CHESAPEAKE & MAINE

United States Brewpubs,

REHOBOTH BEACH, DELAWARE

Completing a Rehoboth Beach expansion beyond its brewpub two doors down, Dogfish Head also operates a proprietary beer and liquor store plus a nautical-themed seafood and suds tavern named CHESAPEAKE & MAINE since 2016. Inside a shipping vessel-like engine room serving Dogfish Head beer, scratch-made spirits and cocktails alongside fine seafood, C&M features an exquisite white marble top bar with beautiful aquamarine columns, gleaming white tile and engineered wood floors.

A raw bar at the entrance and a small banquet room in the back sidle several two and four seat tables – a few by the window. Thirsty landlubbers will enjoy the 20 central draught selections and sports lovers will enjoy the televised competition.

I enjoyed seared rockfish for dinner while consuming five previously untried Dogfish elixirs.

Corn-sugared sweetness contrasted salty lemon-fizzed souring of dry kolsch, Eddy & Maud, picking up mild perfumed herbage atop its white bread base.

Classic summertime pale ale, Still Pale After Summer, let mild lemony grapefruit and orange rind bittering gain light pining (and peachy guava-mango wisps) atop sugary cereal malts.

Classic American IPA, No Time For Sippin’, forwarded sweet orange peel zesting and candy-glazed tangerine, mango, passionfruit and peach tanginess to piney hop dryness over caramelized wheat.

Meanwhile, double dry-hopped IPA, Setlist Shuffle, left piney citrus expectancy in the dust as tart blueberry, passionfruit and redcurrant seeped thru delicate caramelized wheated oats creaming.

On the dark side, nutty dark chocolate and coffee paraded thru oak-aged porter, Cannon Aid, leaving subtle burgundy, black cherry and bitter vanilla extract illusions to fend its ashen hop char.

OCEAN VIEW BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

OCEAN VIEW, DELAWARE

Opened St. Patrick’s Day 2021 in a charmingly mod tan-shingled station (with decorative white silo), OCEAN VIEW BREWING COMPANY is an extension of Rehoboth’s Thompson Island Brewing. Head brewer Jimmy Valm, Thompson Island’s guiding light, assumed control at the start, building a new lineup of rounded beers good enough to satisfy your soul.

Featuring a white-walled and wood paneled interior with decorative antique window frames, Ocean View’s taproom has several tiled draughts lining the bar wall and an open kitchen boasting coastal comfort foods. Several sylvan booths and tables (with leather backing) fill out the main space while a cozy hearth-warmed backroom and small benched front deck provide further seating.

Offering seafood specials, fried chicken, cocktails and wine alongside a dozen well-rounded house brews, spiked lemonade, shandy’s and sodas, Ocean View covers the bases well. During late February ’26, watched Olympics on a cold Friday at noon while downing all brews on the board except Historic Village Hazy IPA and Sunset Shift West Coast IPA.

Ocean View’s most popular beer, Little Bay Lite Lager, bests most ‘delicate’ lo-cal fare as dry lemon spritz coasts thru sweet Easter breading for a crisply clean beige-cleared lightweight.

The second favorite amongst locals, Got Waves Kolsch, contrasted hay-like maize acridity against sugary corn malts as zesty lemon fizz sparkled in the breeze.

Standard American lager, Squad 90, put spicy citrus fizz atop thin pale-malted wheat cracker neutrality.

Sweet orange-peeled coriander and clove spicing spread thru Where The Waves Break Witbier, leaving rummy sugaring upon herbal cilantro, perfumed flowers, tangy marmalade and tart lemon meringue.

Tartly fruited kettle sour, Bliss Raspberry, laced sour-candied raspberry powder with mild lemon-limed acidity, buttery Chardonnay wining and sinister blueberry-boysenberry tease.

Zesty grapefruit jumps out front for tropical NEIPA, Ocean View, a vibrant citric blast with juicy mango, peach and passionfruit gaining lacquered pine at the oats base.

Lemony orange and tangerine tanginess soaked up the honeyed malts bottoming boozy (8% ABV) Double IPA, Asking For A Friend, scurrying ‘candy peach rings,’ dried apricot and yellow plum illusions.

Slightly smoked peat malts scoured the cocoa powdered midst of Dark Rift Roggenbier, a German-styled rye beer with oaken vanilla, sour prune and dried cherry snips.

It’s difficult to get the right nuances for a German rauchbier, but Burning Down The Haus comes damn close, leaving stylish wafting Band-aid astringency and peat charred dewiness on cherrywood-smoked briny pastrami, smoked salami and cured meat ensemble.

The nitro version of lactic milk stout, Cosmic Cow, let vanilla coffee, spiced brown chocolate and Black Cow whims infiltrate the soft eclair surface.

CRUST & CRAFT

BEER PUB,

REHOBOTH BEACH, DELAWARE

A highly respected pizza and beer joint along Rehoboth Beach’s popular Coastal Highway stationed at a red brick mini mall, CRUST & CRAFT came into existence during 2015. Serving local microbrew faves and artisanal wood-fire pizza, its kiosk-like bar (with taps and refrigerator) anchors the pristinely sylvan wood slab-floored parlor.

Crust & Craft’s white tiled pizza kitchen, wood paneled bar wall and twisting exposed pipes embrace several black and white light-fixtured seating leading to rear booth-bound wood tables.

I discovered eight previously untried brews on my February ’26 Rehoboth/ Ocean City trip (reviewed in Beer Index). From lightest to darkest were Burley Oak Slice Shop Italian Pilsner, 2SP Delco Amber Lager, Burnish Peach Socks Wheat Ale, Mispillion War Goose Berliner Weiss, Dewey Beach Flash Of Diamonds NEIPA, First State Hex Theory NEIPA, Burnish Nuts & Bolts Brown Ale and First State Black Lotus Coffee Stout.

OFF COLOR DOUBLE STUFFED DINO SMORES

Beers A-Z,

Bigger, bolder confectionery S’mores-derived pastry stout variant lets creamy vanilla settle below dark chocolate syrup as honey-roasted marshmallow fluff flutters. At the midst, fudged caramel, honeyed wheat, chocolate mousse, bourbon vanilla, espresso, cappuccino and Anisette subsidies gather amongst the marshmallowy chocolate Graham Cracker base (with unexpected black-peppered cayenne nip). Richly sugared campfire dessert.