Category Archives: United States Brewpubs

CROWDED CASTLE BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

Crowded Castle Brewing Company | visitPA  Crowded Castle Brewing Company (Level 50) Committed to consistently delivering a unique beer experience to consumers by… | Unique beers, Craft beer, Brewing company

PHOENIXVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA

Perched between Root Down and Stable 12 on Phoenixville’s fabulous beer-centric downtown strip, CROWDED CASTLE was formed by a few homebrewing friends doing small social events to show off their brewing prowess before beginning contract brewing. Adventurous beer designer, Mark Sofio, one of Crowded Castle’s main craftsmen, continually concentrates on delighting local patrons and traveling beer seekers with a fine array of style-bending concoctions – refining recipes if need be to come up with better elixirs.

“I don’t need to make the only beer you drink, I just wanna be in your repertoire,” former stay-at-home dad Sofio claims.

Open during Memorial Day 2017 (and closed June ’21) at a former Elks Club lounge, Crowded Castle’s front-windowed Prohibition Era-styled pub features art deco-styled bronze ceiling tiles, three hanging pendant lights, exposed black pipes, earthtone brick walls and a glazed cement floor.

An L-shaped, wood-beamed, slate-top bar services the right side lounge area and surrounding high-chaired tables. The backroom’s seven-and-a-half barrel brew tanks and six fermenters provide the liquid fun and an executive chef was recently hired to run the small kitchen.

While hanging out with Sofio on an early Wednesday afternoon in August ’20, I quaffed all eleven available brews.

Restaurant — Crowded Castle Brewing Company, Inc

Soft-toned lemony grapefruit perfuming and sweet floral-spiced herbage picked up earthen Saaz hop mustiness for mildly crystal malt-creamed Koning Gambrinus Pilsner, a solid light-bodied opener.

An orange-rotted lemon twist and tannic green grape wining rode above corn-husked pale malt spicing for cider-licked Castle Lager, a durable musty-grained moderation.

Dewy peat moss and grassy hop rusticity grazed citric-dried grape esters for Gilded Kolsch, a resolute straw-yellowed pilsner-malted easygoer with delicate floral juniper snips.

Mellow rice-wined French yeast provided a champagne spritz for Meyer lemon-salted farmhouse ale, Ble Saison, leaving lemongrass herbage on the back end.

Candi-sugared Belgian yeast advanced pastry-like tripel, Peace Ale, letting spiced apricot sail alongside rum raisin sweetness.

An interesting combination of British golden ale malts fermented with Belgian yeast, Ovolo placed candied mandarin orange spicing alongside floral-perfumed amber graining.

Date-sugared plum spicing crystallized Mod Quad, a creamily molasses-dipped medium-full body with auxiliary rum raisin, banana bubblegum and bruised orange sweetness.

Murkily yellow-hazed Fog U IPA utilized tart Huell Melon hops, bringing salted gooseberry-guava souring and grapefruit rind bittering to mild lemon meringue vanilla creaming.

Lemon-juiced grapefruit zest, salted mango bittering and spiced orange tartness lingered for Juice My Imagination NEIPA, a lightly lactic yellow-glazed medium body perfect for expansive hop-heads.

Spritzy sour-candied raspberry tartness provided mouth-puckered goodness for Sour Notes (Raspberry), punctuated by musky yellow grape, cranberry, huckleberry, strawberry and cherry rhubarb piquancy.

Mild coffee-roasted dark chocolate malting anchored maple oats-sugared Midnight Stout, a nut-charred mocha-bound nightcap.

ROOT DOWN BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

ROOT DOWN BREWING  Root Down Brewing Company - BV Brew Scene

Capturing all the casual “urban ambiance” of former mill town, Phoenixville, ROOT DOWN BREWING COMPANY occupies the old 13,000 square-foot red-bricked Superior Beverage warehouse on North Main and Bridge. A block from the Schuylkill River water walk, its friendly neighborhood feel suits the younger crowd moving into the revitalized borough.

An elongated slate-topped 25-seat bar services plastic chaired wood tables and the graffiti-walled, community-tabled, game-roomed backspace. Caged brew tanks behind the 26-plus barroom draught lines provide the vast vats of sundry suds.

The restored wood floor, exposed pipes and cavernous ceiling suit the hoary pub.

Down the road half a mile away at Uncle B’s Bar BQ, Root Down Biergarten is right behind the barbecue diner serving both Root Down creations and local guest brews to wood picnic tables from a portable kiosk.

Root Down Brewing Company | visitPA

I tried all 23 available brews at Root Down’s barreled street table on my mid-August ’20 Phoenixville trip (quaffin’ Real Deal Lager afterwards at the biergarten with wife and dog in tow). It truly seemed each soft-toned beer (many lagers or pilsners) weighed gentle on my mind.

Easygoing orange-dried lemon souring rose above dry pale malts for Real Deal Lager, a reliable ‘Southern-styled’ moderation nearly as light as crisply clean lemon-pitted Pils, a clear-straw German-styled pilsner with herbal spelt-alfalfa graining.

Perfumed corn grits, wet-grained acridity and floral-spiced citrus adorned Keller Pils.

Mild grain musk suited dry Saaz-hopped ‘contemporary lager,’ Crispy Boy, leaving wispy herbal residue.

Maize-dried corn grits and wort-like sourdough malts defined grassroots American lager, Grit, picking up oily hop-bined lemon musk.

Raw wheat pungency lightly underscored wattle-seeded rye breading of specialty grain lager, Summarye, relinquishing latent yellow-orange fruited wisps.

Dry PA Lager safeguarded light dewy cereal graining with mellow lemon spicing and grassy hop astringency.

Dry grain rusticity seeped into candied lemondrop tartness for dry kolsch, De La Soul, a popular choice among friendly locals this sunny afternoon.

Not as sweetly effervescent as most hefeweizens, OG Haze relied less on banana-clove sustenance and more on dry lemon musk above its raw-honeyed wheat base.

Straightforward pale ale, Keeper’s Cut, let dry citrus-spiced pale malts surface abruptly.

Mildly pungent beige yellow-hazed pale ale, Hoppy Digital, merged peppery lemon musk with orange rind bittering and grassy hop astringency over spelt-like oats.

Sedate IPA, Flux, gathered mild yellow grapefruit bittering, dulcet mandarin orange tartness and dark floral herbage.

Groaty IPA, Bine, brought bruised lemon bittering to lemongrass-fennel herbage and musky pale malts in a peculiar stylistic manner.

Lingered citrus hop bittering infused raspy New England IPA, The Mock, as lemon-pitted juniper resin girded salted pineapple-papaya-guava tropicalia atop ultra-dry pale malts.

Mild lactic souring grazed hazy IPA, Green Magic, bringing pithy juniper hop musk to lemony grapefruit zesting.

Another lactose-laden IPA, Electric Soup, contrasted its grassy-hopped lemon rot and musky orange oiling against earthen grain-husked leathering.

Super-hazed beige-marbled IPA, New Money, allowed lactic vanilla yogurt souring to influence light grapefruit-orange rind bitterness and herbal respite.

Soft-tongued triple dry-hopped Imperial IPA, Three The Hard Way, sweetened its tangy orange-tangerine juiciness with floral-spiced crystal malting.

Blush pink oak-barreled sour ale, Living Reflection, picked up minor green grape acidity to complement its peachy rosé wining and citric-salted Chablis remnant.

Peppery coriander salting spiced up zesty lemon sunshine for vibrant gose, Salty By Nature.

Exquisite fruited sour ale, Raspberry Fool, took incisive raspberry tartness to delicately vinous green grape esters, oaken cherry dryness, sparkling rosé effervescence, hard cider sharpness and salted mango splurge.

Upfront roasted chocolate malting gained coffee-stained charred hop bittering and wispy tobacco chaw juicing for generically-named, but well-defined Baltic Porter.

Mild sea-salted brown chocolate sweetness embellished Cosmic Bae, a delightfully smooth Milk Stout with dark toffee spicing countering its underlying bitter nutty hop char.

Soft-toned Imperial Stout, Black Is Beautiful (a collaboration with Texas-based Weathered Souls), contrasted coffee-burnt dark chocolate bittering and cacao nibs nuttiness with sweet molasses oats.

REBEL HILL BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

Sneak Peek: Rebel Hill Brewing (Phoenixville, PA) - Breweries in PA

PHOENIXVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA

About two miles from Phoenixville’s downtown in the not-so-distant outskirts, REBEL HILL BREWING COMPANY occupies a glass-fronted corner spot at the Westside retail mall. Its earth-toned stone exterior and prominent round-topped gray insignia retain a truly distinguishing mark.

Ex-homebrewer Doug Green, “a transitional bartender,” provides an interesting array of well-designed small-batch beers for the left-walled bar’s twelve draught lines. Its elegant wood-lacquered design adds a studio-like pub appeal and the walk-in cooler supplies the draughts. The open backspace includes a seven barrel system with four fermenters and an in-house canning line.

Though Rebel Hill’s out of flagship Bleed Green IPA, a Mosaic-hopped fave, and its hand-pulled ESB, I navigated my way thru eight diverse hand-crafted elixirs at the community-tabled side deck late afternoon mid-August ’20.

Rebel Hill Brewing Company

Easygoing pinkish amber-hued Hot Wit Ends, a juicily fruited hybridized witbier, sprayed lemon zest onto its floral-cologned spicing, Lemondrop-hopped dragon fruit adjunct and auxiliary watermelon-passionfruit-guava illusions, gaining mild astringency from the hay-dried spine.

Dry-hopped pale ale, Scratch The Surface, employed fruity Citra-Mosaic hops to engage its dank wood surface and oats-flaked pilsner malt base.

Summery dry-hopped cucumber IPA, I’m Just Visiting, a celery-crisped beige yellowed moderation, draped cucumber-pureed citrus spicing all over limey watermelon souring and leathery wheated oats.

Tempered vanilla bean creaming gained lactic insistence for tangy mango-pureed tropical fruit, Cosmic Passage, a vibrant milkshake NEIPA with juicy orange-tangerine tanginess caressing its sweet ‘n sour dessert-like spectrum.

Utilizing Norwegian Kviek yeast to brighten its tropical-fruited Galaxy/ Vic Secret hops, Norse Star IPA left lemon-limed pineapple, grapefruit and peach tang on the brisk piney trail to a wispy white wheat bottom.

Clean mineral-watered Kviek yeast also fortified the woody citrus hop foundation of The Four Norseman, a sunny IPA with candied tangerine and sour passionfruit riffs (as well as tertiary pineapple, peach and mandarin orange snips) parading thru its delicate oats-flaked malting.

“Red Hawaiian Punch”-like Windows of Hoppiness unleashed cedar-sweetened candied fruiting upon its zesty lemon sunshine and soft-toned pine bittering.

Milk-sugared vanilla and coffee beans paced luxurious lactic-aided hybrid, Calmer Than Cream Cafe Ole, a delightfully smooth pale-malted moderation with spritzy lemon zesting adding citric sunshine to the cinnamon-toasted pastry midst and coffee-caked brown sugar finish. 

STABLE 12 BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

stable12 brewing company | Brewing, Brewery, Brewing company

PHOENIXVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA

Located along Bridge Street’s brewers alley in a white stucco barn house one-quarter mile from Crowded Castle, Phoenixville’s STABLE 12 BREWING CO. came into existence during mid-2015 when three long-time beer lovin’ friends pursued their dream of opening a brewpub.

Residing at a former horse stable, this friendly neighborhood cement-floored shack features an aluminum-sided main room with wooden chairs and tables sidling the 12-seat bar. In the rear, Stable 12’s silver brew tanks line the side walls of an unfinished space.

Serving burgers, sandwiches and bar bites to a full crowd this Tuesday evening in August ’20, my wife and I grab a picnic table under one of the maroon umbrellas at the side biergarten to try seven heavenly offerings.

Stable 12 settles in Phoenixville, celebrating its grand opening ...  Stable 12 Brewing Company - Home | Facebook

Mild maize-dried corn grits received a lemony grapefruit spritz for The American Dream, a sturdy German-styled pilsner placing raw-grained straw wheat, alfalfa and hay astringency at the rustic finish.

Tart springtime witbier, Razzle Dazzle, let sour raspberry piquancy gain mildly vinous white wine acidity and mellow rosé wisps atop dry oats-flaked white wheat base.

Kettle-soured gose, Day In The Park – Blueberry / Pomegranate, retained vinous white-wined Zinfandel splendor to complement coriander-salted lacquered blueberry tartness and lightly embittered pomegranate splurge (as well as raspberry-gooseberry snips).

Conditioned on strawberry, cherry and blackberry, Fresh Picked: Lemonberry, a tartly fruited sour, brought salted lemon-peeled lime bittering to oaken cherry-soaked berry goodness.

Crisply clean citrus-juiced Imperial IPA, Firefly Skies, allowed lemony grapefruit zest to brighten the spritzy mandarin orange midst above mineral grained pale malts.

Perfectly sessionable NEIPA, Live To Fight Another, permeated its mild grapefruit bittering and lemon custard tartness with lactic vanilla creaming over mild pale malt sugaring.

“Velvety” coffee-induced chocolate malting greeted barley-roasted flaked oats for Rodeo Clown Imperial Stout, leaving maple molasses syruping upon the durable mocha finish.

IRON HILL BREWERY – PHOENIXVILLE

United States Brewpubs,

PHOENIXVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA

While starting my downtown Phoenixville journey, established franchise IRON HILL BREWERY, led the brewpub parade going west on Bridge Street towards Root Down, Crowded Castle and Stable 12 Brewing. In its Church Street corner lot, Iron Hill opened 2006 (and closed this location only in 2024), making use of immaculate mahogany wood for its upscale sportsbar appeal.

Lofty bronze brew tanks and windowed round tables surround the 16-plus tap bar (with two TV’s, top shelf liquor and beer listing) at the front interior. A backspace dining area and metal-furnished front deck provide further seating.

On my mid-August ’20 dinnertime sojourn, consumed three previously untried Iron Hill elixirs alongside Moroccan salmon and caramelized, mushroom-roasted, garlic-oiled, mozzarella-pecorino-cheesed Garcia pizza.

Mild yellow-cleared light-bodied farmhouse ale, Brambleberry, let tart brambleberry and ancillary raspberry-strawberry fruiting saturate leathery barnyard dryness.

Dry-spiced fruiting secured Hallerback Saison, gathering lemon meringue tartness, creamy vanilla sugaring, Orange Creamsicle sweetness and buttery Chardonnay esters for its dewy earthen bottom.

Perfumed grapefruit, orange and peach spicing fronted dry-bodied New Normal IPA, leaving rustic earthiness upon its wood veneer and celery-watered crisping.

ROUGH CUT BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

Rough Cut Brewing Co.  Image result for rough cut brewing

KERHONKSON, NEW YORK

On a winding rural road in the hilly Catskills hamlet of Kerhonkson (ten miles west of New Paltz), ROUGH CUT BREWING COMPANY took over Oscar Restaurant and began brewing operations June 11, 2019. Inside a rustic weathered-shingled shack with stone hearth, antique furnishings, creaky wood floors, railroad-tied bar back and cupboard-bound brewtanks, this amiable roadside tavern also offers casual ‘comfort food.’

Co-founding brothers, Jesse and Bart Cummings, hired hop-head brewer, Kayne Konecny, to design a host of approachable IPA’s alongside a variant of rangy styles going from saison to ESB to oatmeal stout.

My wife and I congregate at a yellow picnic table on the left side grass patio for 90 minutes as I imbibe each tapped offering late afternoon, July ’20.

December Specials at Rough Cut - Picture of Rough Cut Brewing Company, Kerhonkson - Tripadvisor

Raw-honeyed buckwheat and musky wet grains consume gently flowing pilsner, Station 33, leaving delicate floral sweetness upon polite lemony grapefruit-pitted bitterness.

Soft-toned rose petals bring floral subtlety to toasted amber grain sweetness, mild beet sugaring, teasing mandarin orange tanginess and wavered baked apple tartness for blanched light body, Roseability, a wispily arid Belgian pale ale.

Dark chocolate syruping draped cedar-smoked maple oats for sweet milk stout, Holstein, relegating its day-old coffee reminder. 

The following beers were obtained in oil-canned 32-ounce crowlers for off-site consumption.

Smooth wheat ale, Sunny Day #3, utilized Barbe Rouge hops to nudge its lightly floral-spiced citric hop mosaic ahead of candied peach-pineapple-apricot-tangerine tartness – letting lemony grapefruit bittering gain mild wood tones to contrast sugary cereal malts.

Sessionable ‘summertime IPA,’ A Rough Summer, brought dry lemony orange perkiness to mild bark-dried astringency and rustic truffle earthiness atop brown-riced grain malting.

Limey guava souring imbibed Beach Weather #2 Pink Guava Saison, leaving floral-tinged barnyard leathering at the salty bottom.

Boldly fulsome IPA, Deserted Island, anchored its brisk citrus thrust with juniper-like hop bittering, musty earthen wood dankness and straw wheat acridity. Pushing forth a rangy flavor profile, perfumy orange-peeled grapefruit, peach and pineapple resilience gained pasty pale-malted mineral graining at the midst.

Zesty grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering regaled 44/55, a bustling Imperial IPA with rustic wet grain musk, bready pale malts and light herbal snips.

YARD OWL BREWERY

United States Brewpubs,

Yard Owl; Making Brews, Taking Names — Gardiner NY Businesses

GARDINER, NEW YORK

A former bartending restauranter, James Walsh upgraded his brewing skills at UC-Davis and decided to craft Belgian-styled farmhouse ales exclusively when he opened YARD OWL BREWERY in 2015. A serious fan of Saison Dupont, Walsh’s roomy pub provides “small scale charm” with its varied saisons (some blended and barrel aged).

Located inside a tan aluminum cement-floored warehouse with high ceilings in the sleepy rural town of Gardiner, Yard Owl’s wide open expanse creates an unfinished feel furthered by the antique U-shaped wood bar and simple bench tables.

Front and rear overhead doors provide an open air atmosphere fully captured by the old backyard community tables scattered about the nearby field. Wall-mounted pendants, stringed lighting and Edison bulbs reinforce its casual elegance.

Yard Owl Brewery

There were four fine farmhouse ales exploring varied flavors available on my late afternoon July ’20 trip.

Dry golden-cleared Old World blonde ale, Grisette, brought tartly salt-watered yellow fruiting to the fore, securing its zesty lemon misting with limey white-wined grape esters, delicate banana snips, wispy white peach hints and mild herbal spicing above straw-dried mineral graining.

Aged nine months in rosé barrels then blended with a Cabernet and sessionable saison, winey Belgian Blonde, Cuvee, maintained a salty lemon-pitted bittering for tannic white grape esters and bubbly champagne effervescence atop oats-dried pilsner malting.

Soft-toned Cabernet-aged saison, Tourbillion, merged lemon meringue tartness, yellow grapefruit bittering and distant plantain dryness with delicate floral-spiced citrus zest, gaining oaken vanilla residue.

Bold amber-bronzed 540 Hoppy Saison sunk sharp IPA-like citrus fruiting into earthen wood tones, floral herbage and pinot grigio acidity, promoting mandarin orange, tangerine and blood orange illusions.

GARDINER BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

Gardiner Brewing Company - Home | Facebook

GARDINER, NEW YORK

Inside a rustic maroon former dairy barn at Wrights Farmers Market in the hilly Catskill range of Gardiner, family-owned and operated GARDINER BREWING COMPANY came to fruition in 2018. Agrarian sibling owners Mackenzie Dietz, her sister, Samantha Bradshaw, and brewing brother, Colin Boylan, run this multi-acre fifth generation farmstead.

A cement patio with black metal furnishings and a separate wood deck surround the farmhouse pub and a rickety old shed offers live music. Providing a cool retreat in the outlying New Paltz area, Gardiner Brewing serves its local rural denizens and traveling brewhounds well.

Stepping up to the 12-seat lacquered wood bar, I grab all four midrange home brews on my steamy July ’20 stopover.

Gardiner Brewing Company - Home | Facebook

Besides serving its own rustic homebrews, the dozen taps also feature eight local beers-ciders.

Unrefined clear-yellowed farmhouse-styled pale ale Gartucky Light yielded acrid straw-dried rusticity for mild green tea-leafed orange pith bittering and loud basil-sage-rosemary herbage.  

Sour lemon-juiced wild sumac grazed grain-husked barnyard acridity for Summer Sumac Farmhouse Ale, a dry saison with tart rhubarb-sniped mandarin orange and white peach illusions as well as light white grape esters.

Off-dry light-bodied pale ale, Vienna Smash, plied sweet Vienna-malted kilned barley to woody Chinook Hops, letting its spiced orange spritz crackle at the surface.

Dewy Irish-styled red ale, Ireland Corners, brought soily peat moss to rye-like amber graining, leafy hop astringency, nut-charred burnt toasting and raw tobacco nuances for a stylishly rich medium body.

NEW REALM BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

New Realm Brewing Opens Virginia Brewery to the Public | Brewbound

VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA

Awesome large-scaled production facility with kingly metal-gated entrance leading to beautiful fire-pitted bocci ball lawn and expansive multi-bar interior with gigantic brew tanks, Virginia Beach’s prominent NEW REALM BREWING COMPANY lies a few miles Southwest of the Atlantic Ocean on the outskirts of town.

Doing yeoman’s work maintaining the candid slogan ‘rethink tradition, bend the rules and reconfigure boundaries,’ New Realm’s first brewery (20,000 square feet) opened in Atlanta, December 2017. This second location, with its spectacular indoor-outdoor setup, began operations in 2018 as a restaurant/ beer garden.

A red-bricked, black slate-topped open air bar awaits those preferring outdoor dining. Inside, the cement-floored, gray-walled main pub features community tables and seats plus two TV’s sidling the 20-plus central taps. Three glass-windowed garage doors lead to the capacious back-spaced, silver-tanked brew room.

During my sunshiny July ’20 noontime visit with wife, daughter and dog, Roscoe, grabbed a few seats at the far right lawn under a few trees to try three supreme ‘big’ beers, a fruitful wit, an Imperial IPA and two stellar stouts.

New Realm Brewing Opens New Location in Virginia Beach ...

Juicy tangerine tanginess gained lemon-soured pineapple, passionfruit and peach zest for stylishly ambitious Sunset Passion Wit, leaving floral-spiced herbage upon the gin-nipped tropical fruited finish.

Juniper-nipped citrus zest splashed Mas Mucho Double India Pale Ale, bringing orange-peeled sweetness to lingered lemon-soured grapefruit bittering and tertiary pineapple-peach tang alongside dank pine tones.

Exquisite Rum Barrel Aged Quad (Wooded Reserve) brought caramelized Barbados rum sugaring to embracing vanilla-creamed chocolate sweetness and pureed raisin-prune-date dried fruiting plus toffee-spiced creme brulee alacrity.

Sweet cherry-flambeed bourbon warmth luxuriated Bourbon Barrel Aged Quad (Wooded Reserve), a lusciously complex full body with vanilla-sugared brown chocolate sweetness coating glaze-spiced raisin, plum and prune illusions in a dewy earthen setting.

Caramel-burnt sea salting welcomed charmingly fudged confectionery Chocolate Sea Salt Imperial Ale, anchored by toffee-sugared maple oats.

Piquantly candi-sugared brown chocolate sweetness guided Spiced Stout, a distinct dessert beer with ginger-snapped cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cumin and anise seasoning.

Bourbon vanilla spicing topped Doomsday Hound Imperial Stout – Bourbon Barrel, a rich chocolate-sweet nightcap with ancillary dark-roast coffee, toasted coconut and marshmallow illusions receiving a mild oak-charred bittering.      

YOUNG VETERANS BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs, ,

VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA

Just a block away from the oceanfront, ambitious Virginia Beach haven, Bunker Brewpub & Cadence Hall stationed YOUNG VETERANS BREWING COMPANY, whose rangy brew fare gets served in a seafood-friendly concert venue.

A cozy fenced-in porch leads to the front door of this red brick pub. Opposing the curved right side gray marble-topped bar (with four separate tap stations and electronic beer list) are several metal-wood tables and decorative wood barrels.

In the rear, Cadence Hall offers a secondary twelve-tap bar, rear band stage, comfy couch section and black art deco ambiance.

General Manager Chris Holyfield was friendly enough to be my guide this steamy Friday afternoon, July ’20.

The lightest offering, Life Finds A Way Helles Lager, combined raw-honeyed sourdough wheat breading with mildly herbal-vegetal Saaz hops in traditionalist manner.

Flagship staple, Commander In Peach Hazy IPA, allowed pureed peach tartness to penetrate sharp orange-peeled grapefruit, pineapple and tangerine tanginess as well as yogurt-milked lactose souring and resinous pine tones.

Tart juice bomb, Bottom Rock Raspberry IPA, blasted piquant raspberry luster past mild citrus bittering and sour cranberry-crabapple tingle.

Clear golden wheat ale, Pineapple Grenade, let its tangy pineapple spritz stay subtle over wheat-cracked pale malts.

Bitterly brisk and refreshingly zestful NEIPA, Hazies In A Half Shell, furnished juniper-hopped grapefruit and orange rind bittering with tart gooseberry-blackberry-blueberry notions.

Blue raspberry Gummy Bear knockoff, Gummy Neutron, a sour IPA, brought raspy blueberry tartness to lemon-candied piquancy over honeyed wheat sugaring.

Bringing subtle pomegranate souring to the fore, The Revolting Blob Hazy IPA gained tart green grape, gooseberry and guava notions above grassy-hopped barnyard leathering.

Updated Citra-hopped IPA staple, Jet Noise, regaled orange-peeled grapefruit bittering with spicy peach-mango sweetness and mild guava souring in a crystalline vodka-like 9% ABV fuselage.

VIBRANT SHORE BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA

Just a few blocks off the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia Beach’s cultural arts enclave – known as the ‘Vibe Creative District’ to locals – VIBRANT SHORE BREWING COMPANY opened its doors November ’19. The passionate full-time hobby of ex-homebrewer Rhett Rebold (a former CIA agent), this beachy Industrial-styled bohemian pub specializes in well-balanced Euro-styled brews to go alongside fine Americanized fare.

Featuring a sidelong bright blue Neptune mural, reclaimed wood interior with granite top bar and rooftop beergarden (with 6-seat serving station, four umbrella-covered tables and strung Edison lights), Vibrant Shore offers 16 draught handles. Left side tables fill out the bar area and an overhead garage door connects the pub to the front patio while brew tanks take up the back space. Vivid painted panels cover the walls of the cement-floored pub area and a partial mezzanine area provides more seating.

Yoga at Vibrant Shore Brewing Company | Virginia Beach

Dewy earthen fungi skewered raw-honeyed dried fig for Better Than The Devil Vienna Lager, letting casual caramelized malts cushion moist tobacco, cola nut and date palm nuances.

Briskly clean Artistic Austerity Kolsch combined dry Noble-hopped grassing, celery-watered herbage and delicate mineral graining for its sedate orange-candied lemon rind souring.

Candied raspberry tartness swept over oceanic lemon salting for kettle-soured Jack the Dripper Gose, a summery libation with a cushy pilsner-malted white wheat bottom.

Smooth English pale ale, The Royal Fuggler, accessed British Goldings-Fuggle-hopped herbage to relegate its sour lemondrop respite, dry barnyard leathering and -floral cologned whim.

Floral-perfumed hop fruiting doused The Future Juicy IPA, a refreshing pilsner-malted moderation leaving gin-soaked citrus tanginess and mild gooseberry-guava tartness upon its soft wood base.

Dark chocolate fudging and muddy coffee licks received lactic milk souring to intensify Special Signature Milk Stout, a dry mocha sendoff this sweltering early evening, July ’20.

RAR BREWING

United States Brewpubs,

Expansion plans approved for RAR Brewing | News | myeasternshoremd.com

CAMBRIDGE, MARYLAND

Just a few blocks from Cambridge Creek in Chesepeake Bay’s quaint Eastern Shore barrier, RAR BREWING (a.k.a. Reale Ale Revival) began its journey as a ‘big time small town’ pub in summer 2013. Alongside several local independent downtown shops, RAR’s casual sportsbar atmosphere, light pub fare and well-balanced brews will please mainstream commoners and advanced thirsts.

Dual black RAR awnings greet customers to this former Cambridge pool hall. A convenient overhead-doored serving station benefits outdoor summertime seating. The left side bar features 12 taps of continuously rotating original fare as well as a TV, blackboard beer menu and beer infuser (for mixed one-off concoctions). Inits first seven years, RAR has crafted nearly 100 different beers.

The separate right side dining area provides varnished red oak tables and booths, white and black tiled floor plus cool mod pop artwork.

My wife and I got seats in the makeshift roadside patio (due to Wuhan Virus) on one-hour stopover, July ’20.

Revealing evenly flavored tropical fruiting, Citra-hopped West Coast IPA, Nanticoke Nectar, retained an engagingly juicy grapefruit-orange bittering and sweet mango-nectarine tang above mild pine resin. Meanwhile, similarly styled Grapefruit Nectar brought mildly embittered yellow grapefruit splendor to tangerine-spiced tanginess over dry pale malts.

Lemondrop-candied banana and clove tartness surfaced for Groove City Hefe, exposing light floral-nipped herbal snips at the understated yellow-fruited finish.

Tropical Sabro hops allow easygoing grapefruit, orange, tangerine, mango, pineapple and coconut enticement to spread across floral-spiced cedar planking for Amatuer Sketch, a Double IPA.

Coffee-dried nuttiness and bittersweet dark chocolate consumed dark ale flagship, Bucktown Brown, gaining brown-sugared glazed walnut illusions at the caramelized mocha finish.

More picutres of inside - Picture of RAR Brewing, Cambridge ...

During awesome two-hour splurge on Friday afternoon, January ’24, sat at one of the wood-tabled metal seats near the front overhead door to down eight more sundry suds.

Though tepid pilsner-malted Lite stayed phenolic as musky grained hop astringency and dried maize husk merged, it’ll suit simpler blue collar thirsts.

Way more reliable was spritzy lemon-fizzed Country Ride Pale Ale, a lighter IPA-like moderation with light herbal musk and mild pine resin seeping into laidback grapefruit-orange misting.

Dry bronze-cleared Citra/Cascade-hopped Imperial Nectar IPA, an unconventional West Coast-inspired medium body (boasting bold 9% ABV), punctuated its expectant grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering with divergent green peppered herbage, muskily perfumed spicing and raw-honeyed pale malting.

At a heightened 10.3% ABV, off-dry Pumped Up Kicks Triple IPA coalesced Mosaic, Vic Secret and Ekuanot hops for lemony grapefruit bittering and desiccated orange musk seeping resinous pine above light oated wheat creaming.

Another boozy IPA (New England-styled at 10.6 ABV), Uni Blu stayed smooth as lemony grapefruit and orange tanginess surfaced above sugary pale malts, picking up icy vodka nip.

Smooth beige-hazed IPA variant, Smooth Peaches let its candied yellow peach adjunct receive lemony grapefruit bittering as well as tertiary red apple, pear and apricot illusions.

Aged in Bulleit bourbon barrels with vanilla cream, Old Decoy slung sweet bourbon warmth at caramel whiskey, dry burgundy, black cherry and dark cocoa.

Decadent lactose pastry stout, 10 Layers With Coconut, regaled toasted coconut sweetness for its macadamia-nutted dark chocolate caking and vanilla coffee respite.