Hockey and Beer: Breweries Near Your Favorite Team, Part 6

Part 6 of a 10 Blog series

With seemingly no end to the NHL Lockout in site, hockey fans are getting more and more fearful of a canceled season. To try to keep the spirits of the fans of one of the world’s greatest sports up, ExBEERience CLE is taking a look at breweries near all 30 NHL Teams. There will be no mention of breweries like Anheuser Busch or MillerCoors. No, these will all be breweries of the craft variety, making small batches with original recipes and delicious beer. Have I tried beers from all the breweries mentioned? No. But I have done the research needed to see which breweries should be featured. So, while we wait for this lockout to finally come to an end, let us rejoice in the one thing that will never leave us out in the cold; Beer!
Nashville Predators – For almost a decade now, Yazoo Brewing Company has been brewing up great things for the folks of Nashville. Linus Hall had been a home brewer for quite some time before finally putting everything together and opening the doors of Yazoo in October of 2003. Hall didn’t just go from home brewer directly to business owner. He first get a business degree from Vanderbilt and then worked under Garret Oliver of Brooklyn Brewing Company, honing his craft to make sure that all the products he produced were of the finest quality. With seven year-round brews and seasonal brews for every time of the year, Yazoo is doing well and continuing to grow!

New Jersey Devils – Gene Muller of Flying Fish Brewing Company does things a little differently, made evident that his brewery started out somewhere no other brewery started; on the Internet. He gave lovers of great beer the chance to help him make decisions about his brewery. Some of them designed labels, some of them named the beers but all of them helped create a community that only accepted the highest quality beers. Flying Fish finally opened its physical doors in 1996 and has tripled in size since that first year. Size-wise, Flying Fish is the King of New Jersey craft breweries. I had the chance to try their Farmhouse Summer Ale while I was in Philadelphia in July and I absolutely loved it! Flying Fish is definitely a great brewery and I hope they make their way to Cleveland in the future!

New York Islanders – A few weeks back, my dad brought me home a bottle of Toasted Lager from Blue Point Brewing Company on Long Island, New York. This delicious brew is the brainchild of Mark Burford and Pete Cotter, the men who founded Blue Point Brewing Company in 1998. It was the first brewery ever on Long Island and was pieced together with elements from defunct breweries all over the country. There name comes from the oysters that are harvested from the waters near their building. It’s the same building that was given to them, rent free for the first year, by an optimistic landlord who believed that Mark and Pete had what it took to get things going. Boy was he right! In addition to their Toasted Lager, Blue Point offers an Oatmeal Stout, Hoptical Illusion IPA, a Blueberry Ale and Toxic Sludge Black IPA. That last one is a limited release and getting your hands on it could be tough! This is another brewery that I would love to see more of in the Cleveland area!

Another round of Hockey City Breweries is in the books with another coming soon. The lockout has been extended to at least December 30th so this is some of the only hockey related material you get to see. Hopefully, the puck drops sometime in the near future and all you puckheads can enjoy your favorite breweries beer while your team is skating!