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Good pubs, Good Beer, Good People

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Beer Flows, Food Goes at Beers on the Boards

Patty (3rd from left) had a birthday today!
Give Chris DePeppe credit. When he throws a beer bash, he does it in style. And putting his Beer on the Boards annual fest together at Martell's in Pt. Pleasant is no small undertaking.


Lining up good breweries is critical of course, and there was no shortage of good--even great-- ones here this year. Names familiar to Jersey beer nuts abounded: Carton, Flying Fish, Bolero Snort, Tuckahoe, Beach Haus (East Coast),Cape May and Rinn Duin were just a few. Add to that some nationally known favorites like Ommegang, Blue Point, Southampton, Shipyard, Starr Hill, Sam Adams,Victory, Great Lakes and Brooklyn and the ingredients for a great beer day were there.

The hordes were lining up to get their bracelets and tasting glasses early, but anyone who's been to this event knows that the beer is just one half of the success equation for DePeppe. The other is the food--gourmet and beer-infused food--that comes with the price of a ticket.

Sauerbraten with cabbage and Victory beer, Kielbasa and Kraut made with ECBC's Kickback Ale, Flying Fish Farmhouse Battered Cod, Hot Dogs steeped in beer and even a Mac and Cheese made with Sam Adams Stout were available in two buffet lines. There was even a cider offering called Angry Orchard Chicken with Apples and Bleu Cheese, and a full cider bar outside on the deck.There was also an offering from Horny Goat brewing called WisconZIN, made with zinfandel grapes. It had a wonderful effect on the women, from what I could tell.

Many fests offer food, of course, but none that I have ever attended offers an array like this with such quality, and that, too, is to DePeppe's credit. He works hand-in-hand with Martell's catering to produce the gourmet buffet.

The revelers were apparently impressed as the accompanying pictures will attest, and there are more pictures HERE for the reader to download for free.








There were two bands playing, one outside and one inside, and the one inside had a sax player I mistook for Chum Lee from the TV show Pawn Stars.
Is that Chum Lee?


Jacqui Town of Rinn Duin

















Horny Goat Brewing














Making its Journalistic Debut on this day was the brand new magazine called NJ Brew, brainchild of beer artist par excellence Gregg Hinlicky and the peripatetic and professional beerwriter Mark Haynie. Sporting a wide variety of beer articles by beer writing professionals, along with beer features and photos designed to pique the interest of Beer Nuts everywhere, this glossy, high end mag is also FREE. No disrespect intended, but a "brewspaper" this ain't. Hinlicky, Haynie and Co. are to be commended for a great inaugural issue.

Two Beer Beauties reading their favorite article from their new favorite magazine!
In all, a most satisfying day on the boardwalk in Pt. Pleasant, and the weather was nice enough to allow wandering out on the deck, which was as packed as the inside was.

Thank Chris DePeppe, who clearly knows his beer, his food and his audience.

Put this fest on your MUST HIT list for next year.

Cheers!
The PubScout

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