Lancaster County, PA

I recently spent a week up in Lancaster, County PA for my thirteenth anniversary, where the Mrs. and I managed a couple of pints. We stayed in a nice little B&B in Ephreta that had a small brewery attached, spent Saturday in Lititz before coming back to Ephreta for the evening, and then spent the morning and had lunch in Lancaster on Sunday before heading home to pick up the kids and rejoin the rat race.  Here's a quick review of the pubs and breweries, in order of the amount of time we spent in each (a rough proxy of quality).

Regulars at Black Forest. This was unexpected.

Black Forest Brewery
We got in to Ephreta just before closing time, so we slipped into the brewery attached to our B&B before checking in (the number one reason we spent so much time here). It's a super-cosy bar, supposedly modeled on a Bavarian hunting lodge, that always seemed to have a couple of regulars (good sign in my mind). While the I found the beer quality variable, I didn't mind too much given the convenience to our room and the fact that their best beers were some of our favorite styles. The Mrs. enjoyed their solid APA, while I enjoyed the excellent brown ale. A pint of each was a nice introduction to the property, and we went to bed early.  The next evening we were back and tried some more, including getting a tasting flight.  The very popular NEIPA wasn't bad. I thought the amber and kolsch were good, but not enough to forego getting the brown for my full pint after the flight. The standard IPA didn't have much going on (I'm guessing age or oxidation or both knocked out the aroma and flavor).

Honesty compels me to state that, at one point they put on an Octoberfest that was...well, something was wrong with that one. So, some good beer, some decent beer, some not-so-great beer, one dumpster fire, and a very excellent brown. There would be worse fates than to have this as your local.  You could pretend you were at a microbrewery in 2005 and enjoy the well-made beer while avoiding the bad ones, but you'd hope they'd get their quality control in hand before they went under. 

Bull's Head Public House

Like a moth to flame.

If I'd known about this place, I might have gone out of my way to spend so much of our only completely free day there. As it was, Providence ensured that we ended up doing just that. Super cozy with a legitimate pub setup, complete with separate rooms, from rough and ready at the bar, to chintz-and-carpet, to some place that focused on wine that I didn't mess with.  With all the tasting rooms stapled onto the side of industrial spaces these days, the atmosphere was strikingly pleasant. If I were in the area again, and wanted to stay in a smaller town, the attached General Sutton Hotel would be a top choice. Sure, it was contrived, but at some point if contrived is done well enough, it's just well done.

Amazing Cricket Hill APA in cask was the best pint of the trip. One of only a few Cask Marque pubs in the country (a visit here gets you 33% of Cask Marque pubs in the states, I think). Also had Timmermans Oud Gueze, which was perfectly kept, and a few tastes besides.

They have two casks and about a dozen rotating taps, organized by style. That's small for the amount of volume they are doing, so the kegs are fresh. They actually kicked a couple of kegs and changed the list while we were there on more than one of the taps, so I wonder if they weren't using sixtels for the less-popular styles to keep things from going stale. There's a wall of cicerone certs and the staff  is obsessed with beer. Amazing. Not joking, I signed up for a Yelp account to give them five stars. I found out when I looked them up to write this that I'm not the only one to think this.

Best, most-knowledgeable service of the trip. Wonder why?

Besides the beer, I had a solid helping of bangers and mash. The gravy was perfect, and the sausages were very well made, clearly not just some cheap sausages thrown on instant potatoes (not that I would turn my nose up at cheap sausages, but instant potatoes are the devil's work). My wife has several food allergies, and they went out of their way to find something that would work for her (turns out, pork pies are dairy and egg free). 

Simply amazing experience. My only complaint is that it's a 3-hour drive from my front door, so it'll have to be a seasonal experience.

Lancaster Brewing Company
So, peanut butter pale ale shouldn't taste good, right? Right? Why...what...why is this so good? The Shoofly Porter (presumably that buttery taste was molasses, as in the classic Shoofly Pie) was also...damn it all...excellent. If you don't spend your time wallowing in the homebrew-style experimental beers that are so well-balanced they make you question your otherwise firmly-held prejudices, you can also enjoy some quality American bar food and more-classic styles. Oh, and unless you specify something smaller, you're getting a 20 ounce Imperial Pint, like the good Lord intended.

I sorely wish I'd had a full day to spend here.  This was the last place we hit, and I was surprised to find Lancaster to be city-like, rather than small town, and I wished we'd had more time to explore. If I were to visit the area again and wanted a city vibe, a hotel nearby would be in top contention. Google maps tells me there are a number of smaller breweries that appear to all be in walking distance of downtown....hmmmmm.

St. Boniface.
So, a number of folks recommended this brewery in Ephreta, but I'm not going to. I enjoyed the Wynfred, a very tasty dark mild clocking in at 3.2% abv that's a year-round offering. So many more places need to have a well-done, roasty sub-4% crusher on hand at all times that I want to say "go there," but the spot just lacks charm.  Packed to the gills tasting room in an industrial spot, one cashier, no table service. The big pretzels were good, too. Shame. Didn't stick around for any more beer, but I hear they're quite good. To be fair, we were coming back from the Bulls Head, so the difference was shocking and I was on an anniversary trip where ambiance mattered. Romance is important, damn it. If it were more comfortable, I'd have stuck around, as the beer was good. Instead, I sucked back my Wynfred and shoveled in the pretzels as fast as possible and went back to the Black Forest to drink more of their brown and American Pale in comfort.

JoBoys
Whoa boy. Service here was ... not great. I walked up to the bar after seeing they had a cask of dark mild, and the bartender's response was "want to try it? I don't know what that is." What it was was completely flat. I don't mean American-who-expects-keg-beer-and-thinks-cask-beer-is-flat-flat. I mean completely still.  It's a shame, as I could tell the beer had promise, otherwise. After that, I got taster portions of the stout (thin and tart), porter (meh), and baltic porter (also thin...overcarbonated and cold, but also just not that well done). I'm glad I didn't try the barbecue, because there are only so many traditions a man can see butchered in one, 20-minute sitting. The only good thing about this place was that my lovely wife suggested we go to that pub with the Bull's Head sign down the way afterwards.