SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NEW JERSEY
Residing at the first floor of a tan brick split-level edifice on the Boulevard two blocks from the ocean in the vibrant beach town of Seaside Heights,
HEAVY REEL BREWING COMPANY opened its doors springtime 2018. A simple 3-barrel nanobrewery in the heart of the Jersey Shore, brewer Jeff Greco worked at Neptune City's Little Dog with Jersey icon, Gretchen Schmidhausler, before venturing off on his own.
A li'l slice of heaven, the small floor-tiled pub contains eight silver-backed tap handles at the serving station, four small round tables, a railroad-tied left wall and some fishing photos.
Greco enjoys going just one small step beyond stylistic convention, giving each beer tried on this August '19 journey a slightly heightened flavor profile. Heavy metal music plays as I imbibe six worthy brews.
First up, spritzy citrus-shined blonde ale,
Undefinable Standards, let brisk lemon-limed Motueka hops and sugared orange spicing gently sail atop dry pale malts.
Soft-toned pinkish amber pleasantry,
Follow The Iwa, a salty raspberry-induced Berliner Weisse, let sour lactobacillus acidity affect its tart raspberry luxuriousness, leaving mild green apple, cranberry and oaken cherry illusions on the tail end.
Easygoing 'blended saison,'
Oblivion, brought tropical Mosaic-hopped lemon, orange and pineapple juicing to sugary malt spicing, briny barnyard graining and warm French breading.
Murkily hazed orange-yellowed New England IPA,
Skin//Bones, provided lactic yogurt-milked grapefruit, passionfruit and gooseberry souring and sharp orange rind bittering, picking up puckered lime acidity and light green peppercorn herbage by the finish.
Utilizing chocolate, coconut and macadamia, sweet Imperial Porter,
Staring Into Emptiness In My Eyelids will capture the attention of hearty dessert fanatics. Its toasted coconut alacrity rode above brown chocolate spicing, glazed macadamia sugaring and desolate blackberry notions.
Bringing dry oyster-shelled black chocolate to the fore,
34N 74W Barnegat Bay Oyster Stout retained black-malted molasses bittering to contrast less resilient milk-sugared rolled oats.
In July '24, revisited Heavy Reel on a hazily sunny Friday afternoon following a sweltering beach swim to down six dandy suds.
Brisk lemony grapefruit zesting and grassy hop astringency dotted mild "hoppy" blonde ale,
Midway Beach, leaving dry barnyard graining on its mineralized pilsner malt base.
Dewy Irish Red Ale,
Lost & Rendered, placed cellared fungi must inside orange pekoe tea and nutty rye illusions over dry wheat-germed mineral graining.
Soft-toned yellow-hazed Imperial IPA,
Zombie Clown, scattered lemon-soured yellow grapefruit bittering and tart guava salting alongside peachy pineapple, tangerine and tangelo tanginess atop dry pale malts.
Smoothie sour ale variant with creamy marshmallow-fluffed vanilla sugaring plied to navel orange pulp,
Luvv: Orange Creamsicle, picked up pineapple-juiced bergamot marmalade tartness and lemon meringue piquancy.
Nitrogenated dry Irish stout,
Good Rats, retained nutty dark-roast coffee overtones and subsidiary dark chocolate bittering.
Luxurious pastry stout,
Straight Drizzle, draped caramel atop toasted coconut and bourbon chocolate richness, gaining luscious creme brulee, vanilla fudge cake, molasses cookie and black licorice licks.
NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT
On the second floor of a cavernous wood furnished red brick-walled setting, downtown New Britain's FIVE CHURCHES BREWING occupies a former clothing factory. Taking its 'we have faith in our beer' slogan to the max, the spacious pizzeria-brewpub even dabbles successfully with their soda-fruited gluten-free Weerder alternatives.
While the impressive stainless steel silver brew tanks behind the twelve draught-handled bar serve pristinely crafted liquid fare, the right side wood-fired pizza oven provides terrific variety. Sterling wood-lacquered furnishings adorn the expose-piped open space and several Edison bulbs light the fourteen-stooled bar (with three TV's) - retaining the original Industrial brick, flooring and windows.
A backspace banquet area and an outside left deck (with five tables under blue umbrellas) offer further seating.
EAST HAMPTON, CONNECTICUT
In the rustic backwoods of East Hampton, small homestead nanobrewery, FAT ORANGE CAT, opened for biz August 2016. Along the Salmon River watershed, this agrarian wood-paneled farmhouse (with forest green aluminum top) relies mostly on locally grown ingredients to craft its delightful small-batch brews.
Brewmaster Mike Klucznik received local awards as a home brewer before embarking on his ambitious zymurgistic journey. And the everchanging lineup of homespun beers he serves (approximately 100 one-offs since the outset) gets dominated by pleasant hazy New England-styled India Pale Ales, earthy farmhouse ales and approachable sour ales.
The serenely sylvan environment surrounding Fat Orange Cat includes canvassed hillside furnishings, picnic tables, a goat farm and loose chickens sprawled across the unexcavated backyard countryside.
Fat Orange Cat's simple raw wood interior includes a central serving station, small black insulated stainless steel brew tanks, Industrial metal-wood table and several walled beer cans.
My wife and I grab a picnic table to begin consuming six fine offerings this warm September '19 afternoon.
First up, soft-toned flagship, Jalapeno Cream Ale, brought mild jalapeno heat to maize-dried pale malting and spritzy lemon-limed bittering, leaving green pepper sweetness upon the back end.
Another spritzy dry-bodied moderation, Take Me Down Jimmy (a farmhouse ale named after an emphatic yelp from Paul Mc Cartney's "Junior's Farm"), crisply combined zesty lemon tartness with sour white grape esters and phenol hop astringency.
Next came three neatly disparate New England IPA's.
Easygoing Vote For Pedro maintained a laidback Citra-Galaxy-Amarillo hop groove as tangy grapefruit, sweet orange peel and sour lemon juicing gained candied citric tartness, light wood tones and pale malt dryness.
Juicily tropical I Am The Walrus retained a dryly salted pineapple-passionfruit-guava sedation for its relegated floral pine setting.
Better still, tart Lemondrop-hopped refresher, Ask Forgiveness Not Permission, let zesty lemon peel bittering, subtle grapefruit-orange tang and herbal lemongrass minting receive piney resilience.
But the biggest cheers came for mildly acidic fruit juiced Walkabout Peach Raspberry Sour Ale, a terrific Sweet-Tart candied knockoff with Peach Melba and Raspberry Tart suppleness afforded salty mango, tangy orange and sweet red grape illusions atop dry pale malt rusticity.
fatorangecatbrewco.com 
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT
In the same random red brick Industrial complex as Stubborn Beauty, Middletown's FOREST CITY BREWING began operations in springtime 2016. A white cement-walled, gray epoxy-floored nanobrewery with a large windowed frontage, Forest City's raw warehouse space features a small serving station with silver brew tanks and beer list, five round barreled tables and one back-walled TV.
Crafting mostly one-off elixirs, entrepreneurial brewmaster Chris Coughlin developed a love for brewing during his tenure at Northeastern University. My wife and I try six fine offerings on our one-hour September '19 stopover.
Mild pale-yellowed Daybreak Pilsner linked light maize musk and dried oats to herbal-citric Saaz hop pleasantry.
Dewy autumnal foliage propelled Forest fest Oktoberfest Lager, leaving sweet amber-grained malt residue upon daintily spiced red, orange and yellow fruiting.
A lemony sour streak struck the subtle banana-clove sweetness of stylishly expansive Bavarian Breakfast Hefeweizen, a hybridized moderation given herbal ginger licks and earthen melon rind snips.
Arguably the best bet: resilient Galaxy-hopped Stargazer IPA attached tangy citrus spicing to dank wood, dewy moss, fennel and onion tones above sugary caramel malting.
Dry champagne-sparkled moderate-medium body, Champ Brut IPA, provided lightly vinous green grape esters and lemony grapefruit bittering to its relegated pale malting.
Fudgy chocolate sweetness contrasted leftover coffee souring for Brown Cow Chocolate Milk Stout, leaving dewy composted soil and maple molasses oats in its wake. 
NEPTUNE CITY, NEW JERSEY
Named after a basenji painted on the outside left wall, quaint five-barrel pub, LITTLE DOG BREWING COMPANY, is the brainchild of experienced Jersey brewmaster, Gretchen Schmidhausler. Inside a beige-creamed glass-fronted corner warehouse lot (with maroon and yellow apron) at a quiet semi-Industrial neighborhood, Little Dog came into existence during November 2014.
As my wife and I visit in late August '19, Gretchen's getting ready to open shop. A well-traveled brewing veteran, she originally worked at Red Bank Brewery starting in '96, a large brewery that closed down before America's Craft Beer Renaissance mainly because the "timing wasn't right." She settled into Basil T's thereafter, establishing a fine line of some of Jersey's finest beer, including award-winning Maxwell's Dry Stout.
We grab a seat at the wood-lacquered serving station to try six pleasant draughts from the maroon-backed silver tap handles. One community table and three black plastic tables fill out the front room while the back space contains the brew tanks.
Much like long-time Jersey brewer, Dave Hoffman (Climax proprietor in Roselle Park), Gretchen prefers to craft soft-toned ales that flow gentle on my mind. Each delicately textured elixir features a distinct illusionary design made to be influenced by complementary cuisine.
BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA
In the midst of Bethlehem's South Side at a former garage, corner cafe-styled BONN PLACE BREWING COMPANY came to fruition autumn 2016. Formerly residents of Weehawken, co-owners Sam and Gina Masotto moved to eastern Pennsylvania to set up shop at the beige freestanding building now housing their entrepreneurial business.
An assistant brewer at Newburgh, Chelsea and New Jersey Beer Company, Sam also tended bar for popular Manhattan watering hole, The Pony Bar. Originally learning the art of brewing from a Mr. Beer kit, he became obsessed with cask ales on a European stint and developed a few regal English bitters.
Inside the friendly red brick-walled Bonn Place confines, an L-shaped 10-seat bar with eight tap handles pours a variety of delicious suds from the left side steel tanks and oak foudre. There's side entrance barrel seating, a windowed front table, industrial pendant lighting and a wooden wheeled chandelier as well as a few cornered tables with olden mirrors to complete the cozy interior.
HELLERTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA
Not far from the Lost River Caverns in Lehigh Valley's Saucon Valley, LOST TAVERN BREWING opened this first location in the borough of Hellertown July 1, 2016 (with a taproom outpost launched in Bethlehem 2019). Inside a red-bricked gray stucco corner building with Lost Tavern insignia above black aproned canvasses on the main thoroughfare, this metal-wood furnished pub serves a stylistic variety of beer, specializing in expressively individualistic India Pale Ales.
The Industrial brick-walled interior features a 15-seat half-octagon bar with eight taps and seating across the way and at the elongated rear dining hall. A food truck services local patrons with great pizza.
An outside front deck with slate top community seating as well as six four-seat tables and several stooled tables gets packed on my early Saturday afternoon sojourn, August 2019.
Crisply assertive, yet easygoing softie, Main 2 Main Pilsner, placed doughy wheat next to hay-like oats to underscore its herbal lemon spritz.
Dry pale wheat ale, Grace, brought zesty orange-peeled lemon meringue tartness to mild pretzel-like doughy breading and herbal-spiced whims.
Lemon zest, bruised orange and sweet banana surged for honey-dripped Belgian Ale, Odd Fellow, leaving peppery spicing on the baked bread back end.
Easygoing sour ale, Double The Jams: Strawberry Cherry Rhubarb, retained oaken cherry bitterness, strawberry puree tartness and lactic vanilla yogurt milking.
Then came the six stylistically intriguing, wholly assured IPA's to really brighten the sunny day.
Sessionable IPA, Drizzle, coalesced Mosaic-Citra-Amarillo hops to prompt lemon-juiced grapefruit-orange-peach-tangerine tanginess and mild wood tones.
Tropical fruited New England IPA, Party On Main, brought cherry, berry, mango and pineapple juiciness to mild oats-sugared malts.
Another NEIPA, Music In The Park, blended orange-juiced Mandarina Bavaria hops with estery grape-soured Hallertau Blanc hops and gooseberry-limed Cashmere hops atop its floral-spiced grassy bed.
Crisply 'citrus-forward' Imperial IPA, The Steel, utilized Mosaic-Centennial hops to fashion its lemony grapefruit-orange tang, mild piney bittering and light herbal tinge.
Brut champagne yeast guided dry-hopped Brut By The Foot: Peach, a mildly creamed peach puree-sweetened sparkling wine alternative with lightly embittered yellow grapefruit zesting and wispy green grape esters.
Vigorous milkshake IPA, Lost In The Mix: Kiwi Strawberry Daiquiri, let rummy vanilla sugaring douse its lemon-juiced strawberry and kiwi tartness as well as its tangy mango-pineapple-grapefruit tropicalia, picking up lactic yogurt souring at the finish.
Finally, 'hearty chocolate stout,' Silent Partner, caressed its dark mocha mass with spicy dark fruiting, dry burgundy and black licorice above its earthen bottom.
www.losttavernbrewing.com 
BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA
A tan aluminum garage-doored warehouse hosts HOP HILL BREWING COMPANY, a worthy red brick-walled, cement-floored nanobrewery within Bethlehem's rural southern Lehigh University radius opened February 2017.
The unassumingly spare red brick-walled pub features an aluminum-sided L-shaped 16-seat serving station with 12 aluminum tap handles, stringed light bulbs and a stucco left wall. A makeshift front patio with benches fills up during my early afternoon August '19 stopover as I consume eight well-designed offerings.
Hop Hill's lightest brew, dry-bodied cream ale, Drinking Games, linked sugar-salted lemon spritz to grassy hop astringency and musty pale malting.
Sweetly tart key lime-pied Belgian Saison contrasted lemon-candied banana sweetness and coriander-clove spicing against salty barnyard acridity.
Straightforward flagship moderation, House IPA, stayed simple as lemony orange tanginess and piney hop resin settled gently above caramel malt sugaring.
Perfumed citrus hops enlightened Hop Sloth IPA, revealing navel orange, yellow grapefruit and peach juicing above herb-speckled pale malts.
Juicy-fruited Brut IPA, Hop Siren, let its sweet champagne spritz and green grape tannins absorb dry pale malting.
Milk-sugared coffee awakened Protocol Porter, a delightful toffee-spiced java-bound brunch treat with dry black licorice snips.
Harmonious coffee-roasted breakfast calling card, Morning Blonde, draped roasted mocha malt goodness all over its mild lemon rind bittering.
Lovely bourbon barrel-aged Morning Wood caressed its roasted coffee bean splendor with sweet butterscotch-candied bourbon wining, leaving cream-sugared marshmallow, coconut and pecan illusions in its clean vodka wake.
http://www.hophillbeer.com/ 
ITHACA, NEW YORK
In the newly renovated Press Bay Alley micro-retail center in downtown Ithaca, LUCKY HARE BREWING COMPANY began operations at this second location (the first is in nearby Hector) during April '19.
A humbly pristine, white-walled, 200 square-foot tasting room with only four taps and no seats, its charming elegance lies in its immaculate petite splendor. Red plastic furnishings are set up in the cement-floored alley just outside the tap house's overhead door for sunny day relief.
Entrepreneurial head brewer Ian Conboy, a marine scientist by trade, loves exploring the full range of beer styles and this sunny Saturday in July '19 he had on hand one juicy IPA, a coffee-smitten Blonde Ale, a champagned IPA and a milk stout.
Juicy tropical-fruited year round West Coast IPA, Falcon Punch, a sunshiny dry-hopped moderation, brought zesty lemon pith bittering plus tangy orange-peeled grapefruit, peach and mango resilience to lightly lingered resinous pine above caramelized pale malting.
Dryly effervescent Brut champagne-styled IPA, Golden Pony, let green grape esters relay lightly vinous tongue-tingling sparkling wine illusions to kettle-soured citrus tones.
Roasted Ethiopian coffee mellowness engaged medium-bodied blonde ale, Blonde Moment, leaving espresso tones on its distant yellow-orange fruiting and bitter hop-charred singe.
Lactic cocoa-powdered milk stout, Milk Milk, retained dry Baker's chocolate and black coffee tones to contrast fudgy mocha molasses syruping at the thin finish.
www.luckyharebrewing.com