The problem with traveling on and around any beautiful weekend in the tri-state area is that you’re always met with frustrating levels of traffic. Luckily, various breweries are dotted far enough away from major highways all across the country if you want to dodge the frustration and don’t mind the scenic back roads. Irving Cliff, Here & Now and Buck Hill just so happened to be perfectly in the middle of no-where on the way back home after a short trip upstate.
Irving Cliff (Honesdale, PA)
The first of two breweries in Honesdale, PA that we stopped at was Irving Cliff. The exterior is a bit misleading because the place looks a bit like a mechanics at a glance but there is now mistaking the huge, well-crafted bar on the inside. It was going to be a bit of a rush day, so we quickly put in an order of food and a flight of four. While we waited for the food and beer we took a gander at the local spirits for sale (Mountain View Distillery) and a great amount of history displayed around the bar; including the history of the original Irving Cliff brewery which was founded in 1851.
We were super pumped for the beer, but we might have been even more pumped for the food because we were practically starving at this point and we still had a long day ahead of us. With that in mind, we ordered something sensible; nacho waffle fries and a loaded dog with a monstrosity of bacon, cheese and chili. Yep, totally sensible.
From least to most enjoyed we had the Dyberry Creek IPA, Dark Chocolate Raspberry Stout, High Gravity Railroad Belgian Quad, and the Honeydew Melon and Cucumber Blonde. The Dyberry Creek was an average IPA. Really can’t remember anything specific about the flavor or profile; it was just average. Beer two and three were a toss-up for second place.
The Dark Chocolate Raspberry Stout was part of their cask series and it was a brilliant blend of dark chocolate flavor and light raspberry notes. The only thing that could have made this better would have been a nitro line. High Gravity Railroad is a 13% quad to the face that earned the title “High Gravity.” If you like stronger beer, this will be for you. Most quads are extremely malty, but this one wasn’t overly so in our opinion. However, the abv is certainly overpowering and you could really only drink a few ounces a sitting.
Our number one pick and another cask series beer was the Honeydew Melon and Cucumber Blonde. Freshly made, this lawnmower beer will have you refreshed even on the hottest days. Normally we’re turned off by the standard blonde; more of a brunette guy myself (bah-dah cheeeeee). Jokes aside, Irving Cliff threw a lot of dew and cumber in there and made an elegant and frankly fantastic brew. This has a hit or miss rating on Untappd, so we’re assuming anyone who had it past the prime drinking date really missed the flavor profiles we enjoyed.
Irving Cliff is your one stop shop in Honesdale for cask brews and hearty meals. Yes, this place also has a dining room if you want to bring the family. Our limited indulgence left us satisfied that should you be 30 minutes North of I-84 and 30 minutes East of I-81 you really would enjoy the stop here. Irving Cliff earns 4 heart attacks out of 5.
Here & Now (Honesdale, PA)
Also in Honesdale, PA and technically not open to the public at the time of our visit is Here & Now Brewing Company. Now how did we swing a private audience with the co-owner Alana and bartender Kurt? Easy, we dropped our credentials! But really though, they were getting ready for a private party and wanted some company before their soft opening party. ☺
Now that the formal introductions were out of the way, Alana put Kurt to work and we learned the story of how Here & Now came to be; which boiled down to home brewers and chefs came together to make a brewpub. Our favorite parts of listening to owners stories are always the legal complications and hiccups along the way; Federal, State and local liquor laws are still a pain despite all the progress we’ve made. It was no surprise that Here & Now also experienced its fair share of setbacks due to government interference.
As we were heading into their soft opening, we decided to pick two half pours and make a quick exit. We chose Le Dale farmhouse and When Chickens Fly pale ale. Le Dale was a true farmhouse saison; funk and all. Obviously it takes a certain person to enjoy the barnyard taste and smell in a carbonated beverage; an acquired taste that I appreciate. When Chickens Fly is a 7.5% abv pale which I believe was a one off judging by the lack of untapped check-ins. Which is a shame, because this pale packed a peculiar potent punch.
At the time of writing this, Here & Now brewing of Honesdale, PA has been open for some time and I hope they’re doing well. Even though we only had the privilege of two drinks here, and none of the food we’re confident that the level of commitment to their craft has only improved. We were lucky to be there & then to experience the pleasure of Here & Now; they earn a 4 out of 5.
Buck Hill Brewery & Restaurant (Blairstown, NJ)
On a hot 4th of July, we caught ourselves kayaking in Lake Hopatcong. The lake itself is an overcrowded, completely landlocked and murky mud pit in Northern NJ; but apparently a NJ boat enthusiast’s paradise. Now, I’m not a huge fan of kayaking, or lakes, or the water for that matter so the entire morning I was more interested in what we were to do after the sun had thoroughly baked me to a crisp. And it really wasn’t a far stretch that I would end up driving Melissa and I to a new brewery in Blairstown, NJ. Buck Hill Brewery & Restaurant.
The large, blue building has an impressive door but an even more impressive interior. The grander of the hunting lodge-esque brewery is quite captivating; and oh sh*t we forgot the 360 cam. Taking seats at the long communal high-top across from the bar we slowly went down the list of 10 tapped beers before choosing our flight of 6. Flights only come in 4 or 6 here; and there is absolutely no sampling the beers prior to purchase. There was also a full bar, with wine and guest taps.
In no particular order we had the Nutty Professor brown ale, Booty Chaser IPA, Drop Tine Tripel, BH Bullet Bourbon stout, Jay’s Spare Tire lager (amber?), and a collab beer named Czig Hill Buck Mister. At first, we had thought we had the flight order backwards when we went down the list sampling and untapping. And then we thought maybe the beers were just place haphazardly. But even after throwing out the order and blindly trying to identify by taste and style we couldn’t really identify the beers either. Then we thought just maybe we were given the wrong flight. But that couldn’t be, the other flight that was poured roughly at the same time only had 4 beers, not 6.
After we ironed out what we could, we came to a fork of conclusions: either we received the incorrect beer, or that the beers must be the brewers work in progress as this is a new brewery. So we combed through untappd looking for photo evidence, and discovered that some other drinkers came to the same two conclusions that we did. The following is our honest feedback for the second eventuality.
- Booty Chaser: Didn’t taste like 9%, so the abv is rather well hidden or the content wasn’t that high. It had its fair share of hops, and I did enjoy the beer. We’re also partial to barley wines if that’s what you’re shooting for.
- Czig Hill Buck Meister: We’re no experts on altbiers, but when stacking it against the style guidelines on BA, it fell short in both malt and hop flavor.
- Drop Tine Tripel: This was a beer on the flight that we could not identify. Nothing on the flight really resembled the style so through process of elimination we reached a conclusion.
- BH Bullet Bourbon Stout: We only had minor hints of oak or potentially bourbon; it was too weak to tell. The barrel was either out of flavor or not enough chips were introduced.
- Jay’s Spare Tire: This was another beer that we couldn’t quite decide where it fit on the flight.
- Nutty Professor: We actually really liked this beer, so you certainly hit the 12 point on this one.
We hope that the beer at Buck Hill continues to improve over the course of these next few months, as we are more than interested in returning shortly to try the food which looked and smelled extremely enticing. Scoring for Buck Hill of Blairstown, NJ will be reserved for a later date.
