SALISBURY, MARYLAND

Taking Maryland by storm, EVOLUTION CRAFT BREWING COMPANY quickly became a staple in the Eastern Shore’s biggest city, Salisbury, when it opened for biz during 2012. An aluminum-sided industrial edifice houses the spacious microbrewery, which includes high ceiling restaurant-bar area (with 2 TV’s, booths, tables and exposed ducts), gray-bricked storage room (with oak tables and retired wood barrels), far right tasting room and roomy front deck.

My wife and I grab a seat under one of the deck’s…

BERLIN, MARYLAND

Just eight miles west of Ocean City in a former cooperage, Berlin’s BURLEY OAK BREWING COMPANY opened late 2011 to much local fanfare. Entrepreneurial brewer Bryan Brushmiller and ‘head beer-ologist’ Zach Newton surely know their craft, splendidly delivering stylistically robust ales as well as atypical hybrids to the craving public.

After hanging out at the beach for three hours, my wife and I venture to this gray-shingled prefab barnyard for a…

OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND

Situated just over the bridge from Ocean City on Route 50, FIN CITY BREWERY has been housed in Hooper’s Crab House (a spacious barn-styled seafood haven) since 2012. A freestanding edifice with gray weatherboards, fire engine red roof and giant red crab insignia, my wife and I sojourned this mammoth restaurant-brewery during the 3rd Annual Bikers On The Beach weekend, April ’13.

Entering from a wood-planked deck, we ate dinner at the raised section to the right of the…

SALISBURY, MARYLAND

Taking Maryland by storm, EVOLUTION CRAFT BREWING COMPANY quickly became a staple in the Eastern Shore’s biggest city, Salisbury, when it opened for biz during 2012. An aluminum-sided industrial edifice houses the spacious microbrewery, which includes high ceiling restaurant-bar area (with 2 TV’s, booths, tables and exposed ducts), gray-bricked storage room (with oak tables and retired wood barrels), far right tasting room and roomy front deck.

My wife and I grab a seat under one of the deck’s…

PATCHOGUE, NEW YORK

Located in Patchogue’s industrial section one mile southeast of Brickhouse Brewery on River Street lies meidum-scale craft beer operation, BLUE POINT BREWING COMPANY. Proving to be ‘way cool’ with their free Saturday afternoon 3-sampler offerings and covered outdoor deck, Blue Point was founded in 1997 by avid home brewers Mark Burford and Peter Cotter. Besides having an expansive bottling line, these motivated craftsmen aim to please the…

  

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STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT

Plopped into a light industrial complex right off major corridor, Route 95, Stamford’s HALF FULL BREWERY was the brainchild of entrepreneurial zymurgist, Conor Horrigan. Open for business, September ’12, Half Full’s raw white-walled space (with exposed pipes and metal fixtures) offers enough square footage for future expansion.

As I enter through the inconspicuous front door in early January ’13 for a one-hour stopover, the rustic interior where the tasting room resides…

STRATFORD, CONNECTICUT

Becoming the Constitution State’s biggest brewery at birth, TWO ROADS BREWING COMPANY occupies a mammoth red brick warehouse previously housing metal factory, US Baird. Just off Route 95 between New Haven and Bridgeport, Two Road’s impressive 100-barrel system bottles, cans and kegs four original staples also served at the spacious 3,000 square foot oval-shaped bar up the stairs from the rustic brown-wooded right side entrance.

Headed by renowned Southampton brewer (and former New England Brewing associate) Phil Markowski, and helped along by local…

  

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LANSDALE, PENNSYLVANIA

On a dangerously snowy Saturday at noon, December ’12, my wife and I leave Jersey and venture South towards Philly. Before landing there, we stop by Lansdale, a quaint industrial town 25 miles northwest of Philadelphia that houses ROUND GUY BREWING COMPANY. Owned and operated by a Penn State and Notre Dame grad, the tap room opened for business in June.

Located at a diminutive art space just off Main Street behind a pretzel place, the pale blue-walled boutique pub…

STONINGTON, CONNECTICUT

Arriving a bit early for Saturday’s 1 PM pouring at BEER’D, I stroll around the old storage and arts warehouse this new 3-barrel brewery in Connecticut’s seafaring Stonington calls home. Amongst the art galleries and photography studios at the Velvet Mill, Beer’d is the pride of owner-operator Aaren Simoncini, a Rochester Institute of Technology grad whose boutique nanobrewery opened belatedly due to the loss of electricity during Hurricane Sandy. Despite the historic storm’s northeast devastation, Beer’d began serving…

ESSEX, CONNECTICUT

In rustic seafaring village, Essex, a stones-throw from the marina, lies historic GRISWOLD INN. Its colonial-styled white-painted exterior and forest green shutters bring a Classical provincial appeal to this landmark 1776-built restaurant-hotel.

Old wood furnishings and dozens of framed nautical photographs line the multi-room facility where several private Christmastime parties take hold this Friday afternoon in mid-December ’12. My wife and I settle behind the Tap Room in the caliginous dining area to enjoy hummus and clam chowder with Griswold Inn’s…