Favorite east coast beers / breweries

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InityBrew

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Hey all,

I live outside of Philly and wanted to see what breweries / beers that us east coasters enjoy.

I have been on a serious Great lakes kick for the last month.. Burning river / Lake erie especially.. good stuff

Other than that I usually get down with..

Victory (I live 10 minutes away)
21st amendment
DFH..not my favorite but good
Sly fox (I can walk there)
Troegs

Any obvious ones that I am missing?

Post your favorites!
 
My brewery :)

Troegs is good
Ommegang
Sixteen mile in de
Mckenzies
Abc
Flying fish
Flying dog

Guess you live in pville? I just moved to collegeville, rght on the border of royers
 
Everything Ommegang makes is awesome... Lately I'm becoming a pretty big fan of Allagash as well.
 
I just kegged two fantastic beers..

An American pale hopped with falconers, columbus and chinook fermented with London ale yeast, and a German hopped pilsner inspired by Victory's summer love.

Both are excellent!
 
InityBrew said:
I just kegged two fantastic beers..

An American pale hopped with falconers, columbus and chinook fermented with London ale yeast, and a German hopped pilsner inspired by Victory's summer love.

Both are fantastic!

Can't wait to set the brewery back up. Only downside of electric brewering. Wife says I need to finish remodeling the kitchen and living room first. Luckily I have about 100 gallons kegs!
 
Nice. I got a make shift apartment set up. AG Stovetop / element heater. Its far from pretty, but I have a solid process and have churned out some really good beers.
 
Sweetwater
Ommegang
Allagash
Duck Rabbit
Does Unibroue count?

I moved before I really got to experience most of the East coast only offerings.
 
While mainly brewpub I'll have to throw in Iron Hill
also Fordam's but before their deal with AB. Since their beer has been lacking.
Heavy Seas
Port City
 
What would you guys say captures the east coast brewing spirit? So much of the focus of what makes american beer seems to be on west coast hop heads. I would love to start brewing styles that I can say represent the east, but it's hard to think of what makes something an east coast beer other than location.
 
What would you guys say captures the east coast brewing spirit? So much of the focus of what makes american beer seems to be on west coast hop heads. I would love to start brewing styles that I can say represent the east, but it's hard to think of what makes something an east coast beer other than location.

I think that's what makes East coast beer great! I like the diversity of beers, not extremely hoppy, but a nice mix of well-balanced Pale Ales.
 
They're all "good", but some of the best beers in the world are made in Vermont:

1- Hill Farmstead
2- Lawson's Finest
3- Alchemist

Cigar City in FL and COAST in SC are honorable mentions.
 
Connecticut has its own Beer Trail! http://ctbeertrail.net/

Hooker Beer in Bloomfield is excellent.
Charter Oak makes a great brown ale.
Half Full Brewery in Stamford is new, waiting for a sample!
Soundview Brewery, make all my favorites...my brewery ;)
 
I did some work in King of Prussia for about 13 weeks.

Using the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News that you can pick up at many brew pubs: http://www.brewingnews.com/webpdfs/MABN/MABN_Pennsylvania.pdf

I went to every brewery and brew pub I could so I went to: (1, 11, 19, 25, 29, 35, 36, 42, 48, 50, 66) on this trip...

McKensies - made good clean beer but kind-a boring,,, I stayed in Malvern.
Victory - I became a Golden Monkey fan
Noddinghead - the best sour beer I ever have had

Many were OK, some were good and a few were great... no really bad beer.

NOTE: I traveled for a living for 10 years, I just quit, I have over 210 pint glasses from about the 300 breweries I have visited.

DPB
 
Can't argue with any of what's been suggested so far, but I figured that someone needed to mention Maine Beer Company. Great, great stuff all around. Also, I really like Smuttynose.
 
Troegs is a must...I just tried blue point and was really happy with it.

By far the best beer on the east coast is Jack's Abby Hoponius Union IPL. It is simply one of the most amazing beers you can get out here. They just started doing some bigger distribution lately.
 
They're all "good", but some of the best beers in the world are made in Vermont:

1- Hill Farmstead
2- Lawson's Finest
3- Alchemist

Cigar City in FL and COAST in SC are honorable mentions.

I'm going to guess someone went to Neci. As far as those three beers, I have to say I don't understand everyone's appreciation for Hill Farmstead beers. They don't make any balanced beers. Even their brown ale is overly hopped. I've liked Lawson's beers (e.g. the spruce tip bitter), and heady topper has some good sweetness to balance the hop bitterness (in addition to the hop flavor).

EDIT: I suppose I remember having the Hill Farmstead saison, which was decent enough. It wasn't as good as Saison Dupont, though.
 
Balance is a horrible term to describe IPAs/IIPAs.... something that these breweries are known for doing very well.

The beauty of a good IPA is really about perfecting unbalance.
 
Balance is a horrible term to describe IPAs/IIPAs.... something that these breweries are known for doing very well.

The beauty of a good IPA is really about perfecting unbalance.

Regardless, I'm just saying it's my opinion that Hill Farmstead hasn't perfected that unbalance. It's just my opinion. You're not wrong for yours, either. E.g. their "pale ale" (Edward) is 82 IBUs. It's hard to taste anything but the bitterness in a beer like that. Also, another example, twilight of the idols (a porter), is mostly hop bitterness for me (not enough crystal for the style...at least as far as I could taste).
 
You just said they haven't perfected balance, so doesn't that mean their beers are unbalanced? I know it's an opinion on personal tastes, but realistically, IPAs are not supposed to be balanced.
 
You just said they haven't perfected balance, so doesn't that mean their beers are unbalanced? I know it's an opinion on personal tastes, but realistically, IPAs are not supposed to be balanced.

Actually, I said they haven't perfected unbalance (I was speaking with regards to their IPAs). Regardless I wasn't specifically talking about their IPAs initially (They do make more than just IPAs...though admittedly they do mostly IPAs.).
 
Haven't had an ommegang beer I didn't enjoy. I really like the gnomegang collaboration.

We don't get too many east coast beers here but many that we get I do not like (e.g. victory, DFH, Brooklyn, Flying Dog, most Magic Hat).
 
Haven't had an ommegang beer I didn't enjoy. I really like the gnomegang collaboration.

We don't get too many east coast beers here but many that we get I do not like (e.g. victory, DFH, Brooklyn, Flying Dog, most Magic Hat).

I'd agree with the Magic Hat comment. I haven't had enough Flying Dog / Brooklyn to really comment. Have you not tried Golden Monkey from Victory? The DFH 60 minute, Palo Santo, World Wide Stout, are all pretty good. What don't you like about Victory/DFH?
 
Actually, I said they haven't perfected unbalance (I was speaking with regards to their IPAs). Regardless I wasn't specifically talking about their IPAs initially (They do make more than just IPAs...though admittedly they do mostly IPAs.).

As far as those three beers, I have to say I don't understand everyone's appreciation for Hill Farmstead beers. They don't make any balanced beers.

All your back and forth talk is confusing. As far as refuting their ability to put out excellent IPAs... go take a look at the beeradvocate top 100 for New England and see how many slots Hill Farmstead takes up with the thousands of tallied votes. Unbalance must be very popular!
 
All your back and forth talk is confusing. As far as refuting their ability to put out excellent IPAs... go take a look at the beeradvocate top 100 for New England and see how many slots Hill Farmstead takes up with the thousands of tallied votes.

Well I did say that it was my opinion. I also said I don't understand people's appreciation for their beers.
 

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