Well, Tuesday found us at Rehoboth Beach, DE and our “vacation” part of the trip…kind of. We get to town and go straight for the DogFish Head Brewery, right on the main drag. This is where it all started kids! It’s also the home of their new distillery. We got lunch, and Devon ordered a Lawnmower Light and Afternoon Delight… the latter is only on tap of the brewpub and is a fairly light summer beer… it was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit out, so this was a good choice. Jeff, conversely, went with a 90 Minute Imperial IPA (hey it’s not going to get any fresher) I believe the next words out of Jeff’s mouth were straight from the movie Anchorman, “It’s so damn hot out! 90 Minute IPA was a bad choice!” Jeff moved on to a Shelter Pale Ale next… much better. Afterwards, we went to find a campground, set up camp, and then it was back to the strip.
We hit up an Irish pub next to DFH where we chatted up the bartender. After hearing of our journey, he directed us to Arena’s Deli down the street. I know, I know… “A deli?” you ask… This deli, though, had over 100 beers in the bottle and a good tap selection too… We had some great beer and dinner there at a low price, then went to have a last beer at DFH. Jeff snagged a Midas Touch while Devon had a 1 year old Burton Baton from the vintage fridge. Finally, it was back to the camp site where we built a fire and had the growler of Triumph Honey Wheat in our newly acquired Flying Fish glasses… Mmmm... Think the DFH brewpub was cool?
Our final stop for Monday was SlyFox in Royersford, on recommendation from a friend. We got there in time for happy hour and half-price pints… mmmm… We ordered and started chatting up the bartender. After telling her about our journey and how we had been unable to contact people at SlyFox but were there on specific recommendation, she got her manager, Jimmy, who gave us a great tour.
We saw the brewery in back, their huge warehouse, and enough Phoenix Pale Ale to make a grown man cry… This may be the greatest pale ale I have ever tasted! We also met Brian O’Reilly, the head brewer, who was a great guy. We also found out they have plans to soon distribute to Massachusetts… Folks, if you see any of their beer BUY IT! I kid you not, it’s that good. After you buy it, call me up and we can drink it together.
Anyway, after the tour we continued to speak with Jimmy and he bought us a pint at the bar… This is when I discovered the 113 IPA, a most delicious IPA! We then had a sampler of all the beers they had on tap. If I had to pick one place to go back to from this entire trip, SlyFox would be it. Everything was utterly stupendous! After leaving, we walked around for a while (to repeat NEVER drink craft beer and drive!). Then headed off to Devon’s cousin’s house for a good nights rest before our drive to Delaware the next day.
When we got to Flying Fish Brewing in Cherry Hill, NJ, we knocked on the door, to which somebody answered “Are you Jeff Wharton?” Luckily, I was! We got a tour from John Berardino, the Director of Brewery Operations, and got to talk to Casey Hughes, the Head Brewer.
John showed us the warehouse (where we saw more cases of beer and kegs than Devon and I saw in college combined) and the brewing facility, where we saw the end of the mash beer they were brewing that day. We ended up tasting a few of their choice drafts, and picked up a good variety of their beer, as you can’t get it up here in Boston.
We’ve known for a while that people in the beer scene are nice, but it was right around now that it was starting to hit me just how cool this crowd really is! Jay did a favor and made a phone call to get us into another brewery, where John and Casey took time out of their busy days to give us a private tour. And that’s not the end of it for the tour… I love this stuff!
Monday, we arrived at Triumph brewing in New Hope, PA… And I mean “arrived” in the loosest of manners, as River Horse and Triumph are, oh, about half of a mile apart. It’s not like we had far to go. Jeff had contacted Jay Misson, the head of brewing operations for Triumph, ahead of time and we were lucky enough that he was able to give us a private tour of the facilities.
We saw the whole shebang, including their walk-in storage refrigerator where Jay gave us a few choice gifts to remember the visit by. We can’t wait for a cool autumn night to crack those open! (UPDATE: We recieved a bottle of the Imperial Russian Stout and the Winter Bock, 750's each... We opened the IRS when I moved into a new apartment and threw a party for my friends. WOW! Triumph produces one of the best IRS's I have ever had. When we travelled to Sly Fox IPA Fest in December, we actually made sure to stop at Triumph to try the IRS on tap and were NOT disappointed. Devon and I were accompanied by our friend, Brian. The IRS was on Nitro tap, and it was as phenomenal as we remembered. If you're ever in town for the winter months, definitely stop in and try this beer!)
Anyway, after the tour we went to grab seats, some lunch, and a sampler of their beers which included: honey wheat, Irish red ale, German pilsner, Irish dry stout, IPA, saison, mild ale, and Irish red ale on cask. I know this is getting repetitive, but we were lucky as once again everything was great, and we even got a growler of the wheat and saison, our personal favorites! Also, while talking with Jay, he asked if we were planning to hit up Flying Fish Brewery. We said we would, but they weren’t doing tours that day. It turns out he knows the owner, and put in a phone call for us.
We walked into the brewpub, and sidled right up to the bar. It was time for some good dinner, and better beer. We each order a beer sampler… supposed to be any 6 types I believe. The bartender took one look at the shirts, knew exactly what we were there for, and gave us the full line-up of all 8 beers… Time for some tasting! We had: golden ale, hefeweizen, zomerbier, lambic, blueberry currant beer, ESB, brown ale, and oatmeal stout.
Wow, what a lineup! The beer was tasty, as was the food. We took a couple hours to walk around town after this (NEVER drink craft beer and drive!), all the while making calls to find a place to sleep that night. We ended up camping a few towns over.
Articles 
