2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Portsmouth Brewery, Portsmouth, NH (July 2nd, Brewery Stop #19)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Portsmouth Brewery, Portsmouth, NH (July 2nd, Brewery Stop #19) The 19th brewery we stopped at on our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was The Portsmouth Brewery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. After a great day and evening visiting our friends in Philly, we woke up early and headed north towards our mid-way point (Maine). Leaving Philly, we went east into Jersey (Camden), then north to New York City for an early lunch (pizza) in lower Manhattan. After eating we did take a short side trip up to Times Square (drove through it), which was one of my bucket list items. Eventually we made our way out of the city with the intent on stopping in Boston en route to Maine. However, the bumper to bumper traffic on the freeways had us taking back-roads and alternate routes around Boston and then north into New Hampshire to find dinner before making the final trek into Maine. With the alternate back-roads navigating (always take a road atlas with you as your phone may not get signal out in the back woods), we were able to see some really great historic towns and villages in …

Continue reading

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: 2nd Story Brewing Company, Philadelphia, PA (July 1st, Brewery Stop #18)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: 2nd Story Brewing Company, Philadelphia, PA (July 1st, Brewery Stop #18) The 18th brewery we visited during our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was 2nd Story Brewing Company in Philadelphia, PA. We left the beautiful countryside of rural PA after lunch and samples at Tröegs and headed east to Philly. We got into town and checked into our hotel on the north end of downtown after a few hours of driving without much delay and met up with our great friend Michael whom joined us for some site seeing around downtown. We lucked out with nice weather (not too hot or humid) but after a few hours of walking around on cobble-stone streets and sidewalks, we were ready for a beer. The nearest brewery to us was 2nd Story Brewing which is located just a few blocks in from the river near the popular “Penns Landing” area of downtown. The brewery is fairly inconspicuous along the block with just a hanging sign out front, so you need to keep an eye out for them as you are looking for them. I do need to note that a few years ago, …

Continue reading

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Tröegs Brewing Company, Hershey, PA (July 1st, Brewery Stop #17)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Tröegs Brewing Company, Hershey, PA (July 1st, Brewery Stop #17) The 17th brewery we stopped at on our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Tröegs Independent Brewing Company in Hershey, PA. After saying goodbye to our friends Sara and Rusty, we made our way out of Pittsburgh and headded east towards Hershey. The drive was pretty quick and painless, lots of toll roads and turnpikes to get you around the congested areas. The scenery on the drive was pretty spectacular, lots of foot-hills, mountains, trees and beautiful farm-country. Once we got close to Hershey, we discovered that the Tröegs brewing complex is just down the road from the Hershey’s Chocolate amusement park. And yes, it’s like Disneyland for chocolate lovers. We didn’t stop there, but I can imagine that it’s not somewhere a diabetic would want to go. As shown in the pictures, the tap-room/restaurant is located inside their main production facility. Lots of parking out front, a big entry area with multiple rooms including a swag store, tour room, meeting room, and main tap-room and restaurant area. We did poke around a bit and spent a little time in …

Continue reading

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: The Church Brew Works, Pittsburgh, PA (June 30, Brewery Stop #16)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: The Church Brew Works, Pittsburgh, PA (June 30, Brewery Stop #16) The 16th brewery visited on our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was The Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh PA. After enjoying a wide range of great beers at East End, we stopped on our way to The Church at Caliente Pizza & Draft House for a few pints of local brews, as this was one of our hosts favorite bars/restaurants. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of beers available at Caliente and the servers were really helpful in describing them and making recommendations. As it was quickly approaching dinner time so we finished up our pints and migrated to The Church, which was just a few minutes away by car. The neighborhoods we traveled through were really cool, historic, and obviously in the ‘up-in-coming’ category as one might say. I was sort of surprised that a brewery would be allowed to purchase and occupy a church, but it’s really there and quite awesome. Rusty shared with us that this is the only one in town, as the city caught a large backlash against churches being sold to private …

Continue reading

Review: Ghost Runners Brewery, Vancouver WA

Ghost Runners Brewery, Vancouver WA This last week on Friday night (Oct. 2nd) we stopped by the Ghost Runners Brewery in Vancouver WA on our way to drop off some friends. I’ve had a few chances to sample their beers over the past couple of years as they have been producing and distributing in the local area and was excited to check them out. We were really happy that they finally opened up a tap-room at their production facility off of NE Minnehaha in an industrial area of Vancouver, the local brewing scene is growing with a strong showing of brewers that have a clue. The brewery is located along the 2nd row of the building complex, not visible from the street. They have a 10 barrel system with a couple of storage tanks inside behind the bar area. If you ask one of the interns or bartenders, they will show you around and explain their setup. I’m really glad that they opened up the opportunity to visit their production site and try their beers on site. I would highly recommend visiting them if you’re in town and have a few extra minutes in the evening to give them a …

Continue reading

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: The Saint Louis Brewery, Schlafly Bottleworks, St. Louis, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #14)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: The Saint Louis Brewery, Schlafly Bottleworks, St. Louis, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #14) The 14th brewery that we visited on the cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Schlafly Bottleworks in St. Louis MO. After a great KC BBQ lunch, we hit the road and headed to St. Louis. There was a little bit of traffic out of KC, and a whole bunch of traffic trying to get into St. Louis which pushed out travel time to over 5hrs. We ended up getting off the freeway and taking some side-roads into the SW part of town as their rush hour freeway traffic is horrible. The Schlafly Bottleworks location isn’t hard to find, just be ready to drive a bit through residential areas to get there. Note, that there are two locations, we went to the production facility to meet up with one of Gary’s former students that lives in the area in the suburbs and not the main downtown restaurant and bar. I had never heard of Schlafly before our trip, it was selected by Devin and I’m glad he picked it out for us to stop at. They have …

Continue reading