SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA

In the heart of Scranton across from the Court House, BACKYARD ALE HOUSE came on the scene November ’08 and soon became Electric City’s premier beer bar. Offering an outrageously enormous 500 bottled beers as well as 20-plus rotating  taps, Backyard’s celebrates America’s proud microbrew generation in grand style. Its pristine tan frontage features Backyard’s brown-lettered insignia, windowed neon signs for the Keystone State’s most popular microbreweries (Stoudt’s/Troegs/Victory/Yards) and gorgeous…

CHESTNUT HILL, PENNSYLVANIA

In a quaint cobblestone neighborhood in northwest Philadelphia’s historic Germantown Road, Chestnut Hill’s IRON HILL is its sixth franchise chain. Opened during December 2012, the well designed restaurant-brewery gained quick popularity. A beautifully plush 2-room expanse with high ceilings and a pull-up door offering patio access for the red brick edifice, Iron Hill’s cherry oak furnishings and amiable atmosphere provide luxurious comfort. Behind the waiting area are 12 oak booths for family dining away from…

 

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YORK, PENNSYLVANIA

Next to pristine Sovereign Bank Stadium on the outskirts of York’s industrial center lies LIQUID HERO BREWERY, an enticing red-bricked microbrew pub opened in 2012. Co-owners Matt De Prato, Christian Quinlivan and Josh Hoke, all present on my initial May 2013 sojourn to this Lancaster County hotspot, present a fabulous array of stylistically diversified ales.

In the maroon-walled tasting room are six wood tables and a seven-seat bar (where…

NANTICOKE, PENNSYLVANIA

Talk about your successful traditional family-run neighborhood joint! Serving agrarian mining villagers, local businessmen and familial denizens living inside the inconspicuous uphill Sheatown section of Nanticoke with authentic Cajun food since 1984, MARTY’S BLUE ROOM expanded its red brick-fronted, white clapboard-sided residential boundaries under the guidance of convivial husband-wife Jim and Joanie Schonfeld. By 2010, Schonfeld’s son began brewing operations under his own name as BENNY BREWING COMPANY, utilizing a single-barrel Sabo system with four…

WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA

Off the main drag in a red brick edifice formerly housing St. Joseph’s Catholic Monastery, Wilkes-Barre’s BREAKER BREWING COMPANY is the brainchild of day-time engineers Chris Miller and Mark Lehman. Going up the wood ramp to its backdoor entrance during my initial May ’13 visit, I enter the still-developing microbrewery’s spotless sample room and meet the friendly entrepreneurs at the alter-like mahogany bar.

Lehman, a hop-headed Sierra Nevada…

On tap at Monk’s Cafe, sweet mocha dessert treat layers black chocolate-spiced smoked malts atop chewy cookie dough yeast. Black cherry puree, raisin bread, toffee, vanilla, coconut, anise and biscotti undertones scatter by ashen hop char.

Rabid peat-smoked entry and maple-honeyed bacon crisping bring rauchbier tendencies to Denmark-based gypsy brewer’s Carolina pils. Light lemony spritz cuts thru proper stylistic Band-aid astringency. Creamy spruce-tipped crystal malt sugaring sweetens dry rye backbone and counters smoky campfire wood singe.  

Extreme straw-paled Belgian pale ale provides abstruse herbal maca root influence to sourdough-like Abbey yeast and murky dried fruiting. Dessicated fig, apricot and green raisin tones pick up nutty restraint to pumpernickel breaded backend.

Enthusiastic mahogany-hued English-styled brown ale inundated by fizzy banana ripeness over nutty mocha richness. Escalating browned banana sweetness seeps into coffee-stained maca root influence to molasses-soaked Graham cracker spine.  Charcoal respite deepens brazen hop-charred bittering and subtle brown chocolate roast. A darker malt-forward banana beer that counters the lighter, more affluent Wells Banana Bread Beer.   

Better in this rye setting than IPA/Pale Ale versions due to more radical flavor profile. Radish-like maca root influence offers mild cacao nibs tease to honeyed raisin rye breading and chocolate-soured butternut-pecan-walnut conflux. Pastry-like sugaring, port wine tannins and peat-y earthiness infiltrate busy backend.    

Though not necessarily an enhancement to the overall India Pale Ale styling, its advertised ‘perfect balance between Kuka’s Pale Ale and Rye IPA’ finds maca root influence in a similar profile as the former. Lemon-candied lime juicing and mild orange-peeled souring pick up reedy hop astringency. Decent, but inessential.