I wanted to bump this post to give a review of the tour we did. Ended up with this itinerary; Troegs, Lancaster, Stoudts, Victory.
Troegs: Got there as the doors were opening to the tasting room and was part of a crowd. Good Lord. I like the setup and atmosphere here. Clearly, everyone here likes beer and knew everything about the beer. Seems basic, but not necessarily a given. Tasted many samples and got some pretzels which hit the spot. Tried scratch 42. Good, but not really my style. As usual, loved nugget, java head, hopback, etc. Special thanks to Jeff who provided some hospitality and insight. Jeff, I enjoyed meeting you and definitely enjoyed the hospitality.
Lancaster: Got here probably after the peak lunch crowd and timing seemed to be great. Ordered up a sampler which included some of the special brews including double chocolate stout and a blend they do with strawberry wheat called chocolate covered strawberry. There was a great assortment of beer there and I enjoyed this beer much more than I expected to. I loved the double chocolate stout, yet I left with a growler of the chocolate covered strawberry to appease my wife.
This place was the surprise delight of the trip.
Stoudts: We got here around 330ish in between crowds and just missed the brew tour. Went into the restaurant and got seated to sample some beers. IMO, their priority here is selling the steaks and not the beer, so keep that in mind. I was not overly impressed by any of the beers here either. All of their beers seem to be huge and are like drinking beer with a shot. This visit was not a highlight, but I know many love their beer.
Victory: It was getting late and we got to Victory right at the dinner rush, so had some time to kill waiting to be seated. This was the most-hyped place we visited. We tasted many of their beers. I have had many of theirs before and the two best we tried were Hop Devil and Yakima Glory. I had not previously tasted Yakima and was pleasantly surprised. It's a good brew. My wife was happy with Hop Devil. My friends tried the pils and lager and weren't happy. The last beer we tried was the dark lager and none of us were into that one. Tasted much like liquid smoke. I wanted to like it, but just couldn't get it to stick. The food here was good and it is definitely a popular place.
So, in summary, Troegs was expectedly excellent and probably the highlight of the trip for me at least. Lancaster was the biggest pleasant surprise. Stoudts as far as visiting for beer at the restaurant was forgettable. Can't speak to the tour. Victory has great hoppy beers, but their "standards" were a bit disappointing. I was surprised to not have been happier at Victory, but you learn by doing.
Spent the morning touring Philly's history, viewing the liberty bell and other historic sites. Stopped by Reading Terminal to get a Dinic's roast pork sandwich, then to Tony Luke's for a nice cheesesteak. The cheesesteak was better than I expected, so I was pleasantly surprised. It was also easy to get to which made me happy. The roast pork sandwich was really good too, but my tastes were set on that cheesteak. On the road and home within 100 minutes or so. Will have to make this trip again! Thanks to everyone for the advice on what spots to hit etc. We weren't able to get to the spots in the city, but will go again and take in those sights. 4 breweries was an aggressive task, but it made for a great trip!
