On guest tap at Last Minute Brewing, mild beechwood-smoked cured meat setting brings out distant salami, bacon and pastrami brining above powdered cocoa malting. In the can, creamy cocoa froth lathers peaty beechwood smoked cured meat spicing. A little too mild for rauchbier perfection – but getting close.
SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA
Residing at a white stucco garage catty-cornered into a hilly residential neighborhood, GROOVE BREWING opened its black overhead doors for business January 2023 (after operating out of a former dentist office since 2020). Scranton’s first brewpub, Groove’s smooth nano brews have captivated Northeast Pennsylvania.
Brewmeister Ed Generose crafts delightful one-off batches of stylishly varied suds plus two flagships, Steamtown Gold Lager, and Brooks Drift Wheat Ale. Alongside Generose, co-owners Joe and Shannon Bonacci strive to gain an imprint on Scranton’s redevelopment, prosperity and beer culture.
The red cement-floored, white-walled interior features an eight-seat Formica top bar, several four-seat tables, a couch, black-ceilinged exposed pipes and a spacious staged backroom for private parties. Windowed brew tanks carry the liquid load.
Our first stop sojourning to Scranton late October ’24, my wife and I slurped all available 5-ounce brews and took home a few reviewed in Beer Index.
Dry German-styled pilsner, Garden Party ’24, let dewy honey drip into subtle lemon adjunct and moist orange tartness.
A richer Vienna malted marzen, Groovefest, plied honeyed red-orange fruiting to leafy green hop resin, dark floral mustiness and musky mineral graining.
Spry kettle-soured Key Lime Pie caressed its pie-crusted key lime tartness with lime-peeled gooseberry, guava and green grape souring as well as lemon meringue piquancy, parched limestone chalking and minty ginger snips over honeyed Graham Cracker base.
Dry pumpkin pureed spicing embedded semi-sweet dark chocolate and confectionery marshmallow fluff for Marshmallow Pumpkin Porter, gaining resonant vanilla bean influence as latent anise spicing coats pumpkin pied cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg aspect.
One of the best American smoked lagers, Chimney Man Rauchbier may lack the brash cured meat goodness of Germany’s Aecht and Bamberger, but its scaled-back smoked salami, bacon fat and pastrami banter retained a sizable Scotch-licked cocoa malting.
Easygoing java-influenced Belgian blonde, Morning Joe, spread creamy milk-sugared coffee atop cellared Belgian yeast funk as restive lemon zesting fizzled. Supreme breakfast fodder.