JIM THORPE, PENNSYLVANIA

Up in the hills of Jim Thorpe (formerly Mauch Chunk) between a string of rowhouses, MAUCH CHUNK BREWERY looks like it’d fit into a London flats or Swiss mountain setting. Inside a cozy Olde Victorian bed and breakfast, the nanobrewery has revitalized the name of a closed down post-prohibition pub.

A few small front-porched folding chairs lead to the white-walled, plank wood floored, cabin-like barroom. An aluminum-topped L-shaped countertop bar to the right services a few strewn tables and brew tanks are to the rear.

A mom-and-pop type nano operating since the spring of ’25, Mauch Chunk crafts a small selection of basic, stylishly straightforward, well balanced and crisp suds.

My wife, son Chris and I journeyed to Jim Thorpe from Lake Harmony hideaway late July ’26 to down all four brews plus four Mimosas while the lights went out due to a torrential midday storm. Local wine, hot dogs, soup and pretzels were also on menu.

A tad bolder than similar dry Czech-German light-bodied pilsners, Pocono Pilsner retained herbal Saaz hop spicing, salty lemony grapefruit spurt, tidy mineral graining and distant wood tones.

Dewy light lager, Summit, placed spritzy lemon fizz atop dry pale malts, staying crisply clean while picking up mild floral perfumed spicing.

My fave, dry 7.7% ABV West Coast-styled India Pale Ale, Cold Trail, placated moderately bitter lemony grapefruit rind and orange pith sharpness with pungent pine resin.

Nebulous pale wheat ale, America’s 250th Anniversary, sprang raw-honeyed orange fizz and slight herbage upon cracked wheat.