Bike and Brew: Noble Jay Brewing Company

Note: Noble Jay Brewing Company closed sometime around September 2020

This past winter marked the first time I used a bike trainer over the winter. I mentioned to a friend that I had been looking into trainers as a way to stay in shape during the colder months, and he happened to have one he wasn't using. It was a fairly simple setup, allowing me to mount my bike and conveniently do some mild resistance training whenever the spirit moved me.

But after a long winter, the first warm day of the season immediately beckoned me to get the bike out on the road. My wife and I were already planning to meet with some friends to check out the Noble Jay Brewing Company, which had opened in the late summer of 2018. It was simple enough for me to leave early by two wheels, with my wife following by car a couple of hours later.

Within a few pedal strokes of setting out, I was reminded how different it is to ride outside. For one thing, the wind can be pretty fierce and chilly - especially in March. And it's easy to forget how bumpy the roads are when you've had a smooth ride all winter.

I struck out for East Lyme along Broad Street, which happens to pass by the first brewery scheduled to open in New London in ages. It was just about ready to open when I did this ride, and has since entered Connecticut's ever-growing craft beer scene. More on them in a post in the hopefully near future.

East Lyme is just two towns away, with the community of Waterford in between. The easiest bike route there, in my opinion, is a pair of back roads that bypasses a small glut of supermarkets and other heavy development and traffic. It brings you out just beyond Jordan Village, one of Waterford's many little neighborhoods. It's characterized mainly by a terrific little restaurant, When Pigs Fly, that inadvertently annoys its neighbors by bringing in so many visitors that it stresses the available parking.

This way into East Lyme proceeds along a pleasant route known as Rope Ferry Road, with a few rolling hills along the way. A particularly grueling one is just beyond Jordan Village, but thankfully didn't present too much of a challenge. Winter training pays off!

I went biking on a fairly cloudy day, so these pictures unfortunately don't do much justice to what a beautiful place the Niantic village of East Lyme is. You approach this neighborhood on a drawbridge over the Niantic River. On a warm and sunny day, the river and its nearby cove are full of boaters and the wide expanse of Long Island Sound glitters off to the left.

I'll get a second chance to get a photo of this view, though, because I'll need to head back to check out a second brewery in town. Normally I would have just included it with this ride, but this second business (The Niantic Public House and Brewery) was closed - on Sunday of all days.

Speaking of the bridge, that's where I ran into another aspect of outdoor cycling that you don't experience on a trainer: flat tires. I've probably had more flats in Connecticut than anywhere else I've ridden a bike. I'm starting to suspect that the drivers in the state (who, to be fair, include a surprisingly large amount of New Yorkers and New Jerseyites) are just a neverending stream of assholes chucking bottles out their car windows.

Luckily, this was just about the best possible ride and place to have this issue. The village has a nice bike shop, Niantic Bay Bicycles, which keeps Sunday hours. One quick repair and I was good to go, with the determination that I'll finally start carrying a spare tube and tire levers to go with my portable pump and patch kit.

Noble Jay isn't far from Rocky Neck State Park, one of East Lyme's premiere attractions. The park is quite extensive, with hiking trails and campsites filling in the space between the highway and the shore. Once you get there, you're rewarded by a beautiful, expansive beach. Even on a gray chilly day, people were out enjoying the scenery.

Rocky Neck also has an impressive stone pavilion overlooking the water. This was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and is still periodically used for weddings and such.

 

Plenty of breweries are located off the beaten path, and this is particularly true of the Noble Jay Brewing Company. There's a small industrial park near Rocky Neck, butting up against the access to the interstate, with an odd mix of businesses. These include an insurance company, gym, and wholesale bakery. The brewery has taken over a space in one of a group of four small buildings that are home to everything from welders to tiny gyms.

Noble Jay focuses primarily on craft lagers, but they do other styles as well. I'd been to the brewery once before and tried a flight, and didn't want to imbibe too much beer before the ride home, so I limited myself to one beer: a nice, smooth Irish stout made for the St. Patrick's Day holiday.

Bike and Brew has changed a bit since my daughter was born late in 2017, as evidenced by the snacks and milk my wife brought to the brewery along with a growler. Newborn responsibilities made these rides all but impossible last year, but now she's flexible enough that I'm hoping to do at least a few journeys in 2019, most likely similar trips where I rendezvous with my wife at the destination.

Millennials with young children are becoming a pretty common sight at breweries, and Fox Farm merits special credit for a) having a children's play area and b) putting changing tables in the men's room. Noble Jay is much more of a bare bones setup, but my little girl still had a ball exploring the space.

Niantic is a terrific little village, very friendly and walkable with a lot of great shops and restaurants; again, this photo doesn't really do it justice. There's also a nice boardwalk that runs along the sea, along with some pleasant beaches and parks on the shore.

I'll save a more in-depth dive into Niantic for my next visit to the town, whenever I get around to seeing the Niantic Public House and Brewery.

The ride back introduced me to another aspect of outdoor riding that I'd forgotten about: it's a lot more tiring to do a lengthy ride than it is to hop on the trainer for half an hour and hop off whenever you feel like it. I was feeling wiped out well before I arrived back home.

The return journey pretty much retraced my steps, although I decided to switch it up enough to swing by Stenger Farm Park. This town park on a former farm has pleasant, easy trails running through it; it also has a dog park, which probably attracts the lion's share of visitors.

And that's the Noble Jay trip! Stay tuned for a journey to Tox Brewing.

Total mileage: 23.9 miles

Previous Bike and Brew Outings:
Outer Light Brewing Company
Beer'd Brewing Company
Fox Farm Brewery
Shelter Island Craft Brewery and Greenport Harbor Brewing Company
Barley Head Brewery
These Guys Brewing Company and Epicure Brewing
Mohegan Cafe and Brewery

Trailer Play by Play: Stranger Things Season Three

The second season finale of Stranger Things could have served as a concise end to the series, if they had wanted to give it a British-style wrap-up after a limited number of episodes. Everything's wrapped up in a nice package: the portal to the Upside Down is closed, the sinister Hawkins National Laboratory is shuttered, Sheriff Hopper has taken guardianship of Eleven, there's been #JusticeForBarb, and our heroes all seem to be having a pretty good time at a 1984 school dance.

But they also teased a shot of the formidable Mind Flayer in the other dimension, hinting that all is not well in fictional Indiana. And thus the story continues with the third season of the series, set to debut on July 4, and a trailer recently dropped.

Well this seems like a fun candidate for a play-by-play. Let's see what's in store:

In an opening vignette, Dustin returns home from camp feeling depressed that no one is around to give him a welcome except his turtle. Takeaway #1: Yertle managed to survive Dart's ravages. Takeaway #2: Tews does not care that Dustin is home, because he is a cat.

Dustin is lured into his living room after his electronic R2-D2 and companions come to life and shuffle away. Like all good pals, his friends have broken into his house and are planning a surprise "welcome back" using telepathy. The last part is Eleven's doing, naturally. She's apparently a bit out of practice, given that she was throwing boxcars around last season and now she's getting a nosebleed from piloting half a dozen toys roughly 50 feet.

It's all part of a sweet attempt by Dustin's friends to give him a surprise, though maybe they should have realized that it isn't the best idea to surprise someone who's had to fight hellbeasts for the past couple of years. Lucas gets some Farrah Fawcett hairspray in his eyes for his trouble. Also, Dustin apparently lost his front teeth again.

The trailer fades to a rendition of "Baba O'Riley," which is a bit on the nose since it literally shows the gang out there in the field. They're erecting some sort of antenna, which I'm sure is going to lead to all sorts of speculation about what it's for. Given how casual they're all being, and a later shot where Dustin glumly watches a couple of girls traipsing away from the site at nighttime, I'm guessing it's some sort of nerdy AV club thing and not anything related to the Upside Down.

On to the hometown newspaper, where Jonathan and Nancy are pensively waiting in the hall. Are they interviewing for a job? Do they have another shadowy government agency to take down? Speaking of which, I sure hope they included the hometown paper in last season's media blast that shuttered the Hawkins National Laboratory.

Sam's near-homicidal brother is working as a lifeguard, which doesn't really seem like a good fit for him.

Sheriff Hopper is in a restaurant, where he's able to light up a cigarette because it's 1985. Joyce is dining alone with a glass of wine, looking sad. There's a lot of people looking sad in this trailer.

But at least Eleven and Sam are having fun, and have apparently become closer friends as evidenced by a brief shot of them bopping along to some music. I'm going to guess it's Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing." We gotta install microwave ovens...

In a voice-over, Mike says they're not kids anymore and asking if they thought they'd be playing games in his basement for the rest of their lives. I'm kind of sad that Mike et. al. are about a quarter-century away from being able to do just that with Settlers of Catan and Terra Mystica.

This voice-over is also accompanied by a drenched and mournful Will looking at a photo of the group dressed as the Ghostbusters from the previous Halloween. I'd scoff at Will getting teary-eyed over something that happened eight months earlier, but I seem to remember fifteen being an age where you realized that you were going to look back wistfully on your high school years, so I'll cut him some slack.

Eleven and Sam hit the mall, with Eleven being particularly awed by the spectacle of modern commercialism. Elsewhere, a group of protesters decries Hawkins' mayor and the mall, expressing its love for downtown. I'm also guessing the department store Joyce works at isn't competing too well against mall discounts.

Said mayor is probably going to be a bit of an antagonist this season, given that he's enough of a narcissistic ass to add a "Mayor Kline Presents" sign to the Fourth of July fair. In the midst of Hopper telling someone, probably Joyce or Eleven, that he wants the town to be a place they feel safe in, we see that he's apparently going to do battle with a gun-wielding hitman in a house of mirrors.

Eleven is going to find herself back in the creepy zone, with some crimson lightning reminiscent of what we saw last season. Better get those telepathic powers back up to speed.

I mentioned in a previous post that maybe Billy would be humbled enough to do a Steve-like transition out of douchebaggery. He's apparently going to be possessed by some sort of demonic creature instead.

Star-Lord is going to show up to lend a hand. That's nice of him.

And then we get quite a few rapid shots, including:

Eighties Mike Pence welcoming everyone to the Fourth of July fair.

Lucas again fighting evil with a slingshot, a full year before Stephen King made it common practice with It.

BUTTS!

The continuing proud tradition of Steve getting the shit kicked out of him. Can he finally get the chance to turn the tables this season and give someone else a well-deserved beatdown? Or at least get a girlfriend?

And this season's horrific creature from another realm, chilling out in the administrative offices of the mall, maybe.

And as a palate cleanser, Steve and Dustin are even better friends now and have an adorable imaginary sword fight at the nautically themed ice cream shop where Steve works and is contractually required to wear an embarrassing uniform. There's a maybe love interest for Steve working behind the counter, but she's currently more concerned about how many children he's friends with.

Best of luck, Steve. We're all pulling for you.

Bike and Brew: Mohegan Cafe and Brewery

Back when I first realized I could hop a ferry from New London and expand the reach of the Bike and Brew series, I didn't expect to go beyond Long Island. The city has another ferry going to Fishers Island, but there aren't any breweries there (plus the island is apparently hostile to cyclists). I also discounted the idea of hopping the Block Island ferry; although there's a brewpub there, my wife and I found the beers to be watery and underwhelming on our last visit.

We weren't just being picky. Many of the Mohegan Cafe and Brewery's beers have gotten fairly brutal reviews on sites like Untappd and BeerAdvocate. One review on the latter site described a stout as smelling "like a terrible homebrew that isn't ready to drink yet."

But my company took a recreational outing to the island this summer, and the more recent reviews of the brewpub were significantly better. So I decided to give it a shot.

Before this trip, I hadn't gotten a chance to do too much biking. For one thing, time is at a bit more of a premium when you have a newborn daughter. Also, I wasn't able to bring my bike in for a tune-up and tube repair until a few weeks ago, and it had been ridiculously hot and humid out.

About a week before this trip, I hit a nail during a ride and my back tire went flat in about 10 seconds. Amazingly enough, I was able to put a couple of patches on the through-and-through wound to the tube, and it's been holding up ever since.

First stop: a quick ride to the Block Island Express, a high-speed ferry. It long advertised that it could complete the trip in just over an hour, but they've since given the more realistic estimate of an hour and 20 minutes, varying based on sea and weather conditions.

Block Island is located about 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island and encompasses just under 10 square miles. It manages to be popular as both a vacation getaway and as an easy day trip for people living nearby; several ferry lines serve the island, and it has quite a few shops, restaurants, public beaches, and other attractions. Roughly 1,000 people live here year-round, helping to support a historical society, newspaper, school, hospital, and other services.

Most visitors come into Old Harbor, which has the densest cluster of buildings. It's also where visitors are most likely to find bike and moped rentals; both are extremely common on the island, to the point where they control the roads much more than the vehicles do.

It's pretty easy to do a circuit of Block Island by bike, and I started by heading west along the south shore. It was a very windy day, so I was getting buffeted the whole time while enjoying the ocean views. Before too long, I came to my first destination: the Southeast Light.

One of two lighthouses on the island, the Southeast Light is a brick structure with an impressive keeper's house attached to the beacon. It dates back to 1874, and there's an ongoing effort to restore the lighthouse or at least keep it in decent shape. It's not quite in its original location, having been moved back from an eroding cliff in 1993.

Visitors can enjoy a sweeping view of the sea from the lighthouse property. Recently this view has included the five turbines of what is, somewhat surprisingly, the first offshore wind farm in the United States. On the day of my visit, they were mostly obscured by the mist. Reaction to the wind farm seems to have been mostly positive (among other things, the Block Island's power grid is now connected to the mainland and doesn't need to use costly diesel generators for its power), and has also helped inspire talk of further wind operations in my neck of the woods.

Within walking distance from the South Lighthouse are the Mohegan Bluffs, a towering set of clay cliffs. Apparently they got their name from a 1590 Native American battle in which a group of Mohegan raiders were driven off the precipice by the Manisseans. Bicycles easily outnumber cars at this stop, and plenty of people make the trip down the daunting staircase to check out the isolated beach below.

One unexpected feature of the bluffs was a new overlook, looking out to the lighthouse and wind farm. Most people were happily ignoring the barriers set up to keep them away from the drop-offs, including this group of en plein air painters.

For a small island, Block Island has plenty of parks and natural sites to visit. Perhaps the most impressive is Rodman's Hollow, a 230-acre nature preserve with 28 miles of hiking trails. I've visited this site on previous trips and enjoyed walks out to more secluded ocean overlooks, but on this particular expedition I decided to make Rodman's Hollow my turnaround point instead of continuing around the western bulb of the island. The wind was getting quite ferocious, and I felt like having it at my back for awhile.

A narrow, hook-like peninsula constitutes most of Block Island's northern end. This partially encompasses the Great Salt Pond, a mix of freshwater and saltwater. The saltwater part has only been around for a century and change, after a channel was cut to connect to the sea. There's plenty out there about the ecology of this pond, but for the most part it just seems to be clogged with small boats.

Another lighthouse stands at the northern tip of Block Island. Anyone wishing to visit this one has to make a long scramble over a rocky beach, and then might be dismayed to discover that the lighthouse is only open for tours for four days of the week. Still, this site offers yet another beautiful vista and is always popular with visitors.

Those heading back to New Shoreham from the North Light have a steep hill to traverse. Some residents at the top of the incline were kind enough to put out an honor system lemonade stand catering to the many thirsty bicyclists passing by.

There's a brief, sharp hill from the northern peninsula back to Old Harbor, and I opted to stop midway up to check out a few public trails. Both had these steep staircases to traverse stone walls, and the trail to the Atwood Overlook led to the top of a short hill which offered a view stretching from the Great Salt Pond to the North Light.

The "Sacred Labyrinth," built out of stones, invites people to walk its winding route and take some time for quiet contemplation. It's on public property, but the landowners have welcomed the public since the labyrinth was established in 2001.

Block Island is packed with trails that cut through woodlands, along cliffs, and over seaside dunes. I really should visit more of them. But on this day, I needed to get back to town and made haste to pedal back to town. Mohegan Cafe and Brewery is located on Water Street, in a busy stretch of restaurants and shops not far from the ferry landing, and this area of town is absolutely packed with visitors.

The Mohegan Cafe and Brewery dates back to 1990, but didn't begin serving as a brewpub until the late 90s when head chef Dave Sniffen brewing up small batches of home-brewed beer to serve at the restaurant. Ownership of the business changed back in 2014, but Sniffen still reportedly helms the brewing operations.

Block Island apparently faces a unique dilemma when it comes to hosting brewers, since there's a limited supply of freshwater available and it's only replenished by rainfall. And since the island is a major tourist destination during the summer, there's a high demand on available water supplies during that time. So Mohegan Cafe and Brewery's operations rely on extract brewing, which allows them to skip the mashing and sparging process and thus save a good deal of water.

I ordered a pint of the cafe's booziest option, the Joe's "How I Got Fired" High Octane Ale. The story goes that Joe enjoyed a few too many of these 9% ABV scotch ales, showed up hung over to his place of employment the next day, and promptly got the boot.

While the reviews on BeerAdvocate are none too charitable ("one of the worst commercial beers I've ever had," one complains), the recipe has apparently been re-tuned in recent years. On Untappd, its approaching the standard 3.5 average that most decent beers seem to enjoy. I found it to be delicious and not overly strong, a welcome change from my last experience with Mohegan Cafe's beers.

The company get-together included lunch, but I couldn't help but get an order of chowder fries. This tasty appetizer involves clam chowder poured over an order of French fries, with a healthy amount of melted cheese on top. It would have been suicide to get this mid-ride, but since I'd finished up for the day I decided to treat myself.

The Mohegan Cafe and Brewery also makes their own ginger beer. I ordered a "Mohegan Mule" as my second drink and also found it to be quite tasty.

And why not, one more. It's a party, and you have to get a Mudslide if you go to Block Island and are of drinking age. It's a tasty (if hideously overpriced) frozen concoction of vodka, Irish cream, and Kahlua all blended together. This has sort of become the official drink of the island, with ongoing debates over which venue has the best one.

After a relaxing beach afternoon, it was back to New London. And so ends another Bike and Brew milestone: the first expedition to Rhode Island, even if a high speed ferry got me across the state line.

Total mileage: 15 miles

Previous Bike and Brew Outings:
Outer Light Brewing Company
Beer'd Brewing Company
Fox Farm Brewery
Shelter Island Craft Brewery and Greenport Harbor Brewing Company
Barley Head Brewery
These Guys Brewing Company and Epicure Brewing