wanted a Wit, this would be the one I’d think of.
What Gose Around – Fruited Sour, 5..1% – And then there was this Gose, which starts as the Wit and has fruits, lime, and salt added. It was only very mildly sour, but what turned me off here was the excessive saltiness combined with the lime. Together, these left what felt to me like an oily feeling/taste in my mouth that was not pleasant. Others might enjoy this one, but it’s not for me.
Flight 2, left to right:
C Monster – IPA, 6% – The description says this uses a mixture of “C” hops, which I take to mean is a mix of what might traditionally be thought of as East Coast and West Coast IPA styles mixed together. It was a good IPA but didn’t stand out for me particularly.
222 West – Pale Ale, 5.4% – The name of this one comes from their address, 222 West Street. It’s very easy drinking with just a very mild bitterness to it, a good beer for a hot day (or pretty much any day for that matter.
Bloodbath – Blood Orange IPA, 5.8% – They take the next beer in my flight and infuse it with blood orange juice to make this interesting IPA. The blood orange comes across cleanly on the front end, then shifts to the more subtle flavors of the base IPA. I wouldn’t want a full pint, but this size was enjoyable for the experience.
Birdbath – IPA, 5.8% – Citrus and pine, and to my taste, a better option than the Bloodbath because there wasn’t so much going on. This seemed like a more honest IPA.
The menu was varied and interesting, and I settled on this Turkey Melt sandwich on toasted sourdough with an upgrade from chips to fries. It’s basically a turkey club with chipotle mayo and it was excellent. It’s clear that everything is fresh, and the turkey on this was not your basic deli turkey. I cleaned the plate even though I was overstuffed by the time I was done!
Elm City is a good hour and a half from my house so it’s not somewhere I can go on a whim. That’s a shame, because it’s a worthwhile destination for both food and drink! It’s going on my list of places to get back to someday, for sure.