THE BEER NUT: Cape Ann brewing up a storm

In 2002, Jeremy Goldberg took part in a documentary where he and four friends traveled around the country and visited 38 breweries in 40 days.

During that trip, memorialized in the 2005 documentary "American Beer: A Bockumentary," the seeds of opening a brewery were sown.

In May, 2004, Goldberg and his partners opened up Cape Ann Brewing in Gloucester.

"If you watched the movie, I'm kind of talking about how I had an interest in getting into the industry, and I was mocked (by his friends)," Goldberg said.

Now, five years later, Cape Ann beers have won numerous medals in differing brewing competitions and are available in nine states.

Cape Ann gets a lot of inspiration from German breweries.

"My favorite beers have always been German lagers," said Goldberg. "I think German lagers, and German beers in general, are underrepresented in America because American pilsners have given lagers a bad name in the United States. A lot of people come up to me say, 'I don't like lagers.' I say, 'You don't know that you don't like lagers because there are so many lagers out there.' "

Along with the German inspiration, Cape Ann has carved a niche for itself by brewing some beers that are unique, but at the same time, aren't unique for the sake of being unique.

"What we're trying to do do here is we're trying to do stuff other breweries don't do," said Goldberg. "We look for the Snuggies of beer. You look at things, and you think, 'How could someone not think of that already?'

"But, we're not trying to do things that are outlandish," he continued. "I want to make beer where people want to have more than one."

One of those beers that fits that description is Cape Ann's fall seasonal, the Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout. One of my personal favorites, it also works fantastically in a pumpkin pie recipe. (If you want the recipe, contact me via e-mail, which is listed below).

"It was a style that no one was really doing before we did it," said Goldberg. "I was blown away no one was doing it. In my mind, the flavors seemed to really make sense together chocolate and pumpkin."

Another one of those beers is the Fisherman's Tea Party, a barley wine made with three types of tea, only available on tap at the brewery.

The regular lineup of beers are all excellent beers.

The brewery's flagship beer is the Fisherman's Brew, described as an American amber lager, similar to Sam Adams Boston Lager and Brooklyn Lager, Goldberg said.

"It's a very well-balanced beer," said Goldberg. "The best compliments I'll get is one person will come up to me and say they like it because it's not too hoppy, and someone else comes up to me and said they like it because of the hops. That show's how well-balanced it is."

The Fisherman's IPA is an English-style IPA. It's brewed with a little-known hop called Sorachi Ace, a Japanese hop.

"It's not overly hoppy," said Goldberg. "As far as IPAs go, it's very well balanced. It's different than most IPAs. It's a little more earthy, a little less citrusy."

The Fisherman's Ale, a German-style kolsch, is a wonderful summertime beer. It won the gold medal at the 2007 Great International Beer Festival in Rhode Island.

"It's crisp, with little fruity hints," said Goldberg. "It's just another great session beer, the kind that goes with everything. It's perfect in the summer on a hot day. We thought it was originally going to be our summer beer, but it's just such a good beer that we didn't want to stop making it just because the summer was over."

Cape Ann's summer beer, the Fisherman's Bavarian Wheat, is one of the most authentic tasting German-style hefeweizen's I've tasted in a long time. Goldberg said it is brewed with authentic German yeast, and you can taste the slight hints of banana and cloves, which is a byproduct of German yeast.

The other seasonal, to go along with the wheat and pumpkin stout, is the Fisherman's Navigator, which is available during the winter. It is a German-style doppelbock.

Cape Ann beers are available at Fannon's in Natick, Marlborough Wine & Spirits, Julio's in Westborough, Kappy's in Sudbury, Marty's in Newton, Newtonville Wine and Spirits and Austin Liquors in Shrewsbury.

Norman Miller is a Daily News staff writer. For questions, comments, suggestions or recommendations, e-mail nmiller@cnc.com or call 508-626-3823. Check out The Beer Nut blog at http://blogs.townonline.com/beernut/.