BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA

Occupying a spacious 8,500 square-foot converted garage, SEVEN SIRENS BREWING COMPANY came to fruition Valentine’s Day 2020. The Bethlehem-based beer hall’s rustic simplicity gets reinforced by its beautiful antique oak-mantled bar (with old fashion subway tiles and 20-plus draught handles), wagon wheel light fixtures, round metal tables, epoxy floor and exposed pipes.

A sturdy blue-stained concrete bar top complements the ocean blue-lit art display at the aquamarine-walled right side (with skeeball game). A few window seats and community tables fill out the front while brew tanks crowd the rear section. The rooftop beergarden adds extra seating and the Sirens Lair above the brewhouse is available for overnight visitors. A mid-floor open space shows off kegs assembled as a Christmas tree for the upcoming holiday.

Head brewer Joshua Divers was a former Sam Adams Longshot Homebrew competitor whose beers range far and wide from hazy IPA’s to a smoked red ale to a nitro stout and lactic sour on my initial perusal.

Though Seven Sirens is out of its best-selling mainstays, Stargazer IPA, and Hands-Free Satchel Milkshake IPA, my wife and I tried a dozen fab elixirs during our two-hour Friday night stay, early December ’20.

Sweet oats sugaring picked up leafy Chinook-hopped oiling for soft-toned Harvey’s Tale, an autumnal harvest ale with desolate orange fruiting slipping into amber-grained Maris Otter malting.  

Another fall seasonal, Where’s My Uggs, a pumpkin-spiced pale ale soaked in rum oak staves, let perfumed ginger cologne upstage cinnamon-nutmeg sweetness and syrupy yam snips.

Cherrywood-smoked maple syruping sweetened alongside bacon-fatty cured meatiness for Liquid Breakfast Smoked Red Ale, a rauchbier-inspired moderation with earthen amber graining and light rye tones.

Wayward wintry-spiced saison, Pardon My French, let candied orange spicing, dry cherry licks and crystal-malted caramelized Scotch licks lay atop biscuit flouring.

Lactic tropical fruit waxing guided Dor Ray Doe, a Session IPA with wafting lemon cologne, delicate white wheated minerality and dry El Dorado/Azacca-hopped sour-candied tartness.

Another sessionable IPA, Smashin’ Passion, spread tart passionfruit goodness all over salted green grape-guava-kiwi tropicalia and grassy pine wisps.

Soft-toned, double dry-hopped Full Battle Rattle IPA brought perfumed citrus alacrity to earthen pine resin that seeped into pilsner-malted white wheat.

Mellow New England IPA, Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy, permitted yellow Pez-candied tartness to saturate mandarin orange, dry gin and herbal licks in a grassy hop setting.  

Smoothly creamed lactose sugaring guarded beige yellow-hazed double dry-hopped NEIPA, Please Scroll Up, allowing juniper-embittered grapefruit juicing to mingle with sour lemon liming and modest peppery spicing.

Yet another hazy NEIPA, Not So Silent Night, a tartly sour ale conditioned on banana, passionfruit and strawberry, put limey pomegranate acidity into its celery-watered herbage while its three adjunct fruits meandered.

Sweet-tart Zangerine Sour, a lactose-aided ale conditioned on tangerine-peeled cranberry, gained lightly salted citrus acidity and Pez-like powder-candied tartness.

Fascinating Irish Car Bomb knockoff, Cormac’s Revenge Nitro Stout, brought fudgy brown and white chocolate creaminess to the fore as caramelized vanilla, dry cocoa, caffe latte, chocolate eclair, creme brulee and black cherry notions circulated.