Tag Archives: AMBLER PA

WELL CRAFTED AMBLER BREWERY

United States Brewpubs,

AMBLER, PENNSYLVANIA

A few garage-bound homebrewers began crafting beer in 2007, then reassembled in 2018 to open their first Well Crafted Beer Company location in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. After a few years of success, the eager zymurgists expanded its seven-barrel operation with a warehoused 10-barrel setup designed as WELL CRAFTED AMBLER BREWERY & BEER GARDEN (with a third location in Skippard by 2024).

Described best as an “Industrial chic hangout,” the white-bricked Well Crafted Ambler features a random patio decked beergarden, pale green-walled pub (with marble top bar, twelve draught taps and two TV’s) and a few overhead doors. Several tables, chairs and benches fill out the concrete-floored interior. Windowed brew tanks were behind the bar and a to-go refrigerator at the right side. Mocktails, ciders, wine and light pub fare were available.

During warm Friday evening, early September ’26, following Don Bosco football game victory at Roman Catholic (of Philly), ventured in to try nine Well Crafted suds, bringing home several more (reviewed in Beer Index).

Easygoing cream ale, Philly Yo!, put mild lemony orange zesting inside grassy hop astringency and corn sugared pilsner malts.

Soft-toned kolsch, Mother Of Perle, stayed dry as lemon misting, minty lemongrass herbage and lemondrop tartness merged over white breading.

Marvelous fruited kolsch, Grapefruit Mama, relinquished juicy yellow grapefruit powdering and lemony white grapefruit souring above crisp white cracker base.

Fruited Berliner Weiss, Mango Peach, let sweet mango and peach puree guide milk-sugared yogurt souring and salty guava-gooseberry tartness thru withered white wheat base.

Zestful Margarita-skewed key lime gose, How’s It Gose, plied briny key lime souring to stylish salted coriander peppering as green mango, guava and white grapefruit tropicalia added depth.

Mocha-driven dried fruiting propelled Baltic Porter, Solen, spreading blackberry, black cherry and fig sweetness all over molasses-candied Belgian chocolate spicing.

Nitro coffee-enriched blonde stout, Pumpkin Spice Latte, regaled creamy pumpkin latte sweetness reinforced by mild cinnamon-nutmeg spicing contrasting milder lemon wedged pumpkin puree earthiness.

Dark chocolate draped soft-toned milk stout, Mystic Cow, a lightly creamed milk-sugared dessert treat with mild Bakers chocolate, Milk Dud, vanilla latte and cappuccino illusions.

Perhaps less lustrous but just as flavorful as a stronger barleywine, Page Turner, scattered dried cherry, glazed date and candied fig alongside spirited sherry-brandy wining atop toasted Maris Otter malting.

TANNERY RUN BREWWORKS

United States Brewpubs,

AMBLER, PENNSYLVANIA

Right in the heart of diminutive village, Ambler, 16 miles North of Philly, TANNERY RUN BREWWORKS opened its doors March ’19. Re-creating Ambler’s rural past with modern Industrial decor, the 16-tap brewpub features a nifty wood lacquer-etched bar top inlaid by pyrographic tree designs and an overhead fern-vined trellis plus a separate corrugated sheet-glassed right side dining area and a sofa-laden backroom lounge with a large mural celebrating the Pink Boot Society. Rear tanks serve fluctuating flagship brews and snazzy one-offs.

One mile from warehouse-bound Ambler Beer Co,. this 9,500 square-foot centrally located seven barrel pub-eatery (with downstairs private event space) specializes in Splatch Brewing, an innovative mash-kettled yeast and hop system splitting batches into different varieties.

My wife and I grab mushroom leek flatbread from the soup-salad-sandwich menu while consuming eight rangy brews on our enjoyable premier autumn ’19 visit.

Amiable copper-toned autumnal lager, Sozin’s Comet, contrasted its toasted Graham Cracker sweetness with dewy herbal restraint and earthy fungi must.

An orange-candied lemon spritz and dewy earthen foliage emerged from dry English-hopped Ceiling Smasher, a hybridized saison with herbal green tea notions.

Brisk Belgian blonde, Beast Of Burden, let herbal white-peppered lemondrop tartness contrast sweet banana-bubblegum-clove-coriander illusions with genuine aplomb.

Dewy fermented tea-like earthiness grappled dark candi-syruped plum, fig and date sweetness for Sokka’s Master, a delightful Abbey yeast-soaked dubbel.

Dank West Coast-styled IPA flagship, Red Dragon, brought dry lemony orange fruiting to a lightly spiced malt sugaring that contrasted its musky wattle-seeded pine nut, fennel and brown tea illusions.

Belgian ale yeast provided black-peppered fungi must and candi-sugared fig-dried resonance to Blue Dragon IPA, a finely detailed rustic hybrid.

Floral-honeyed peach, orange and grapefruit sweetness countered resinous herbal whims for Elder Dragon IPA, a dryly pale malted aggressor.

Dry-kilned Belgian coffee malts provided the mocha thrust of black-malted Dark Ritual Porter, leaving dark chocolate bittering at the finish.

On Montgomery County beer tour, early September ’26, hoisted a few more Tannery Runners with wife.

As white bubbles rose to the surface of paler, less creamy hefeweizen, Wheaty Mc Wheatface, black-peppered lemony herbage placated banana-clove-coriander sweetness.

Aluminum beige-cleared Berliner Weiss, Straight To My Thiols, stayed ultra-tart as briny lemon-limed gooseberry and composted lemon rot gained dry Phantom grape esters over white wheat blanching.

Flagship single-hopped tripel, Sympathy For The Devil, let floral perfumed white pepper prickle coriander-seeded grains of paradise and Loral-hopped citric spritz over wheat-dried pilsner malts.

Floral citrus sweetness countered dank cannabis resin of dry-hopped NEIPA, Terrestrial Dragon – Ouroboros, letting mildly embittered yellow grapefruit and orange tanginess reach lightly creamed oated wheat base.

Dry tropical fruited Imperial IPA, Pop Goes The Dragon, escorted mildly bitter grapefruit, tart guava, tangy tangerine, white grape esters and lemon zest to oats-flaked pilsner malts before musky pine resin entered.

Dryer than usual lactic milkshake IPA’s, Blood Dragon, utilized blood orange to desiccate its sunny navel orange zesting, picking up sticky pine resin and lacking necessary milk sugar sweetness.

Another dry one, German-styled brown ale, Bready Or Not, recalled a fungi-cellared altbier with its brown tea spot and dank dewiness dotting musty chocolate-chalked baked breading.

Smoothly creamed nitro stout, Breakfast At Timothy’s, draped brown-sugared pancake syrup over chocolate-chipped dark roast coffee for morning time eye opening serenity.

Aged in Blue Bird whiskey barrels and conditioned on toasted coconut, vanilla beans, cocoa nibs and almond extract, luscious lactic Imperial Stout nightcap, Joyfull Moon, posted maple-sapped brandy, cinnamon and bruised black cherry sweetness atop brown-sugared oats given dark chocolate syruping.

FOREST & MAIN BREWERY & PUB

United States Brewpubs,

Forest & Main Brewing Company | visitPA

AMBLER, PENNSYLVANIA

At an inconspicuous corner in a rustic old Victorian homestead with a white-fenched porch near the center of Ambler’s small center of town resides FOREST & MAIN BREWERY & PUB. Open for business since April 2012, the quaint English-styled plank-floored pub sixteen miles north of Philly relies on its cozy ambiance to set the proper relaxed atmosphere. During 2022, the pub expanded its capacity with a second location on Butler Avenue.

Specializing in small-batch British and Belgian styled beers while offering a fine rotating food menu (Roasted Guinea Hen with butternut squash and braised leeks, Croque Madame pork rillette with egg-fried green tomato jam and Parmesan Gnocchis), this Montgomery County hotspot keeps gaining respect.

The intimately candlelit green-walled bar room has four barstools and several chairs along the walls. A private right side dining space and two upstairs lounges get serviced by the backroom kitchen and rear brewtanks. A draught menu to the right of the bar lists three disparate saisons, one cask-conditioned Extra Special Bitter and one mocha-laden dark ale during my initial two-hour mid-January ’14 twilight jaunt.

As Beck’s tantilizing retro-rocker “Hot Summer Girl” emulates from the speakers, I dig into St. Mary’s Saison, an approachable ‘classic’ saison that borders on a golden ale with its crisply dry grassy-hopped citric entry. A wild yeast strain brings leathery barnyard, hay and herbal notions to the resilient lemony grapefruit-orange tartness.

Next up, dry-hopped Farmhouse-styled Saison Aloof brought a fresh floral bouquet to peppery coriander-spiced fruiting. Its lemon-pitted grapefruit-peach-nectarine tartness superceded banana bubblegum whims.

Just as good, sessionable light-bodied flagship Folk Saison draped lemon-soured brettanomyces acidity above compost-wafted lemongrass-peppercorn-wheatgrass illusions and coriander-salted leathering.

Hand-pulled Tiny Tim took British malts on an ESB trail where dewy peat and herbal-tinged grains softly recline atop the dry rye backbone.

For a robustly complex dessert treat, Gmork Imperial Stout lathered creamy molasses-smoked dark chocolate malts across oats-charred hop bittering, soured dried fruiting and oaken bourbon notions, leaving ancillary Baker’s chocolate, roasted coffee, dark cocoa, chocolate cake, hazelnut, anise and toffee illusions in its rich wake.

Perfect as a casual neighborhood cafe or nifty beer-centric destination spot, Forest & Main’s just another welcome addition to the revolutionary 21st century craft beer crusade.

On my second trip to Forest & Main, the brewery, now a seven-barrel nano system, had expanded with an ivy-lined front porch and white subway-tiled right side bar featuring community tables and a small stage. In seven years of operation, the pub’s now crafted over 300 different one-off beers.

Dry Chinook/ Huell Melon-hopped Evening King IPA plied lemony passionfruit, gooseberry and kiwi tartness to orange blossom-honeyed wheated oats with cool assurance.

Pleasantly wheated dark ale, Running Friend, a mixed culture sour saison, let sharply spiced orange-dried lemon rot infiltrate mildly vinous green grape acidity, hard cider bittering and tart plum-prune sedation.

Bright Mosaic-hopped IPA, Secret Kind, allowed lemony orange-candied tanginess to saturate sugary wheated oats, leaving minor wood shavings at the fruited tail end.

Cold-brewed coffee insistence overlaid nuttily-oated Maris Otter malts for casked dry stout, Man & Bear, a lightly creamed sedation with charcoal-stained Goldings hop astringency battling back chocolate brownie residue.

A true community watering hole, you’ll find sundry locals of every race, creed and sociopolitical affiliation at the fabulous Forest & Main.

www.forestandmain.com