From The Barrel is Derry’s hidden gem

Sometimes you just need to strike out into new territory. Most of all when life seems gray, the sky is cloudy and chilly and raining. Often these ventures will not pay off — it’s good to be prepared for that going in. But occasionally you’ll discover something delightful and wonderful. (“Every once-in-a-while even a blind squirrel finds a nut.“) And on those occasions, you will swear the clouds parted and the sun came out.

Such happy discoveries restore some zest to life and help make the disappointments worthwhile.

So it was for us when we ventured out recently to a brewery that was completely unknown to us — From The Barrel in Derry. “At least it’s nearby,” I told myself as we left home. But the gods came together and smiled on us. It proved to be a very happy discovery. Some truly delicious beer *AND* amazing crab rangoon nachos! It was a died-and-gone-to-heaven moment.

The Space

From The Barrel opened in 2014 just down the road from their present location. They moved to their current spot in 2018. As with many micro- and nano-breweries, they’re in a small industrial park. They’re at the end of their building and seem to have plenty of parking.

When we arrived all tables were occupied. We grabbed the last two seats at the bar. While we were there the number of customers fluctuated, with some leaving, some arriving. At its emptiest it was slightly less than half full.

Customers at one table were playing Jenga with an extremely tall pile. Everyone was very friendly, asking if we’d been there before, and recommending beers to us. Many customers, arriving and departing, were hailed by name by the brewery staff, contributing to a homey feel.

It looked like they had about 10 seats at the bar, 12 seats at tables, and a few other seats at small bar-height shelves on the wall.

We were there for a bit under two hours and in that time we heard only two songs released after 1977. This is not a complaint! Overall it was a very pleasant mix of music. Of those more recent tunes, one was by Smashing Pumpkins and one by Greta Van Fleet — so, really, they were right at home amongst the older songs. Most of the music was 60’s & 70’s rock. Creedence Clearwater Revival, two Jimi Hendrix tunes.

The Food

They have a fairly small food menu, essentially several kinds of nachos and a few pizzas. The call out that their nachos are made with chips from a nearby Wrap City. While my wife and I were chatting about which kind of nachos we should get (maybe barbecued pork?) our neighbors at the bar strongly recommended the crab rangoon nachos with a fervor bordering on religious. So that settled it.

Sure enough, when they were delivered, the clouds parted and the sun shone upon us. Somehow they were far more delicious than anyone can reasonably expect nachos to be. NOTE: the crab rangoon nachos are not always on the menu.

The Beers

When we visited, they had five beers on tap, so we started with a flight of all five.

They serve flights and full pours, they sell growlers, and most of their beers are available in cans. Below are some notes on the beers we had, from left to right in the photo above:

Strictly Simcoe — Pale Ale, 5.5% ABV — A wee bit of cattiness noticeable. A very competent ale.

Big Elle — Double IPA, 10.5% ABV — A good DIPA. I might have guessed IPA instead of DIPA. High alcohol content is just barely noticeable.

Clay’s — Maple Pecan Brown Ale, 5.8% ABV — Very good. Maple *very* noticeable on the nose. A very good brown ale. Drinking w/o inhaling, the maple is not nearly so noticeable, but the beer is still quite good. This was my wife’s favorite.

Krampus — Imperial Milk Stout with Salted Caramel, 10% ABV — My favorite. A delicious stout. High ABV is absolutely not noticeable, so caution is advised! Salted caramel is very slight, but is there. Many other customers requested this beer. Available only near Christmas.

Spare Parts — Black Raspberry Sour Ale, 5.2% ABV — A delicious sour. Extremely mild. Very clean mouth feel. Fruit is there but super mild, as is the sourness.

We brought home two four packs, one of Spare Parts and one of Clay’s. All the better to enjoy snowy evenings by a fire.

The beer list on their website shows many other beers, several of which sound very interesting. Like one called “Who’s Jeff?” which I’ll definitely have to try next time they make it (and let them know I’m available for spokesman duties). Also “Hints and Allegations,” a black IPA hopped with Amarillo and Simcoe. And “Creeping Death,” brewed near Halloween, a triple IPA hopped with Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo and Columbus. So I have reasons to pay attention to this tiny brewery.

To sum up, any single one of these would have made the trip a success:

• Crab rangoon nachos
• Spare Parts
• Krampus
• Clay’s

So to have had all four in one small trip made the day an unqualified success.

Just the Facts

From The Barrel is located at…

1 Corporate Park Dr
Unit 16
Derry, NH 03038

Phone number: 603-328-1896

Hours:

Monday Closed
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday Closed
Thursday 4:00pm-8:00pm
Friday 4:00pm-8:00pm
Saturday 2:00pm- 8:00pm
Sunday 1:00pm- 6:00pm

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Email: use “contact us” link on website

Map from Manchester to From The Barrel

Local map around area of From The Barrel