PARADE OF BEER

PROST!
As Team VFH Captain Janet Lee is in England with her new grandson and is up to her elbows in dirty diapers and enjoying every swabbing moment of it, I am back home living it up!

Yeah…that’s right… I’m leaving the toilet seats up, and piling dirty dishes in the sink AND, get this, I haven’t made the bed since she left two weeks ago. I’m having the time of my life. Of course, the one drawback in all this is I’m running out of dishes and I can’t figure out the new dishwasher Janet bought, so I have been going out to eat a lot when I’m not working. I’ve been going to a lot of brewpubs when I can and in the burgeoning craft beer market of Pennsylvania there are a lot of them. 

NO BUDS ALLOWED.

Although craft beers are gaining popularity in New Jersey it still pales in comparison to Pennsylvania. Go into practically any bar in on this side of the Delaware and the array of brews is outstanding. For your humble beer enthusiasts, who have traveled to Belgium just to drink beer, this is a good thing. Of course you can get good beer in NJ, but there are a lot of brewpubs in PA.

For the longest time the only brewpub in New Jersey was the Ship Inn in Milford NJ, near the Delaware River in Hunterdon County and a pleasant scenic drive up Route 29 from Lambertville. Serving British style beers and food specials like hamburgers on Tuesdays and fish and chips on Wednesday, this was the only available destination.  Although the scene in New Jersey has since improved the state still lags behind the proliferation of craft breweries and brewpubs in Pennsylvania.

THE SHIP INN 

For example in the nearby town of Phoenixville a now-thriving community with a vibrant nightlife there are several brewpubs and breweries. Even in the relatively sleepy town of Collegeville where we now live you can hold your breath and walk from the townhouse to the Appalachian Brewery. It’s a small Pennsylvania chain that serves several beers and has a full menu. Although close we rarely go there, but as I have a few more days before Janet returns I may make a guest appearance.

APPALACHIAN BREWING

HIPSTER ALERT

It’s remarkable how craft beer has exploded in popularity. Once only the giants like Budweiser, Miller and Coors were available, now there are so many beers that it’s hard to know what to order! Pub crawls can be mind twisting affairs in trying to figure out what to drink next.

But, like internet publishing there is no guarantee the product produced is good. Sometimes with these newer places the beers are either a hit or miss. Attempting to "up" the beer experience brewers sometime combine and infuse flavors that have no place I believe in the realm of beers. I guess if you favor your beer flavored with grapes, etc., then this is good. Sometimes they are just outright bad. Sadly a triple I had at the Tuned Up brewery in Spring City reminded me not of grapes, but lipstick. Always ask for a taste before ordering a pint that you’re not sure about. I know I kind of splatted Tuned Up, but the other beers we had were powerful and good and I ordered the triple without the requisite sip. They do not serve food, but I would return for a beer, or two, that is after a taste.

Even the much revered Dogfish Head Brewery of Milton Delaware, home to 60 Minute, 90 Minute, Burton Baton and Johnny Cask, experiments. Team VFH has been known to drink many many many of these delicacies, but some of their others like the current  Alternate Takes #5 a barrel aged raspberry / blueberry sour is not appealing at all….But thankfully their 60 Minute now comes in cans!

DOGFISHHEAD BREWERY 

ROAD TRIPS

Victory Brewing

The brewpubs I have gone on this extended foray in a bachelor feeding frenzy are all hits. The food is good and the great beers make it difficult to choose two to drink. I hold myself to two as I have to drive.

The first brewpub I visited was Victory Brewing in Downingtown. Every chance I get I travel to this far flung oasis of all things good in the world. (It is too far to drive to Dogfish Head for the evening.) Even my son shudders with anticipation when I offer to buy him a few at Victory. How else will I get my son to drive all this way to visit me?

Large and airy with ample dining areas and always crowded Victory is the closest thing to perfection. ALL their beers are drinkable and the difficulty is which one to choose. Some are very strong like their Golden Monkey Triple and their Storm King Stout. If I’m driving though, I usually opt for the Hop Devil on hand pump. Creamy smooth and delicious this IPA is excellent. The Dark Devil is a combination of their Storm King Stout and the Hop Devil. If you’re not the DD I suggest you go for one of these.

For dinner I had an excellent grilled chicken sandwich with bacon and fries.

VICTORY BREWING 

Stoudts Brewery

This brewpub is a bit out there in Adamstown out past Reading. Your favorite quaffers have been there a few times for their well-attended Oktoberfest. The Mossad would have a field day at this event. There are Lederhosen galore and people parading behind a roasted pig hoisted on a spit, prancing to a German oom-pah band. It smacks of the real thing. The brewpub itself is decorated with knick knacks covering the wainscoting and there is a stilted old feeling to the brewpub. I had been to the brewpub once before and it’s never crowded, but the char grilled Black Angus burger topped with blue cheese had me busy so I barely noticed.I had their triple and a double IPA.

STOUDTS BREWING 

Tired Hands

This is on the mainline in Ardmore. Their Fermentaria was slick and crowded. It was bright and sun splashed from the wall of windows. All the servers were tattooed and bearded, except thankfully the women. Here, I found grape flavored beer and they were rather pretentious about their brews. I ordered a double IPA and was questioned as to whether or not I was looking for the Obilex or something like that, even though as far as I can tell there was only one double IPA on their beer listing.  Many of their beers have odd names like: “Progression Through Unlearning II, or, "Ridiculoid" and have accompanying descriptions that arched my eyebrows. Their beers had “notes of kiwi, or apricot, or concord grape, or unripe pear, etc. It all just seemed (and tasted) haughty and ill-conceived. If not for an excellent and well-priced burger I would never return. The double IPA…whatever they called it was fine.

TIRED HANDS BREWING

Sly Fox

This established brewpub is on the outskirts of Phoenixville, although the beer is actually brewed in a different location. It is an honest and reasonably priced place with a fine selection of honest beers. I had been there before and their Route 113 IPA is a good beer. My second was a hand pump bitter that was smooth and delicious. For a refreshing summer beer I have been known to carry out a six pack of their Royal Weisse. At the brewpub I sat outside in their corralled area on the sidewalk of a strip mall and had a blue cheese topped burger. It is not a glamorous place, but the burger was very tasty.

SLY FOX BREWING 

As mentioned earlier Phoenixville boasts several breweries and brewpubs.

Iron Hill

Iron Hill is a small chain that offers many award winning beers. It is often our go to place for food and drink. Although expensive, their food is very good. I favor the Voodoo Chicken Pizza. Special beers like the Bedotter or the Wee Heavy are excellent, but their regular house beers hold up very well.

IRON HILL BREWING

Stable 12

This is a place where I suggest you sample their beer before ordering it. Some of their beers are high in alcohol. They have a kitchen serving the usual fare and an outdoor, dog-friendly seating area offering live music.

STABLE 12 BREWING

Crowded Castle

This posh bar just opened and the beer taps are manned by one of the several buddies who started the place. I liked their Belgian Quad.. but who wouldn’t? They do not have a kitchen, but you can order food delivered to the place.

CROWDED CASTLE BREWING

Root Down

The latest entry into the Phoenixville brewery scene is Root Down. I haven’t been there yet, but they also serve food. We’ll get back to you on this one.  

ROOT DOWN BREWING 

ALPINE GLOWS AND DRY TOWNS

So much depends / upon a red wheel barrel …

My brother and I are in the television production business. I’m New York based and he’s in Colorado. I avoid working sporting events, preferring the relative calm of studio shows, while he works a lot of winter events. He is a ski bum after all. We are techs. I’m a graphics and prompter operator and he works camera and utility. I commute…he travels.

I used to travel A LOT for work. In the beginning it is exciting to be somewhere new, in a new city or country, but eventually traveling became very exhausting. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Miami or Milan, Seattle or Sydney, Chicago or Calgary, while on the road your life at home basically stops and homesickness is a reality and just the logistical slog through airports and stadiums can become depressing. There are a lot of severed relationships in my industry.

Live television is thrilling though! It is fun to be a part of a team that puts it all together to bring into your homes a flawless broadcast. But “live” also means there are no mulligans and you just keep going. My brother and I are both freelancers which means you are only as good as your last broadcast, so mistakes aren’t overlooked. Add this level of stress to the traveling blues and realize that while you’re scratching various parts of your body while ensconced on your sofa fair reader, we’re out there bringing it all to you in living color. It is a tough way to make a living.

And, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

WORLDS COLLIDE

Despite all the misgivings that come with this world of television broadcasting, sometimes there are benefits. If it weren’t for work we would never see each other. As my brother and I live nearly on opposite sides of the continent, our business travel brings us closer at times. For the second straight year he has come into NYC to work a volley ball match held in lower Manhattan. My ski bum brother is so out of his element in the concrete canyons of the city, while I look especially good sitting by a fire in the lodge and not venturing out onto the slopes.

Staying with a friend in the bedroom community of Rutherford, my brother takes NJ Transit into the City for his job. One evening we rendezvous at the Journal Square PATH station in Jersey City after his day of work ends. I had been working in Secaucus that day, so it is a short drive to get him.

These places so very very far away from where we both currently live are still quite familiar. My brother went to college in Jersey City and we grew up in Harrison, just a couple of miles west of Journal Square. Still, we marvel at the views and changes of our hometown as my brother wants to drive around and see the ‘sights’. He wants to drive by the new High School, drive through West Hudson Park, go past our old house on Washington Street, although the original house burned down 20 years ago. We ooed and aahed at the places and reminisced about places we’d go out to eat with Mom and Dad when they were still alive. He wants me to drive up Kearny Avenue, rising from the flats of Harrison and past all the locations of the Sopranos television show. Even after living nearly half my life in this area I too enjoy this little road trip. It’s late in the day and the warm golden light dispels all the grit that is so pervasive in this area. As we near the border with North Arlington the spire of my high school’s church, Queen of Peace is awash in the light and glowing beautifully in soft oranges and yellows. My brother is excited. “Alpine glow” he calls it. It’s something you see regularly in the mountains of Colorado. Who knew Jersey could be so beautiful?

 

NO.. NOT NJ

We drive through Lyndhurst, opting to not drive by Mom’s old apartment and enter the stately leafy streets of Rutherford. We cross over the roar of traffic of Route 3, that main artery to the Lincoln Tunnel, and enter the sedate town of William Carlos Williams, the poet that I had to read in High School. The pediatrician / poet was part of the Imagist movement and friends with other poets like Ezra Pound. To this day, “Red Wheel Barrel” and its simplistic powerful imagery remains with me.

Clustered around Park Avenue are several restaurants and we choose one, parking near the William Carlos Williams Center. We soon discover that this is kind of sort of a “dry” town. There are several scattered through New Jersey, town/cities, though thankfully no counties! Mainly religious reasons account for a teetotaler status, but Rutherford in its own way is dry because of zoning... It's a convoluted dance and the crisis was averted when I strolled a block or two from the Sonoma Grill to purchase a much needed 6 pack and all was right in the world again! I was having dinner with my favorite brother (my only one) and as I happily listened to him complain about how his feet hurt from the concrete of NYC, I busied myself with my meal.

I hope he works this event next year!

 DRY TOWNS

RUTHERFORD IS DRY?

ALPINE GLOW

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

THE WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS CENTER FOR THE ARTS