Hello from Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 184, meandering through Connecticut on its way to Rhode Island, with plenty of charming coastal views along the way. There’s only one thing about train travel I enjoy more than the views: the beer. Amtrak has stepped up its game over the past few years to offer local craft beer in its cafe car, especially on its regional routes. So, I present to you my five favorite beer offerings on Amtrak.
5. Lone Pine Portland Pale Ale (Downeaster)
The Downeaster whisks you from Boston’s North Station to the vacationland of Maine, so you’d be right to expect the cafe car to be well-stocked with craft beers from the land of lobsters and pine trees. There is a certain top-selling beer from Maine that’s missing from that menu, but this shouldn’t be seen as a knock on Lone Pine, who makes a very lovely, bright, clean American Pale Ale.
4. Island Brewing Company Hopliner IPA (Pacific Surfliner)
What could be more California than a motherf*cking 22-ounce bottle of IPA as you rumble past beaches full of surfers? The beer’s name makes a subtle reference to this So-Cal train route, where you can pour yourself a bomber (!) of this brew while you rumble past beaches full of surfers. It’s almost too on-the-nose.
3. Deschutes Black Butte Porter (Cascades)
As your train rolls to a stop at a foggy platform in a small Pacific Northwest city, the doors open, blowing in a damp, chilly wind. Your slight discomfort is soothed by the warming chocolate and coffee notes of the Oregon-brewed porter you’re drinking. Everything is fine.
2. Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale (Pere Marquette, Wolverine, Illinois Services)
Amtrak’s Midwest services have greatly improved in recent years — the fastest trains outside the Northeast operate in Illinois and Michigan — and most of those trains’ cafe cars are stocked with the hop-forward beer most closely associated with the region.
1. Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA (Northeast Corridor)
Perhaps I’m showing my regional bias here, but I’ve now reached a point where I associate this beer almost exclusively with riding Amtrak. I still love that Amtrak, when given the choice between the 60-Minute and 90-Minute IPA, opted for the 9% ABV beer. More than one and you might forget all about the endless delays (like the hour-long delay I encountered last night waiting for a drawbridge to close in New London, Connecticut).
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,757
Total breweries visited in 2022: 217
Total breweries visited in Kansas: 18
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #2749, Fields & Ivy Brewery, Lawrence, Kansas (Visited 5-Aug-2022)
From an outsider’s perspective, Kansas is practically synonymous with agriculture. Fields of wheat and corn stretch as far as the eye can see as you drive across the state on Interstate 70. Fields & Ivy, a brewery that just passed its three-year mark on the south side of the college town of Lawrence, is celebrating beer’s relationship with agriculture — in both its name and its beers.
It was only appropriate that I first order the Summer Pasture, a wheat beer. Wheat is among the state’s largest crops, and this beer is made with red winter wheat from their own farm about 20 miles south of the brewery, along with another local ingredient: honey. It’s slightly sweet, smooth, and citrusy. Next, I moved onto the Worboys, an American Adjunct Lager made with another of Kansas’ major crops: corn. Specifically, Silvermine heirloom corn, which was developed here in Lawrence. Elsewhere on the menu, the Breezedale IPA was soft and juicy — and one of the few NEIPAs I’ve seen that comes in a stubby bottle.
The brewery itself is in an old hardware store and lumberyard, with plenty of space to roam both indoors and out, with a gorgeous patio. On a 98°F/37°C day, we opted to stay indoors, where the service was friendly and we perched ourselves overlooking the steam-powered brewhouse, which is built to churn out a whole lot of beer — up to 15,000 barrels a year when it’s in full operation. Fields & Ivy is an impressive facility, and it was a wonderful start to an afternoon in Kansas.
I feel like I may have committed a sin by writing about a brewery in Lawrence, Kansas other than Free State before writing about Free State, but here’s why that brewery is so important for Kansas beer… and helped pave the way for places like Fields & Ivy.
Historical Nerdity of the Week
I’ve been known to go down Wikipedia rabbit holes, but rarely does the front page of Wikipedia give me fodder for this newsletter. Tuesday’s Featured Article was about Saint Vincent Beer, a monastic brewery near Latrobe, Pennsylvania that operated throughout the late 19th century under permission from Pope Pius IX. It’s an interesting story that winds through the Temperance movement, the abbey’s relationship with the college, and a long-lost secret beer recipe.
Social Post of the Week
This one’s for the Mets fans.
Long Read of the Week
I saw more than a few beer industry folks mock Night Shift Brewing’s use of a CO2 shortage as justification for laying off most of their production staff and moving to contract brewing when they made that announcement last month. But Kate Bernot at Good Beer Hunting shares the reality: the CO2 shortage is rearing its ugly head and hurting breweries’ bottom lines.
One Last Thing
Another brewery in Kansas that I visited last week did something I had not seen before: charged significantly more for a slow-pour of their pilsner ($8) than a more traditional (or less traditional?) pour ($6). I realize that slow-pouring a beer does require a bit more skilled labor, but $2 worth? Really? I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around their justification for this. Would love to you know your thoughts!
Cheers,
Chris
I opted for the Stone IPA on my northeast Amtrak last weekend (I rarely go for a 9% beer anymore) and it was delicious - only 4 weeks old too! Though I’ll refrain from commenting on prices being charged in taprooms these days :)
Chris, Love your piece on #trainbeers. For nearly 20 years that was my favorite thing about commuting in and out of Manhattan. Friday train beers were the best, especially back in the day when buddies would buy you a Foster's Oil Can! Well, my commute was 36 minutes equalling 1oz of beer per minute of the commute. I'm still thankful I could walk home from the station in Mamaroneck. Interestingly, as craft became more mainstream the transit authority did away with the bar car and the bar carts in GCT. Thankfully The Beer Table in the Lex causeway more than made up for the Oil Cans, as their variety was spot on! Regarding Amtrak, I was a regular on the Northeast Corridor b/w NY and DC, and aside from the Dogfish on the train, Union Station in DC was (and I believe still is) a beer wasteland. As for a future story, we did more than a few Metro North pub crawls getting off at each station b/w GCT and Mmnk to hit a bar. Lots of Bud and Miller Lites were consumed, but that's preferred on a pub crawl. Enjoy the last of your summer. --Tom