Cape Crusaders: Exploring SoDel - Part 1

After Brewslut and I had visited northern Delaware back in January (as documented in Dela...where? - Part 1), one of my friends, Taylor, commented that we should make the trek a bit further south next time and visit him in the Rehoboth Beach area. I considered the invitation and quickly realized that we hadn't been down in those parts since my band, herbie, used to play at the Dogfish Head (DFH) brewpub back in 2008 or thereabouts. Taylor mentioned that a lot had changed since we last visited the area, including the number of breweries. It seems as though the popularity of DFH had spawned several up-and-coming breweries around Delaware's rapidly growing Cape Region, which includes Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, Lewes, and Milton, among others. Turns out all of these towns have at least one brewery. Great! More to add to our ever-expanding list. 

To backtrack briefly, I first met Taylor when he started working at Tröegs as a bartender in the tasting room. I immediately took like to his friendly demeanor, enthusiasm, and shared love of beer and music. His course would traverse a few brewing gigs in Central PA and - of all places - Alabama, before landing a job at Dogfish Head as a brewer. Fast forward three years, and he still enjoys crafting "analog beer for the digital age." So, we found a free weekend and took him up on his offer. With the impending Presidents Day holiday coming up, I decided to use one of my newfound additional PTO days and make a long weekend of it. Brewslut, being a professional educator, already had the day off (thanks to the cooperation of Old Man Winter), so it was settled. We were off to the beaches of Delaware. 

I quickly realized that not only would we get to visit the DFH brewing facility in Milton (where we'd never been... yes, I know... shame on us), but we'd also be about twenty miles or so from Burley Oak, a brewery that was on my long list of places we need to visit PRONTO! I'd been wanting to visit Burley Oak for about three years, and the time had finally come. 

But let's start at the beginning: Friday afternoon. 

We decided to head out late Friday afternoon around 4 p.m. and spend the night in Smyrna, DE, which is more or less the halfway point between the homestead and Taylor's place. We scored a sweet Priceline "Express Deal" (I swear we should get some kind of residuals for how often we mention it) with the idea that we'd get a head start on the drive and also check out a few breweries in the process. 

At first, we had only planned to hit two places in the same town as our hotel. However, Taylor mentioned that the Victory Parkesburg facility was on the way, so we decided to swing by and check it out. For some reason, I thought it was just a tasting room, like the Kennett Square location. However, when we pulled into the parking lot, we quickly discovered that this was, in fact, its main production facility. 

Outside Victory's Parkesburg facility.

I wanted to start off light since I didn't have much for lunch, so I decided to go with Home Grown, a dry-hopped lager. This beer boasts whole flower American hops, which lend hints of juicy citrus fruit and a hint of perfume. It wasn't overly crisp or carbonated, as many lagers typically are, and it didn't have quite the hop oomph I was anticipating, but it was still a pretty solid offering that I'd never had before. Plus it worked well with our delicious BBQ smoked wings and side of fried, which we split as a snack. 

With some additional food in my gut, we moved on to bigger and better things. Enter Java Cask Gold Rye, a coffee stout featuring One Village Legend dark roasted coffee as well as oats, brown sugar, milk, and cocoa. The finished beer is then aged for 18 months in rye whiskey barrels to coax additional notes of lush vanilla, tangy booze and a hint of spice amid the dominant coffee character. This one was pretty bangin'. 

Pleeps posing with Java Cask Gold Rye.

We didn't get to wander around too much, although I did take Pleeps for a little stroll to visit with some of his primate friends he recognized when we went to the bathroom. It seems as though the popularity of Golden Monkey has spawned a number of spin-off beers including Sour Monkey, Twisted Monkey, Berry Tart Monkey, Barrel-aged Rose Monkey, and presumably others. Brewslut once consumed an entire 64-ounce growler of Golden Monkey on her birthday, which is a pretty impressive feat. That same night, I think I polished off a growler of Nugget Nectar. Aaah, the good old days.

Taylor also tipped us off to a new brewery that had just opened in Avondale, PA, called Be Here Brewing. Located inside the historic Avondale National Bank building, Be Here opened its doors as the area's first brewpub on November 29, 2019. After examining the map on our itinerary, it looked like we wouldn't have to go very far out of our way to swing by and check it out. Unfotunately, this turned out to be the shortest visit to a brewery in the history of the Pour Travelers.

The place seemed nice enough, and the bartender who greeted us was super friendly. The beers sounded good on paper. Not sure what to expect, we each opted for half pours of two beers that looked interesting. I liked the sound of the Oatmeal Cookie Stout, as the variety of cookie after which this beer is named is one of my favorites. Brewslut tried her luck with a hazy IPA called North of Here, which promised it was "exploding with fruit hops" and boasted notes of citrus and melon. I was a bit taken aback when I was charged ten bucks for two 8oz. beers, but I wasn't about to get stuck with an entire pint of a subpar beer.

Outside Be Here Brewing Co.

Turns out I made a wise decision. My Oatmeal Cookie Stout tasted neither like oatmeal cookies nor, for that matter, a stout. The texture was watery and lifeless, there was no creamy foam on top, and the aroma was lacking. I could barely get through two sips of this beer before Brewslut took one for the team and begrudgingly finished my pour. After all, I was driving, and when you're married you sometimes need to make some very tough sacrifices. Sadly, she didn't fare any better with her IPA. There was no hop character whatsoever. Any citrus and melon notes were overpowered with chlorine and metallic off-flavors.

All in all, I think our entire visit lasted about twelve minutes, which also included parking, ordering our beers, and each of us visiting the restroom. Brewslut slammed them down and we quickly shuffled off to the next place.

I need not beat a dead horse when it comes to the importance of having everything dialed in before opening a brewery, but Be Here sadly did not appear to have the beer thing figured out. I couldn't believe that these beers were rated on Untappd at 3.24 and 3.47, respectively. While I do have a pretty discerning palate, I don't claim to be an authority on off-flavors. But both of these beers were undrinkable. I hate to be so abusive, especially to new breweries, but I don't understand how someone who is a brewer could taste these two beers and decide they were fit for human consumption. To offer a bit of constructive criticism, try familiarizing yourself with the common off-flavors in beers. I know not every tiny brewery has the luxury of having an on-site QA lab (or even a QA person on staff), but serving contaminated or infected beer is only going to hurt you in the long run. Dumping beer is expensive, but your reputation is on the line. Enough said.

Outside Brick Works Brewing and Eats.

Things improved a bit at Brick Works, one of two breweries situated in Smyrna, DE, where we'd be setting up camp for the night. Founded in 2016, Brick Works' name is inspired by the old brick-making factory that previously occupied the building. The owners of Brick Works liked the the idea of paying homage to the factory, and recognized a parallel between the art of brewing craft beer and that of laying bricks.

Inside, the decor was industrial yet earthy, with plenty of exposed brick (obviously), cool light fixtures, and a finished cement floor and horseshoe-shaped bar. Then of course, there were TVs with the latest sporting events on the screens. TVs aside, I was digging the vibe as we walked in.

The always photogenic Pleeps at Brick Works.

It wasn't too crowded when we arrived, so we easily obtained seats at the bar. We decided to get dinner here since the menu looked solid. I'd checked it out prior to our visit and noticed some tasty-sounding veggie options and chicken pot pie, which I thought Brewslut might enjoy. Turns out I was right. Well, kind of. Unfortunately, her food was pretty cold, especially the house-made biscuit on top of her entree. My black bean and quinoa burger was pretty solid, and you can rarely go wrong with fries on the side.

Beer-wise, everything sounded fairly pedestrian, with the majority of the offerings being traditional styles. I decided to go with a pale ale called Amarillo Sunshine. A somewhat cloudy beer, it emphasizes Amarillo hops but also features Hallertau Blanc and Centennial dry hops. Overall, it was fairly grapefruit-forward with faint hints of melon and wildflowers. The nose wasn't as pungent as I'd hoped, though. Brewslut's Citrus Mistress, and American Wheat, features a prominent lemon and lime zest character, which came across more bitter than my pale ale. Despite both beers being midd-of-the-road, they were a vast improvement over the beer we sampled at Be Here.

Pleeps' sunny disposition pairs nicely with Amarillo Sunshine.

Overall, we weren't enticed to stick around for seconds, so we decided to head to our final stop of the evening. Thankfully, we were able to end the night on a good note at Blue Earl Brewing. Also situated in Smyrna just a stone's throw from our hotel, I'd first heard of Blue Note a few weeks earlier during our weekend trip to Wilmington and Newark. The hotel at which we were staying had a small bar area, and although the tap list consisted of just four beers, one of them was a Blue Earl beer. I love when hotels carry local craft beers, so I ordered it. It was a Wee Heavy, a style I don't typically order too often, but I gave it a shot. Thankfully, it was solid and overall enjoyable. So I remembered the name of the brewery, thinking it may pop up in the future at some point. And here we are!

View from our seats at the bar at Blue Earl.

I kicked off our visit with a pour of a coffee porter called I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. I love this style, and even better was the fact that it's brewed with locally sourced coffee beans from Little Goat Coffee Company. Bonus points for goats! The beer is then aged on cacao nibs, vanilla bean and caramel. While not as mind blowing as, say, Ethereal's Baba Yaga (which stirred my loins during our last Drinksgiving trip), this beer was fantastic. The bitterness of the the cocoa nibs really pushed through but were quelled courtesy of sweet vanilla and caramel notes, yet it still maintained a prominent coffee-forward character. Nicely done, Blue Earl!

Pleeps is never gonna die!

Meanwhile, Brewslut worked on a pour of Magical Mystery Tour (more bonus points for the Beatles reference)! The first component of this beer is a Flanders-style sour ale aged in a whiskey barrel for a year. This is then blended with a second base beer, a Belgian-style dark strong ale, to add deep, complex notes of dried stone fruit and dark caramel. Another solid beer. Two for two!

Things were going well by this point, so we decided to extend our stay a bit. I ordered a 5-ounce pour of a bourbon barrel-aged version of Blue Earl's imperial stout, Dark Star. This beer starts with 100% cocoa nibs and fresh roasted Bolivian coffee beans from a local roaster called The Young Bean. The malt bill includes lots of dark malts as well as flaked oats to achieve a velvety mouthfeel. The base beer is aged in a Heaven Hill bourbon barrel for six months. Rich and full-bodied, this decadent stout boasts lively notes of Belgian chocolate, espresso, bourbon, vanilla and dark fruit.

I can't say I really remember drinking Hazy at Heart , but I checked it in so I must have at least tried it. For some reason, Brewslut has been ordering lots of hazy IPAs lately. This one is brewed with a blend of 2-row barley, oats, wheat and lactose, and double dry-hopped with Citra, Mosaic and Cascade for a pungent slap of citrus fruit across the palate. That was about it for me. When you don't remember your last beer, it's best to close out your tab and head back to the hotel... which is exactly what we did. Of course, we enjoyed sharing a bottle of 2017 Kriek from New Glarus in sweet plastic hotel cups before getting some shut-eye.

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On Saturday, we planned to visit Mispillion River Brewing on the way down to meet Taylor at Dogfish Head. However, we had to check out by 11 a.m. and the brewery didn't open until noon. So, we called an audible and decided to meet Taylor about 90 minutes ahead of schedule. We were a little early arriving at the brewery, which I must say is quite impressive. I never saw so much wood on the exterior of a brewing facility!

Outside the DFH facility in Milton, DE.

It was still pretty early in the day, so the tasting room area wasn't packed to the gills. We bellied up to the bar and immediately noticed a myriad of different, unusual sounding beers available on tap... as I was expecting, of course. A beer called Koffie Koyt immediately grabbed my attention. My eyes quickly scanned the board and both the words "coffee" and "cask" jumped out. Unbeknownst to me, Koyt is a long-forgotten Dutch beer style brewed primarily with malted oats. For this particular beer, DFH uses a malt bill of 55% oats, 25% malted white wheat and 20% pilsner malt as well as a touch of milk sugar to provide a dense, golden base beer, which is then aged on a single-origin organic Guatemalan coffee from neighboring Rise Up Roasters, as well as roasted cocoa shells from Askinosie Chocolate and whole Madagascar vanilla beans. This beer came across as intensely bittersweet with hints of dark roast, followed by a rich vanilla latte finish.

Tasting Room bar at DFH.

While we worked on our initial beers, Taylor showed up with another familiar character in tow - Greg (aka "Little Ryan Seacrest"), another friend I met through Tröegs. These two are quintessential hetero life-mates (I love that term), and I can't think of one of them without thinking of the other. In case you're wondering, the nickname "Little Ryan Seacrest" comes from a comment card I once received at Troegs describing an excellent server as the aforementioned moniker. But what Greg lacks in height he more than makes up for in personality and general charm. Greg's mom was also along for the ride, which was about to include a private VIP tour of the brewery, courtesy of Taylor.

Pleeps digging into my Koffie Koyt.

OK, now that we've introduced the cast of characters, let's get back to the beer.

We caught up over a glass of Pivo Prossim (pronounced "PEE-voh prah-SEEM"), which is Czech for "Beer Please." This classic Czech-style pilsner features Moravian pilsner malt and is mashed using the traditional decoction method. Light and toasty with a pleasant, zesty Saaz hop bite, this is a delicate yet flavorful version of this classic, often overlooked style. Midway through this beer, we got to go outside and check out the infamous steampunk treehouse that has been a centerpiece of the brewery since 2010.

DFH's steampunk treehouse.

This amazing piece of art was conceived and created in 2007 by an Oakland, CA-based artist named Sean Orlando with the help of the Five Ton Crane Arts Group. The sculpture was unveiled at Burning Man later that year. Measuring 40' tall x 40' wide, the treehouse weighs 8 tons and was constructed primarily with recycled and reclaimed materials. DFH later stumbled across the treehouse on the internet and eventually contacted the artists about making it a permanent fixture at the brewery. Here are a few photos I snapped during our exclusive peek inside the treehouse:

"I could really use a hand here..."

Cell phone, circa 2112.

Set the controls for the heart of the sun.

Back on the tour, there were several stops along the way, including the pungent cold storage space, where all of the hops and specialty adjunct ingredients - and DFH uses A LOT of 'em - are stored. We also checked out the fermentation cellar, barrel-aging space (which included large Palo Santo wood foeders), and eventually the main brewhouse.

These are NOT the old Palo Santo foeders.

Along the way, we got a taste of a beer called The Bellini Bambini, which is a take on a peach and blood orange Bellini, a classic Italian cocktail. This beer starts life as a light kettle sour with equal parts pilsner malt and malted wheat. It's then fermented with fresh peach puree, Italian blood orange juice, and white wine grape must to unearth flavors of juicy peach and citrus fruit with a champagne-like finish.

The original brewhouse on which Sam honed his brewing chops.

Once we got to the brewhouse, we sampled some 60 Minute IPA, one of DFH's long-standing flagship beers. Everyone reading this is undoubtedly familiar with this beer, so I needn't delve much further other than to say that it's a fine old-school IPA.

On to bigger and better things since that first little brewhouse.

Along the way, there were several examples which exemplified the irreverent collective sense of humor of DFH. Here are a few photos I snapped throughout the tour:

Gotta love a good Space Balls reference!

WOO HAAAAAA!!!

It's business time!

Too many mutha'uckas 'uckin' with my shiiii... 

Me so hoppy... "The racist dry hopper"

We ended our tour with a glimpse into the fermentation cellar and barrel-aging space, which was pretty impressive. Gotta love those walls of wood! 

Getting a personal tour of a brewery as amazing as DFH from a passionate employee ranks as among the best possible brewery experiences one can have. It was a joy to have Taylor lead us around the place where he spends the majority of his time. I must admit that one of my very favorite things to do at Tröegs is show people around - especially areas that aren't included in the tour. And this was just the tip of the iceberg of the weekend that was in store for us.

l to r: Greg, Geddy Lee (ok, me), and Taylor.

We're just getting started, kids! Tune in for episode 2 of this three-part extended weekend getaway to Delaware (and Maryland, too!) when we hit up more amazing breweries. Until next time...