Berlin Brewing Company (Berlin, NJ)
Take me out to the ball game, take me into the bar… well, in this case brewery. Berlin Brewing Company of Berlin, NJ is a baseball themed brewhouse in the radius of Phillies territory; about 30 minutes from the stadium (without traffic). Of the 10 tap system capacity, there were 8 house brews available, and 1 soda! If you’ve ever read any of my other posts, you already know we have an affinity for house soda so I’m not going to dive into this one here.
It was also getting late, and it’s now dinner time so we ordered a pizza from across the street and had it delivered. Taco Pizza from Scotto Pizza certainly hit the spot with our flight of 8. Per usual, I’m going to highlight our favorite 4.
- The Boro Kolsch was a classic representation of the traditional German ale sitting at an enjoyable 5.8%. It was crisp, and mildly sweet, and was just a good tasting beer.
- Next up was the Abbey Dubbel; a Belgian Dubbel if it needed any introduction. The dark amber body and character was also a true to classic representation; and it didn’t straif out of the realm of safety. Kolsch and Dubbel purists can rejoice at the news; and don’t forget to let me know your opinion because we’re no experts.
- The Humble Bitch Strong Ale was a little weaker than the word strong would have us believe. Sitting at a cozy 7.3%, this Humble Bitch had more bark than bite because we’ve seen this style climb as high as 27% (Samuel Adams Utopias). But this is no Utopias, and to compare it to such is like apples and oranges. The American Strong was weak in the abv yes, but made up for it with some fruity notes (plum maybe?) and it was smooth drink all the way down.
- Lastly, Berlin Brewing Company pulled off what very few breweries have ever attempted. They made, in my opinion, the perfect Earl Grey Beer called “The Grey Earle”. Yes, like the tea. I really have no idea how they did it, nor could I take a stab at their process but they did it and it was certainly the most interesting brew of the night (and possibly weekend). If the brewers at Berlin ever read this, please can/bottle and send some upstate to the Morristown area; and let me know where it ends up.
Berlin Brewing Company had a few ok offerings, a few good offerings, and one exceptional offering. Even though the Earl Grey did send it with a homerun, the rest of the team didn’t pull their own weight. Berlin ended up losing the game 3.5 to 5; which I guess is still technically winning.
Atco Brewing Company (Atco, NJ)
Just down the street from Berlin Brewing was Atco Brewing Company of Atco, NJ. This brewery had the Yankees game on (“Thank God” – Melissa) and a wide variety of what I’ve been told are excellent IPAs. Being that this was the last stop of the night, we also went for another round of 8 samples. I figured we would stay late anyway since Melissa struck up a conversation about the Yankees, and was rambling off several statistics.
- Piney Pale Ale: The Piney Pale was resin based; piney, hoppy goodness. The color was actually a lot darker than the other pales we’ve had today, but no complaints from me.
- Ugh No C.J.: This was a happy mistake beer from what we gather. Something went awry in the fermentation and now there is some funk. But we liked the funk; it tasted like pineapple. This beer went so far off Atcos baseline, they used “other” in the style field. Never seen that before 🙂 In full disclosure, I liked this beer so much that I got a crowler to go!
- SwellHead: My favorite kind if you ask me. SwellHead DIPA is heavenly hopped with Citra and Mosaic which always makes for a killer combination.
- Kriller: Another mistake-ish beer. Instead of a wild yeast strain running amok in Kriller IPA, the beer was actually missing a key ingredient; orange peels. But I also would not call this a mistake because this well focused IPA didn’t disappoint. As a matter of fact, I got two crowlers of this to go. Melissa was not thrilled that we were bringing back so much beer so early into the trip.
Atco without a doubt, was my favorite brewery of the night. All of the beers listed above were extremely on point, and even the four beers that did not make the cut were also above average. If you’re passing through or near Atco, this stop would certainly be worth your time. Atco earns a solid 4.5 out of 5 home runs. Oh, did I mention that Melissa is still talking baseball while I was untapping and writing tasting notes? Seriously, never get into a fight with her about the sport, she will wreck you.
What is that thing?
You’ve probably noticed by now that we take those awesome photosphere photos for our blog; like 99% of the time unless I forget to take the picture (sorry Atco!). It’s a cool gadget, but we always get asked what the hell we’re doing because many people have never actually seen one of these in the wild. So we usually end up demoing the product on behalf of LG; we should really be sales reps at this point.
The 360 Camera was free with the purchase of an LG phone a while back, and Melissa was lucky enough to get the deal. We’ve noticed that it certainly adds to our google presence by generating traffic to our profile via Google Maps, as well as providing our blog with a unique perspective from our adventures. These photos are also great keepsakes for remembering breweries as they evolve, or become defunct over the years. My only complaint about this model is that the quality isn’t the best, and it becomes more pixelated after uploading it to Google Maps. But considering it was a free piece of technology, I guess we can’t complain.
