ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

Right in the heart of downtown Allentown, ample beer-pizza watering hole HOP DADDY BREWING COMPANY came to life November ’19 (and changed its name to Bru Daddy soon after – see separate entry). Part of Lehigh Valley’s ambitious brewery Renaissance, Hop Daddy had only two of their own handcrafted brews on tap during my December ’19 stopover, but the homemade pizza was fine and so were the local guest brews.

Inside the red brick-fronted public house, a 20-seat slate top bar with two draught stations each serving twelve lines featured three walled TV’s, exposed ceiling pipes and silver tin ceiling tiles. A few Industrial wood-metal dining tables and bar stools crowded the storefront. A back kitchen served authentic wood-fired pizza and a beautiful beer keg mural hovered above the gas-powered oven.

A sterling right side patio (see above) works as a pleasant community-tabled beer garden with outdoor firepit. Furthermore, there was a reverse osmosis brewing filtration in the concrete-floored speakeasy back room and a plush carpeted mezzanine lounge space with couches, tables and foosball table.

As for the proprietary beer, tropical Hop Daddy Batch #1 Pale Ale brought zestful grapefruit tanginess and lemony orange juicing to herbal hop astringency, dry pale malting and crisp mineral graining.

Busy dry porter, Hop Daddy Midnight Rye Der, let raw Blackstrap molasses bittering sink into dark chocolate-buttered pumpernickel rye breading as charcoal hops seared dried black cherry snips.

I also quaffed Sly Fox Helles Lager and Vulpulin IPA plus Bonn Place Mooey ESB (full reviews in Beer Index) while watching college football this cold wintry afternoon.