Portsmouth Brewery Celebrates 20th Birthday With a Sampler of Special Events
New Hampshire’s Original Brewpub celebrates 20th Anniversary with a Sampler of Special Events
Portsmouth, NH – In 1991, a young, but experienced brother and sister duo, Peter and Janet Egelston, opened New Hampshire’s first brewpub at 56 Market Street in Portsmouth. It was their second venture, having cut their teeth five years prior when they opened the Northampton Brewery in Massachusetts.
Since opening, The Portsmouth Brewery has grown from being the quirky new kid on the block to being hailed by the Boston Globe as “a linchpin in the revitalized core of downtown Portsmouth.” “The Brewery,” as much a nickname as an indicator of its stature amongst Seacoast residents, is celebrating its 20th Anniversary with three special events starting on June 1.
The brewery’s anniversary date, Wednesday June 1, will serve as both the kick-off for the busy summer season as well as a birthday party. New beer glasses will line the back bar, staff will don new work shirts, and a selection of 20th Anniversary t-shirts, glassware and other apparel will be available in the retail store. Another commemoration of this milestone will be a special 20th Anniversary Beer, brewed with 20 malts, by 20 brewers making 20 hop additions and starting at 20˚ Plato will also be tapped. The beer is a hoppy version of an “old ale,” a traditional British-style strong ale noted for pronounced caramel and roasted malt flavors. Video footage from the brew will be trickling out online at Portsmouth Brewery TV over the next week. There will be a candle-blowing ceremony and pub-wide beer and cake toast at 5:30pm. We hope you’ll help us pack the place for this special moment.
The next two days will see business as usual but with a few extra decorations appearing around the pub. But on Saturday June 4, regular service will end early (last seating-5:30, last call-6:30 and closing-7) so that staff can transform the Portsmouth Brewery into downtown’s rarest music venue, a nod the pub’s early days when live music was regularly booked.
Seacoast MC’s BCap and Face of Fate will be throwing down their hypest set in the Seacoast yet! Backed by DJ Ryan Obermiller, their always improvised hip-hop a la of freestyle and soul, allows the trio, affectionately known as TheDodgerz or ThePressMCs, to ebb and flow seamlessly with their audiences. These MCs have collaborated and shared stages with such artists as Nas, The Roots, Myka9, Boyz II Men, Slick Rick and more. Ryan Obermiller is a staple in the electronic music scene both as a DJ and show promoter, bringing top rated international DJs to Portsmouth for nearly a decade now.
This is a 21+ show and ID must be shown at the door. Admission is FREE and WXGR will be broadcasting the entire show live. Doors open at 9pm while the show starts around 10. We strongly encourage you to bring cash for the bar for ease of service; all that dancing is bound to make you thirsty!
The final event of the schedule cranks down the intensity for a lazy Sunday, June 5. Portsmouth Brewery will open its doors for an indoor, city center cook-out. The wild energy from the night before and in its place will be long tables for community style seating. The patio will be filled with grills and all the fixins you’d expect to find at a typical New England cook-out.
If live music isn’t your cup of tea, then Sunday will certainly be your day to celebrate.
The kitchen staff will emerge from their subterranean lair to man the grills while live acoustic music fills the air and puts you into backyard relaxation mode. It’s a perfect setting to make some new friends while enjoying pints of our anniversary beer alongside your grilled treats. Please bring the whole family!
Doors will open at 10:30am and a $10 entrance fee at the door will give you tickets redeemable for a plate of food and a pint of beer. Additional beer and food tickets are available for $5 each. The menu will be reminiscent of a cook-out and this is yet another event at which cash in encouraged. The LaPanza Lounge will be open for extra seating as well.
We can’t thank the entire community of Portsmouth enough for their support over the last two decades. We hope you’ll join us for these special events and that’ll you’ll want to come celebrate with us. Event update will be posted on our Facebook page, which is also a great place to go if you’ve got questions and don’t want to use 1990’s technology, like a telephone.
