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| Nantucket Secret |
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| Written by Matt Sciacca | ||||||
| Thursday, 31 January 2008 | ||||||
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When most folks think about the island of Nantucket, which sits 30 miles out off the mainland of Cape Cod, the old whaling industry comes to mind. What many people don’t know is that a new industry, a small craft operation, has rooted itself amongst the small farms and rolling moors. This three-headed operation — Cisco Brewers/Triple Eight Distillery/Nantucket Vineyards — may be New England’s best kept secret.
The beginnings of this soulful fiesta are the collaboration of Randy and Wendy Hudson, and Dean and Melissa Long. The Hudsons started brewing in 1995 with a 3-bbl. system while the Longs had been operating the Nantucket vineyard since 1981. These folks all got together in 1997, and that’s when the Triple Eight Distillery was born. The Longs tried for several years to grow grapes on the island, but Nantucket’s weather would never allow the fruit to grow well enough to meet the needs of the winemakers. Today, grapes are brought in from Washington State, as well as California, to make several types of wine. Production at this point is around 2,500 cases per year. Of the wine we sampled, I found the Sailors Delight (a blend of Syrah and Viognier), and the Merlot to be particularly enjoyable. When I arrived at the compound, a fellow was stirring a large kettle filled with organic cranberries. Later we would see the extraction of these wonderful berries in a bladder press, with the end result being a concentrate used in one of the distillery’s four vodkas. Cranberries are only harvested once a year, so in order to be able to produce the cranberry vodka all year, a concentrate/extract containing grain neutral spirits is developed. Unfortunately, we arrived a week after the actual harvest, but were able to get a tour of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation’s cranberry bogs by bog manager Tom Larrabee. At one time Nantucket was home to America’s single largest cranberry bog, though now it has been divided into several smaller bogs, one section organic, one non-organic. Tom showed me a machine called a berry bouncer from 1929 which he was running that day to sort the organic cranberries which would later be used in the vodka. Triple Eight gets its name from the number given to the spring where water is drawn from a deep, undisturbed glacial pool. This water is used in all the products these craftsman, and women, present. Rum and gin (using local botanicals) and bourbon are among the other spirits produced. My favorites are the vanilla flavored vodka (each bottle contains a bean from Madagascar and a bean from New Guinea), as well as their small batch bourbon. Nor’easter Bourbon should actually be called a single malt scotch. I know the political/geographical limitations and requirements that consequent such titular arguments, but for peat’s sake, if Glen Breton in Nova Scotia can call its whisky a single malt, well these folks should be allowed to as well! If the requirement is that the Scotch be brought about by a Scotsman, well Dean Long has that on loch down too, but I guess this is getting a bit off-topic. The real reason that brought me here is the Cisco Brewers’ amazing bottle-conditioned porter, called Moor Porter. A few years back, I discovered a bottle of this in a retail shop on Long Island, and I’ve been wanting to go to Nantucket ever since. The entire line of Cisco beers, to me, is just outstanding. Pumple Drumkin, a pumpkin ale using the L.I. Gourd variety grown on Bartlett Farm just next door to the brewery, is possibly the best pumpkin ale I’ve ever tasted. Bottle-conditioned Whales Tail Pale Ale, is another banger. Captain Swain’s Extra Stout, using 11 different malts is a sure bounty. Jay Harmon, the manager of this whole operation (more than a manager, he really does everything here to some degree), gave us an extensive tour of the brewery. There’s the mash tun which was the original mash tun for Sam Adams. The brew kettle came from a guy in N.Y. who made Polly-O cheese (he only used it to protect his grain bags from small, hungry creatures). Now production is based on a 15-bbl. system, but in the beginning they were using dairy equipment from Vermont. With the addition of brewer Jeff Horner from Keegan Ales, they are now getting into Belgian styles. Experimentation with beer in casks that sit alongside the resting barrels of whisky in the cask chamber will no doubt produce some fun results. Plans to grow some sizable hop fields are in the works (they have 75 hop plants growing already). The use of local products like fruit and honey add to the charm of this very unique brewery. Before I left the island, I asked Jay if he could recommend a nice restaurant where I might sample, and pair his products with gourmet level local cooking. I was directed to Brotherhood of Thieves, where I successfully paired (oddly enough) a delicious local scallop dish with the vanilla vodka. The sign out front said this was a whaling bar from the 1840s, and I figured if they’ve been around that long, it’s a no brainer they’re doing it right. Do yourself a favor, get out to Nantucket. For more info and history, visit www.ciscobrewers.com.
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