Soft-toned French farmhouse-styled biere de garde (limited edition ’25) lets caramelized amber graining setup biscuity Graham Cracker base as mossy grape-stemmed earthiness dampens plummy apricot dryness, rummy butterscotch twist and wispy almondine wining given single malt Scotch smoothing (and possible English leather musk).
SELINSGROVE, PENNSYLVANIA
Retreating from Williamsport going east to Jersey, stopped by Selinsgrove to visit AXEMANN TAVERN, opened February 1, 2024, An extension of Bellefonte’s Axemann Brewery (a 27,000 square-foot former Cerro Metal factory run by Penn State grads since 2020), this red-bricked green-windowed tavern features a lacquered wood L-shaped bar with wood paneled wall, twelve draught handles, large TV and refrigerator. Tiffany lights hang from the black art ceiling at the high top-seated main dining room.
Across the street from long-time fixture, Selinsgrove Brewing, Axemann Tavern has the relaxed feel of a cozy British pub. There are wines, spirits plus food from Smokehouse Fixx and Sunday Brunch to go along with well-balanced standard brew fare.
My wife and I grab seats at the end of the bar November ’25 to down five Axemann originals (and take home a few reviewed in Beer Index).
Smoothly clean flagship offering, Blue Stripe Kolsch, dropped tangy lemon spicing and herbal hops atop French breaded corn-chipped Tortilla crisping.
Tartly understated Black Razz Wheat sidled salty raspberry-blackberry rasp with spritzy lemony fizz over dry pale wheat malting.
An IPA-related pale ale, Mean Duck, let piney floral-hopped perfuming enhance lightly embittered lemony orange and grapefruit sunshine.
Piney grapefruit bittering ushered in New England IPA, Hazy Daisy, picking up salted mango zesting above creamy vanilla oats.
Dry Irish Stout, Titan, advanced bittersweet dark chocolate and frothy espresso coffee to dark roast hop charred nuttiness in smooth, clean-watered stylistic fashion.
Sourly salted lemon surge gains sweaty cheesecloth musk as dry Chablis wining, vinous green grape esters and mellow white grape sweetness underscored by unmalted wheat starching.
Simple light-bodied clear yellowed bohemian Czech pilsner merges brusque peppery hop herbage with floral-daubed cereal graining. Serve to middle American blue collar plain folks.
Gluten-free Vienna-styled lager ain’t bad just tedious. Cereal-grained amber graining splotches musty apple, orange and pear spicing and pallid dry hop musk in slick setting.
Mild lemon lime fizz spritzes peppery hops and musky grains of crisply corn-flaked clear golden Mexican lightweight with a slight Scotch splotch.
Popular blonde coffee stout serenades vanilla coffee creaming with bittersweet cocoa nibs and smoky black chocolate as mild black peppering flutters thru barley-flaked Maris Otter malting to its molasses-sugared coffee finish. Recommended.
Pine lacquered lemony grapefruit bittering and brisk orange peel sweetness merge West Coast IPA profile with pineapple-salted guava-gooseberry and passionfruit zing of an oats-creamed New England IPA for zestfully scaled-up Cryo-hopped pale ale.
Tempting autumnal brown ale lets roasted butternut squash bring earthen truffle rusticity to brown-sugared vanilla and honeyed chestnut over caramelized barley-flaked biscuit malting.
Sweetish barley-rice pastiness sticks to dewy navel orange spicing of slick moderate bodied marzen.
Funky easy drinkin’ blue collar fodder with skunky lemon rot souring, mossy compost-like Noble hop herbage and floral marigold pungency reaching dried maize base.
Nutty coffee roast serenades robust brown ale (as thick and dark as most mocha stouts) but not at the expense of crisp water cleanness. Debittered black malts and oily dark-roast hop char increase espresso coffee midst and dark chocolate subsidy.
