Pour Travelin' in our backyard

As it would happen, the weekend of September 7, 8, and 9 offered a rare Saturday with absolutely nothing on our agenda. Friday, we were heading to the York Fair to attend the Alice Cooper concert (which was awesome, by the way), and on Sunday I had Rock Music Trivia, which I host at the Corvette Grille in Annville. But Saturday? We had a whole lotta nuthin' goin' on!

So... what to do?

We thought about heading up to "The Pub" (aka Selin's Grove), but we get there so often that I thought perhaps it was the right time to cross off a few places right in our backyard that we hadn't had the opportunity to visit yet. So after breakfast, I whipped up a quick itinerary, and we were off by 12:30 p.m. or so.

I'd been wanting to visit Cox Brewing Company since I first sampled Fat Cow, a Baltic Porter with coffee, at a local beer festival. I would've gotten there a long time ago, but the Tasting Room's hours are extremely limited. Cox is only open to the public three days a week at three hours a pop. That's only a 9-hour window of opportunity in a week. Since we had nothing going on this particular Saturday afternoon, it seemed like enough of a reason to make the short drive to Elizabethtown, where the brewery is situated. (OK, technically it's in Rheems, but the GPS address is E-town.)

Entrance to Cox Brewing.

The place itself isn't much to look at. It basically situated in a large garage next to a deer meat processing business. Inside, a cobbled together brewhouse, small fermenters and other equipment mingled with a small bar area and a few scattered tables and chairs. I was surprised to find twelve beers on tap, especially given the minuscule brewing system. This place ain't fancy by any stretch of the imagination. They serve their beer in plastic cups. There's not in the way of decor, save for some military posters and memorabilia decorating the walls. As a matter of fact, the brewery is owned by veterans and some of the beers are named after military terms. After perusing the list of available beers, we decided to each get a sampler flight of four different beers. Here's the complete run-down:

• CH-47 IPA - Named after a Chinook helicopter, this IPA likely features hops of the same name.
• Melon-X - The "X" stands for "experimental." This one is a pale ale brewed with watermelon.
• DIPA-X - "experimental" double IPA with a sweet malty backbone and sticky citrus and floral hops.
• Liberty Lager - American lager with lots of bready and malty cereal grain character.
• The White Feather - hefeweizen with traditional notes of clove, banana, and bubblegum.
• Fat Cow Coffee Porter - Baltic porter with coffee added. 
• ESB - English Style Bitter with a dominant caramel note.
• After Burner - oatmeal stout with a hint of roast and chocolate.

The Fat Cow was far and away my favorite of the bunch. This one boasts a smooth texture and moderate coffee presence amid a hint of dark fruity esters. The Melon-X was pretty refreshing, and the watermelon came through nicely without being too overpowering. Neither of the IPAs were memorable, and the ESB could use some tweaking, but overall I was pleasantly surprised at what this tiny brewery is putting out. It's nice to see the brewing community in Elizabethtown area continue to grow.

For some reason, the opening of Twisted Bine completely fell off my radar. Apparently, they've been open for about six weeks. I guess I'm slipping in my old age. I remember when one brewery used to open every six to nine months. Now a brewery opens every other week, it seems! Oh well... it keeps me busy, I suppose. Based in Mt. Joy just a few blocks away from long-time player Bube's Brewery, the tasting room is modern, sparsely decorated and wide open, with a huge wrap-around bar in the center of the room. They have "snack bar" type food service, whereby you walk up to the window, order, pay, and get a beeper. We ordered some fried cheese curds for a snack. At seven bucks an order, I was miffed when the guy at the window charged me $8.60-something "after tax." Last I checked, sales tax was $0.06 on the dollar in PA and my math skills aren't that bad. Oh well. They were tasty.

Twisted Bine Beer Co. in downtown Mt. Joy, PA.

As with Cox, we opted for a sampler flight, although we only shared four beers this time. I decided to go for the IPA flight, which included the following hoppy beers:

• Newcomer - 4.7% ABV session IPA aggressively dry-hopped with Citra and Mosaic. 
• Test Btch #1 - Unfiltered IPA dry-hopped with Simcoe and Amarillo for abundant tropical fruit notes.
• Barbara Street - NE-style IPA dry-hopped with Citra and Simcoe for a citrusy punch.
• Appletree Alley - NE-style IPA dry-hopped with Mosaic, Simcoe and Ekuanot. This hop combination produced an odd green pepper/vegetal note amid the dominant fruity notes. 

Sampler flight at Twisted Bine.

Newcomer was my favorite of the flight. The other three were all pretty similar in execution and flavor, although as I said, the Appletree Alley had some funky vegetal notes that are present in a lot of Trillium's beers (one of the reasons why Brewslut ain't too keen on 'em). Based on the names of its beers, it appears Twisted Bine tips its cap to Trillium, as two of the beers are named after "streets" (well, one is an alley). After perusing its beers on Untappd, I discovered a few others named after streets, which Trillium does quite often. Just an observation, not a criticism. It's good for young breweries to acknowledge influence and take cues from more established breweries. While none of these beers knocked my socks off, this place definitely shows promise and, if anything, will make Bube's up its game quite a bit. Not too shabby for six weeks into the game. 

After Twisted Bine, it was back to E-town for our inaugural visit to Moo-Duck. I'd heard mixed reviews of the beers here from a variety of people. Opinions were all over the spectrum; everything from "one of my favorites in the area" to "the worst brewery in PA." Finally, I just had to visit and judge for myself. Located adjacent to the Amtrak station, Moo-Duck has been on the local scene since 2014. I honestly can't believe it took me four years to make it there. I mean, I live 15 miles from E-town (give or take).

We found a pair of open stools at the bar and set up shop. Inside, it's got a garage vibe like Cox, although it's set up more like an actual tasting room. I also appreciated the various stuffed animals behind the bar. Sadly, Pleeps wasn't joining on this little excursion. I'm sure he would have made fast friends with the little duckling chilling out near the taps. Once again, we opted for a sampler flight and chose from the dozen or so available beers. Here's the skinny:

• I'm a Farmer - Harvest ale brewed with PA ingredients including Colonial Pilsner and Double Dutch Malts from Deer Creek and wet Cascades from Sunny Brae Hops.
• Pops Smoked Porter - Porter brewed with cherrywood smoked malt.
• The Big Mango - 10.5% ABV imperial IPA brewed with mango.
• Mistopheles Imperial Coffee - Imperial milk stout brewed with lactose and aged on coffee beans.

Overall, I definitely wasn't offended by anything I sampled. Pops Smoked Porter is more of an entry-level smoked beer for those wanting to "test the waters." It definitely has more of a sweet smokey flavor that is approachable. Although it was a tad thin for the style, it had a nice subtle roasty flavor with a hint of smoke. The Big Mango exhibited an odd aroma (possibly an off-flavor), but it tasted as described: lots of juicy mango and tropical fruit. The Imperial Coffee version of Mistopheles may have been my favorite beer of the day (up until that point, anyway). It boasted a rich, velvety mouthfeel and the coffee flavor was present but not over-the-top. It was a fine execution of the style.

One other thing that's noteworthy about Moo-Duck is its support of the local community. In an effort to support a variety of charitable organizations in its backyard, the brewery features a special "charity brew" on tap at all times, with $0.50 of each pint sold benefiting a different charity. Pretty cool, eh?

While I don't like rating breweries, I'll leave it at this: I would stop in again for a beer when I'm in the area.

We'd heard through the grapevine that Tattered Flag had hired a new brewer a few months ago. Additionally, two very respected beer friends mentioned that their beers had improved dramatically since the new brewer had taken over. With the new guy now firmly in place, I'll officially go on record and say that the beers I sampled at Tattered Flag shortly after it opened for business were among the worst I'd ever had. I was so turned off that I didn't even blog about it because, well, I'm just a nice guy, I suppose. Don't get me wrong, I'll bitch about annoying kids or people that we encounter along the way in our travels, but I've always kept criticism of the breweries I visit constructive and sparse. Once I started working at a brewery, I didn't even assign score ratings for my Untappd check-ins.

So I felt a second chance was in order. Well, I'm happy to report that this is no longer the case with Tattered Flag. What we experienced during this visit was nothing short of a complete 180. I'd always thought the place itself was cool; a unique building with a rustic vibe and lots of character. The food seemed to receive a good bit of praise (although we'd never eaten there). Plus, the whole veteran angle should be commended. However, the beer was the one piece missing from the equation. And if you're a brewery, this is a pretty important component. It's like their beer was an unsolvable "x" in an algebra teacher's worst nightmare.

View from our bar seats at Tattered Flag.

With only about 7 beers available on tap, we decided to go with the two most interesting sounding beers and order full pours. I was eyeing up a tiramisu variation of the Boulangerie Stout. Turns out "Boulangerie" is French for "bakery," so this is likely one of those newfangled pastry stouts I've been hearing about. This rich stout boasts notes of dark Belgian chocolate, coffee and a hint of cinnamon. It wasn't too sweet and it wasn't too thick. It was kind of right on the nuggets, to be honest. I was definitely digging it despite being skeptical. Once I got through the initial few sips, I was confident that this place had finally got its shit together.

Over in Brewslut land, she was working on something called Fatum Series Kumquat Sour, a kettle sour ale brewed with 50 lbs of kumquats. Based on a few other beers under the "Fatum Series" moniker, it seems like this is a sour beer series. Man, those little grape-looking things are sour! Plus kumquat is just so fun to say! I gotta tell you, this beer was awesome! I really liked its thicker, more viscous body compared to other lighter, highly carbonated sour beers that are in the majority. This was my favorite beer of the day. Brewslut loved it too. To top it off, the bartender was awesome. She was friendly, attentive, and very talkative, a combination I love. I can't stand when a bartender stands in the corner on his or her cell phone when it's not too busy. Here's some advice: talk to your customers! Engage them. Ask them where they're from and what their favorite beer is. (For the grammatically challenged, that last sentence is a good example of how to use "their" and "they're" in a sentence. So there you go. Woo hoo! Got all three!)

Aside from having an in-house distillery on premises, Tattered Flag also has its own coffee bar. Well, not a separate coffee bar; it's an extension of the actual bar. They also serve nitro cold brew, which made me happy. I made sure to order some to go before we left. On our way out, I noticed the brewer working down below in the brewery. I yelled down to give him the thumbs up because he really has turned this place around, at least from a beer standpoint. I'm really looking forward to seeing how everything plays out for Tattered Flag. One thing's for sure, though... we'll definitely be back in the near future!

Since we had about an hour to kill before dinner, we decided to swing by Ever Grain, where we bumped into our friends Terri and Mike at the bar. We caught up with them over pours of two new IPAs we hadn't tried yet: Fuzzy Mackerel and Sweet Pine. The former is a hazy DIPA with lots of tropical fruit and citrus pith notes. It finished a bit more bitter than I was anticipating for a "hazy" IPA. It was OK, but didn't live up to Blue Detour, the last IPA I'd tried during our previous visit, and consequentially my new favorite beer at Ever Grain. The former is an American IPA infused with pineapple and hopped with Citra and Columbus to enhance the tropical notes of the pineapple. It was a bit too sweet for me overall.

After our quick one-and-done visit to Ever Grain, we were off to have dinner at Bangkok Wok with my nephew Kyle and his girlfriend Kelly. I was down for some Thai cuisine, and it didn't disappoint! I love me some curry! The restaurant is BYOB, but I took the opportunity to take a little break in my drinking day, as we'd already been to five breweries.

Afterward, we headed over to the brand spankin' new Mellow Mink, just a few blocks down the Carlisle Pike from Ever Grain. Focusing primarily on sour beers and farmhouse ales, Mellow Mink had just celebrated its grand opening over Labor Day weekend. Since Brewslut and I were attending RushCamp! (yes, it's an actual thing), we missed the opening celebration, which I'm sure boasted a veritable "who's who" of the local brewing scene. The Mellow Mink crew had been building up some hype across social media in the months leading up to the opening, and their stuff looked legit.

It was pretty busy when we arrived, which I figured would be the case considering they'd only opened the week prior. Seven beers were available during our visit, the majority falling in either the sour and saison category. They rounded out the line-up with a hazy IPA, an oatmeal stout, and an amber ale. I led with Hop Moon, a dry-hopped golden sour ale. Brewslut went for Superfruit Tapestry, a blonde sour ale with raspberries and passionfruit. Both were well executed, although we both preferred the latter with its blend of sweet-tart berries and acidic passionfruit notes.

Superfruit Tapestry, our favorite at Mellow Mink.

By this time, my nephew's friend Eric had joined us. He's into the craft beer scene and has plans to some day open a small nano brewery in the Harrisburg area with his friend and homebrewing partner, Mikey. Seating is challenging for larger groups, as the majority of the tables are for two people. the bar, while fairly large, isn't very conducive for more than three people, especially if you plan to converse as a group. So we gathered around a tiny round table near the front entrance.

For round two, I opted for Cloud Chamber, a sessionable New England-style IPA at 5.3% ABV. Brewslut decided on Apricot Estate Saison, tart farmhouse ale brewed with apricots. We definitely preferred our initial choices over these two. The IPA was a bit too harsh and "green" tasting, while the saison had a medicinal note amid the sweet apricot flavor. It was a little abrasive on the palate overall. All things considered, not a bad start for these guys at all. While we weren't too jazzed about our last two beers, the Superfruit Tapestry was delicious and Hop Moon came in a close second for me. I love me a nice dry-hopped sour, and this one didn't disappoint. I look forward to seeing how Mellow Mink evolves over the coming months. Plus, I'm always glad when another brewery opens near one that I visit from time to time. This is a welcome addition to the Pike!

Stay tuned for more from the Great Taste Caper 2018 currently in progress. Just thought I'd throw this in as a bit of a diversion.