The Great American Ale Trail (Revised Edition)
Page 37
PHILOSOPHY
Unfiltered, unpasteurized, unpretentious. And prone to attention-getting stunts. In the summer of 2015 they attached speakers to a wood barrel of beer and played some choice Wu-Tang Clan (that’s hip-hop, in case you didn’t know), they said, to see if it affected the outcome of the beer. Utter nonsense, unless the bass was so earth-shakingly loud it could rouse up yeast in a stagnant fermentation . . . no, actually, never mind. For the record, they’ve also brewed with smoked goat brains.
KEY BEER
The spicy Rye IPA (7.2% ABV) would make a good accompaniment to the brick-oven, wood-fired pizza or calzone, with a snifter of stout for dessert.
BRIDGID’S
726 N. 24th St. • Philadelphia, PA 19130 (215) 232-3232 • bridgids.com • Established: 1989
SCENE & STORY
Even an unassuming neighborhood bar can be memorable, even if just a pit stop on the way to bigger beer lists. Located in the Fairmount area, close to the Philadelphia Art Museum, Bridgid’s is small, comfortable café-style bar with an eclectic Euro-Cajun menu and ten taps (plus more than sixty bottles). It also has a unique “gravity tap” stemming from the second-floor ceiling that comes down and hovers over the bar like a too-short fire pole but always has a beer from Yard’s brewery. If you’re lucky, that beer is Yard’s Love Stout, a creamy, light-chocolaty wonder made with actual oysters and quite conducive to conversations at the small, J-shaped bar.
PHILOSOPHY
Where is the love?
KEY BEER
Yard’s Love Stout (5% ABV).
JOSE PISTOLA’S
263 S. 15th St. • Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 545-4101 • josepistolas.com • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
A couple of local bartenders took over a former restaurant in this two-story, Center City space to create a shrine to good Latin/Southwest cooking and American craft beer in 2007. Amid its exposed brick walls, skull-adorned back bar mirror, and wide bar, the patrons are here to drink beer, see friends, and talk among each other, not look at the China patterns—it’s a working-class hero bar, boisterous and beery. Expect knowledgeable staff, excellent Mexican fare, and a deep list of unusual American and Belgian micros. They opened a second location in the Fishtown neighborhood in 2013.
PHILOSOPHY
Come one or all. Jose’s has a steady crowd of beer pilgrims and industry members gathering for a bit of late night R&D. In the early hours, this is a terrific brunch spot. This is a great fallback plan if Monk’s Café is too crowded, or for a nightcap after touring the area’s other bars and eateries.
KEY BEER
They recently had a grassy, lemony Taras Boulba on tap from Brasserie de la Senne, the most wished-for, go-to session beer for countless beer geeks (present company included).
YARD’S BREWING CO.
901 N. Delaware Ave. • Philadelphia, PA 19123 • (215) 634-2600 • yardsbrewing.com • Established: 1994
SCENE & STORY
The makers of excellent beers like Philly Pale Ale and the silky Love Stout, Yard’s also offers shuffleboard and free tours on Saturday afternoons, and perhaps best of all it is walking distance from Northern Liberties (making the Foodery, Standard Tap, and 700 Club easy next stops). Pints are five dollars (a buck or two more than you’ll find in many Philly pubs) but it’s worth the extra if you take the tour, play some leisurely pool or shuffleboard, and have a grilled cheese.
PHILOSOPHY
Gritty and fun-loving: kind of like the whole city of Philadelphia. Started up by two college wrestling buddies, the Yard’s brewery (Philadelphia’s largest) is a marvel of DIY spirit: with bar tops made from reclaimed bowling alley lanes and salvaged mahogany trim in the taproom, it’s also running 100 percent on wind power, an achievement in itself. They’re even doing some bee-keeping.
KEY BEER
Yard’s eminently drinkable Extra Special Ale (6.3% ABV) was the favorite of the late British beer writer Michael Jackson when he would visit town.
Outside Philly
TIRED HANDS BREWING COMPANY
16 Ardmore Ave. • Ardmore, PA 19003 (610) 896-7621 • tiredhands.com • Established: 2011
Fermentaria • 35 Cricket Terr. Ardmore, PA 19003 • (484) 413-2983 • tiredhands.com/fermentaria
SCENE & STORY
Having graduated from home brewing and trained at Weyerbacher and Iron Hill, Founder Jean Broillet IV had the experience needed to break out, and in 2011 converted an old brick 1925 doctor’s office into the café, where he and his staff bake bread on-site and source cheeses, meats, and seasonal produce from a radius of 100 miles. RateBeer.com named Tired Hands a Best New Brewer in 2013. Then, just a couple of blocks away, he opened the Fermentaria location (and bigger brewery) in an 85-year-old former trolley repair shop. It’s got twelve beers on tap, a restaurant, and coffee shop. Both are steps from the Amtrak station in Ardmore, a half hour from the middle of Philly.
PHILOSOPHY
“We are equally inspired by the farmhouse brewers of France and Belgium and the pioneering, heavy handed, brewers of America. We produce our beer in small batches, twelve kegs at a time. We believe that some of the best beer in the world comes from within the confines of an oak barrel.”
KEY BEER
Try HopHands (a tangy, citrusy pale ale made with Simcoe, Centennial, and Amarillo; 5.5% ABV) and the rye/oat/wheat/barley SaisonHands, a four-grain saison with Cascade hops of 4.8% ABV.
VICTORY BREWING CO.
420 Acorn Ln. • Downingtown, PA 19335 (610) 873-0881 • victorybeer.com • Established: 1996
SCENE & STORY
Built in a former Pepperidge Farm factory about an hour west of Philly, just east of the rolling Amish countryside, Victory Brewing Company was founded by locals Ron Barchet and Bill Covaleski. The two childhood friends trained in Germany and in other U.S. breweries and searched across the country for a spot to build their own. After nearly picking the Lake Tahoe area, they settled on their home region, which proved a smart move. With little marketing, the company quickly became one of the most powerful players in the craft beer landscape. A visit to Victory affords a chance to try twenty of their current brews on tap in immaculate condition (and a half-dozen more on hand pumps) and to soak up some Philadelphia beer culture in the making: The company is only nineteen years old and certainly feels institutional, part of the fabric of things. This was by design. Covaleski has an eye for populist imagery, and together with the archival WWII photos in a dining room area of the pub and the old copper brewing kettle tops that decorate the main bar space, he’s managed to make a space that feels authentically lived-in.
In 2013, inevitably, Victory expanded, more than doubling their overall production capacity to an eye-popping 500,000-plus barrels per year with a new, massive, state-of-the-art production brewery and taproom in Parkesburg. They also opened a location in Kennett Square and launched a beer-infused ice cream project, too. We can hardly keep up.
PHILOSOPHY
The Old World exalted. Using mostly whole flower hops and an “uncommon” number of yeasts, Victory melds traditional brewing methods with new technology in the brewhouse to create distinctive styles of beer. In other words, once-moribund styles sparkle with new depths and dimensions in the able hands of the brewers.
KEY BEER
Victory’s Prima Pils, a floral-accented, full-bodied golden sipper, has converted many a skeptic from domestic to craft, but it’s the Braumeister series of pilsners exhibiting different hop varieties (including grassy Tettnang and spicy Saaz so far) that truly show what Covaleski and his cohorts are capable of.
TERESA’S NEXT DOOR
124 N. Wayne Ave. • Wayne, PA 19087 (610) 293-9909 • teresas-cafe.com • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
With twenty-four taps and several hand pumps (in addition to a vast 200-plus bottle list) this beer geek’s hideaway opened in 2007 in the affluent enclave of Wayne (just outside of Philly), drawing immediate acclaim. It’s a long, sleek
space with stone accents, recessed lighting, brewery-specific glassware, a long bar, and padded booths along the back wall. The bar organizes taps by style, so regulars know that number five, for example, will typically feature Belgian blondes and Belgian pale ales. There are frequent beer events and tastings, including a spring dinner utilizing tangy spring hoop shoots, an asparagus-like delicacy used in Belgian cuisine.
PHILOSOPHY
Beer is treated with the proper respect here, but not pretentious solemnity. There’s always a sour beer on, and the bartenders, chefs, and owners are all passionate about craft beer.
KEY BEER
The unofficial house beer is Russian River Damnation, a deliciously spicy-strong Belgian-style pale ale from California (7.75% ABV). Or try Petrus-Aged Pale Ale (7.3% ABV) on tap from Belgium’s Brouwerij Bavik, a medium-bodied and not-too-puckering sour with vinous, woody notes and a bracing acidity. It would make a nice complement to the rich kitchen offerings, which include braised rabbit and wood-fired baby back ribs.
YUENGLING
501 Mahantongo St. • Pottsville, PA 17901
(570) 628-4890 • yuengling.com • Established: 1829
SCENE & STORY
Founded in 1829 by German immigrant David G. Yuengling in Pennsylvania coal country, this is America’s oldest brewery. It has enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years, propelled by its easy-drinking flagship brew and nostalgic image. Pronounced “Ying-Ling,” the company produces seven beers and is still a privately held, family-run organization, helmed by Dick Yuengling Jr., the fifth generation of Yuenglings to run the show and the father of four daughters, all of whom work for the company.
Touring the Yuengling plant is not remarkable in any technical, beer-making sense; there’s no wood or stone fermenters like you’d find in certain old Belgian or British firms. But you’re here for the history. Its traditional rathskeller, or cellar bar, opened in 1936, and is the end of the line for popular free tours offered on weekdays, after which visitors are treated to a pair of free drafts. The company hit 180 years in 2009, and has surged from producing 127,000 barrels of beer in 1985 to over 2 million in recent years. In 2016, they planned to open a new museum and gift shop for visitors.
PHILOSOPHY
Yuengling’s sturdy American image isn’t cultivated through marketing or hype. It’s the real deal: an old American company getting by with perseverance and hard work, and relatively conservative expansions into new territories.
KEY BEER
A cult beer in the Northeast, Yuengling Premium Lager is an affable amber sipper of 4.4% ABV with a touch of light caramel sweetness and faint citrus from hops on the tail end. Ideally, this beer is consumed while cleaning crab, fishing, or shooting pool.
STOUDT’S BREWING CO.
Rte. 272 • 2800 N. Reading Rd. Adamstown, PA 19501 • (717) 484-4386 • stoudtsbeer.com • Established: 1987
SCENE & STORY
Just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Adamstown, the makers of many well-made beers including the 5.4% ABV Stoudt’s Pils—an aromatic and flavorful standby session beer in the Northeast for years now—offer free tours (by founder Ed Stoudt) and nourishment in their attached, whimsically painted gasthaus-style restaurant, the Black Angus Restaurant & Brewpub.
PHILOSOPHY
Pathbreaking but unpretentious. The affable Carol Stoudt, in 1987, became the first woman to open a brewery since prohibition; she is known in the industry as the “Queen of Hops.”
KEY BEER
These days, indie brewers are trying to emulate traditional, German-style lagers left and right, but the unsparing demands of brewing it correctly, and the way it can highlight flaws, make it a real benchmark of brewers’ pride. An early breakout is Stoudt’s Pils—at 5.4% ABV (and now in cans), it’s a crisp, flowery, crushable, German-style pilsner. Delish. It also took Bronze at the 2014 World Beer Cup, beating scores of excellent beers to join the top two winners. Look for it. Locals consider it a sort of standby. When it’s fresh, it’s hard to resist.
BEST of the REST: PENNSYLVANIA
NODDING HEAD
1516 Sansom St., 2nd Floor • Philadelphia, PA 19102 • (215) 569-9525; noddinghead.com
This small brewery and bar up a narrow stairwell in a cozy space on the second floor of an old building has a well-lived in parlor feel. Opened in 1999, the brewery runs a creative gamut from Berliner weisse (which you can order with woodruff syrup, as the Berliners do) to American wild ales, Double IPA and even Scottish Ale.
TRIA CAFÉ
123 S. 18th St. • Philadelphia, PA 19103 • (215) 972-8742 • triacafe.com
This is a sleek Center City café, which opened in 2004 that earns praise for small food and cheese plates complementing a beer list divided by categories: “Invigorating,” “Friendly,” “Profound,” and “Extreme.” With standout one-off beers like Victory Braumeister Pils Tettnang on draft and an owner who leads beer appreciation classes, beer is very much on the table. In 2013 they opened a third location, Tria Taproom, with twenty-four taps.
ALLA SPINA
1410 Mt. Vernon St. • Philadelphia, PA 19130 • allaspinaphilly.com • (215) 600-0017
Under the watchful eye of beer maven Steve Wildy, local Italo-American chef Marc Vetri’s airy, modern gastropub presents an array of outstanding comfort food and an even more outstanding list of beers ranging from the iconic to aged and esoteric, with a slew of cans, beer cocktails, and large format bottles for good measure. Wildy, beverage director for Vetri’s entire restaurant group, curates ambitious draft and bottle lists that constantly evolve, making Alla Spina’s popular happy hour that much more fun. What you’re eating: cheffed-up but unfussy poutine, fried chicken, raw oysters, and puffy pretzel bites. In your glass? Local Slyfox pils, Tilquin gueuze out of Belgium, and the hard-to-find Loverbeer, out of Piedmont, Italy.
EARTH BREAD & BREWERY
7136 Germantown Ave. • Philadelphia, PA 19119 • (215) 242-6666 • earthbreadbrewery.com
Tom Baker became a craft beer hero when he unleashed a beer called Perkuno’s Hammer Imperial Baltic Porter out of his Heavyweight Brewing Co. in New Jersey around the millennium. It was among the first really, really big beers available in the region and the Baltic Porter style was rare, not to mention Imperial versions thereof. Despite critical hosannas his little brewery could not stay open in the brutal 2000s. Since 2008 Baker and his wife have been operating this eco-minded flatbread bakery and brewery in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philly, with bars and dining areas on two levels. Baker started with session beers but has ably returned to bigger beer styles more recently.
TRÖEGS
800 Paxton St. • Harrisburg, PA 17104 • (717) 232-1297 • troegs.com
Founded in 1996 by brothers Chris and John Trogner, Tröegs has emerged as one of Pennsylvania’s most iconic brewing companies on the strength of beers like Nugget Nectar, HopBack Amber Ale, and Mad Elf. The sleek tasting room offers some eleven more, and there are free guided tours every Saturday afternoon (reservations all but required). The brothers broke ground on a new 90,000-square-foot brewery and tasting room location for Hershey in 2011.
MARYLAND
Baltimore
ALEWIFE
21 N. Eutaw St. • Baltimore, MD 21201 (410) 545-5112 • alewifebaltimore.com • Established: 2010
SCENE & STORY
Built in the glorious, old Eutaw bank building in West Baltimore with handsome tile floors, soaring ceilings, art nouveau, leaded glass windows, heavy Craftsman-looking chandeliers, and a spiral staircase leading to a high balcony, the home of Alewife had been sitting empty for a year after housing a tavern when woodworker turned bar manager Bryan Palombo and his business partner took on the challenge of overhauling the much decayed space. The goal was to launch one of the best craft beer spots in the mid-Atlantic. “We walked in and we’re like, ‘Oh yeah: it’s a beer hall. It’s perfect. Let’s do it.’ We got this place ready in five weeks. It was record-breaking. Everything was broken,” recalls Palombo. T
he result? Bulls’-eye. With an ambitious menu of pub grub (try the artery-clogging but oh-so-worth-it Smoked Burger and fries cooked in duck fat; fifteen dollars) and a huge, ever changing list (40 taps, around 100 bottles), it’s certainly one of the best things going in Baltimore for the craft beer scene, and a nice, convivial environment for traveling beer lovers.
PHILOSOPHY
Initially, the goal was no compromise (“Find the best beer in the world—done!”) Palombo reports, but the reality check of one too many slow-moving beers has prompted a more down-to-earth list, though one that’s hardly plebeian.
KEY BEER
Often on tap, the herbal, drying, aromatic Belgian pale ale Zinnebir (Brasserie De La Senne; 6% ABV) would make a great accompaniment to the rich, smoked burger and fries.
THE BREWER’S ART
1106 N. Charles St. • Baltimore, MD 21201 (410) 547-9310 • thebrewersart.com • Established: 1996
SCENE & STORY
Built in an elegant old three-story Mt. Vernon area townhouse, the Brewer’s Art is easily one of the most famous brewpubs in the country, thanks to lakes of dedicated ink in the New York Times, Esquire, and scores of drink magazines. With all its hype, one can be forgiven for worrying about a letdown, but the fact is that it’s a true original, well worth a special trip. However, do not show up on Friday at 7 p.m. and expect to waltz in—it’s extremely popular, and service varies from chipper and friendly to “And you are . . . ?” Upstairs, just above street level, there’s a bustling bar crowd in the front window crowded around a black and white Greek Revival bar area, beyond which is a mezzanine and finally a spacious seated dining room area. Downstairs, the vibe is classic rathskeller, with a dimly lit horseshoe bar and alcoves for huddling over the well-crafted beers.