Concord Craft Brewing — Restaurant in Concord

I’ll preface this review by saying the kitchen was apparently overwhelmed by a running group that they weren’t expecting.

We came on a beautiful October day and sat on their nice patio. Unfortunately there were too many unruly dogs and kids on the patio. I will never understand why parents will bring their literal babies to a brewery. That’s what McDonalds is for.

Anyway, we ordered two beers, a chicken sandwich and a chicken flatbread with raspberry glaze that sounded interesting. They were out of burgers and chips. Burgers and sandwiches shouldn’t come with chips in the first place, but ok, fine. After putting our order in, we sat, and sat, and sat some more. 3 beers later and my husbands chicken sandwich came out. He did not like it. My pizza was nowhere to be found. My husband finished his dry chicken sandwich, and still no pizza. I asked the server, who was not at fault by the way, to cancel the pizza, but she assured me it would be out in 5 minutes. It took probably another ten minutes after that.

I will say they took my pizza, which was actually pretty good, off the bill without me asking, and of course I still tipped 20% but I probably won’t be returning.

The only reason the review is as good as it is, is because the server was wonderful, and I enjoyed my...

Okay, so I'm really excited for what these guys are doing. The ambience is nice. It's an old Farmers Mill Building, with natural wood tables and bar tops, so that's cool. And we met one of the owners before at a tasting, and they seem really cool. I should preface that my husband and I aren't sold on the giant IPA craze happening. He's definitley not a fan, and neither of us get the DIPA thing at all. I sometimes find ones I'm OBSESSED with, but most of them get lost on me too. So, being early summer, of course that's what they had a lot of. Like 5 of the 9 drafts. We split a flight of 5 (we liked the different flights size options, all reasonably priced), with the 2 dark beers (a porter and coffee nitro strout) a jalapeno cream ale, their heffeweizen, and the Senetah IPA. All the beers seemed a little light, almost flat (flavor, not carbonation), compared to when we had had them in the past. I teetered between 3 and 4 stars, opting for the high rating since it is a friendly great small craft brewery in my former hometown, but I'd like to see them do something a little crazier...

I'd love more porters and stouts, but I know IPAs are all the rage and they have to cater to whatever it is the young and hip are into these days, but they do a fine job and know their craft. I like that you can bring in outside food and it's a smart play to bring a Constantly Pizza or Vibes burger with you and enjoy some quality brew with your quality food. They've really made a name for themselves with the Safe Space IPA, but they do some cool stuff like the Jalapeño Cream Ale and my personal favorites, the Town Pound and the Nitco Coffee Milk Stout. They keep a good variety in rotation. Life is too short to be stuck on Bud, Miller, and seltzers. Drink good beer...