SUSQUEHANNA PILS-NOIR

Beers A-Z
Inconclusive dark pilsner profile of brownish cola-hued schwarzbier needs better specificity. Murkily astringent molasses-toasted cocoa malting fades to oblivion. Slick nuttiness ransacks phenol backdrop. On tap at The Drafting Room, better  ’13 version enjoined cinnamon-buttered sweetness with honeyed fig-date-cherry scarcity to minimally impact dewy dark-roasted graining.
Susquehanna Brewing Pils Noir | Beer Street Journal

BACKYARD ALE HOUSE

BEER PUB

Image result for backtard ale house pennsylvania

SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA

In the heart of Scranton across from the Court House, BACKYARD ALE HOUSE came on the scene November ’08 and soon became Electric City’s premier beer bar. Offering an outrageously enormous 500 bottled beers as well as 20-plus rotating  taps, Backyard’s celebrates America’s proud microbrew generation in grand style. Its pristine tan frontage features Backyard’s brown-lettered insignia, windowed neon signs for the Keystone State’s most popular microbreweries (Stoudt’s/Troegs/Victory/Yards) and gorgeous earth-toned slate footing.

Upon entering the clean open space for the first time, June ’13, there resides a 15-stool left bar with two big screen TV’s, Backyard-etched central mirror, sundry taps and a large refrigerator (with awesome bottled selections). To the right are dining tables and along the middle beams several collectible beer bottles stand front to back. A newly installed kitchen serves pub fare such as burgers, wings and pizza.

Nick Lowe’s cold war anthem “So It Goes” blasts from the speakers as I settle into a beer crafted just down the highway, 3 Guys & A Beer’d Ladder Dive Rye IPA. Its reedy-hopped rye breading and orange-rotted dried fruiting picked up a grainier residue than most typical fruit-forward stylings.

Before getting a few takeout bottled beers from local breweries such as Old Forge, Susquehanna, Evil Twin and 3 Guys & A Beer, I grab a seat outside in the cement-floored open-air back deck. Overlooking City Hall, the red brick-sided space offers an 8-stool covered bar with three TV’s, several tables and chairs and a popcorn maker. On tap at the back bar are familiar Bud-Coors-Miller product as well as Guinness, Goose Island, Ommegang, Stegmaier and a few local indie draughts.

I dip into creamy eggshell-frothed Victory Uncle Teddy’s Bitter (with its orange-oiled lemon pit tartness and nutty respite) and vibrant fruit-candied Clown Shoes Tramp Stamp Belgian IPA (where black-peppered hops and alcohol-burnt astringency contrast a bright grapefruit-orange-tangerine-peach tang).

Indoor and outdoor jukeboxes provide alternative and classic rock selections while live music plays Friday and Saturday evenings.

A favorite watering hole for local businessmen, post-collegiate imbibers and craft beer enthusiasts, Backyard’s perfectly centralized location attracts a diverse crowd to Scranton’s inner sanctum.

www.backyardalehouse.com

 

 

IRON HILL BREWERY – CHESTNUT HILL

United States Brewpubs

 

Suds success - Philly.

CHESTNUT HILL, PENNSYLVANIA

In a quaint cobblestone neighborhood in northwest Philadelphia’s historic Germantown Road, Chestnut Hill’s IRON HILL is its sixth franchise chain. Opened during December 2012, the well designed restaurant-brewery gained quick popularity. A beautifully plush 2-room expanse with high ceilings and a pull-up door offering patio access for the red brick edifice, Iron Hill’s cherry oak furnishings and amiable atmosphere provide luxurious comfort. Behind the waiting area are 12 oak booths for family dining away from the left side bar room (where several more tables reside).

My wife and I grab a seat at the bar for a few pre-noon eye-openers this sunny Memorial Day ’13. Two large TV’s sidling the bar show the Duke-Maryland lacrosse final and the Phillies game. The high ceilings feature overhead fans and mauve corrugated steel. A keg filler centers the pristine oak bar and the Brewing Process list etched into the wall counters the left side-walled Beer Listing.

In the windowed backroom, large brew tanks serve several satisfying seasonals crafted by brewer Paul Rutherford alongside Iron Hill’s flagship beers. My wife grabs Raspberry Wheat, a corn-honeyed fruit ale with raspberry-pureed strawberry-seeded tartness saturating Graham Cracker sweetness. I get to quaff three previously untried libations that prove the sheer diversity of this excellent Northeast franchise.
 
First up, Philly Painting Gold Malt Liquor layered its flaked corn malts with brisk perfume-hopped citric spicing, bettering any malt liquor marketed.
 
Next, crisply hopped Belgian Pale Ale brought white-peppered Belgian yeast musk to floral orange-peach-grapefruit nuances and candi-sugared crystal malting.
 
Mild Hop-Anonymous, a dry-bodied lupulin-powdered ale, received a tropical grapefruit-peeled orange rind, pineapple, apricot and nectar punch.
 

www.ironhillbrewery.com/chestnuthill

 

MONK’S CAFE

BEER PUB
 
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
 
One of Philly’s most prestigious underground hotspots remains Rittenhouse Square’s MONK’S CAFE BEER EMPORIUM. Owner Tom Peters keeps the tenacious local and visiting brewhounds enthralled with a wide selection of Belgian beers as well as American and international craft brews. Monk’s Beer Bible lists over 300 world class bottled selections and the daily Front and Back Bar draught menus have a mind-boggling selection worth exploring.   
 
Near the corner of 16th Street just inside the city’s downtown parameters, Monk’s Cafe provides a cozy intimacy perfectly in tune with the broad scope of not only craft beers but also fine wines. Its narrow interconnected rooms have a maze-like setup.
 
Entering thru a bright red door (covered by a Belgium-flagged yellow and red striped black canope), a few windowed tables offer a quaint lunch setting adjacent to the eight-seat front bar (where a rustic tap station houses five draughts listed on the nearby menu board). Past the three pews and two-seat tables (made of reclaimed oak furnishings from a choir loft) and down the hall, an Abbey St. Sixtus sign welcomes patron’s to the crown jewel, Monk’s sterling back bar.
 
With an eight-seat bar and left-walled tables, the Old World-styled backspace retains a rare elegance deepened by its artful decorum. A mirrored Monk’s Cafe insignia centers the bar, which houses top shelf booze, a segregated Delirium Tremens tap handle and twelve-draught tap station. Two gorgeous tapestries along the wall prove illustrious. One portrays 15th century wine making processing and the other’s a wool and silk woven ‘five senses’ reproduction. 
 
Peters, a proud entrepreneur, moved into Monk’s current space way back in 1997, just as the American public was truly discovering the variegated international beer landscape the market finally accepted full-on. A respected beer guru guiding a Philly landmark, Peters’ spent a few moments conversing on a sunny Memorial Day, 2013.
 
Though it’d be difficult to sample every untried beer currently on tap or bottled, two fabulous imperials, one an India Pale Ale, the other a sweet-toothed dark ale, capture my attention.
 
Gleaming tropical-fruited Omnipollo Nebuchadnezzar Double IPA brought lovely sugar-caned peach, pear, pineapple, passion fruit and mango tropicalia to grapefruit-peeled juniper hop bittering. 
 
Engaging mocha dessert treat, Evil Twin Naked Lunch In A Heavenly Copenhagen Resto, a full-bodied Imperial Stout, worked dark chocolate-spiced vanilla, anise, coconut, cookie dough and raisin bread illusions into its smoky confines. (Full reviews are in Beer Index).
 
Those hungry souls visiting Monk’s caliginous gastropub should try Red Light Mussels, Monk’s Burger, Rainbow Trout or Duck Salad Sandwich.  
 
Claiming to incorporate the ‘Soul of Belgium in the heart of Philadelphia,’ Monk’s appeal only widens as the craft beer market explodes.