New brews, from where the Pilgrims drank

Matthew Steinberg started brewing up beer at home, and now does so for the Mayflower Brewing Company.

Thirsty for a taste of Mayflower Ale, which we'd heard was being made in our hometown of Plymouth, my friend John Sgammato and I did some assiduous pub-crawling, looking for a place that wasn't sold out of the new brew. Finally we tracked some down at the Little Red Smokehouse, a barbecue joint set amid the cranberry bogs of Carver. He and I bellied up to the bar minutes after it opened.

There were two kinds of Mayflower Ale on tap. He tried the Pale Ale, and I the Golden. Then we switched.

The Pale is actually darker, and I liked its slightly bitter hop flavor while John admired the bread-like maltiness of the Golden. He felt the Golden improved from resting on the bar awhile to remove the chill that dulled its flavor. I thought both beers were smoothly drinkable and would go well with food. To test that theory, we ordered some fried smoked cheddar and a large basket of chicken wings. The ale refreshed our palates and provided cool contrast to the flavors of sauce and smoke.

These new ales avoid the extremes favored by some beer enthusiasts who think it manly to chug a strong and bitter brew. The Golden in particular is reminiscent of mainstream American beer, although the flavor has greater depth. Be warned, if you get used to Mayflower ales, you may find that mass-produced suds in a can taste thin and watery, as though their manufacturers skimp on something that ought to be there.

When I called the Mayflower Brewing Company, its president, Drew Brosseau, answered the phone. I asked him what characteristics he'd been after in these ales, and he said the friendly familiarity I'd noticed had been a goal from the start.

"I sat down with our brewer, Matthew Steinberg, in the fall and thought about what kind of beers in general we wanted to make," he said. "We were leaning toward English-style ale. What characterizes them is they're generally well-balanced beers. There's a malt character to them and a hop character to them. They tend not to be extreme in one direction or the other. If you take our pale ale and line it up against the other pale ales on the market, you'd find it's not malty as Bass and not as hoppy as Sierra Nevada."

Another goal was to honor the beer of the Pilgrims, who may have developed calluses on their bottoms from sitting through long religious services, but who enjoyed good beer. Brosseau's ancestor John Alden was a cooper who had the important task of keeping the kegs in good condition. The pale ale is one the Pilgrims would have recognized.

Mayflower Brewing Company was an operation I was dying to see, so I made an appointment and showed up at the brewery in the Plymouth Industrial Park. The company was founded last year and started brewing beer in January. It's a startup microbrewery that does its own shipping. A white truck bearing the company logo was parked outside.

Passing through a tasting room which will open at a later date, I entered a brewing area filled with gleaming stainless vessels, a dusty aroma of malt, and the drone of working pumps. Carl O'Neil of O'Neil Farm in Duxbury was at the loading dock filling his pickup truck with containers of spent malt that had contributed sweetness and flavor to the beer and would now be fodder for his cattle.

Steinberg is the director of brewing operations. For a man of 35, he has a barrel of experience brewing beer. After starting as a home brewer, he pursued the craft at John Harvard's Brew House, a brew pub in Cambridge, and Offshore Ale Company on Martha's Vineyard. He credits the latter with much of his education, because the place turns out a large variety of different beers, allowing him to express his creativity.

Like Brosseau, he spoke enthusiastically about the Golden Ale. He said not many small breweries make a golden, and it provides drinkers who are familiar with standard American brands easy entry into the deeper, richer flavors of hand-crafted beer. But light-colored, quaffable summertime coolers aren't the only option. While at the brewery, I managed to score a jug called a growler, containing some of the first Mayflower Porter they've produced.

It's was dark - practically black. Even the head was brown - the color of latté. The aroma reminded me of rye bread. The Porter was silky in the mouth and had a complex flavor. At first I was getting a burnt sugar aftertaste, and I noticed coffee on the back of the tongue. Was there chocolate? I think so, but every time I tried to pin the flavor down, I'd notice something else. I say don't worry about it - just enjoy.

The company plans to spread its distribution area outward from Plymouth to include the entire South Shore. You can urge your neighborhood tavern to carry Mayflower ales on draft or travel to Plymouth where they have it at Ernie's Restaurant, the Radisson Hotel, and several other places. Locations will be added as the sales team does its work.

Eventually Mayflower ales may be sold at your local liquor store. The firm doesn't have its bottling equipment yet, but they're looking hopefully toward the end of April. They're also coming out with an India pale ale that wasn't ready by press time.