Visit Rek-Lis Brewing, Before It's Too Late!

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Enjoying my reward for venturing off the beaten path!

Rek-Lis Brewing in Bethlehem, New Hampshire

​With the explosion of craft breweries in recent years across the country and certainly in New England, it becomes a little more challenging for a place to distinguish itself. The recent opening of Rek-Lis Brewing’s tasting room is one example of a new business clearly getting it right, which is quickly creating its own challenge of maintaining what makes it special.
 
Rek-Lis moved a few months ago from a shed to a wonderfully renovated site on Main Street in the small and picturesque town of Bethlehem, New Hampshire. It feels spacious, offering different zones, from a bar to some tables, and an upstairs as well as the covered porch. In fact, it’s actually a small building, and we lucked out with one of the last tables when we checked it out recently.
 
Rek-lis is so named for the way of life the owners, Ian and Marlaina, embody on a daily basis. The general goal is to take a chance on a labor of love, and to brew beers as over-the-top great as the adventures they or others might have enjoyed before sitting down for a cold one.

The eight-sample flight is creatively served on reclaimed barnboard.

Speaking of their beers, there’s a constantly evolving list. In part, it’s based on the mad scientist attempt to pursue perfection. And, in part, it’s because Rek-Lis quickly became enough of a hit to now need to hustle to keep up with demand. Our visit was an example, with six of the eight samples in our flight being Rek-Lis brews, with two guest taps rounding out our flight. There was a clear tilt towards IPAs, which provided a chance to compare styles, but limited our ability to go in other directions, such as porters and stouts.
 
As their website illustrates, they’re zealous in their pursuit of craft brewing. But they do have a small yet solid menu and now also offer wine, creating options for those in a group who might not be beer connoisseurs. This also allows people to linger longer, which is important because it ties to what distinguishes them from many others.

Rek-Lis serves up welcoming conversation for young and old, local and tourist, and owner Ian Dowling (second from the right) regularly mingles with his patrons

The upscale farmhouse ambiance was instantly inviting, with interesting lighting and flights served in reclaimed wood. The beers were tasty and well crafted. But what really jumped out at us was the cheery vibe and immediate sense of community. The table we snagged was next to one end of the bar. As we looked around, we observed people happily engaged in conversations: locals critiqued their beers alongside tourists; millennials fell into discussions with retirees; and the friendliness of staff and owners inevitably pulled us further into the scene. We wound up chatting happily with transplants from Massachusetts, laughing with several waitresses, and were introduced to the owners as well as members of a barbershop quartet serenading the crowd (one of whom was the father of an owner).
 
That, to us, ultimately represented the true test that Rek-Lis will face. Their beers were legit. But the immediate sense of belonging, of being sincerely welcomed in like long-lost friends is what made our visit truly fun and worth driving out of our way. We felt as if we temporarily but clearly belonged there, and if we returned with any sort of regularity that we’d be remembered and appreciated. It’s not easy to start up a business or to create a series of solid beers, and it’s extremely hard to so quickly create such a genuinely inviting community.
 
Rek-Lis is already outgrowing its footprint, and is now looking at an addition to the building. The challenge isn’t just scaling up beer production. It’s on being able to grow while maintaining what makes it special and unique. For now, at least, the best advice to anyone journeying anywhere near the Franconia Notch region would be to set aside a couple of hours to enjoy the beers, food, setting, and especially the friendly enthusiasm that Rek-Lis joyfully serves up.