Barley Prose – “Always do sober what you said you would do drunk. It will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” -Ernest Hemingway.

Beer Review: The ADK Ales by Kinetik

This my weekly column of beer reviews. You may have seen the little red flag above. That is the flag of an upcoming review. This week, I’m reviewing a beer that I’ve had several times, but never reviewed. The beer is My Favorite Thing From The Beer Store (MFTT). My Favorite Thing From The Beer Store is a 5.5% Belgian Strong Dark Ale brewed by Goose Island. It’s a very different beer than the beer I’ve reviewed previously, but a good one. I’ll do my best to give it the full review treatment.

Beer Name:Union Farm Pale Ale
ABV 5.20
Style: American Pale Ale (APA)
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4.5
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: BeerAdvocate
Review: 18oz brown bottle with a black label that has a picture of “Your Friend” underneath it all the time. Pours a nice amber with some carbonation. Lacing is good on this one. Smells a bit like a funky farm-beer. There’s some malty aroma but also some fruit like a spiced ginger ale. This flossy hop profile is there but not dominating. A bit of spice and zestyness are present

Beer Name:Let’s Get It!
ABV 12.00
Style: American Psycho
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 3.5
Taste: 3.5
Overall: 4
Reviewer: Haddock
Review: You can tell this was the same beer that I had last night. I couldnt get any head on this beer, and I couldn’t get any lacing anywhere. The beer looks like a NON-tasted (at least from the bottle I had) beer, the head was somewhat thin and watery and only stuck around a little longer. The aroma was a definite hint of drugs, which I would expect from a strong beer that I had never had before. The taste was a bit oily, but also very sweet. The alcohol and the sweet beer really stopped me from enjoying it. The alcohol was noticable as I went down, and I could feel it. I like my beers to be a little on the watery side, but this one wasn’t much different compared to a sample bottle. The beer was a bit thin and much watery, and I don’t have a problem with it. I would recommend it to you guys however, I really enjoyed it, but I don’t know if you guys would enjoy it either.

Beer Name:Verche
ABV 5.00
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 3.5
Taste: 3
Overall: 3
Reviewer: Permafrost
Review: Pours a cloudy mahogany with no head, no lace. What little head there is is a little much, with some bubbly bubbles. The nose is strong and fruity

note: If you couldn’t tell, this stuff is AI-generated. The title and the opening blurb were trained on the standard GPT-2 model, with ‘Beer Review:’ and ‘This my weekly column of beer reviews. ‘ given as prompts. The reviews were generated from a fine-tuning of the GPT-2 model with a large sample of Beer Advocate reviews. I selected from the saved samples of these and put this post together. I have not yet figured out how to train an algorithm to generate me beer photos.

Beer Review: F2X – The Canadian Muscle

This my weekly column of beer reviews. I’m excited to share some of my favorite beer with you, and to talk about the things that matter. It’s a reflection of my personal thoughts on the things that matter.
This week’s review: MASSIVE HOPS
So what does it say about me that I’d choose to drink a beer made with giant hops? That’s the big question I’m trying to answer with this beer. MASSIVE HOPS is a Golden Ale brewed by Bell’s Brewery.

Beer Name:HofbrÃ¤u Munich Kriek
ABV 4.50
Style: Munich Helles Lager
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4.5
Taste: 4.5
Overall: 4
Reviewer: stokebeer
Review: A: Clear, straw gold with a thin, foamy white head. Good lacing. S: Mosaic and malty, with spice and malt in the background. Some dryness as well. T: Spice and malt take the lead at first. Thigh hot taste is followed by an over-the-top malted malt flavor. Light body and a dry finish follow. M: Medium-thick body, dry finish with a crisp, floral finish despite the massive malted flavor. D: This is a very refreshing, tasty, and drinkable lager. Overall a good example of the style.

Beer Name:Lac Du Bay Beer
ABV 5.00
Style: American Brown Ale
Appearance: 4.5
Aroma: 4.5
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: xylophonica
Review: The beer is a deep brown color with a massive frothy white head. The nose is of caramel malt and grassy hops. The taste is of caramel malt and grassy hops. The rest of the beer is really tasty. This is a coffee brown ale. I know the flavor of the coffee beans would be a lot better, but it doesn’t have to be.

Beer Name:Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale
ABV 5.30
Style: Pumpkin Ale
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4.5
Overall: 4
Reviewer: Muddles
Review: The head is huge, but manageable. The head is thin but pours very slowly, and even has a big, lingering look. I really like the bottle, especially since I can always drink the whole bottle. The foam is nice and thick and stays with the beer. The beer is a very crisp beer, not too spicy and not too thin. I do not think I’ll ever have a problem with this beer.

Beer Review: Heavenly Belly’s Cooler!

This my weekly column of beer reviews. I’ll be reviewing different beers in this column each week, so make sure you tune in. This week, I’ll be reviewing one of the most interesting beers to come out of the Belgian beer scene in recent memory. Today I’m reviewing La Folie from La Folie Brewing . La Folie was brewed with peaches and is made in conjunction with an online game called Monopoly. This beer was featured in a 2011 issue of The Craft Beer Cellar Magazine and you can read more about it here .

Beer Name:Black Fire Ale
ABV 7.50
Style: English Barleywine
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4.5
Palate: 4.5
Taste: 4.5
Overall: 5
Reviewer: Gavage
Review: The head is a nice light brown color, it has a nice retention and relatively thick, but clean looking ring that lasts through the glass. No lacing, and a nice amount of foam. Dry sweet beer, malty, with a sugary finish. This is pretty darn tasty.

Beer Name:Herberholz Spalt
ABV 7.00
Style: American Saison
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: dyan
Review: It pours a hazy golden that tops with a nice thick layer of white head that clings to the glass like a few friends. The nose is big and sweet like the taste. It almost tastes like a Hersbrupp brew that is freshly made. There is a sweetness and a touch of alcohol towards the end. The mouthfeel is smooth and the beer is very tasty. This is a very drinkable beer.

Beer Name:The Bruery Triple IPA
ABV 11.00
Style: American Double / Imperial IPA
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: Necrotic
Review: Poured from a 12oz. brown bottle into a tulip. Commonly known as the Triple IPA, but this one’s a bit more obscure than a typical Double. Pours a hazy gold with a thick, white, white head that expels to a nice film of foam that rivals any beer head that’s ever been seen. The nose has a hint of caramel, hops and some citrus. The taste is pretty much as advertised. Bit more citrus and the alcohol is quite evident in the aftertaste. Mouthfeel is medium (hybrid) with a little bit of a bitter aftertaste. The Triple IPA is a decent beer, certainly worth seeking out. This is a solid great beer, and I’d love to see some good offerings around in the year ahead.

Beer Review: Mugwort Finley w/ 1 oz.

This my weekly column of beer reviews. My objective is to try and find the beers that I like, in order to write a review. I will use the new BeerAdvocate database to do the legwork. I will also use the ratings on BeerAdvocate to help me out, because I like being able to look at all of the beers that are being reviewed at once. To help me in this endeavor, I will try to get a lot of reviews of different beers. I will also look at the ratings of the breweries involved in the beer, and try to understand their rationale for putting out what they do.

Beer Name:George Dicke’s IPA
ABV 5.50
Style: American IPA
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4.5
Overall: 4
Reviewer: ejorub
Review: 750 ml barrel, poured into a snifter. Poured a hazy light straw with a one finger head that dissipates to a thin ring. Good lace. Nose is malty with roasted malt and malty sweetness. Taste is malty and peachy, but not much aftertaste, but definitely enjoyable. This is one I will need to revisit next time I try it!

Beer Name:Einstein Pils
ABV 5.20
Style: German Pilsener
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: Redrover
Review: This beer pours a hazy, hazy gold. The head was enormous, and it left a spotty stream of white foam. The nose was strong and flavorful. Fresh lady kolsch, with a note of fruitiness and spice from the hops. The taste was very flavorful and well balanced. The hops were just so nicely integrated in the malt that they were not a nuisance. There was just a nice balance that made this a very tasty beer.

Beer Name:Achiel’s Pils
ABV 7.50
Style: German Pilsener
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 3
Palate: 3.5
Taste: 3.5
Overall: 3
Reviewer: smdsgroove
Review: On tap in a local pub. A – Poured a nice straw color with a nice white head that left a pretty thick lace. S – The smell was almost like a watery place. Sorta like a high ABV. T – The taste was a little bit on the lighter side. It was pretty watery and was a bit thin. This didn’t actually make me want to drink a whole pint of this. M – This one was very watered down. The carbonation was pretty low. D – Drinkability was very good and this was the first beer I had had. This beer is difficult to find in New Jersey, but I’m sure there are plenty of others.

Beer Review: Barnes & Noble’s Three Barrel Beer: “The Future of Beer”

This my weekly column of beer reviews. Every Friday, I’ll be reviewing a new beer from a brewery that I am aware of, but I haven’t yet reviewed. I’ll be reviewing a “side project” beer from a brewery I am not familiar with. I’ll also be taking a look at a beer from a brewery I am quite familiar with, but which I am not reviewing yet. I will be looking at the beer from the perspective of someone who has never had it before, and in doing so, will hopefully give you a better idea of the beer and the brewery, as well as perhaps giving you some new information that you didn’t know before. To start off, I’ll be reviewing a beer from Ale Syndicate.

Beer Name:Arizona Redwood Lager
ABV 5.90
Style: Lager
Appearance: 3
Aroma: 3
Palate: 3
Taste: 3
Overall: 3
Reviewer: jlindros
Review: Had this at an in-patient brewpub for a trip, and could have easily wrong-drank it. I’m glad I had to try it. A: Very dark behind a very murky, partially opaque straw colored brew. A small mainly head spilled a good bit of foam. The head was quite amusing. S: There was a bready malt scent, but I didn’t really get that. There was a mild roasted malt smell.

Beer Name:Alka Meche
ABV 11.00
Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Palate: 4
Taste: 4
Overall: 4
Reviewer: andytook
Review: 12oz. in the Alka Meche tap at the Stouty Grille in Westboro, MA. Poured in a tulip glass. Pours a nice dark mahogany with a slight cloudy hue. Smells pretty awesome. I’ve always had this beer in my fridge, but never had a chance to try it. It just looks really great in the glass. Taste is perfect too. It has a great taste. The initial taste is spicy and fruity. Its right at the forefront in this beer. Any other flavor takes a back seat as the alcohol warms. A bit less on the hoppy side, but still nice. Drinkable.

Beer Name:Bitter and Twisted
ABV 10.00
Style: Witbier
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 3
Palate: 3.5
Taste: 2
Overall: 2
Reviewer: NattyBlack
Review: Well I was hoping this beer was a Belgian, but I was shocked to find it was a carbonation light witbier. The alcohol is well hidden and I had to break it up with the hops. What a mess. The beer is about 5% abv and I’m not used to the abv. What the hell, I like it.

What Have We Learned? (Spoiler: Belgian Beers are Fucking Gross!)

Well, so far, 2020 has been a real punch to the anus.

Not gonna sugar coat it. Barley Prose isn’t exempt, either, as we’ve managed just four sad posts for the entire calendar year to date. On behalf of the entire team, I’m sorry we haven’t generated more witty and urbane commentary to help you with the anal-punch-osity of 2020.

While I’ve been doing my part as a local beer consumer, buying growlers from all of my favorite local joints to keep them in the black best I can, cracking open big jugs of beer and not having anyone to share them with does take some of the fun out of it.

So what’s the thing that finally gets my juices flowing? Enough to write a blog post?

It’s this. I’ve learned something important this year. As Ralphie said, “Oh, rarely had the words poured from my penny pencil with such feverish fluidity.”

Belgian beer is fucking disgusting.

I like a wide variety of beers. I’ve written about them here in many columns. I enjoy stouts, and porters, and sour beers, and New England IPAs, and, really, any IPA. Brown and red ales too. I’m partial to just about everything except beers that taste like the beer I used to drink in the 1980s and 1990s to get drunk, before I was making any effort to find delicious beer to drink.

And in my time drinking with the intent of writing content for this fine site, I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone and tried a lot of new, different things. And so I can say, authoritatively, that Belgium must be the saddest, off-spiced, nasty place in the world, if it can be judged based on the beers it produces.

Today’s representative offering is the Victory Brewery’s “Golden Monkey” Belgian tripel ale. Tripel being, I assume, the Belgian word for “run through a homeless man’s shoe and/or a dead hooker’s asshole.”

I bought a variety pack of beers from Victory this past week and all of the other beer varieties in the pack were of a type I’ve been known to drink and enjoy. There were three each of a sour beer, a low calorie IPA, a regular IPA and a hazy style NE IPA. And three of these Golden Monkey beers, which might actually be apple juice that was anally raped and left in an alley to die a justifiably painful expiration. I figured, well, at 9.5% ABV, I’ll at least give one a go.

Note that this beer, ITBMCBB*, has been infused with “exotic spice from the East.” Oh, good. I was hoping my beer would taste like a tuna casserole! How many warm summer nights did I crack open a cold one and think, “oh, man, this thing could use some fucking cardamom!” Oh, wait, that’s never happened, sorry. Only a jerk would think that.

Look, I’m not saying that all Belgian beers are as gross as this one. My co-bloggers may (and have) come to the defense of this style beer in a more general sense. I’ve had Stella Artois beers before, and Duvels, at least, and one or two others that I added to a Wegmans’ “Craft Your Own Six Pack.” And I can’t recall a single time that I thought it tasted better than any IPA I might have otherwise grabbed nearby.

So, to sum up, the next time you find yourself in Antwerp, and you have a thirst to quench, I’d suggest you give the bidet a try.

“On The Gargle,” a beer blogger’s tour of Dublin

I am fortunate enough to have a job that affords me some travel opportunities. To date, those trips have all been domestic ones, but, finally, an opportunity arose for me to travel to Dublin for a week, all on the company dime. And while there was much work to be done, there was also enough time for me to go out “on the gargle” a bit (i.e., out for some beers).

As someone who has already written specifically on the perfect nature of the Guinness, well, this was a wonderful opportunity to go to the source of this magic stuff. And while I didn’t do the factory tour, I did sample quite a bit of it in Ireland, as well as some other common/popular beers there.

First, let’s start with “a pint of the black stuff.” (I will be throwing the Dublin-specific jargon around in this blog post, in quotes, as one of the folks I was working with there was kind enough to teach me some drinking lingo. This is in fact how they often order it over there, I can attest).

I had heard, from other folks in my workplace, that the Guinness in fact tastes different in Dublin. I will attest to that, but, also, that I only noticed it on the first Guinness I drank there. After that, they all just tasted like Guinness. Which is a fine, fine thing, of course.

I drank Guinness at just about every stop along my trip over the course of the week. It’s a good “foundation beer,” the base layer in a beer pyramid that I was assembling in my gut.

But there were many other fine choices that I enjoyed.

This is a Smithwick’s Irish Red Ale. I learned, three days in, that despite the spelling, the locals pronounce it as “Smithick’s.” It’s probably the second most commonly served Irish beer I saw on tap there (not counting “imports,” as there was Coors Light on tap there everywhere, and Carlsberg’s, and Heinekens, etc.).

This was maybe the beer I drank the second most of in my time there. They go down easy, have just 150 calories per 12 oz. serving, but with a smooth and easy to drink flavor. I bought a six pack of these at my local food jobber when I got back and they are equally good in a bottled format (just $9, too, another plus).

Another fine choice for when you’re out “in your cups,” as they say.

My enjoyment of the Smithwick’s led me to this tasty choice. My hotel was within walking distance of a quaint little Irish pub, just far enough out of the city proper to feel like I had found some more authentic Dublin than the tourists might be frequenting. A very punchy and funny bartender suggested that I might enjoy this one based on the fact that I was partaking of the Smithwick’s. And then a fine local wanted to buy my wife and I a beer and so I ended up with a pair of these. I ended up being not just “out” but in fact “out out” drinking, on that night.

It was certainly a tasty choice. I don’t know that i enjoyed it more than the Smithwick’s, thought it was certainly a beer I’d drink again. Also a red ale, but a bit thicker and stronger.

That same night, I partook in one of these.

At that point, though, I was deep enough “in my scoops” that I can’t recall whether or not I particularly liked it.

For an American drinker, used to a wide variety of beers, styles and flavors locally, I think the range of beers I drank there was less diverse. The folks at Guinness have taken a shot at making a lager-style beer, and this “Hop House 13” beer is also served all over town, from what I saw.

Lagers, to me, just aren’t interesting enough for me to want to drink them. This was a “one and done” beer for me.

The last beer from my tour was this one. I had this just once, on my last night in town. It was in fact the last beer I had in Ireland.

My punchy bartender friend, when I told him I was looking for something a bit more “beer flavored,” came out with this one. This was the most IPA-style beer I had there and it was delicious. Probably after the Guinness, it was the most memorable of the beers i had there. I hope to find some of these in the states, but no luck as of yet.

I’d say, from the beer lover’s perspective, go to Dublin and drink a bunch of beers. It’s a magical place, whether you get deep “in your scoops” or you’re just there “acting the maggot” (which means dicking around and not really trying very hard to drink correctly).

A Completely Uninformed Super Bowl Esque Rant About Bud Light Seltzer

Hard seltzer is a thing. Why is it a thing? It’s bubble water with a kick! I don’t understand. No no, don’t tell me. This isn’t that post, this is a rant. Don’t muddy it up with facts and reasoned arguments.

Bud Light is making seltzer now? I could make the joke that Bud Light is basically lightly carbonated water, so it fits pretty well, but as I understand it this is only Bud Light for the sake of branding, and has no actual beer in it. So literally they’re just trying to bash you over the head with their marketing and advertising, capitalize on something that’s currently popular, and annoy the rest of us.

Yes, annoy the rest of us. There’s going to be literal minutes of advertisements from AB-InBev this coming Sunday, for the Super Bowl. We’re all going to become intimately aware of what Bud Light Seltzer has in store for us. It’s going to be painful. I see some retweeting into my timeline of something called PostyBar and PostyStore and I have no idea what that is and it sounds pretty dumb.

Can hard seltzer really taste any different than me pouring a shot of vodka into a seltzer can? What’s the point? And why not just have the vodka? Or a beer. Not Bud Light, a real beer. I actually tried to taste this for this post but neither of the places I went had singles of it, and no way am I buying a package of this nonsense. Surprised it doesn’t come in 40s to be honest.

Nasty marketing gimmick beverage. Maybe I’ll skip the Super Bowl anyway, who needs it? It conflicts with the kids bedtime anyway, and no one invited me to any parties. I do like to have some chips and pretzels, maybe some guacamole. I bought a jar of ‘craft beer salsa’ that I’m excited to try. A beer would go good with those things, but not that Bud Light Seltzer nonsense. A nice crisp IPA, something with some bitterness. Or Nugget Nectar, which is of a similar style to the beer in the salsa, maybe it’ll pair nicely.

I am absolutely not looking forward to a summer of gigantic supermarket displays of boxes upon boxes of nasty Bud Light Seltzer blocking my view of the good stuff.

This reminds me of that Last Week Tonight bit they did talking about how terrible Bud Light is. If you haven’t seen it, go look it up.

Ceetar can be found on Twitter and Untappd where he’ll probably be active during the first half of the Super Bowl tweeting nonsense. You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.

A Quick Look Inside My Fridge

Peeking at the on deck circle for Ceetar’s drinking lineup.

What’s in my fridge? I always have too much beer, so I keep the ‘extra’ beer in the basement fridge or just in the basement cabinet, anything I have up in the main fridge I intend to drink pretty soon, or have as an offering to my wife. So let’s take a quick look at what’s on tap for me.

A. Nugget Nectar, the seasonal offering from Troegs, is an amazing beer and something I look forward to every year. It’s rare for me to pound through a six-pack without deviating for variety’s sake, but this beer is often an exception.

B. Spotted Dog is a cream ale from Alementary presumably in the vein of Spotted Cow from New Glarus an in honor of their brew dog Marjie. I had one on tap the other day and found it deliciously drinkable, light and easy, with plenty of flavor.

C. Super Eight by Dogfish Head I’ve talked about here before, and this is one remaining can that somehow snuck through from August. Fruity, slightly tart and quite yummy. Super fruits! Can’t go wrong.

D. Rum soaked raisins I meant to serve with the Coquito at Christmas and didn’t. I should probably just throw them out?

E. New Holland Dragon’s Milk. I bought a 4-pack of this tasty bourbon barrel aged stout to pair with a New Holland bourbon from the same barrels, as I thought it’d be an interesting experiment. Somehow I haven’t yet found the time to imbibe both bourbon and high ABV stout at the same time for uh, science.

F. Apfelwein. A fermented apple beverage from Germany, in a can! I’ve made this before, and it’s delicious, so I was curious what a canned variety would taste like. It’s not quite hard cider, but not quite sparkling apple juice, but somewhere in that family.

G. Bell’s Hopslam is an amazing beer and it speaks to how far craft beer is come that you can just grab six packs of this off the shelf now, whereas even a few years ago you had to basically camp out for one bottle.

H. Nitro Pumpkin Spice Latte is something I bought for my wife. This one’s from Breckenridge. She had one and said it wasn’t really anything special and it seems she hasn’t been drawn to have another.

I. Why do I have jarred tomato sauce? *hands in Italian-American card* I think this was a last minute ‘oh crap, we have no food. Frozen ravioli and sauce it is.’

J. Recess is a CBP infused juice beverage thing. It tastes good, but I don’t think the CBP does anything beyond that.

K. Cayman Jack Margarita. Another wife product, and margaritas are yummy.

L. Duchesse De Bourgogne cherry chocolate. One of the first sour beers I ever had, way back in 2007, this time in cherry and chocolate, which are great flavors too. Was one of my christmas presents and I’m happily enjoying them. A reflection on that first beer fest might be an interesting post.

M. Las Colombia Coffee Vanilla Draft Latte. Was a present my wife got, one of us will get to this as an afternoon/early evening pick me up one of these days.

N. Left Hand Chai Milk Stout, Nitro. I have no idea. I thought my wife would like this but she hasn’t touched it. I think that’s too many flavors for me, but there is a delicious brown ale with some chai tea in it that’s pretty darn awesome on a not-pictured shelf, so maybe I should try this too.

So, what’s in your fridge?

Ceetar can be found on Twitter and Untappd where he’s already consumed three of the beers in this picture. You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.

Brewery Review: Freight Yard Brewing, Clay, NY

I’m really the type of person to listen and pay attention to the signs out there. Not street signs, although I pay attention to those too, best as I’m able.

I mean an omen. A signal, telling me that I should go do something or go someplace. This is the beer drinkers’ equivalent of Harry Potter drinking the liquid luck and then going to Hagrid’s. You just have to go where you think you need to go and trust your instincts.

So, when you’re driving around your town, and you see a big fancy new sign on a building, on a stretch of road that is largely otherwise unoccupied, well, that’s a sign right there.

Especially a sign like this baby.

Turns out, as per their web site, this place has been making brews since 2016. Now there’s no way I missed a sign going up four years ago, 15 minutes from my house. No sir! Turns out, the tasting room just opened in the fall.

I finally made my way to this place the other night. They’re only open on Fridays-Sundays, for now, so it’s a bit tougher to work that into my schedule, but when you get that sign, you follow it!

The building that houses this tasting room, as per a very personable bartender named Joe, has been many different things, as it sits near a train crossing or some other notable junction. In any event, they’ve got some inventive decor and a real comfortable feel.

Let’s move on from the assfeel of those stools to talk about the merch that matters, the brewskis.

While their web site details quite a number of enticing sounding drinks, they had just four of their own beers on tap the night I was there. The bartender apologized that he didn’t have any of their wheat beers or other varieties to offer me. I started instead with their signature beer, the Hitch IPA.

This beer, ITBMCBB*, is best described as a “traditional IPA, hop forward, unfiltered.” I found it to be refreshing and hoppy. It’s a 7.2% IPA, which is a happy place for me to get my blur on.

Any local place should be putting their own best IPA forward as the first beer to start with, and the Hitch IPA gets the job done. This was despite the misgivings of my adjacent stool mate, who after a sample asked if they had “any beers that tasted like beer.” He was offered a Kolsch which I think he preferred (I thought less of him for saying so).

I moved from the IPA next to their brown ale. As per the bartender, the brewer was attempting to make her own take on a Newcastle. Now, why someone would want to do that is beyond me. Newcastle is some thin, watery slop. This self described “English style” brown ale, the “Loucastle,” was far more enjoyable. I think, after the fine Brooklyn Brewery Brown Ale, this is probably my second favorite of this type that I’ve enjoyed personally.

This place has much to offer. First, don’t underestimate the value of a friendly and engaging bartender. This guy was on his own impetus offering me samples of the guest taps he enjoyed the most, just as one beer enthusiast sharing his joys with customers. That’s a first for me.

Another thing is that their menu included eight beers from other local craft breweries, including both a couple of known favorites of mine from Buried Acorn as well as some others I had not tried prior. This is a very welcoming and open brewing community and the best places all seem to enjoy serving each others’ beers.

They also have some complimentary snacks for the drinking set – always a nice perk. As Ceetar would tell you, a hard crunchy pretzel is the perfect compliment to a cold hoppy beer.

All in all, the Freight Yard Brewery is a choice spot and I’ll be headed back there soon. I’m looking forward to their soon to be expanded hours (hopefully, later in 2020, to include Wednesdays and Thursdays), and to perhaps plan a running route nearby so that I can add this as a Run, Relax & Refresh spot to add to my list.

So if you’re in the vicinity of Clay, New York, do stop in and check this place out, and better yet, call or text me first and I will meet you there for a brown ale and an IPA.