WASHINGTON, D.C.
At the trendy Shaw quadrant of Northwest DC, RIGHT PROPER BREWING COMPANY (with a second location, Brookland Production House & Tasting Room, in the nearby Northeast corridor), began as a small neighborhood brewpub during 2013. Known also as the Shaw Brewpub & Kitchen, Right Proper is situated right next to the historic Howard Theatre.
Colorful abstract chalked paintings cover the lacquered cement interior of this rustic wood and metal furnished art deco Industrial site. One abstract mural painting adorns the semi-private red brick right walled Duke Ellington Room.
Classic American pub fare leads the food menu and a gourmet cheese counter located ahead of the two separate 10-seat bars down the narrow hall serves the finest charcuterie delights. Complex, sometimes offbeat, brews, crowd the draught menu. During a rainy Saturday evening, May '22, discovered six rangy elixirs with son, Christopher (who downed a previously tried Haxan Porter).
The three mainstays for Right Proper include a light lager, souped-up pale ale and kindly witbier.
Classic pre-prohibition styled light lager, Senate Beer, placed buttery corn flaked cereal graining across lemon-licked Fuggle hop earthiness updating an old Heurich Brewing recipe.
Spirited dry-hopped pale ale, Raised By Wolves, brought floral IPA-like grapefruit-peeled navel orange Citra hop effervescence to piney Simcoe hop astringency and mild grassiness above spicy pale malting.
Stylish coriander-spiced orange peel sweetness picked up slight juniper bite and Tettnang/Perle hop herbage over oats-dried torrified wheat for Lil Wit, a well-balanced moderation.
Mimosa-like orange champagne entry guided eccentric blonde ale, Magic Of Music, pushing cara cara orange tanginess thru lemony grapefruit, pineapple and gooseberry fruiting.
Sharp orange-peeled grapefruit bittering and sour white grape esters paced mixed cultured New England IPA, Fear No Art, utilizing leathery brettanomyces yeast to funk up the mildly acidic citric-dried finish.
Lovely Scottish wee heavy nightcap, Go On Wee Man!, coalesced bourbon vanilla spicing, toffee-candied chocolate sweetness, caramelized dried fruiting, milk-sugared coffee tones and cherry cordial snips atop maple molasses-sapped flaked oats.
FLORIDA, NEW YORK
Inside a gray aluminum warehouse with green awning, veteran-owned SHEPHERD'S EYE BREWING COMPANY opened for biz October 2, 2021. Specializing in German beer but unafraid to dabble into American IPA's and dark ales, the farmland-situated pub has loads of room for expansion into its adjoining buildings.
A plastic-furnished wood planked porch deck leads to the epoxied cement-floored brewroom where a large capital-lettered Shepherd's Eye signpost spreads across the top of the 7-seat bronze-sided serving station (with ten copper-piped draught taps and five turbine ventilator lights). Several wood seats fill out the interior and an electronic beer menu shows today's offerings. Overhead doors to the right of the bar lead to the concrete-floored beer garden corridor. A canning line has recently been installed.
My dog Roscoe and I grab seats in the beergarden to sample today's generally easygoing fare.
Muskily raw-grained, aluminum straw-hued German pilsner, Prost, let herbal Noble-hopped barnyard astringency and polite lemon licks merge in an easygoing straightforward manner.
Dry grassy-hopped lemon musk and mild herbage welcomed Day Brake, a light-bodied kolsch.
Daintily lemon-candied banana and clove tartly sweetened the front end while wispy white peppered herbage hit the salty wheat bottom of Shep's Hef.
Dewy Deutscher Hund Dunkelweizen segued mild dried fruiting to lightly floured chocolate breading.
Getting away from the German styles...
Roughhewn toasted grains saddled the dewy mossing and red-orange fruiting of rugged English-styled amber ale, George, leaving caramelized barley sweetness in its wake.
Utilizing a rotating hop bill, April '22-brewed NEIPA, Mystery Machine hurled floral-perfumed grapefruit peel, orange rind and pineapple bittering plus lemon-limed gooseberry sourness at its pine lacquered grassy knoll.
Flagship Imperial IPA, Shepherd's Bite, gathered subtle grapefruit, orange, tangerine and peach tanginess as well as sweet floral spicing to contrast dry piney hop bittering.
Nitrogenated chocolate stout, Kariin, plied cocoa nibs creaming to black coffee, espresso and cola nut reminders. 
ELDRED, NEW YORK
Skirting stylistic conventionality by assimilating and acclimating locally sourced ingredients with European-grown grains and hops, Jersey-raised Ukrainian husband-wife team, Bill and Cindy Lenczuk, began their beer journey while sampling local Uke suds overseas. Initially, Bill worked as a nuclear engineer at Chernobyl during a 2000-2002 Eastern Euro stint, gaining insight to brewing along the way until opening his own nanobrewery, SHREWD FOX BREWERY, in 2015.
Balancing quirky flavor profiles to remit a certain earthen rusticity native to the hilly rural Catskill village of Eldred, Shrewd Fox utilizes its unique regional water source. A proud New York State sustenance farm brewer, Lenczuk's spent grain goes to local farmers, eliminating organic waste.
Sitting alongside the vast countryside, Shrewd Fox resides at a red brick-fronted former post office with baby blue siding. Its agrarian exterior includes a makeshift barrel-staged metal-furnished side patio and grassy wooden-benched backyard space.
Inside, the cozy pub features a small stainless steel seven-barrel system (upped from its commencing one barrel setup) behind a two-stooled plywood-stained service station with ten intricately wood-carved draught handles.
My wife and I tried all seven in-house brews, April 2022. There were also two ciders available.
Dewy wheat-honeyed earthen truffle mossing, casual brown-sugared dried fruiting and teasing walnut breading gathered for Highland Lager, a waywardly skewed traditional German moderation.
Another dewy grained easygoer, Loch Ada Amber Ale, fortified its dry yuzu-limed green grape esters with barley-sugared Irish amber yeast.
Ukranian Zalatos Roussa hops redirected stylistically dryer Yulan Hefeweizen, leaving banana-clove expectancy in the dust for sour Orange Blossom-honeyed lemon oiling and distant plantain, pear and white grape illusions.
Not even experienced beer tasters could clearly define Kutya Buckwheat Farmhouse Ale, a buckwheat-honeyed saison yeast-based specialty grain beer with mild cocoa powdered date-fig rig, tart rhubarb shard and oily nuttiness.
Peat mossy 3 Dog IPA, recalled a dry English style IPA with its dank hop-grained soiling, musky dark floral herbage and mild orange oiling.
On the dark side, stylishly out of bounds Baba Yaga Brown Ale brought pumpkin pureed autumn spicing to mild molasses, chocolate, raisin and hazelnut riffs as well as pine nut, fern and bark nuances.
Coffee-burnt sour nuttiness consumed Kozak Porter, leaving green grape tannins in its wake. 
MILFORD, PENNSYLVANIA
Alongside the Sawkill creek waterfall near the Delaware River in a gray aluminum-sided log cabin, LOG TAVERN BREWING COMPANY, began its journey on this Milford, Pennsylvania crossroad during 2018. Taking 'pride' crafting a diverse range of traditional styles, former home brewer, Ryan Scott, makes some of the area's most enjoyable tonics.
Log Tavern's charmingly rustic warmth and earthy downhome conviviality fits the outdoorsman atmosphere local natives and visiting 'brewpies' adore. A slate-top serving station with twelve draught lines (and two blackboard beer menus) sling suds for the Yeti-logoed pub. A floor-to-ceiling earth-stoned hearth, round bark-based wood tables and multiple framed pix fill out the cozy lodge-like interior.
A wood-benched side deck with small fire pit plus a separate covered side deck offer plenty of outside seating.
My wife and I share a personal pizza while downing all ten available brews this briskly cool April '22 afternoon.
Dry aluminum-cleared light cream ale, Tavern's Gold, maintained soft grassy-hopped lemon oiling for its corn-husked white bread bottom.
Mild helles lager, Helles Fire, retained a dainty herbal lemon spritz over wispy sourdough breading.
Spritzy lemony orange and tangerine zesting picked up grassy hop astringency for off-dry 570 Pale Ale, pacifying its baked French breading.
Lemony orange-dried herbage awakened Lit Wit, leaving soap-stoned chamomile, sage and ginger all over its perfumed cannabis resin.
Enchanting tropical fruited New England IPA, The Revival, dripped mild lactose upon lemony yellow grapefruit zesting and grassy piney hop bittering as limey guava, mango and melon subtleties enjoin peachy mandarin orange tanginess in the distance.
Another vibrant NEIPA, Milford Mosaic, allowed orange-peeled grapefruit tanginess and ancillary spicy mango-peach sweetness to absorb mild piney hop bittering.
Coniferous hazy IPA, Beyond The Pines, coalesced sunshiny yellow-orange fruiting with lacquered pine tones, sprucy juniper licks, herbal rosemary-thyme minting and floral-daubed cologne wafts.
'Heavily dank-hopped' Imperial IPA, Timber Beast, regaled floral-perfumed lemony orange-grapefruit zesting and musky juniper berry bittering for recessive peaty fungi mossing.
Cold-brewed coffee greeted semi-sweet dark chocolate for Pike County Breakfast Stout, leaving black-peppered Brazil nuttiness on its molasses oatmeal spine.
Creamily lactic sweet stout, Peanut Butter Sawkill, spread peanut butter across coffee-stained dark-roast hop bittering with fine results. 
EAST FISHKILL, NEW YORK
Founded in 2011 by local college pals, Adam Watson and Justin Taylor, SLOOP BREWING COMPANY soon became one of the fastest growing regional breweries, tendering a deal with New Hampshire-based Smuttynose in 2021 to expand distribution even further.
Operating out of a garage before moving to a hilly 19th Century Elizaville barnhouse, Sloop began occupying a 25,000 square foot Industrial warehouse at the cavernous East Fishkill IBM facility by 2018. Encompassing a tan-bricked modern Industrial manufacturing building bordering the mountainous Appalachian Trail, Sloop's aquamarine sailing compass logo (with golden outlay) imbues the two grain silos welcoming beer hounds to its hallway-bound interior.
Known as "The Factory at Sloop," this spacious, high-ceilinged, pipe-exposed, sportsbar-like pub features lacquered cement floors, sundry four-seat wood tables and a few community tables. Resembling an ice cream parlor, perhaps, a large marquee sign (with black lettering listing available proprietary beer and local wines) and overhead bulb lights shine brightly at the 10-seat bar.
The wood-lacquered bar top regales embossed circuit boards, microchips and other IBM ephemera in a corky display and strategically placed TV's show sports while kids play arcade games.
I stopped in for a few pints on a breezy afternoon, March 2022.
NORTH HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
Home of Quinnipiac University, North Haven's TWELVE PERCENT BEER PROJECT came to fruition February 2020. Inside a pristine beige-walled manufacturing warehouse, Twelve Percent does a great job of source brewing for new businesses as well as supplementing established brewers' canned and draught product thru quality distribution.
A pallet-enclosed patio with plastic furnishings guides patrons to the entrance door. Inside, the cement-floored pub features a few four-seat formica tables, two community tables, a loungey couch area, pillowed banquet wall unit and two overhead doors.
The left side formica-topped bar offered ten seats and twenty white tiled draught lines. An enormous high ceilinged brewing operation occupies the rear glass-encased section.
A bunch of families with young children seize upon Twelve Percent on a cold Saturday at noon, March '22.
During initial stopover, quaffed Twelve Percent's proprietary Snappy! American Lager and Connecticut Witbier while purchasing fab brews from Abomination, Skygazer, Fat Orange Cat, Marlowe, Barclay and Timber Ales to go (all reviewed in Beer index).
The sky's the limit for this ample distribution center with on-site draughts for sale.
_________________________________________________________________
During March '25 on a Sunday at noon, revisited Twelve Percent, buying several beers for the road (reviewed in Beer Index) while enjoying Evil Twin This Deli Needs A Bigger Double Kiwi Lime Coconut Muffin Lassi Gose - Marshmallow Treatment, a capaciously kaleidoscopic milk-sugared collab with innovative Swedish brewers, Omnipollo. Its marshmallow-fluffed coconut creaming spread thru kiwi-limed salinity in fab Smoothie-like pastry fashion.
Also, met indie brewing heavyweight and part-time bartender, Dino Acquarelli, an interesting brewhound who's downed 32,000 different beers and ales - 8,000 more than I have as of March '25. 
NIANTIC, CONNECTICUT
After perusing this Long Island Sound-bound watering hole during 2019, NIANTIC PUBLIC HOUSE grew in brewing capacity if not size. But during my March '22 revisit, Niantic was filled to capacity on Saturday evening so I only grabbed one excellent stout, but returned for more brews at its 1 PM opening on Sunday.
Inside a shared grey brick building across from the boardwalk, this friendly neighborhood tavern has increased their stylish recipes from a mere two (pale ale and Imperial IPA) just three years hence to a full dozen (including seltzers). There were benches set up outside in the parking lot and the 30-seat wood lacquered right side bar (currently with two draught boards) served the front-windowed community tables and a few left side tables.
Also, the owners have done a helluva job with Niantic's colorful walled artwork. The backbar's aqua-geared underwater monkey's a hoot, the orange octopus-occupied front wall's a gas and the left side's large whale mural's simply marvelous.
After consuming the bold stout Saturday eve, I delved into five delightfully divergent IPA's, a delicate weizenbock, a Belgian blonde and a Czech pils.
Mild golden-cleared Czech pilsner, Conplan - 8888 Motueka, utilized lemon-limed Motueka hops to enliven its peppery herbal tinge above bread crusted graining (and leaving wispy passionfruit-guava snips).
Lemony banana clove sweetness and navel orange tanginess embraced spritzy candi-sugared Belgian blonde moderation, Dog Pile, picking up ancillary lemon meringue, orange marmalade and orange banana cake illusions.
Soft-toned weizenbock, Brian's Hops For Hope, let mossy dew drip into sweetly soured dried plum, stewed prune and date above subtle caramel malt sugaring.
Evenly spread grapefruit, orange and lemon spicing perked up Imperial IPA, It Takes A Village, putting a lacquered pine veneer on its pale malt sugaring.
Softer and sweeter on the tongue than Villian, polite NEIPA, Honu Sky, spread vanilla cream across orange-peeled grapefruit tanginess and candied lemon licks.
A spicier orange-peeled grapefruit tang occupied wonderful Imperial IPA, Knapp Time, a lightly pined medium body with peachy pineapple dalliances.
Candied mango soaked into mossy fungi gunk for NEIPA, MIPA, plying lemony grapefruit souring to its wet hop stead.
The cleanest, brightest, juiciest NEIPA may've been Mosaic-Citra-hopped Mystery Of Juiceboxin', regaling zesty lemon, tangerine, navel orange and clementine briskness as well as mild pine resin and quirky passionfruit-guava tropicalia.
As for the robustly rich 6th Dimension Milk Stout, its coffee-stained dark chocolate syruping seeped into wood-burnt dark roast hop bittering and tarry charred nuttiness. 
WOODSTOCK, CONNECTICUT
A unique family-owned homestead featuring a full-scale brewery and winery, TAYLOR BROOKE BREWERY & WINERY occupies two separate farmhouses up a hill in the historic town of Woodstock.
Inside a maroon aluminum barn with towering brew tanks behind a wood top serving station, Taylor Brooke's cement-floored main pub space placed community tables underneath glass-cylindered Edison lights and exposed pipes hanging from the high ceiling. A mezzanine area stations the original pilot system.
During March '22 sojourn, my wife and I discovered nine TB brews and brought a few for the road (reviewed in Beer Index).
Locally grown flaked corn gave light lager, Height Of Luxury, its buttered popcorn pep as spritzy lemon fizz crackled beyond its wispily mossy vegetal souring.
Cocoa-dried Czech dark lager, Throes Of Winter, plied sedate honeyed nuttiness to woody Saaz hop astringency.
Vanilla creamed banana and clove sweetness draped bitter orange peel, grains of paradise tartness and white-peppered lemongrass herbage for Bulrush, a fulsome witbier with a sturdy sugared wheat base.
Easygoing Strawberry Milkshake IPA spread milk-sugared lactose all over mildly tart pureed strawberry, tangy ruby red grapefruit and tertiarily sour passionfruit-guava-kiwi tropicalia.
Mixed fermentation farmhouse ale, Woodstock Veraison, pushed brettanomyces acidity and sour wine yeast into apple-juiced petit Sirah, Frontenac and cayuga must plus dry plum whim. A mouth puckering sour saison.
Fermented on proprietary Corot Noir wine and lightened further by spelt-flaked pilsner malts, Harvest Berliner Weiss gained mild lemon souring, vinous red-green grape esters and briny pinot snips.
Another Harvest Berliner Weiss, influenced by Wild Fox Concord-like grapes and sumac, stayed sharply acidic as salty lemon tartness coalesced with tannic grape-plum dryness above earthen leathering.
Smooth dark-roast chocolate malting led lactic nitro milk stout, Stoggy Hollow, picking up molasses-sapped cinnamon bark resin and latent hazelnut, cola and macadamia illusions.
Creamy vanilla sweetness amplified Bigelow Hollow, letting black coffee-dried cocoa and black malt bittering reach the vanilla frontage above oats-flaked caramel malts and distant walnut-shelled pistachio and macadamia snips. 
DAYVILLE, CONNECTICUT
Next to farmland in the tiny village of Dayville, BLACK POND BREWS currently occupies a red brick-fronted warehouse with a white brick rear entrance and plastic-benched back porch. Named after a local Woodstock, Connecticut party spot, its original pub was in nearby Killington. The new space offers 500% more capacity for the increased beer volume now produced.
Co-owners Mike Tweed and Coby Smith got together in 2010 and soon won a contest with their Machu Pichu Jalapeno Saison. By 2014, they guided a popular local taproom and got serious about expanding operations, moving the tap house in 2021.
Inside a gray cement-floored storehouse, Black Pond's wood-topped ten-seat back bar is fronted by plastic benches, creating a splendid casual homey feel. The expansive brew tank area actually takes up the anterior space.
Now equipped with a full kitchen, sandwiches, flatbread pizza, weinerschnitzel and bratwurst join the soft-watered suds and serious spirits menu.
My wife and I tried all six available draughts on our March '22 Sunday lunchtime stopover. Remarkably, when I perused Black Pond's website Feb. '24, all eight draughts were different.
Part of Black Pond's rotating sour series, lactose-bound Alice Scooper Fruited Smoothie, let its mildly milk-sugared vanilla creaming pick up confectionery cotton-candied strawberry puree to contrast the briny acidulated wheat base.
Tart passionfruit-juiced light body, Captain Misbehavior Gose, allowed lemon-oiled pomegranate salting and mild guava-kiwi tropicalia to sit atop its pale straw white wheat base.
Easygoing Baby Tears, a West Coast IPA, brought mildly perfumed lemony grapefruit zesting and tart green grape esters to corn-dried pale malts.
Delicately fruited It's Fun To Do Bad Things, a hazy New England IPA, placed subtle grapefruit, mandarin and clementine tanginess next to honeyed peach sweetness and mild piney hop bittering above polite vanilla-creamed crystal malting.
Smoky black malts embittered Pond Factory, a coffee-stained dark ale with dry nut-shelled earthiness.
Sweet-toothed dessert ale, Snack River (Red Velvet Cake), plied sweet brown chocolate fudging to mild vanilla-daubed buttercream frosting. 
PUTNAM, CONNECTICUT
Residing in the old New England mill town of Putnam, Connecticut's BEAR HANDS BREWING COMPANY set up shop during February 2020. A bustling tavern near the historic former railroad station, its friendly neighborhood bohemian feel gets captured by ex-homebrewing married couple, Justion and Kayla Trant. Their compact lantern-lit taproom emulates a cozy streetside low-ceilinged English pub. A metal-furnished gated front patio offers further seating as does the lower-level Prohibition Era-styled Speakeasy.
The wood-floored pub features a few four-seat tables. Glass-encased brew tanks are behind the diminutive, eight-stooled, twelve-draught, rear wood bar. Downstairs at the loungy Speakeasy, an L-shaped, wood cabinet-adorned bar with brass draught board services a couched lounge area (with widescreen TV).
Interestingly, alongside the fine food fare and good beers are flights of whiskey, Scotch and mini martinis.
My wife and I had wings and pizza while downing ten fine offerings in the dungeon-like Speakeasy.
Sourdough-grained pilsner malts and corn-dried vegetal whims soothed The Light Kellerbier, a pale malt-lagered moderation with mild cellar musk.
Sweet rice-caked corn entry gained (9% ABV) malt liquored boozing for Imperial Bohemian Pilsner, Czeching Up, leaving spicy lemon licks on the biscuity bottom.
Dewy amber grains sweetened Irish Red Ale, Drunken Leprechaun Rave, letting melanoidin barleycorn scour its murky red-orange fruiting.
Purplish blue-hued Violet Beauregard's Revenge Blueberry Ale brought tart blueberry puree essence to spritzy lemon zesting and waxy fruit lacquering over a sugary wheat base.
Jolly Rancher-like Crashing The Party (Oh Yeah!) - part of the Juice Box Sour Series - let lemon-limed candied cherry, watermelon, orange and boysenberry tartness form a lollipop guild.
Limey white peach tang and mild orange juicing set up New England IPA, Show Me Triumph, picking up light pine comb bittering to contrast latent saffron-spiced lemongrass daubs.
Zestful orange-peeled grapefruit bittering and dry piney insurgence anchored NEIPA, King DIPHA, placating peach, pineapple and papaya tropicalia.
Creamy brown chocolate and vanilla sweetness upped the toffee-spiced goodness of Jingers Brown Ale, a sweet-toothed sensation.
Nutty black chocolate resilience guarded Dessert, a rich Imperial Vanilla Coconut Porter with sweet vanilla-teased coconut milking and burnt coffee reminder.
Confectionery peanut butter cup knockoff, Ermegerd, saddled its bittersweet dark cocoa powdering with oily nuttiness and sweet soy saucing for a full-bodied mocha stout.