04 Jul The Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Brewing Scene: A Traveler’s Tale
If you have never visited Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, it is definitely worth the trip. The county comprises an area about the size of the greater Indianapolis region and has a city center, dozens of quaint, small towns, and rolling farmland as far as one could imagine. There are railroads, Amish villages, and great restaurants, and attractions in nearly every town. It is also a hotbed of brewing that is growing rapidly. I have family there and spent Mother’s Day weekend visiting many of the breweries. I have made countless trips out, and will quell this article from numerous visits in the hopes of painting a good picture of the brewing scene in Lancaster County.
I’ll start the journey with the Lancaster Brewing Company situated in downtown Lancaster. I have been drinking their beer for years and was a big fan of their Amish Four Grain Pale Ale. On a visit four years ago, I tried one of the best cream ales I have ever had! They bottle, and I have bought their sampler cases several times. On my most recent trip to the brewery, I was treated to a sampler flight that was delicious. While their Milk Stouts and IPA’s are delicious (the Hop Hog IPA is award winning), the standout was the Underlord Acheron which was a limited edition blend of their Russian Imperial Stout and their Winter Warmer, aged in both Bourbon and Rye Whiskey barrels. It was sweet and malty, with pure whiskey on the back end. They make a lot of great beer, and I definitely recommend hitting their tap room for all the stuff they do not bottle!
Heading east to the Amish countryside, one has only to venture to Bird-In-Hand to find the Rumspringa Brewing Company. I visited here on my honeymoon, and my wife and I enjoyed a delicious flight of beer in their upstairs English style pub. I liked the Red Caboose Amber Ale, as well as the Wild Oats Stout. We enjoyed the atmosphere and bought a sampler glass to remember the place.
Heading north, we enter the area I call the heartland of Lancaster County Brewing. At the very top of the county lies Adamstown, home of the Stoudts Brewing Company. They have been producing fine craft beer since 1987, and I have been buying their mixer cases for well over a decade. Their female Brewmaster, Carol, is nicknamed the “Queen of Hops!” The standout beers for me include the Scarlet Lady ESB and the high gravity Fat Dog Stout. If you make it to the brewpub, they have excellent food and a lot of special beers on tap.
Head south on 222 to historic Ephrata and two breweries beg you to stop. I have not visited the Black Forest Brewery, but I have heard good things about them, and look forward to visiting them on my next trip east. They serve, in their words, “The Tavern Ale,” and I see they have robust Maibocks and Strong Ales.
On the other side of town lies St. Boniface Craft Brewing Company. It was raining heavily when I visited them in May, and could not have asked for a more warm, and inviting taproom. Rose was manning the bar, and I let her put a sampler together for me. It was an excellent display of their work. The Hegemony Stout was a delicious and robust beer, and they also offered a barrel aged version of it. All of their pale ales and IPAs were good, and I have to mention the Arooga’s Session IPA, which is made for a local wing joint of the same name. (I definitely recommend visiting Arooga’s: their Ghost Face Killa sauce is one for the ages!) They also had an Orange Blossom Hefeweizen that was as good as any Hefeweizen I have had. I liked their beer very much, and St Boniface was definitely a good find on the last trip.
Heading west, and then south, the town of Lititz was recently voted “America’s Best Small Town,” and it is a quaint village of antique shops, historic inns—including the Sutter Inn with their Bull’s Head Public House—and great bars, and restaurants. Recently JoBoy’s Brewpub moved from Manheim and serves a nice selection of craft beer alongside Southern Style BBQ. The Appalachian Brewing Company also has a Lititz location, serving the same great food and beer their Harrisburg location is known for.
Heading Southwest, you eventually arrive in the town of Mount Joy, home to Bube’s Brewery. My sister lives nearby, and I have made several trips here. It is located in a historic brewery complex complete with catacombs, and you enter through a sliding barn door. They also have a sprawling beer garden, a full menu, and rotating beers on tap. They were in between brewmasters the last time I visited, so it will be interesting to see what the new brewer comes up with.
Elizabethtown is in western Lancaster county and features the Moo-Duck Brewery, a very unique nano brewery. Mike and Kristen Brubaker love beer, and when I stopped in recently, they had some delicious beer for me to try. The Remedy was a wheat beer made with Chamomile and honey. While the Purple Carp Irish Red was good, I had a version of it that had a soured raisin base, which was amazing. I found it reminiscent of a Flemish Sour Brown. All their other beers are great, and I definitely encourage you to visit Moo-Duck for yourself.
This tour of the Lancaster brewing scene is by no means exhaustive or complete, but it is a fair representation of what’s going on countywide. I visit the county on a yearly basis because I have family there and I look forward to visiting these breweries as well as any others I may find. Should your travels take you to Lancaster County, I encourage you to do the same.
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