There’s a certain class of beer makers in the U.S. that fit a stereotype so perfect that I could rattle off their beer menu without having seen it or drinking a sip of their beer. I hinted at this a couple weeks ago when my Brewery Visit of the Week was Carver Brewing Company, a spot in southwestern Colorado that had been around since 1988. That spot was surprisingly innovative, with a host of new-school beer styles that seemed unexpected from a small brewpub that had been around for more than three decades.
Far too often in my experience, brewpubs that opened in the 1980s and 1990s simply make many of the same beers they’ve made since their opening. Their beer menus seem fascinatingly frozen in time. I came across the gold standard of that at a brewpub in Bear, Delaware last weekend. Stewart’s Brewing Company has been around since 1995, and makes their beers in a corner of a storefront in a suburban strip mall. And this is their core beer menu:
There is no better example of the old-school brewpub beer menu. It’s got everything: a golden ale for 1990s-era drinkers who were unfamiliar with craft beer and just wanted “something light,” an English-style IPA, a Wheat Ale served with a lemon wedge and offered with fruit flavoring, an Oatmeal Stout, an Irish Red Ale that won an award at the World Beer Cup more than two decades ago, and a Black and Tan! My earliest visit to a brewpub like this was back in 2005, and I’ll be damned if this beer menu doesn’t look like it’s straight out of that era.
Now look, it may seem like I’m razzing this brewery, but I admire a brewery that sticks to what they know. And to be fair, their non-core beers rotate frequently and have recently included Hazy IPAs, Belgian-style ales, and Euro-style lagers. If they’re still in business after more than twenty-five years and survived the pandemic, they’re clearly doing something right. I get it — if you’ve created a loyal following with a model that keeps this lineup of core beers on tap all the time, you don’t want to piss off those customers by switching them out. It’s not like other, newer breweries don’t do this in their own way. Maybe a generation from now, we’ll joke about how a draft list of ten different takes on IPAs, two fruited sours, and a pair of pastry stouts will be “a beer menu straight out of 2018.”
Reminder: Blocktoberfest is this Saturday
In case you skipped an edition of the newsletter here or there, or if your plans for this Saturday fell through, the New York City Brewers Guild’s annual Blocktoberfest is this Saturday at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Tickets are still available for the event, which will feature beer from over thirty breweries in every New York borough and over seventy-five different styles of beer. The venue is once again behind Building 77 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, accessible from Flushing Avenue and from the NYC Ferry, which makes stops on the Upper East Side, Astoria, Roosevelt Island, Long Island City, Kips Bay, and the Financial District on its route that includes the Navy Yard.
Besides beer, there will be non-beer options like hard seltzer and cider, plus entertainment and food trucks. Yes, the weather is a bit iffy for Saturday, but the vibes will undoubtedly be good, and the brewers will be pouring under tents.
The event kicks off at noon with a VIP hour, and opens to general admission ticket holders at 1pm. Tickets start at $65, with the VIP hour running you an extra $20.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,812
Total breweries visited in 2022: 283
Total breweries visited in Florida: 91
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #1200, Palm City Brewing Company, Fort Myers, Florida (Visited 28-Jul-2018)
“Paradise” is a bit subjective. Certainly, Palm City didn’t feel like paradise when we pulled up to it in a suburban office park, nor did it feel much that way when the torrential rains got me soaked on the 20-yard dash from our rental car to the front door. It didn’t feel like paradise when the power went out seconds after my first sip of their City Juice IPA.
An aside: this is one of two breweries I’ve visited as the power went out. The other was in Cannon Beach, Oregon, where everything went dark for about half an hour on my visit to Public Coast Brewing.
Anyway, Palm City’s slogan is “Pints in Paradise,” a catchy slogan for a brewery, and with beautiful white sand beaches just miles away, it’s not far off. They were an early adopter of the Hazy IPA trend in this region, an area that had a dearth of breweries until around 2015. But their friendly staff and tasty beer isn’t the reason I’m mentioning this brewery visit in this week’s newsletter. It’s because they are among the breweries that was in the path of Hurricane Ian. Those white sand beaches were flooded with storm surge and pummeled by 150 mile-per-hour winds yesterday. A small summer thunderstorm that knocked out their POS system for a few minutes is nothing compared to what’s bearing down on them now, and I’m keeping them in my thoughts, along with everyone else in the region.
Social Post of the Week
It’s Fresh Hop beer season, even in New York City!
Long Read of the Week
Shamelessly sharing this piece from Dave Infante’s Hop Take column at Vinepair about how brewery taprooms have become Instagram traps. I’m quoted in the article, which references a pair of unnamed breweries in the Southwest that seem to be particularly egregious examples of being fodder for social media photos. Here’s one of them:
One Last Thing
Sending positive vibes to any readers and their friends and family in Southwest Florida who have been impacted by Hurricane Ian. Here’s hoping for a swift recovery for the region.
Cheers,
Chris
Tbh I’m already in the habit of roasting breweries with that 2018core tap list.