Notch Brewing

Microbrewery in Salem, Massachusetts, United States 🇺🇸
Associated with 2 Venues

Established in 2010

Contact
283R Derby St, Salem, MA, 01970, United States
Description
Launched in 2010, Notch Brewing – named for the nick made to keep a record when you're having more than one – was the first brewing company in the U.S. to focus exclusively on session beer. At the time, we simply wanted to brew the beers we loved to drink because finding them was a challenge. Session beer has been enjoyed in every great beer brewing nation for centuries, yet in the U.S. it was overlooked. So we set out to brew the world’s classic session styles from the Czech Republic, Germany, England, and Belgium, as well as explore how session beer could fit with the U.S.’s hoppy beer infatuation. Over a decade later, we have a brewery built on the back of session beer and it’s proven two things: beer consumers like options, and session beer is a great one.

     Show


8
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Pours deep mahogany into a willi. Tan micro head with excellent retention recedes leaving trailing spiders. Dark caramel, bacon and light smoke aromas. Soft with bacon and smoked sausage upfront turning to sweet dark caramel before the lasting earthy campfire toast finish. Nice.

Tried on 30 Mar 2023 at 21:16


7.8
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

Pours light mahogany into a stem glass. Tan pancake head with excellent retention recedes leaving spot lacing. Sweet molasses bread and dark pit fruit aromas. Soft and warm with sweet molasses and licorice upfront turning to earthy bread, dark caramel and bark in the lasting finish.

Tried on 23 Mar 2023 at 21:14


7.6
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Pours hazy brassy gold into an English pint. White head with little retention recedes to hug rim. Smoky caramel aromas. Soft with toasted earthy multigrain bread and dark caramel upfront turning to pumpernickel and bark in the dry, warm, lasting finish.

Tried on 20 Mar 2023 at 21:42


7.8
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Pours deep mahogany into a willi. Tan head with medium retention recedes leaving scant trailing sheets to skim surface. Dark caramel and light smoke aromas. Thin to medium bodied with smoked bacon and wood smoke upfront turning to sweet dark caramel and toasted brown bread in the earthy lasting finish.

Tried from Can on 15 Feb 2023 at 22:34


8.4
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

Pours mahogany-tinged black into a shaker. Mocha head with medium retention recedes to skim surface. Milk chocolate and pumpernickel aromas. Dry with sweet milk chocolate, mild smoke and mocha front to back.

Tried on 29 Jan 2023 at 23:05


7.6
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Pours gold into a willi. Bright white head with medium retention recedes to skim surface. Sweet caramel, biscuit and straw aromas. Crisp with melon and tangerine upfront turning to earthy multigrain sourdough and straw before the lasting, peppery pith finish.

Tried on 11 Jan 2023 at 22:28


7.5
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Can: Poured a golden color pilsner with a large white foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of cereal notes with some light herbal notes. Taste is a mix of cereal notes with some herbal hops and light residual sugar notes. Body is about average with good carbonation. Enjoyable pilsner though maybe a tad too sweet.

Tried from Can on 05 Jan 2023 at 02:33


7.5
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Brighton draught, 1/4/23. Clear amber. Large, light beige head is well retained. Papery kolsch yeast, pepper and herbs from hops and soft mineral and hints of toasted malt. Very clean and snappy. Red fruit, toasted caramel and light brown bread. Pepper lingering long. Kolsch yeast (pencil, paper, pepper). I don't love medium specialty malts, as they get in the way of hops and yeast without much payoff (heavily toasted bread and caramel...yum....). But it's well-made.

Tried on 04 Jan 2023 at 22:27


5.8
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Brighton draught, 1/4/23. Clear, brass-bronze-golden. Medium-sized white head shows strong retention. Sweaty hops with a bit of gummy bear, peach-apricot and sweet, honeyish malts. I don't love this mega-fruity, sweet and melony hop treatment that seems to be popular these days. There smells like almost no acidity either, which is the main problem. Clean, no alcohol. Sweet, round malts up front with melon, apricot, heavy honey and a bit of bland resin on the end. Glad Charlie reviewed this first so I got a half pour. Still hard to finish even a half pour...Nelson hops are close to undrinkable this harvest. Sad face.

Tried on 04 Jan 2023 at 22:14


7.2
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Brighton draught, 1/4/23. Clear deep amber with a light auburn shade. Large, off-white head is well-retained. Very, very fruity with heavy black pepper from the smoke. Almost some graphite in there, something slightly sharp. Good mineral and biscuity, bready malts with lighter herbal hops. Clean. Smoke and bread up front but thinning out heavily. Dry finish, light pepper and tons of biscuit but just rather extra-light-bodied even for its size. Still, the flavor is great with fruity notes from the smoked malt I guess. Not very smokey in flavor. Lots of dry biscuit, pepper and herbs lingering.

Tried on 04 Jan 2023 at 21:47