Welcoming Notch to Worcester: Old-world styles, high standards make beers go down easy

During the opening weekend for its beer garden at the Mercantile Center, Notch Brewing had more than a few people thinking it built a brewery in the plaza.

They assumed the lineup of light, refreshing lagers and ales had been brewed somewhere between the parking garage and the downtown high-rise, said Sam Schwartz, whose 20-year career in craft beer has him now managing Notch’s first Central Massachusetts outpost.

Where, they wondered, had Notch stashed its brewhouse?

“The way the beer tasted and the way the staff talked about it — showing so much passion for it — made them ask where we kept the tanks,” Schwartz said.

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This reaction doesn’t surprise me, for Notch represents the best of American craft beer.

And talking with Schwartz about the Notch Biergarten ahead of another banner day for sipping brews pushed my excitement level for having the 14-year-old brewery in my backyard to a Pete Carroll level of pumped and jacked.

Thanks to Notch, the city will get to experience beer completely immune from hype and trends.

Founded in 2010 Notch produces only low-alcohol or session beer, such as old-world lagers made under exacting standards. Drinking a Notch pilsner poured from a side-pull faucet, for example, is the closest many will come to Plzeň in the Czech Republic, where world’s first pale lagers originated.

“There are fads in beer just like in fashion,” Schwartz said. “For years and years, you have seen your double IPAs, your pastry stouts, your sours move in and out; Notch has stuck to its guns, though.”

Worcester, meet Notch

Founder and head brewer Chris Lohring started Notch with a clarion call. He saw the alcohol by volume of popular craft beers creeping higher and higher, almost entirely eclipsing the demand for session brews.

The market needed more options for flavorful craft light beer. And Notch would brew them and brew them well.

“Consumers love options and love craft beer, so why not provide more options for the times when they thought soda water was the only alternative?” Lohring wrote in a 2010 column for BeerAdvocate. “Let’s educate consumers, be consistent in our message and grow the craft beer category with session beer. Craft beer enhances our time together; session beer extends it. Who doesn’t want to extend the good times?”

Over the years, session beers — often hovering around 4% ABV and under — have returned to the fore, as beer drinkers embrace the opportunity to enjoy more than two beers without feeling full or falling off their seat at the bar.

It’s no wonder that Notch has grown, too, expanding its reach in the market and building a new taproom and brewery in Brighton. Now it finds itself in Worcester, a bit of a homecoming for Lohring, who went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Schwartz has admired Notch throughout his craft beer journey.

“What personally attracted me to Notch was its unwavering commitment to keeping the beers low ABV while keeping the quality high,” he said. “Because when you have such low ABV beers, you can’t hide the mistakes. When you have a pastry stout or a smoothie sour, and dump fruit or Oreos on top of it, you can have a mediocre to subpar beer and still get those flavors out of it. But when there’s nothing to hide it, no additives and no hop bombs, it really showcases the quality of the brewer.”

THE pour

A red shipping container converted into a mobile bar beckons visitors to the Notch Biergarten. It boasts covered bar seats on both sides, and that’s not even its coolest feature.

Inside, Notch installed two side-pull faucets — imported from the Czech Republic for $14,000 — capable of delivering an awe-inspiring pour of lager beer.

The side pour plays a crucial role in Czech beer culture, but would seem the opposite of what Americans expect at a tap. Rather than beer, then foam, the side-pull faucet releases foam, then beer and requires a skilled bartender who starts by plunging the tap — longer than we’re used to — into the bottom of the glass.

The amount of foam varies depending on the specific pour (there are four different pours in Czech beer tradition). In general at Notch Biergarten, you should expect from the faucet a two to three-finger layer of dense, creamy foam on top of your clear, bubbly, golden lager.

“(The faucet) creates a much tighter bubble for the carbonation all the way through the beer,” Schwartz said. “When you do drink a side pour, it coats the mouth and coats the tongue. You get the flavor all the way through, as opposed to pops of it.”

Warning, technical, nerdy craft beer fact coming: In the faucet you have a tiny screen that helps create much richer, denser foam, which if by magic lasts throughout your drinking session, preserving the aroma and taste by protecting your beer from oxygen.

The uninitiated might gripe about the amount of foam on top of their beer, not realizing it’s helping to deliver the best pint of beer they’ll ever enjoy.

Notch has two beers available for side pours, and they should be your first and second orders upon your visit: two lagers, “Pils” and “Tenner,” both coming in at about 4% ABV.

Pils, Notch’s classic Czech pilsner, will come in handy as temperatures soar. “You can drink it and drink it quickly,” Schwartz said. “You get bright citrusy notes on the nose and front of it, then it softens out at the end to this nice soft biscuit, bready.”

“It goes down too smooth sometimes,” he added.

Take that as an invitation, not a warning.

The Notch Biergarten, 209 Commercial St., is open through Halloween. The beer garden’s hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 12 to 10 p.m., and 12 to 4 p.m. Sundays. See the menu at www.notchworcester.com.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Beyond Beer: Notch Brewing opens on back patio of Mercantile Center