BACK MOUNTAIN BREWING COMPANY

DALLAS, PENNSYLVANIA

Retired military veteran Clay Cadwalader, an avid homebrewer, and his high school sweetheart, Charity, co-owners of BACK MOUNTAIN BREWING COMPANY, develop a splendid cornucopia of stylistic brews (mostly one-offs or recurring) at an aged red brick warehouse. Learning his craft while stationed at Washington’s Puget Sound, Cadwalader returned home to Northeast Pennsylvania’s ‘back mountains’ to set up shop in Dallas during August ’21.

The rustic boiler roomed textile mill that Back Mountain occupies has been retrofit with hardwood floors, antiquated ceiling pipes, elongated window frames and matching wood tables. A small front deck provides more seating. Small -batch brew tanks in the back supply draughts to the central bar station.

My wife and I visited Back Mountain a week prior to Thanksgiving ’24, auditioning eight savory suds while bringing home two fab oak-aged ales – Something In the Dark Bourbon Stout and Rye Whiskey Barrel-aged Old Ale (reviewed in Beer Index).

An autumnal Cream Ale variant, Grandad’s Cranberry, celebrated Thanksgiving with its tart cranberry sauciness given spritzy lemon zest atop gluey cardboard-like pilsner malts.

Clear straw kolsch, Notorious P.I.G., let grassy-hopped barnyard acridity and raw mineral graining spread across tart lemon-candied mandarin orange spritz.

Dry Cascade-hopped K.I.S.S. 2.0 Pale Ale stayed crisp as cucumber-watered lemony orange tang serenaded pale malt pasting.

Piney yellow grapefruit and orange rind bittering rallied for West Coast IPA, Little Squashy, picking up mild juniper and currant snips.

Daringly crossing a farmhouse-dried witbier with a hazy IPA, Rocky Mountain Part Deux White Session IPA allowed its bittersweet orange-peeled grapefruit tang to gain tannic white wining, dill pickled spicing and light pine tones in a sugary pale malt setting.

Floury brown-sugared molasses and caramelized toffee seduced sweet dessert confection, Shoo Fly Pie Brown Ale, leaving residual mocha nuttiness.

Minty coffee-stained dark chocolate scurried thru pumpkin-pied ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and peppermint spicing of robust holiday ale, Lock Shock & Barrel’s Pumpkin Porter, a delightful full bodied mocha-gourd combo.

Tarry dry-bodied Pineland Porter retained fluffy mocha creaminess, chalky cocoa powdering and burnt coffee smidge as oily hop residue secured soy milked bottom.

NORTH SLOPE BREWING COMPANY

DALLAS, PENNSYLVANIA

Inside a brown paneled lodge at Northeast Pennsylvania’s “pride of Back Mountain,” NORTH SLOPE BREWING COMPANY became Dallas’ first brewpub, March 2015. Its old brick interior retained an unfinished feel supported by the olden concrete floor, reclaimed vinyl wood top bar, Industrial metal-chaired wood tables and wood-fenced raised platform space (with couch and walled TV).

North Slope’s easygoing fare suited softer palates, but more refined tastes will enjoy the smooth crisping of each golden brew I enjoyed on my mid-November ’24 stopover. There were also six local guest draughts available and fine farm-to-table pub cuisine.

Soft-toned Ganoga Falls Dortmunder Lager let mild lemon spicing fizzle atop dry pale malting.

A sweeter stylistic take, Lil Sip Extra Cream Ale let its honeyed spicing spread across flaked corn pilsner malting and grassy hopped lemon licks.

Spicy floral perfumed lemon zesting embraced Dallas Hop Dry West Coast IPA, a polite off-dry moderation with mild pine tones and distant herbage.

Best bet: Tropical fruited hazy yellowed New England IPA, Beer & Loathing, regaled zesty orange-peeled lemon spicing and crayon-waxed yellow grapefruit, peach and melon spurts as well as subtle juniper-embittered pine resin above lightly creamed oats sugaring.

SUSQUEHANNA BREWING COMPANY

PITTSTON, PENNSYLVANIA

Halfway between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in a spacious tan brick-based warehouse with matching aluminum siding and maroon front-doored awning, SUSQUEHANNA BREWING COMPANY was re-founded in 2010 at its current Pittston locale. Initially the brainchild of German immigrant Charles Stegmaier, the original Susquehanna began operations in 1897 and ceased during 1919 due to Prohibition.

Now under the co-ownership of sixth generation relative, Fred Maier, the bustling Northeast Pennsylvania pub maintains enough backroom space to do larger scale brewing, barrel aging and canning. Despite its relative enormity, Susquehanna’s cozy cafe-styled, red tile-floored tasting room only features a four-seat slate topped bar with eight taps, TV and refrigerator. There are a few metal-chaired wood tables across the bar and exposed pipes hang from the black ceiling.

On a snowy Friday afternoon mid-November 2024, my wife and I tossed back ten variegated brews emanating from the pristine stainless steel backroom brew tanks.

Crisply easygoing German pilsner, Froggy Pond Water, let mild lemon licks and slight herbal musk sit atop mineral grained pilsner malting.

Fizzy Seltzer-like shandy, Blueberry Thrill, retained a snappy sweet-tart blueberry thrust. Meanwhile, fruitier Blackout Berry Shandy coalesced blackberry, brambleberry and blueberry tartness with mild lemony ginger sugaring atop syrupy soda-like malts.

Salted coriander hit the cranberry bog of Crannonball Gose, letting ancillary gooseberry, green grape and crabapple souring seep into candied lollipop tartness.

Stylishly expressive Belgian Tripel brought creamy vanilla frosting to lemon meringue, orange liqueur and Chardonnay riffs as musty fungi earthiness spread thru spicy phenols above its cereal grained pilsner malt base.

Floral-perfumed lemony grapefruit and orange peel zesting stormed piney Hopcellerator IPA, a tropical delight utilizing woody Simcoe-Amarillo hops and yellow-fruited Citra-Cascade hops.

Seasonal spiced brown ale, Stegmaier Pumpkin Ale, paraded brown-sugared cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger seasoning plus light sweet perfuming down the molasses-draped dark chocolate bottom. 

Peat-dried chocolate roast pervaded Toboggan Chocolate Doppelbock, rendering tertiary cocoa powder, vanilla bean and black cherry illusions.

Dark-roast chocolate and burnt caramel topped Toes Up Imperial Stout, picking up mild bourbon vanilla spicing.

Lovely dessert confection, Toss Up Salted Caramel Imperial Stout, spread salted caramel sugaring across candied toffee, creamy vanilla and sweet chocolate.

FREE WILL FIRMLY ROOTED W/ SPRUCE TIPS

Offbeat sour saison peculiarity aged on oak with spruce tips (!) utilizes mixed culture brettanomyces yeast funk to add ammonia strength to dry lemon-limed parch, champagne sparkle and ambitious herbal spiced foraging underscored by acidulated wheat. Minty spruce tips amplify zesty lemony white wining as capacious pink peppercorn, fern, thyme, fennel, tarragon, dill, cardamom and mustard seed illusions penetrate musky mineralized rusticity.

SMART ORGANIC IPA

Using organic barley-hops, Smart Beer became New York’s first organic brewery in 2016. Closer to a Brit-styled IPA with its dewy mossing and cellared fungi musk overtaking any bitter piney grapefruit expectancy – yet surprisingly diverting to dried-fruited raisin, prune and apricot sweetness. Molasses-honeyed sorghum syruping seems to coat the cocoa powdered bottom. A decent changeup.