I had put off going to New England to call on accounts we have across the region for nearly a year. But it became apparent that I needed to get out there to get some face time with some of our better dealers. On my first full day after meetings in the New Haven, CT area in the morning, I swung over to Middletown, NY, about a 2-hour drive from New Haven to see one of our better accounts there. That evening, I decided to stay in Middletown and found that there aren't a lot of dining options on a Monday night in area. I was able to find a brewpub that was open and decided to have dinner there. This is my visit to the Clemson Brothers Brewery in Middletown.
Kenan (pronounced KEN-an) Porter was a budding entrepreneur when he was in college. Not even old enough to legally consume alcohol, he came up with a vodka/fruit punch drink concoction that was stored in sippy pouches. Porter went around to bars and liquor stores, but found that he couldn't legally sell his product without proper licensing. After graduating college, he started marketing a line of aloe water drinks becoming somewhat successful in doing so. Within a short time, his aloe water line was being distributed in 18 states, primarily on the East Coast. He was quickly running out of space at his warehouse, so he heard through the grapevine that the town of Middletown, NY was looking for companies to take over spaces in buildings the city owned.
Porter went to check out some of the properties in Middletown and one of the buildings was a large brick building that dated back to the late 19th century. It housed the Clemson Brothers company which invented and patented the hacksaw in 1898. The Star hacksaw was one of the most versatile tools of its day and revolutionized how saws were used on construction sites in the early 1900's.
The building had mostly sat empty for a number of years and the city of Middletown had been trying to find tenants for the property. Porter took one look at the property and the wheels started to turn. He looked at the building - which then housed three small businesses - as a multi-use property. He envisioned a new concept - a brewpub/restaurant. Now, people who start brewpub or microbreweries are usually seasoned home brewers or craft beer aficionados. But Porter rarely drank beer. And his father - who was a successful real estate developer in nearby Warwick, NY - was more of a Coors Light kind of guy. But his father also saw the potential of the building, and investors and bankers were bullish on microbreweries at that time. The Porters bought the Clemson Brothers building in 2012.
It turned out that finding a brewmaster for the new venture wasn't all that tough. Porter's brother-in-law Paul Pacheco was a home brewing enthusiast. Just after the Porters purchased the Clemson Brothers building, Paul and Kenan started to experiment with test batches of beers at home. Needing to learn more about small and large batch production, Pacheco volunteered to go off to apprentice at Foley Brothers Brewing Co. in Vermont to immerse himself in the art of brewing. While Pacheco was away for a couple years, Porter went about turning the main floor of the building into a brewery and restaurant. There were a number of hiccups along the way in the design and restoration of the building, along with procuring the needed apparatus to brew the beer.
Setting up a restaurant as well as a menu was also something Porter had no idea what to do. He brought in Tony Tello whose family ran a couple Mexican restaurants in the area to help with the kitchen set up. By the time Paul Pacheco's apprenticeship at Foley Brothers came to an end in early 2015, the brewery/restaurant started to come to fruition. Naming the brewpub was a no brainer for Porter - a history buff who was determined to keep the Clemson Brothers legacy alive. Clemson Brothers Brewery finally opened in October of 2015.
Each month set a record in terms of sales for the brewery and restaurant. The 10-barrel system was quickly overwhelmed and it was determined that Clemson Brothers Brewery needed to expand their operation to keep up with demand. In early 2017, a 40-barrel system was put in place to up the output of the brewery.
Clemson Brothers Brewery continued to grow and expansion into other towns in the area came up on the horizon. Porter had initially set his sights on his hometown of Warwick, NY for a second Clemson Brothers brewpub, but snags occurred during the developmental process. In 2019, Porter bought the Gilded Otter, a longtime brewpub in New Paltz, NY about 30 miles north and east of Middletown. After spending $4 million dollars to purchase and update the restaurant and brewing system, the brewpub was renamed Clemson Brothers at the Gilded Otter.
In late 2019, ground was broke for a third Clemson Brothers location in Pine Island, NY - about 15 minutes south of Middletown and where Kenan Porter was living. However, when the pandemic broke in March of 2020 all construction on the project stopped. They had hoped to get the construction project back up and running eyeing a summer 2022 opening, but so far nothing has happened with their third location in Pine Island.
The pandemic dealt a blow to a number of restaurants and event centers causing many to go out of business. A nearby wedding event center that was very popular was one that couldn't sustain the effects of the pandemic and was forced to close. Porter saw an opportunity and expanded both the Middletown and New Paltz locations into event centers for both weddings, corporate meetings and parties. Both Clemson Brothers event centers opened in 2023.
Today, Clemson Brothers produces about three dozen different varieties of beers including year-round, seasonal and special occasion beers. All their beers are made in small batches ensuring the freshest taste possible for their beers.
It was just after 6 p.m. when I went to Clemson Brothers. I was able to park in a lot on the north side of the complex off the street. I was a little confused as to where the front door was and I went to the original front door of the stately three-story building at the corner of Railroad Ave. and Cottage St. (see map). After I discovered that the door was locked, I went around to a smaller building off to the side and found that THAT door was the door that opened into the brewpub.
The pub part of Clemson Brothers is a somewhat large and open room with the brewing facility just past a glass wall on the north side of the room. The pub featured exposed brick walls with a hard wood floor and metal beams across the ceiling. Selections of music from artists such as Corey Kent, Marshmello, Hardy, Whiskey Myers, and Tyler Childers was playing in the background.
I had to use the restroom after a bit and I found an interesting apparatus for getting water to the sink. It was a coiled-copper water line that went up and over the mirror and down into a funnel that put water into a copper sink. It was a guess that the original Clemson Brothers factory used a lot of copper in their manufacturing process.
As I usually do when I'm alone at a brewpub, I saddled up at the bar. The bartender that evening was a young lady by the name of Mariah. She was pretty neutral in her demeanor the whole time I was there, but she was on top of things when I needed a refill or an extra napkin. She gave me a food menu and asked if I wanted anything to drink. Their current tap menu was on a board on the wall behind the bar. In addition to a number of beers on tap, Clemson Brothers Brewery also features a full bar with a number of specialty cocktails available. After trying a couple different beers, I decided upon the Trinity Test TR-3 hazy IPA. It was a very good beer with a smooth taste and an ABV of 7%. I ended up taking a 32 ounce can/crowler back to the hotel with me.
The food menu at Clemson Brothers was pretty interesting. Their appetizers included perogies - something I don't see on menus around the Midwest all that often. They also had truffle fries, pretzel sticks, and something called Black Dirt Onion Dip - sour cream blended with French onion spices and mixed with scallions and bacon served with house-made chips.
They had a number of sandwiches and burgers on the menu making up the bulk of the selections. Sandwiches included a reuben sandwich, a grilled portobello mushroom sandwich, and a cheese steak sandwich. Burgers included the Big Bad Wolf which had bacon, ham, a bacon aioli and smoked Gouda cheese; The Hacksaw that was topped with beer cheese, bacon, jalapeños and onion straws; and the Cuatro Caliente which featured jalapeños, pepper jack cheese, a honey Sriracha sauce, and a chipotle aioli.
I was intrigued by a couple three items on the menu. They had fish tacos on the appetizer menu, as well as short rib tacos. But I ended up going the burger route and ordered the Star Victor burger - it was topped with button mushrooms, Swiss cheese, stout beer caramelized onions, and a garlic aioli. It was served on a brioche bun. Fries came on the side with the burger. But something else that I saw on the menu also piqued my interest - the jalapeño cole slaw. I asked Mariah about the cole slaw and she said, "Yeah, it's pretty good. People like it." She didn't do a very good job of selling the cole slaw, but I ordered it anyway.
The burger was very good - flavorful, juicy, and a bit messy. It was definitely a multi-napkin burger. The brioche bun held together very well with all the toppings and the juiciness of the burger. The fries were also very good. They had a nice crunchy outer shell with a warm, flaky inside. But the winner in the bunch was the jalapeño cole slaw. Mariah completely undersold the cole slaw as it was a combination of sweet, spicy and a cool creamy flavor. It was outstanding, some of the best tasting cole slaw I ever had. I really wanted to see if I could get the recipe of how they make their spicy cole slaw so we could try to make it at home.
As Mariah was preparing my crowler of the Trinity Test TR-3 for me to take with me, I decided to look around the beer garden area. There was an outside bar area with a number of picnic tables scattered around a brick floor courtyard with an awning over a portion of the garden area. It had been a late spring and the leaves were just starting to come out on the small trees in the beer garden. It was a nice space to hang, but a little too cool that evening for people to sit outside that evening.
Off to the side of the beer garden was a building that was the Clemson Brothers game room. This room featured a couple pool tables, video games and a corn hole area. This was part of the Clemson Zone which features axe throwing - I get a kick out of mixing dangerous weapons with alcohol. Clemson Brothers touts ax throwing as a great exercise for "your core and shoulders" (whatever your core is), and as a great stress reliever. That made me chuckle. They also have football bowling at the Clemson Zone - it's exactly as it sounds, bowling with a football. I understand that football bowling started in Detroit and Clemson Brothers brought it to New York. In addition to games, Clemson Brothers also features comedy nights in the Clemson Zone.
Clemson Brothers Brewery is one of the better brewpubs I've encountered in my travels. The beer and food were both excellent. The renovation and repurposing of the former factory was exquisite. And while Mariah had a neutral disposition, she was still a good bartender who was attentive to my various needs that evening. I just love finding spots like Clemson Brothers Brewery and I hope the people of Middletown and the surrounding upstate New York communities understand how good of a brewpub it really is. I'll probably be back in Middletown because the large account that I have there and I will definitely be back to Clemson Brothers at some point.
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