Copper Pig Brewery, July 5, 2025
- François Steichen
- 7 hours ago
- 4 min read
Lancaster, New Hampshire
U.S. Route 3 runs through New Hampshire's chimney stack, the surprisingly vast, now underused logging lands of Coös County, where towns seem to exist only to keep tourists from claiming that the alpine beauty is infinite. Of all the towns in the North Country, Lancaster might just be the least obtrusive; there are no jarring signs of urbanity here.
Yet Lancaster surprises. Lancaster is where the Connecticut receives one of its major tributaries, the Israel River. Despite being smaller than other towns in the North Country, Lancaster obviously was not always a junior partner. In fact, Lancaster is the intersection between U.S. Route 3 and U.S. Route 2. Not a coincidence, given the town's location as the meeting point of the two rivers.
Route 3 was the main highway from Boston through New Hampshire to the Canadian border before the Interstate Age. As the northernmost U.S. Highway in America, Route 2 is nicknamed "The Highline," and winds from eastern Maine to Everett, Washington, 25 miles north of Seattle.
More recently, Lancaster has become host to "PorcFest" (the Porcupine Freedom Festival), a week-long extravaganza in June often called the "Libertarian Burning Man." Put on by the Free State Project, an ideological colonizer movement, PorcFest offers attendees a camp ground, parties, speakers, and even a children's program.
The Brewery
I was in Lancaster to visit the Copper Pig Brewery, but I also found the wide Main Street inviting: the Georgian old county courthouse and its top-heavy mansard roof; two classic New England whitewashed churches with tall spires; the Rialto Theater; and saltbox buildings progressively more embellished as you are funneled to the center of town and the Israel River.
Copper Pig is named for a weathervane at co-owner Mike Holland's house that is typical of the copper (and sometimes even gold-leafed!) animals that wealthier farmers put up to quietly trumpet their success, starting in the late 19th century. Do pigs fly? On a weathervane, it sure looks like they do!
Copper Pig is on Middle Street, about 25 yards east of Main. The patio looks over the Israel River, so it is naturally the most popular space in the brewery; in fact, Copper Pig is as much an American gastropub as it is a brewery.
From Hospital to Hospitality
Mike Holland was a Chef prior to teaming up with his North County Hospital colleague, homebrewing partner, and best bud, Darrell Bodnar, to found the brewery in 2018.
Darrell is head of the IT department at the hospital. An article by Karen Savage, in the Granite Post, reveals that the hospital played a large part in Brass Pig's creation, since the $5,000 seed money for the brewery was raised from doctors, nurses and staff. Those same supporters were also Holland's guinea pigs as he refined beer recipes and got feedback at parties he held at his home in Guildhall (pronounced "Gilhall"), over the Connecticut River in Vermont.
Mike tells me a bit of the building's history as he gives me a tour of what was the old Lancaster National Bank. There are two vaults in the "speakeasy" pub area in the basement: one was dug out from behind and turned into the entrance, while the sidewalls of the other vault - the bank "cage" - were knocked out to create the kitchen and space for the beer tanks and fermenters.
The entrance area has numerous old-style beer cans brought in by friends and customers, original ledgers from the bank, a plate showing the bank building, and a picture of the "Ice Jam of February, 2018,"
The Jam
"The Jam" became an existential, go/no go moment for Holland and Bodnar: on Wednesday evening, February 21, 2018, ice flowing down the Israel began piling against the Main Street bridge's supports, mere feet from the brewery. The building's basement windows were crashed in by large volumes of backed-up floodwater and ice. The basement was rendered unusable, only a day or so after the construction team had laid down an impeccable cement floor.
The kicker? The brewery was 3 weeks from opening. Holland and Bodnar persevered, though, and even turned lemons into lemonade by naming one of their most popular beers the "Ice Jam Lager." Anticipation among residents, already high, went into overdrive, mixed as it was with large amounts of respect for the owners' resolve.
The patio was constructed in 2020, thanks to a grant from the Coös County Development Corporation. It quickly became the main focus for customers, especially from Spring through Fall. On the gorgeously sunny day I visited, the patio was jam-packed. Unfortunately, I had two other breweries still on my schedule that day, so I could not wait; I tasted Copper Pig's beers in the "speakeasy," downstairs.
The Tasting
Ice Jam Lager, 5.1% abv.
A nice, tasty lager with good malt body. Missing some carbonation, and head is low. There is also a touch of diacetylmorphine on the very back palate, but this is very drinkable.
Passionate Razz Robin Passion Fruit Raspberry Sour, 5.6% abv.
Full flavored, balanced, and tasty raspberry sour.
Lars 007 Double IPA, 7.6% abv.
Good DIPA, with good flavor. But it's lighter, and thank God for that!
Downhill 7 Oatmeal Stout 6.0% abv.
Low carbonation, lighter body, but not the worse for it. Interesting cream caramel and vanilla flavor that I don’t necessarily associate with an oatmeal, stout, but I really liked it.
