FREDERICK, MARYLAND
Visited November ’06, this former Union-Confederate battleground near Sugarloaf Mountain 100 miles west of Baltimore hosts Brewers Alley Restaurant & Brewery and, on the outskirts, Barley & Hops Grill.
Opened 1995 and centrally located in a red brick building formerly housing Frederick City Hall (and then an opera house),
BREWERS ALLEY was Frederick County's first brewpub.
Patrons enter through a black archway to a side entrance atrium with stain glass windows. Its olden oak bar with wood tables and glass-encased brew tanks are separate from less noisy right side dining area. Variegated menu had four different paella dishes, sundry seafood platters, and wood-fired pizzas to go with single malt Scotches, fine wines, and cognacs.
Enjoyed mild corn-syrupy oats-honeyed yellow-fruited prickly-hopped
Kolsch, kiln-smoked grassy-hopped grapefruit-peach-dabbed
India Pale Ale and biscuit-y banana-cloved bubblegum-sweet
Weizen with dinner. Inferior hazelnut-molasses-depleted
Nut Brown Ale was too astringent.
Hop-roasted nut-coarsened
Oatmeal Stout may’ve been weak, but piney-hopped, red apple-centered, orange-bruised, apricot-ripened
Resinator and gooey cherry-banana-bruised, fig-date-grape-sidled, peat-malted
Scotch Ale exceeded expectations.
Revisited Brewers Alley June '20 on a sunny afternoon, gathering at the black gated patio with wife and dog. A promenade was set up for Covid-19 restrictions and chairs were also set up in the street.
Retried year round selections such as delicate lemon-dried, grassy-hopped, orange-spritzy
Kolsch and soft-toned, banana creamed, chocolate-malted, wheat-sugared
Dunkelweizen.
The updated English-styled
India Pale Ale retained dry wood tones, spry floral-hopped citrus tanginess and rye-spiced pale malts.
As for the newly tried, mild blueberry pureed
Blueberry Wheat let washed-out blueberry-boysenberry tartness recede alongside light vodka-nipped juniper above wavered white wheat base.
Gentle light-bodied
Pilsner placed floral-hopped herbal spicing inside husked corn-maize astringency atop biscuity barley malts.
Distinct specialty grained
1634 Ale fortified its standout caraway molasses sweetness with floured rye, caramelized pumpernickel and roasted tobacco, creating an 'austere colonial' setting.
Locally sourced beets gained lemony cranberry-crabapple-blueberry souring for
1634 Ale - Beets Trial, an alternative version with bitter raw molasses hiding its multi-grain origins.
Velvety cask conditioned Irish Dry Stout,
Trinity - Cask, brought dark-roasted coffee sedation to mild mocha molasses caking.
Coffee-milked dark chocolate enriched maple-sugared oats for
Oatmeal Stout, leaving a soft nutty mocha remnant on the back end.
Splendid
Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout, conditioned in High West Bourbon and Stranahan whiskey barrels, retained a taut bourbon vanilla sweetness penetrating dewy earthen wood tones as ancillary creme brulee, chocolate cake, toasted coconut, fudged caramel and marshmallow illusions deepen the spirited nightcap.
www.brewers-alley.com
GOLD COAST, FLORIDA
PREFIX: Extending North from Miami Beach to Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, this Atlantic Ocean vacation haven offered no local brews after many annual trips in ‘70s and ‘80s. In February ’03, discovered Ybor Gold Lager in Fort Lauderdale, though respective Floridian brew originates from cross-coast Gulf of Mexico paradise, Tampa. Happily, a large selection of out-of-state/ international brews could be found at 153 family-owned ABC Fine Wine liquor stores throughout area.
Revisited flourishing Southern seaboard in sunny January ’08, discovering a few inspiring brewpubs that’d sprung up since ’99.
Opened since 1999 and serving Coral Gables’ University of Miami campus, THE TITANIC is a snug midsize pub with green-yellow exterior, maroon-walled interior, copper-wood furnishings, expansive Americana-cajun menu, and front-sided bar-backed glass-encased brew tanks.
Current brewer Steve Copeland joined me at left side bar as I got acquainted with his well-rounded fare, passing along a lovely Finnish bottled beer, Huvila Sahti (reviewed in Beer Index), as a splendid nicety.
Though German-styled spice-tingled citric-tart white-breaded light body Triple Screw Light Ale only satisfies amateurs, floral-fruited cedar-licked Britannic Best Bitter and biscuit-y cereal-grained dried-fruited Captain Smith’s Rye were smarter alternatives.
Better still were lemon-candied, citric-peeled, candi-sugared, corn-syrupy, curacao orange-tinged Triple Reserve Belgian Ale, mild pale-malted fig-spiced date-soured grapefruit-embittered Poinsettia Red Ale and resilient piney-hopped, orange-grapefruit-glistened, lemon rind-dried White Star India Pale Ale.
On the darker side, coffee-grounded walnut-charred tobacco-burnt fig-soured Boiler Room Nut Brown sufficed while sweet brown chocolate-y hazelnut-smoked hop-roasted Oatmeal Stout rocked like the Hurricanes.
For great bottled selection, try nearby Dixie Highway’s Crown Wine & Spirits, where purchaser Jeffrey Silva keeps shelves packed with sundry microbrews and imports.
www.titanicbrewery.com 
GLENS FALLS, NEW YORK
Nestled in the heart of snug Upper New York town, Glens Falls, DAVIDSON BROTHERS RESTAURANT & BREWERY was the vicinity's first brewpub. Old brewing gear, rustic mining gear and exposed ceiling pipes give the pub a Prohibition Era feel and the brick-kettled Peter Austin brewing system provides crisp, clean ales. Open since ’96, the intimate brick tavern served typical pub fare, seafood, and appetizers. Upstairs lounge had bar and dart games.
It had been eleven years since my wife and I initially perused Davidson Brothers. It was a more innocent time when the United States only had a few hundred brewpubs. Now, there's a few thousand with three new-sprung pubs in Glens Falls alone - Common Roots; Coopers Cave Ale Company; Mean Max Brewworks.
On a zero-degree January '16 late-night sojourn, tried eight tapped brews starting with lightly creamed floral-perfumed lemon-soured American Bright Pale Ale and sweet hazelnut-sugared cola-nutty Harvest Brown Ale.
Next, traditional English IPA (from a 19-year-old recipe), with its dewy earthiness and buckwheat-honeyed graining, contrasted Americanized I-87 IPA, an approachable phenol hop-embittered dry body pleating dewy crystal malts with grapefruit, mango, pineapple and orange tang.
Brit-styled Winter Ale brought rye-honeyed sweetness to dried fig and sugared spicing while 2015's cask-conditioned Anniversary Ale retained a soft-toned caramelized buttering and dewy moss sweetness.
As for the mocha-bound dark ales, Throwback Porter plied cocoa-dried black chocolate to molasses-sapped fig sugaring and dark-roasted nut char while the richer Oatmeal Stout draped its walnut-seared hop char with soothing molasses-sapped oats, brown chocolate, roasted coffee and anise illusions.
During initial December '04 trip, Davidson offered their own bottled beer selection (check Beer Index) and several commendable tap-only brews quaffed on a family visit on the way to wintry Adirondacks.
Beers tried on-site included wheat-sweet maize-dried German hybrid Cold Blooded Lager, resinous hop-spiced malt-toasted red-fruited tobacco-crisped Irish Red Ale; soft-toned mocha-creamed cigar-ashy Swimmin’ Cow Rye Cream Ale; buttery oats-fortified cherry-dabbed whiskey-toned Scotch Ale; prickly-hopped rye-backed tea-like Brewers Secret Copper Ale; and perfume-hopped espresso-centered dark chocolate-y dry-bodied Oatmeal Stout.
Uniquely distinct was coffee-fronted eggshell-creamed Band Aid-wafted meat-cured peat-malted carouser Smoked Porter.
GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA
Stayed at Gettysburg Hotel (established 1797) two blocks down from train station where Lincoln delivered Gettysburg Address, April ’06. Quaffed Guinness Stout at attached Mc Clellan’s Tavern, a gorgeously snug turn-of-the-century Van Tromp mahogany bar imported from England.
By nightfall, drove one mile towards historic Civil War Battlefield and nearby freestanding wood-pillared spire-roofed APPALACHIAN BREWING (thirty miles west of original Harrisburg brewery). Prominent midsize bar centered right-left side dining sections while banquet room and brew tanks bedecked downstairs area.
Classical tavern food was served alongside sharp, lemony grapefruit, floral-hopped, pepper-embittered Peregrine Pils, mild apple-orange-spiced, cereal-grained, honey-malted Zoigl Lager, orange peel/ grapefruit rind-embittered Hoppy Trails IPA and creamy fruited malt softie Celtic Knot Irish Red.
Heartier thirsts will gravitate towards black chocolate-dried, coffee-burnt, wood-chipped Chocolate Coffee Stout and sourer Susquehanna Stout (which tasted drier in bottled version).
Really enjoyed seasonal malt-sugared cherry-bruised banana-liqueur Broad Street Barleywine and Belgian-styled Abbey Roade, a candi-sugared dark ale with peppery spices and speckled pear-grape-plum notes. Bottled Appalachian selections listed in Beer Index.
