The Pour Travelers Take Delmarva: Part III

After a quick pre-game beer before heading out (an apt choice with Sun-Day-Feels, a sour ale brewed with Viognier grape juice, peaches, blood oranges, lemon, and lime), Sunday began on a high note with an impromptu tour of Dogfish Head's brewing facility in Milton. We didn't plan it that way; we were going to call ahead to make a reservation while en route to the brewery, but we got to talking and forgot to call. When we arrived, there was a solid 90-minute wait. Luckily, Taylor brought along his keyfob, which gave us VIP access to the entire brewery. Honestly, this was much cooler than sitting under a huge white tent and enjoying a beer.  

For the next two hours or so, we strolled casually around the brewery, sipping various beers as we stopped to check out specific areas of the impressive facility. Somewhere along the way, we sampled some Walking Run, a hazy, hoppy pale ale brewed with English pale ale malt, wheat malt and flaked oats. Soft and pillowy with a pleasant malt flavor, this pale ale finishes with tropican and citrus fruit notes. 

DFH is sportin' some serious wood!

Over in the barrel room, Taylor pointed out that DFH's barrel-aging space was slowly being snuffed out by the recent explosion of Truly, a series of hard seltzers that became part of DFH's repertoire upon merging with Sam Adams. Taylor mentioned that they employ temp workers virtually around the clock just to pack mix cases of this highly popular - for lack of a better term - alcoholic soft drink. I suppose one has got to pay the bills, right? 

Looks like some World Wide Stout right there.

While we milled around the barrel room, Taylor offered to crack open a Pour Travelers' choice. After perusing the many cork and cage bottles strewn about the packaging area, I settled on Ouvert Operation, an open-fermented saison aged in gin barrels. This one had me at "gin barrels." Although I'm not a huge fan of gin itself, I became quite enamored with gin barrel-aged beers a few years ago when we visited Oregon. It seems as though this trend kicked off out west and worked its way eastward over the subsequent months. While gin barrel-aged beers are hard to come by on the east coast, it didn't surprise me one bit that DFH had one available. I enjoyed this one quite a bit and it was one of the many highlights of our little VIP tour.

Pleeps wants a lesson in mixology.

Speaking of highlights, we also got to sample uber-fresh 90 Minute IPA from one of the brite tanks in the fermentation hall. Although most jaded beer geeks might brush off this iconic beer in favor of trendier hazies and juice bombs, Esquire Magazine has called 90 Minute "perhaps the best IPA in America." I must admit that even I take this one for granted despite it being an early favorite of mine back in my young Padawan days. I will say that this tasted very good; so good, in fact, that I had two pours from the brite tank! IPAs with an extreme hop character and supporting malt backbone seem to be a thing of the past these days. This one has such a distinct flavor profile that I could likely pick it out of a line-up of 10 different IPAs. 

Another highlight was drinking a can of our COVID-19 fridge beer, Slightly Mighty, while relaxing and chatting in the quality laboratory. Brewslut and I have tried a handful of these new "lo-cal" pale ales and IPAs, and have decided unanimously that this one is our favorite. Slightly Mighty boasts all the flavor and tropical aromas of typical full-flavored IPA, but with just 95 calories and 3.6 grams of carbs. While it's brewed with locally-grown barley, this beer's magic ingredient is monk fruit, which delivers body and complexity without the excessive carbs. This sucker is light, flavorful and crushable! It was a Club Mease favorite of ours during the summer months out at the pool for Minkie Ball. (I won't elaborate on this... just know it's hella-fun!) 

Taylor, our guide and innkeeper.

Although I work at a brewery, I still tend to geek out and get giddy when I visit a brewery I admire. DFH has such an amazing facility with so many different facets, and it was a joy having a great tour guide and free reign to explore. Many thanks to Taylor for the hospitality and great conversation!

We decided to make a quick stop at Brimming Horn Meadery, which we'd enjoyed quite a bit last time. Taylor wanted to drop off a few beers for the owner, who'd just had a death in the family. Unfortunately, he wasn't around during our visit. (I had fun chatting briefly about metal last time, as he's an all-around fan of the genre.) At any rate, we stuck around for a quick one in the heated tent around the back of the building. I opted for Shirley Temple, a mead brewed to mimic the non-alcoholic drink of the same name. The classic version is traditionally made with ginger ale and a splash of grenadine, then garnished with a maraschino cherry. This light and flavorful mead boasted the requisite notes of cherry and ginger and was quite enjoyable. This turned out to be a quick one-and-done stop, but we did pick up a few stovepipe cans of a few things (because, you know, 12% meads should come in 19.2oz. cans) and went on our merry way.

Outside Big Oyster Brewing in Lewes, DE.

One of the breweries I was most excited to revisit was Big Oyster. The 6,000-square-foot facility and brewpub is situated on King's Highway, just outside of Lewes, inside Fins Ale House & Raw Bar. Last year, we enjoyed lunch there but I only sampled one lone beer. That was about to change! 

Taylor and I both ordered Hammerhead, Big Oyster's flagship IPA. However, we were given pours of a much lighter beer, which we deduced was in fact Hammer Light, a low-calorie version of Hammerhead IPA. While it was solid, I wish the waitress would have informed us of this because we would have ordered something different. 

Meanwhile, Brewslut was enjoying one of the brewery's fruit beers called Triple Pineapple Dreamsicle, an amped-up version of Pineapple Dreamsicle featuring more lactose and oats. I had a few sips of this and was sufficiently blown away. Creamy vanilla and tropical fruit mingles to create a soft mouthfeel and initial sweetness, which gives way to a huge smack of tropical hops akin to - no surprise here - pineapple. This one was delicious and prompted us to purchase a pair of 4-packs to bring home. 

Pleeps says, "More pilsners, please!"

We happened to arrive at Big Oyster smack dab in the middle of its awesome Happy Hour, so we enjoyed discounted pints and lunch specials. Oh, and oysters! For my lunch beer, I opted for Public Pils, a fine Pilsner brewed with authentic German Weyermann Malt and classic Czech Saaz hops. This went well with the plate of oysters on the half shell we shared as well as my fish and chips. After a fantastic (and reasonably priced) lunch, we also picked up a good case-worth of beers to take home and enjoy. Our recent beer acquisitions wer starting to take up much of the back of the CRV. In addition to Triple Pineapple Dreamsicle, we also grabbed some Triple Delaware Dreamsicle (think dry-hopped Orange Julius) as well as Hammerhead IPA. More beer for our pile! With full bellies, we shipped off to our next stop of the day. 

We skipped over Crooked Hammock during our last visit, so I suggested we stop for a one-and-done. While Taylor promised we wouldn't be wowed with any of the beers, I will say that the vibe of this place absolutely captures the Delaware beach area to a "T" and probably had the coolest beach atmosphere of all the places we visited on this particular trip.  

It's a Jeep, it's a brewery... it's Crooked Hammock!

Like so many other folks who decide to open a brewery, Crooked Hammock's story isn't much different. Fed up with the daily 9 to 5 grind of his corporate gig in big city, owner Rich Garrahan decided he was ready to kick back and do something fun. He decided to ditch his shirt and tie in favor of flip-flops, and he moved to Rehoboth Beach to open Crooked Hammock, whose motto is likely "take it slow and live life easy."

Actually, I was quite pleased with my beer selection: Permanent Vacation. Brewed in collaboration with Brandywine Coffee Roasters and Mug & Spoon in Rehoboth Beach, this imperial coconut coffee stout proved a pleasant dessert beer after our recent lunch at Big Oyster. Boasting equal parts shaved coconut, fresh roasted coffee and rich chocolate malt, I was pleasantly surprised with this beer. However, this turned out to be a one-and-done stop for us, as I was eager to head over to our next stop and dig into a few beers. 

Pleeps is ready for his own permanent vacation!

Up next was Thompson Island, a relatively new place we'd visited last time around. The brewpub is the first of its kind opened by Delaware restaurant group, SoDel Concepts, which operates several successful restaurants in the area. The brewery takes its name from an island between Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach known as the Forgotten Mile, an area popular with hikers and birders. Since I work in marketing at Tröegs, this place had always been on my radar (SoDel Concepts served as consultants when Tröegs introduced its Snack Bar back in 2012). With Thompson Island, Tröegs reciprocated and lent a hand with recommending a state-of-the-art brewhouse designed specifically for the restaurant. The brewpub itself is modeled after popular SoDel activities like bonfires, kayaking, paddle-boarding, fishing, and general "salt life." 

Outside Thompson Island brewpub.

Since I only sampled one beer during last year's initial visit, I opted for a flight this time. Call it an effort to test the waters with a variety of beers. Here's the scoop:

• Impervious - West Coast IPA with notes of pine and grapefruit with a dry, resinous finish.
• The Shoals - Rich imperial stout conditioned on cocoa nibs and Guatemalan coffee from Swell Joe Coffee of Lewes, DE.
• Escapades - sour ale brewed with tons of peach and pineapple. You know my peach rule, kids!
• Cosmic Cow - Sweet stout with hints of milk chocolate, coffee, roasted malt and toffee.

Pleeps poses with my Thompson Island flight.

If memory serves me, I enjoyed all of these quite a bit, with my favorite being The Shoals. It's tough to compete with a tasty coffee stout in my book. This visit was in stark contrast to our previous visit, as the place was noisy and bustling with people. This time, we got to sit at a quiet table and enjoy some conversation with our beers. The beers also seemed to have improved over the last year. I'm glad to see this place doing well. 

Like last year, we couldn't leave without a second visit to Dewey Beer Company, and this year was no different. There's no need for me to go on about how much I love this place. Let's just leave it as this: Dewey is a two-visit brewery when we're in the area for more than two days. 

I decided to dive into the fruited sours this time around (as Brewslut did on Friday night). First up was Secret Machine - Strawberry Angel Food Cake. I had a swig of this one on Friday and it was quite delicious, so I felt obligated to enjoy a full pour of my own. This tastes like sweet strawberry shortcake with vanilla icing. Of course, it was brewed with more than 30 lbs. of angel food cake! 

There's no bread, let them eat (er, drink) cake!

Similar to its Secret Machine series, Thrills is another line of heavily fruited sour beers offered by Dewey that are equally as delicious. To be honest, I'm not even sure what the difference is between these two lines. Perhaps one of them uses lactose and the other doesn't. Whatever the case may be, this particular Thrills beer I samples, Strawberry, Mango, Orange was pretty damn impressive. Citrusy and tangy with a thick, fleshy mango character, this smoothie-like beer was delicious and surprisingly multi-dimensional. While the mango character was the dominant flavor, the orange and strawberry complemented the tropical-forward bent of this beer, making for an enjoyable quaff. End result? This stuff goes down waaaaaay to easliy! 

I couldn't leave without ordering something on the hoppy side of the spectrum. After the one-two fruit punch of the aforementioned beers, it was time for Victorious Secret, an IPA brewed hopped with Galaxy, Motueka and Vic Secret. This one features wheat flakes in the malt bill to elicit a fluffy mouthfeel. After the fruit overload I experienced from my previous two beers, it was nice to quell the sweetness with some serious hops, and this beer did not disappoint. And with that, it was time to retire for the evening and head back to Taylor's and wind down another enjoyable visit to Delmarva.

Pleeps knows the end of the trip is near.

Back to Taylor's, things definitely started going south. After drinking all day, we decided to crack open several more beers, including a relatively new DFH beer called Horkin' Heapload, a 9.1% ABV Imperial IPA. We also dug into more Marc Ribbilet videos on YouTube and carried on throughout the evening with plenty of laughing, drinking, and talking. After a while, this is what that looks like... 

Shots are seldom a good idea after drinking all day.

Post-script: We decided to just hightail it back home on Monday and grab some dinner at Tröegs. Breweries are seldom open on Mondays (consider it the "weekend" for bartenders and brewery staff), and the ones that are typically open around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I was anxious to try our new Scratch release, Scratch #429 - Pale Bock. I feel one of our fortes as a brewery is making great lagers, and this one was solid. The combination of Vienna and Munich malt is coupled with a robust fermentation with our tried-and-true House Lager yeast. At 8% ABV, this one was quite quaffable and boasted notes of honey, saltine crackers and fresh baked biscuits. 

Well kids, that wraps things up for this adventure in Delmarva. Tune in next time for another installment of the Pour Travelers blog, which will take us to nearby Cherry Hill, NJ, and Philadelphia, PA, for our annual winter beer trek to one of our favorite nearby beer regions. Until next time...