Category Archives: United States Brewpubs

BITCHIN’ KITTEN BREWERY

United States Brewpubs,

MORRISVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA

In the dapper Bucks County borough of Morrisville near the Delaware River falls across from Trenton, BITCHIN’ KITTEN BREWERY set up shop in 2019 after founder Michael Crosson took second prize in a craft brew competition. A casual cat-themed pub with upscale pub fare, Bitchin’ Kitten specialized in ‘big’ hybridized elixirs with offbeat complexities.

Inside the red brick, blue awninged, epoxy floored professional building, there are front windowed chairs plus wood tabled benches leading to the twelve-seat bar (with tin-encased Edison lights). An alleyway beergarden patio provides seating in good weather. ‘Dazzling cocktails’ and local Crossing Vineyards wine are also available.

My wife and I gathered at the cozy two-seater along the left wood paneled wall to quaff a tidy fruited wheat beer and an expansive confectionery stout on a cold winter night, January ’25.

We took home a host of fascinating brews (reviewed in Beer Index) including Freya’s War Cats Norwegian-style Hazy IPA, Dew Claw West Coast IPA, Adventures In Scouting Peanut Butter Brown, Adventures In Scouting Cinnamon Roll Winter Warmer, St. Nick Claw-Us and stone fruited Sourpuss Sour.

As for the tapped suds, tart raspberry puree nestled perfumed boysenberry, strawberry and blackberry illusions plus cucumber watering for dry moderation, Boujee Cat Raspberry Wheat, picking up a ticklish lemon fizz.

Bold dessert nightcap, Wu Dat Bananas Foster Pastry Stout, draped brown-sugared fried banana sweetness with caramelized vanilla and toasted cinnamon while retaining syrupy dark-roast chocolate incisiveness and minty iced coffee smidge.

FREE WILL BREWING – LAHASKA

United States Brewpubs,

LAHASKA, PENNSYLVANIA

In the storybook town of Lahaska at Peddlers Village, FREE WILL BREWING set up a nifty taproom October 2016 – four years after its initial facility opened January ’12. Its white-marbled tile floor contrasts the bar area’s tin-foiled brown ceiling tiles and the white book shelving adds to the quaint charm.

A small serving station with twelve taps supplies the wood tables and private mirrored side room. A front deck overlooks Peddlers Village.

My wife and I grab seats at the green back window to engage in a confectionery nightcap while enjoying the Winter Lights & Ice Sculpture show on a cold Saturday evening, January ’25.

Wintry Snowdrift Mint Chocolate Stout certainly delivered the goods as refreshingly sharp green mint menthol leafing surged alongside chewy dark chocolate richness, perfectly emulating a Junior Mint or Peppermint Patty candy bar.

TRANQUILITY BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

WARMINSTER, PENNSYLVANIA

Inside a tan stucco Industrial mall, TRANQUILITY BREWING COMPANY opened four miles north of Philly in the town of Warminster. Besides its delectably conservative beer fare, Tranquility serves Interstellar Signature cocktails, pizza, sandwiches and light pub fare.

A virtual local sportsbar with ten-seat bar housing twelve tap handles connected directly to the silver brew tanks, the epoxy-floored pub offers black-wooded tables and chairs plus an exterior side deck. The nifty back wall space features a large moonwalk mural and the black art deco ceiling provides a dusky pre-Prohibition setting for my late afternoon January ’25 visit.

Smooth lime-wedged Mexican lager, Below The Equator, revealed musky lemon pit bittering and mild agave snips for its grainy pilsner malt spine.

Mild beechwood smoked amber graining nestled the soft hop spicing of Winter Lager, a pale amber moderation with wispy cured meating.

Nestling vegetal gourd roasting across brown-sugared ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove spicing, Jupiter Jack’s Pumpkin Ale gained a slight perfuming for festive autumnal medium body.

Easygoing NEIPA, Hazy Space Monkey, pledged dank pine tones to brisk orange-peeled yellow grapefruit bittering, subtle peachy pineapple tanginess and dainty floral spicing.

Piney yellow grapefruit bittering consumed Fly Me To The Moon, a moderate-bodied IPA with spritzy lemon zesting and mild orange peel sweetness as well as spicy floral perfuming.

Incisive chocolate stout, The Dark Side, laced its creamy chocolate frontage with dark coffee tones contrasted by maple-sugared dried fruiting, sweet sherry wining, rich chocolate caking and creme brulee caramelization. Superfine nightcap.

VAN LIEUS BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

PERKASIE, PENNSYLVANIA

Starting out as a family farmhouse basement nano in nearby Ringoes, New Jersey, VAN LIEUS BREWING COMPANY opened its Perkasie location October 29, 2023. Two blocks from Mystic Way Brewing in a residential neighborhood, the converted white stucco Texaco gas station (with dark blue Penn State trim, double overhead doors and front benches) houses side-doored brew tanks holding head brewer Galen Barr’s snazzy suds.

Alongside his father, Jim Barr, Galen’s small brewing operation turns out a familiar stylish array of beers with just the right edge. The one-room, cement-floored, white-walled pub features plastic-seated wood furnishings and a couple TV’s. On a cold Saturday night, January ’25, I sojourned to Van Lieus.

For light-bodied thirsts, tidy Lieus Light Lager simply sidled gluey pale malt spicing alongside dry herbal hops in crisply clean fashion.

Green grape must dusted the banana-clove expectancy and sprinkled powdered sugaring of Clouds Over Bavaria, a cereal-grained, pilsner-malted hefeweizen.

Lively Citra-Galaxy-Nelson-hopped NEIPA, Bound By Symmetry, bounced lemony grapefruit rind bittering across sweet orange peel zesting, peachy pineapple tanginess and floral perfumed spicing atop creamy vanilla oats, leaving mild pine tones on the tropical fruited sunshine.

Van Lieus co-owner Jim Barr then came to sit with wife and I, bringing over German Christmastime-spiced Pfefferusse chocolate cookies to eat alongside his persistently percolatin’ porter.

Dark-roast coffee nuttiness darted thru the dark-roast hop char of relaxing coffee porter, Back To The Grind, utilizing sweet Maris Otter and pale chocolate malts to counter its bitter tobacco chaw swerve.

BACK MOUNTAIN BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

DALLAS, PENNSYLVANIA

Retired military veteran Clay Cadwalader, an avid homebrewer, and his high school sweetheart, Charity, co-owners of BACK MOUNTAIN BREWING COMPANY, develop a splendid cornucopia of stylistic brews (mostly one-offs or recurring) at an aged red brick warehouse. Learning his craft while stationed at Washington’s Puget Sound, Cadwalader returned home to Northeast Pennsylvania’s ‘back mountains’ to set up shop in Dallas during August ’21.

The rustic boiler roomed textile mill that Back Mountain occupies has been retrofit with hardwood floors, antiquated ceiling pipes, elongated window frames and matching wood tables. A small front deck provides more seating. Small -batch brew tanks in the back supply draughts to the central bar station.

My wife and I visited Back Mountain a week prior to Thanksgiving ’24, auditioning eight savory suds while bringing home two fab oak-aged ales – Something In the Dark Bourbon Stout and Rye Whiskey Barrel-aged Old Ale (reviewed in Beer Index).

An autumnal Cream Ale variant, Grandad’s Cranberry, celebrated Thanksgiving with its tart cranberry sauciness given spritzy lemon zest atop gluey cardboard-like pilsner malts.

Clear straw kolsch, Notorious P.I.G., let grassy-hopped barnyard acridity and raw mineral graining spread across tart lemon-candied mandarin orange spritz.

Dry Cascade-hopped K.I.S.S. 2.0 Pale Ale stayed crisp as cucumber-watered lemony orange tang serenaded pale malt pasting.

Piney yellow grapefruit and orange rind bittering rallied for West Coast IPA, Little Squashy, picking up mild juniper and currant snips.

Daringly crossing a farmhouse-dried witbier with a hazy IPA, Rocky Mountain Part Deux White Session IPA allowed its bittersweet orange-peeled grapefruit tang to gain tannic white wining, dill pickled spicing and light pine tones in a sugary pale malt setting.

Floury brown-sugared molasses and caramelized toffee seduced sweet dessert confection, Shoo Fly Pie Brown Ale, leaving residual mocha nuttiness.

Minty coffee-stained dark chocolate scurried thru pumpkin-pied ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and peppermint spicing of robust holiday ale, Lock Shock & Barrel’s Pumpkin Porter, a delightful full bodied mocha-gourd combo.

Tarry dry-bodied Pineland Porter retained fluffy mocha creaminess, chalky cocoa powdering and burnt coffee smidge as oily hop residue secured soy milked bottom.

NORTH SLOPE BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

DALLAS, PENNSYLVANIA

Inside a brown paneled lodge at Northeast Pennsylvania’s “pride of Back Mountain,” NORTH SLOPE BREWING COMPANY became Dallas’ first brewpub, March 2015. Its old brick interior retained an unfinished feel supported by the olden concrete floor, reclaimed vinyl wood top bar, Industrial metal-chaired wood tables and wood-fenced raised platform space (with couch and walled TV).

North Slope’s easygoing fare suited softer palates, but more refined tastes will enjoy the smooth crisping of each golden brew I enjoyed on my mid-November ’24 stopover. There were also six local guest draughts available and fine farm-to-table pub cuisine.

Soft-toned Ganoga Falls Dortmunder Lager let mild lemon spicing fizzle atop dry pale malting.

A sweeter stylistic take, Lil Sip Extra Cream Ale let its honeyed spicing spread across flaked corn pilsner malting and grassy hopped lemon licks.

Spicy floral perfumed lemon zesting embraced Dallas Hop Dry West Coast IPA, a polite off-dry moderation with mild pine tones and distant herbage.

Best bet: Tropical fruited hazy yellowed New England IPA, Beer & Loathing, regaled zesty orange-peeled lemon spicing and crayon-waxed yellow grapefruit, peach and melon spurts as well as subtle juniper-embittered pine resin above lightly creamed oats sugaring.

SUSQUEHANNA BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

PITTSTON, PENNSYLVANIA

Halfway between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in a spacious tan brick-based warehouse with matching aluminum siding and maroon front-doored awning, SUSQUEHANNA BREWING COMPANY was re-founded in 2010 at its current Pittston locale. Initially the brainchild of German immigrant Charles Stegmaier, the original Susquehanna began operations in 1897 and ceased during 1919 due to Prohibition.

Now under the co-ownership of sixth generation relative, Fred Maier, the bustling Northeast Pennsylvania pub maintains enough backroom space to do larger scale brewing, barrel aging and canning. Despite its relative enormity, Susquehanna’s cozy cafe-styled, red tile-floored tasting room only features a four-seat slate topped bar with eight taps, TV and refrigerator. There are a few metal-chaired wood tables across the bar and exposed pipes hang from the black ceiling.

On a snowy Friday afternoon mid-November 2024, my wife and I tossed back ten variegated brews emanating from the pristine stainless steel backroom brew tanks.

Crisply easygoing German pilsner, Froggy Pond Water, let mild lemon licks and slight herbal musk sit atop mineral grained pilsner malting.

Fizzy Seltzer-like shandy, Blueberry Thrill, retained a snappy sweet-tart blueberry thrust. Meanwhile, fruitier Blackout Berry Shandy coalesced blackberry, brambleberry and blueberry tartness with mild lemony ginger sugaring atop syrupy soda-like malts.

Salted coriander hit the cranberry bog of Crannonball Gose, letting ancillary gooseberry, green grape and crabapple souring seep into candied lollipop tartness.

Stylishly expressive Belgian Tripel brought creamy vanilla frosting to lemon meringue, orange liqueur and Chardonnay riffs as musty fungi earthiness spread thru spicy phenols above its cereal grained pilsner malt base.

Floral-perfumed lemony grapefruit and orange peel zesting stormed piney Hopcellerator IPA, a tropical delight utilizing woody Simcoe-Amarillo hops and yellow-fruited Citra-Cascade hops.

Seasonal spiced brown ale, Stegmaier Pumpkin Ale, paraded brown-sugared cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger seasoning plus light sweet perfuming down the molasses-draped dark chocolate bottom. 

Peat-dried chocolate roast pervaded Toboggan Chocolate Doppelbock, rendering tertiary cocoa powder, vanilla bean and black cherry illusions.

Dark-roast chocolate and burnt caramel topped Toes Up Imperial Stout, picking up mild bourbon vanilla spicing.

Lovely dessert confection, Toss Up Salted Caramel Imperial Stout, spread salted caramel sugaring across candied toffee, creamy vanilla and sweet chocolate.

LASTING JOY BREWERY

United States Brewpubs,

TIVOLI, NEW YORK

In the tiny Hudson Valley village of Tivoli, LASTING JOY BREWERY opened in June 2022. “Down on a winding farm road,” this nifty mod farm-to-table pub utilizes mostly locally grown ingredients at its cozy greenish shingled barnhouse. Glass-enclosed metal Industrial benched tables and a warm couch surround the bar and brewtanks are stored to the right.

Lasting Joy’s centralized slate topped octagon-shaped bar features a gorgeous tiled turnstile draught board serving beery fountain drinks. Outside, Adirondack chaired firepits add further seating.

Mocktails, cider, wine and snacks were available alongside Lasting Joy’s highly approachable suds. My wife and I grab seats at the bar noontime on a sunny Friday, November 2024 to enjoy all ten varied home brews.

Rustic Czech-styled pilsner, Two Rivers, combined dry mineral graining with grassy Saaz hop herbage, leaving saw-dusted barnyard hay, rye and alfalfa snips.

A dryer Vienna Lager, ILOVIT contrasted its leafy hop astringency and apple-skinned dried fruiting with mild chestnut-roasted caramelization.

Dewy raw-honeyed marzen lager, Leafs Peeper, sunk leafy hop oiling and earthen truffle fungi into red-orange fruiting.

Gingery cinnamon sticks and brown-sugared nutmeg, clove and thyme seasoning led pumpkin pied Hudson Harvest Pumpkin Ale, leaving a honeyed wheat crust.

Soft-toned oak-aged sour blonde ale, Sophomore Slump, let buttery Chardonnay wining and honey mead sweetness contrast sharply acidic white wine vinegaring as its tart peach adjunct hid apricot and tangerine snips.

Honey mead-inspired Belgian wheat ale, Beekeeper’s Bliss, picked up cotton-candied butterscotch sweetness and botanical orange blossom backup.

Citric pine-embittered hazy IPA, Clouds Over Clermont, utilized woody Saaz hops, melon-like Cashmere hops and earthily floral Mackinac hops to engage its sharp citrus thrust.

Murkily tan nickel-hued Brut IPA, Pick Your Own Grape, let Concord grape tannins pick up enzymic champagne-sparkled white wining and mild orange oiling for its green hop earthiness.

Nearly as good as a beechwood-seared German smoked helles, Smoke Follows Beauty brought stylish Band-aid astringency to salami-pastrami cured meatiness and sweet smoked barley malting.

Wintry dark ale, Pie Chai Porter, plied sweet chai tea to pine nut, gingerbread, nutmeg and peppermint incense illusions above dark chocolate base.

OLD FACTORY BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

CAIRO, NEW YORK

Inside a former bottling plant alongside Catskill Park in the trout-fishin’ town of Cairo, OLD FACTORY BREWING COMPANY has occupied this red brick walled, cement-floored warehouse space since December 26, 2020. Owned by Tim Cornelison and his son, Old Factory churns out a consistent variety of reliable mainstream fare.

A covered front porch leads patrons to the old Industrial watering hole. Its beautiful epoxy-stained ivory slate bar top with Classical gold trim siding welcomes happy quaffers with twenty seats flowing down a narrow hallway leading to a patio-tabled backspace. There are 24 draught handles stationed at the bar. The restored block wood front wall, strung Edison lights and work lamps add to the small town rusticity.

Sandwiches, wraps, burgers and mac ‘n cheese fit the small pub menu on my dusky November ’24 stopover.

Soft-tongued lemon spicing and subtle floral daubs perked up Brilliant Blonde, despite its dishwater Seltzer phenols.

Mild apple-orange-pear fruiting picked up mild fungi musk for Nutrunner Pale Ale, a honeyed pale malted moderation.

Leafy hop oils soaked the honeyed orange-red-yellow fruiting surfing the lemon Seltzer fizz of seasonal Octoberfest.

Buttery Hogan’s Alley Red retained raw-honeyed astringency for apple, orange and peach fruiting given dewy peat mossing.

Dry NEIPA, Window Bars, placed lemon-soured guava and green grape tartness next to milder orange peel sweetness.

A dark bronze hue stood out for fruitier NEIPA, Cairo Haze, regaling grapefruit, navel orange, peach and mango fruitiness over dry oated wheat.

Juicy Mosaic hopped West Coast IPA, Mosaic, showcased lemon-peeled yellow grapefruit bittering complemented by mild mandarin orange sweetness contrasting lacquered pine resin.

The only dark ale on my autumn visit was Lil Holiday Stout, a wintry celebrator with dry-spiced chocolate roast, light vanilla creaming and pine nut toasting.

UNION STREET BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

HUDSON, NEW YORK

Entering thru a side entrance and up the stairs to a spacious beergarden across the multi-floored blue grey barn house, Hudson’s UNION STREET BREWING COMPANY, a converted 1930’s warehouse, features a black sillstone-topped bar with dual draught stations, high ceilinged wood beams, exposed rafters and piping, porcelain-styled concrete floors, a few community tables and wall-paneled benches.

Opened for biz July, 2023, Union Street spreads to the lower level, where a couched billiards room opposes a light lounge space. Brewer Keir Hamilton (formerly of Sixpoint/ Alewife) and owners Emma & Paul O’Donnell enjoy crafting ‘hop-forward’ ales alongside pleasantly understated beers (many distinctly Euro styled). Light pub cuisine went well with the approachable suds.

At noontime on a Sunday in November ’24, the black patio-furnished beergarden fills up with local families while my wife and I consume ten tidy treats at the plastic-stooled bar.

Floral lemon spicing received brusque IPA-fruited bittering (grapefruit rind, orange peel, pineapple) for sharper-than-expected German pilsner, Ten Days Of Perfect Tunes, countering its grassy hop astringency with biscuity pale malts.

Stylish banana-clove sweetness embraced the oaken vanilla-dried green grape esters of Weizenfelder, a slightly soured hefeweizen.

Zestful dry-hopped Citra-Mosaic combo powered hazy IPA, Planning An Escape, letting sunshiny lemon brighten salty gooseberry-guava tartness, yellow grapefruit bittering and mandarin orange tang atop creamy oats.

Classic West Coast-styled IPA, Tread Lightly, retained dry citric pined identity as grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering gained candied pineapple-tangerine tartness given waxy perfumed pine needling.

Utilizing Simcoe, Amarillo and Cashmere hops, dryer west Coast IPA, Cancelling Plans, sank dank pine resin into lemon-seeded grapefruit bittering over lightly honeyed malts.

Briny lemon pith bittering circled orange peel sweetness in a musky fungi setting for In The Intern, a lightly meringue-creamed saison.

Oaken white wine-barreled ‘mixed’ saison, The Sun Is Getting Heavy, dispensed buttery Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and honey mead wining for its earthen barnyard-dried pilsner malt rusticity.

Zesty orange peeled coriander spicing and grains of gingery paradise paced boozy (9.3% ABV) tripel, Superbier, spiked by rum-sugared banana, buttery Chardonnay, lemon curry and dried cherry.

Casual dark mild, A Winter’s Moon, a classic Brit session ale, let nutty burnt coffee seep into peat-smoked dark-roast hop char.

Dark-roast chicory coffee and dark cocoa enabled embittered black malts to infiltrate dry coffee stout, The Grind Never Stops, today’s final libation.

RETURN BREWING

United States Brewpubs,

HUDSON, NEW YORK

The story goes a New York-based team of brewing industry veterans came together before the autumn of 2021 and formed RETURN BREWING (initially at the former Crossroads brewery in nearby Catskill). Specializing in Eastern European-styled pilsner-lagers plus mixed fermentation ales, honey meads and barrel-aged fodder (some with foraged sources), local businessmen Mikey Lenane (ex-Sixpoint/ Hudson Valley brewer), long time pal JD Linderman and Jack Liakas share a mutual love for adventurous beer.

Across the railroad tracks from Upper Depot Brewing Company, Return’s current Hudson residency began in 2023. Its tan overhead-doored brick garage houses a 12-seat, L-shaped, yellow wood-topped bar with barrel-seated butcher block tables strewn along the rest of the cement floor. Stringed Edison lights and exposed pipes line the walls. Ciders, wines and cocktails are available as well.

My wife and I consumed a fine kolsch and stout at the crowded bar on a Friday twilight, November ’24.

I brought home Return’s Polished Pilsner, Westwhere IPA and Satin Jacket Czech-style Dark Ale (all reviewed in Beer Index).

Rustic kolsch, Come Back, let grassy-hopped lemon musk spread thru dry champagne-sparkled green apple tartness and white grape esters.

Commodious stout, Shadow Line, combined coffee-milked dark chocolate with dark caramel, bonfire toffee and maple molasses contrasted by hop-roasted oats char.

UPPER DEPOT BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

HUDSON, NEW YORK

Directly across the street from Return Brewing, Hudson-based UPPER DEPOT BREWING COMPANY maintains a renovated 19th Century train station. Set in a charmingly V-shape roofed brick railroad depot with a gray wraparound deck, its post-mod Industrial wood-floored, steel-designed interior includes a 12-seat L-shaped bar featuring centralized draught handles (and 4 TV’s) plus several wood tables and a snazzy mezzanine.

Long-time friends Monty Bopp and Aaron Maas combined their love of brewing after getting established in the local culinary industry, opening Upper Depot December 28, 2022.

A Western-clad couple danced to an excellent Country bluegrass band playing along the back wall space.

My wife and I visited Upper Depot after our Return stopover to try six sound suds emanating from the sunken, stage left, wood paneled brew tanks.

Classic German pilsner, 80/20, let honeyed lemon sweetness pick up musky Hallertau hop herbage and mild grassy astringency atop cereal grained pilsner malting.

Dry lemon-peeled grassy hop musk suited flagship kolsch, Common Crossing, a dry malted moderation with slight floral herbage and sly sparkling champagne spritz.

Bitterly dry West Coast IPA, Wandering Ollie, placed zesty grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering and tangy pineapple zing across pine lacquered hops over pale malt sugaring.

Juicy-fruited NEIPA, Oakdale, regaled tangy mango-pineapple-guava tropicalia and zestful orange-peeled grapefruit pith bittering seeped in mild pine resin above softly creamed wheated oats.

Brown-sugared maple molasses countered dry black chocolate for maple brown ale, Sugar Shack, a toffee-candied Tootsie Roll.

Maple-glazed dark chocolate syruping coated the dry nutty coffee tones and setback vanilla snips surfacing for sweet stout, Shop The Cooler, a fine nightcap for my post-dusk getaway.