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Nicole Simeone
Quenching Your Thirst at The Humble Castle
An evening excursion finds us at the seat of the fast rising star of Woburn, MA - Lord Hobo.
Lord Hobo Brewing, founded in 2015, is a Massachusetts based brewery. Their taproom, The Humble Castle, is located on Draper Street in Woburn. The building’s facade plays into its name with a tall, iron gate swung open, inviting guests inside. Stone and marble accents drive home the Italian villa feel. Finishing off the villa vibe are the walls inside, which are a warm crimson.
The beer hall is furnished with large tables, both at picnic and pub height, allowing for small groups to come together and for larger groups to sit together. The bar and a food window flank the seating area. We’ll get to both of those items in just a little bit. Off to your left-hand side as you walk into the hall is a space set aside for merchandise purchases. Along the far wall is a garage door with all of its panels removed and replaced with glass. The view offers a view into the production space so you can see their tanks at work.
Entertainment
Rotating schedule including trivia and classic movie screenings.
Food
Serves a range of food from snacks to wood-fired pizzas. Price ranging from $7-$25.
Tours
Not at this time (2019)
Beer
They had over twenty taps behind the bar, one if which dedicated to a guest breweries cider option.
Lord Hobo was not a completely new experience on the beer front. Their New England Sampler mix pack as well as a number of their core beers can be found in just about every package store around Massachusetts. In fact, that New England Sampler pack is one of the better mix packs if you can get your hands on it. Their list of core beers is a bit longer than I thought:
HOBO LIFE – IPA – Session / India Session Ale (4.5%)
PILS – Pilsner – Other (5.2%)
ANGELICA IPA – New England Style (5.5%)
FREEBIRD – Golden Ale (5.5%)
BOOMSAUCE – IPA – Imperial / Double New England (7.8%)
GLORIOUS – Pale Ale – New England (6.5%)
MEAT & POTATOES – American stout (7.5%)
As you can see from the menu in the picture above, the brewers at Lord Hobo have no problems experimenting with style and flavors. The picture above is of their flight boxes. Since there were so many options, a flight seemed like the way to go. Flights at Lord Hobo consist of 6 5oz pours. The math worked out so that if my husband and I both got flights, we would be able to sample the “new to us items” on the menu. Well, ok, it didn’t work out exactly right. The sour did hit our cutting room floor. Shh…don’t tell CJ. I have to work up the courage to even sample sours. Their flavors and smells are generally too much for me.
Of the beers I sampled that evening, each was a high-quality product. I enjoyed Museum, a triple IPA, in particular. Their take Mexican lager surprised me as well. Experiment or staple, Lord Hobo knows how to keep on point. I want to keep praising them, but I have to pause.
Full disclosure, neither myself nor anyone I was with took a hard look at the pricing side of the beer list. We definitely should have looked, and that is, without question, on us.
The size of their flights is uncommon for sure, but the starting price of $16 is for their core beers only. Any of their experimental beers will add 25 cents per beer to the cost of the flight. As we had tried a majority of their staples, our samplers were comprised of mostly experimental offerings.
The large bill at the end of the night aside, this left me confused. If the intent was to push guests toward the flagship line up, why have so many guest appearances? If the object was to dissuade patrons from purchasing flights, why offer them at all? Or, if it is a preventative measure to keep the bar staff from being bogged down, follow Harpoon’s lead and have preset flight sets? The cost of full pours was also on the high side. My husband and I ordered one after the flight. Those coming in at around $8.
Brewing beer is an expensive game. I totally get that. Ingredients alone are costly, let alone the machinery cost and overhead. But there is a limit to what the consumer is willing to shoulder in the craft beer consumption-production relationship.
Overall, great product and pleasant atmosphere, but I don’t know that I will be making a trek back to their tasting space.
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