GETTYSBURG / CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA
Before reaching Gettysburg, spent warm spring afternoon in Carlisle, thirty miles north, stopping by midtown staple, MARKET CROSS PUB & INN. Located ground level inside an adorable red brick building housing second and third floor garden apartments, its quaint provincial bar is front-center with dining sections to right and left (with TV’s on each side). Keg handles bedeck walls alongside beer logo mirrors and cool artifacts. Well-respected British brews on tap included Boddington’s, John Courage, Guinness, and several Young’s while sundry mixers worth trying were Lava Lamp (Framboise/ Stella Artois/ Guinness), Chocolate Covered Raspberry (Framboise with Young’s Chocolate Stout), Red Eye (Harp with tomato juice), and Smoothie (Guinness with cider). Large bottled selection featuring 100 Belgian, German, Scottish, and Pennsylvania microbrews plus several phenomenal Unibroue’s from Canada impressed me. A retired fellow at nearby table quaffed excellent Rogue Brutal Bitter while my family enjoyed English pub food and I munched Earl Of Stafford crab spread with Swiss cheese on sourdough roll. Back garage accommodated British hot water brew tanks plus wood and silver holding tanks containing fine beers and ales. Basic soft-toned citric-tinged Market Cross Red merely set the stage for worthier hand-pumped cask-conditioned Excalibur Stout, a warm black cherry-fronted raspberry puree-backed black chocolate-y medium body gaining mocha-hazelnut illusions ‘til vanilla bean-embittered tar-like finish. Better still: majestic Munich-fashioned Saaz-hopped Lion Heart Lager, a sharp red-fruited cereal-grained spice-tinged vegetal-finishing Helles-styled brew that tops nearly all in its class.
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