This post is super overdue, but better late than never right?
It was a beautiful and warm day to beer venture in the great and sometimes smelly state of New Jersey. Since moving here last September, we had not visited anything further south than the BeachHaus in Belmar. Now I know what you’re thinking, you went to Belmar for a brewery when D’jais is right there?! Yeah, well D’jais is a one and done. If you have yet to experience the right of passage that is D’jais, you should totally go around noon on a Sunday. Or Monday, or Tuesday… or any day of the week. Are people employed in this state? It’s a literal sh*t show every day.
Anyways, Melissa had quite the adventure planned for us today; 7 new breweries. No, Kane and Carton were not on the list; we hit them last time. And yes, I do think Carton is better than Kane. Yeah, those are fighting words in this state and I’m sticking to my guns here. Kane has an impressive array of styles at any given moment and many brought on the funk, but the brews were wildly inconsistent and ranged from amazing to undrinkable. Carton on the other hand, seemed to focus on a handful of brews and perfect them all. Right, back to the actual post.
First up was the popular agriculture simulation video game series which came long before Farmville Harvest Moon Brewery & Cafe of New Brunswick, NJ. This full service brewpub is perfectly placed in a bustling downtown shopping district and within walking distance of the Rutgers-New Brunswick. The bar area is a spacious “L” shape and there is plenty more seating upstairs for the lunch and dinner rush. We’ve already eaten a hearty breakfast so we skipped the food and went straight for the brew.
There was average wheelhouse of beers one would normally find at a brewpub but our flight was flanked by two outstanding items which we recommend: Lunar Landing #1 and Mare Nectaris. Lunar Landing #1 is a double IPA with an overly sweet after taste, like candy. Even Melissa, the anti-IPA, found it rather enjoyable. Mare Nectaris was a rather impressive pear beer. I’m not entirely sure how they did it, but it tasted exactly like a prickly pear. It was a little too sour for my taste, but Melissa loved it.
Harvest Moon is a quaint brewpub in a bustling downtown area. Although we enjoyed our flight, there were only two beers we considered above average, and only one of which really impressed us. Harvest Moon Brewery & Café of New Brunswick earns itself 3 waning crescents out of 5.
With a name like Village Idiot Brewing Company, can anyone really resist making a pit stop in the good ol’ town of Mount Holly? Upon entering you need to cash in for tokens, which we loathe. But don’t let the tokens detract from your experience because behind the madness that is tokens was a plethora of beer. If you’re a fan of stouts you will be in for a treat.
Since there was a lot of beers on tap, and we’re early into our adventure we played bartenders choice. The Hoptimizer, Raspberry Blond, Abbaye Normale, Monkey’s Breath – Banana Bread, Berliner Weibe, and the Thong Remover Tripel were served. The Abbaye and Raspberry Blond were not the best brews on the menu. The raspberry lacked fruit flavors and the abbaye claims it’s a dubbel, but it did not taste very Belgian like by our standards. The Hoptimizer was a well-balanced citra IPA that I could drink all day, but I say that about every well-balanced citra IPA. The Berliner wasn’t the sourest Berliner we’ve ever had so Melissa was a tad disappointed, but it was still flavorful and more palatable for people who don’t enjoy warhead style sours.
We had held out hopes for the Thong Remover, which is a higher abv (10%) but it did not taste very good. Though it does have a great name, and the abv will get the job done if you’re looking to garner a little liquid courage prior to some sort of thong removal; be it on the giving or receiving end. Lastly was the local favorite, and most popular beer on their menu: Monkeys Breath. This banana bread beer was very similar in flavor and style to the Wells version; if I was a gambling man I’d say Village Idiot made a clone. They do take it one step further by coating the rim in sugar and cinnamon, a gimmick by my standards but Melissa loves the sweet so naturally she rather enjoyed the whole experience.
One last bit about Village Idiot was the awesome TV setup. The TV was a combination menu (with beer remaining status), Twitter, Instagram and Untappd feed. It was fun to see our Untappd posts populate the board in real time and a see a stream of photos and reviews from the past few days. I know it doesn’t add to the beer experience, but from a tech standpoint I loved the concept.
Village Idiot is a happening bar with a large offering of hit or miss brews. Half our flight we really enjoyed, and the other half not so much. If we ever get the chance to go back we will certainly partake in a stout taste test because of the sheer amount of variants they have. This entertaining idiot earns itself a 3.75 out of 5.
Just two minutes down the road from the Village Idiot, and behind a sketchy long alleyway in an industrial park is Spellbound Brewing. Don’t be scared, just follow the signs and walk through the gate to the building and you will be greeted by a spacious tap room and lots of beer. We ordered two flights to share which we agreed were both delicious and full of a good variety of styles and flavors. We had the Peach IPA, Palo Santo Porter, Porter, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, Cherry Belgian Tripel, White Oak IPA and Maple-Peppered Bacon Coffee Porter. They also had a cask beer which was a version of their Palo Santo Porter with vanilla beans which was the unanimous favorite of the day. Other winners were the Cherry Tripel The cask gave the porter a delicious vanilla aroma and flavor that really elevated the original. I was slightly disappointed in the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie as I didn’t get much oatmeal, raisin or cookie taste but points for creativity. We were really fans of the many varied styles and originality of the beers we tried here.
Overall we give Spellbound 4.5 patronuses out of 5.
Continuing with the theme of breweries with moons in their logos, we then made our way to Lunacy Brewing in Magnolia. Lunacy is located in an old print shop with the taproom in the garage. The taproom is open to the outside where there are plenty of lawn sports to keep people entertained for hours! To get to the bathroom you need to walk through the shop floor where some of the old machines are still kept which was pretty cool. It was pretty crowded when we were stopped in and everyone seemed to be having a great time. Their mug club is called the Asylum Club giving you an idea of what kind of people we’re dealing with. As for the beers, we ordered a flight of all their beers because why not? The crew was out of their regular flight glasses so we got a little more than we bargained for but we weren’t complaining! There were three regular IPAs and one double IPA that Andrew enjoyed while I took the Rocket Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout. His favorites were the Sanitarium DIPA and the C-3PA (and not just for the Star Wars reference)
The beers were a little IPA focused for my liking but Andrew definitely recommends this stop for hopheads like himself. Plus the space and the people were all fun and having a great time.
4 cease and desists from Disney
We then made our way to Flying Fish, which is the largest brewery in Jersey. If you’re going to visit, be ready to take a tour before you can taste any beer. And by take a tour I mean watch a three minute video on the brewing process. But they are super serious on the tour taking and being new jersey law I guess they should be. Some people who came in were simply not having any of it and walked out. I don’t get it, stand in front of a screen for a couple seconds, it’s really not that hard. Anyways, the brewery is spacious with a huge taproom with picnic tables a bar and a store. There was a food truck outside which was really tempting. It’s also a dog friendly space. On to the beer. Many of the flying fish is distributed around all of new jersey so we decided to just get a flight of 4 to try to save our livers. We ordered the farmhouse Summer Ale, Daylight Savings IPA, Exit 4 American Trippel, and Exit 18 baltic porter. None of the beers really stand out as too remarkable but I think we agreed that the Exit 4 was our favorite followed closely by Exit 18. After finishing our beers and taking a quick stop in the gift shop for some shirts and a sweet bike jersey on that was only $25 (I guess this is a hint I need to start biking), we headed out to the next stop. Flying fish got of 2.5 exits too early.
And that next stop was Forgotten Boardwalk in Cherry Hill. They were going for a boardwalk theme and definitely nailed it. Skeeball and boardwalk games amidst the barrels in the brewery and a fun outdoor space. I didn’t grow up near the Jersey Shore or a place with a fun boardwalk with shops and games but if you did this place might bring back some good memories (although I did have a skeeball machine in my basement so close enough). There was also a big wheel in the middle right behind the bar to spin, but I’m not quite sure what it was for. I did get to spin it though! On to the beer, we ordered our usual flight for two consisting of Lady 6, The Tourist, She Knew He Was There, Funnel Cake, and Funnel Cake on Nitro and we also had a taste of What the Butler Saw. Despite the name, the Funnel Cake didn’t inspire memories of carnivals and boardwalks, but it was a decent cream ale. I was a fan of Tourist, a light Berlinner Weisse. We agreed that the best beer was What the Butler Saw.
I do enjoy that they have a story and keep the Boardwalk going through the brewery decor and fun beer names.
Forgotten Boardwalk spins a 3.25 out of 5.
Google is one of the best resources a beerventurer could have at their side. Google Photo, Google Maps, Gmail, excel, etc. With that said, Google is also one of the most frustrating tools a beerventurer could have when a minor glitch throws you for a loop. Be it the wrong way down a one way, poorly planned detours that add time instead of bypassing traffic, or the wrong hours listed on google (always check facebook!) The most frustrating one is when you’re searching areas for breweries and google neglects to mention one! This was the case for Double Nickel Brewing Company of Pennsauken, NJ. Originally not part of our planned excursion, we learned about this behemoth of a brewery through word of mouth.
It’s hard to believe that when searching south Jersey for breweries we somehow missed a 21 thousand square foot building with an annual capacity to brew 186,000 gallons of cold, crisp, refreshing malty goodness. With seating capacity (indoor and outside) for a small army, you will never have an issue finding a seat to enjoy a flight.
Beer: Two IPA’s, a winter warmer and a red was available for consumption. The 4.7% Session IPA was light and crisp, and the regular 8% IPA tasted good, but was average. I’m not sure on the hops used in the regular IPA, but it had a really dry finish that I didn’t find very enjoyable. The Brickface Imperial Red IPA was a bold 10% red that in all honesty tried too hard. I know we’re always hit or miss with reds, but this was one of those beers that went pure ABV without much consideration for overall balance. The real winner was the Winter Warmer; Snow Way Out. It was a thick and hearty that left a sweet and slight alcohol burn in the back of the pallet. If you’re curling up next to a fire or drunkenly singing carols, this beverage will be sure to stave off the cold.
Double Nickel is a sweet space with slightly above average brews. The culture and atmosphere leaves much to be desired as it feels very big box-store like, and the beer wouldn’t necessarily appeal to the snobs. But it is worth a stop for a growler of Snow Way Out when that’s in season. This brewery earns 3.25 pennies out of a nickel.
