It’s finally day three and we’re headed off Strong Island in classic beerventurer fashion; hitting more breweries on the way home.  With a gas tank depleting, wallet almost empty and ez-pass toll expenses skyrocketing, we of course had to make the trip back worth it.  So Melissa broke out the maps and did some quick planning to maximize our bang for the buck and came up with five breweries to hit on the way home.

Black Forest Brew Haus (Farmingdale, NY)

Every now and again we are privileged to hit a brewery that has withstood the test of time by catering to the local populous tastes through solid suds and community involvement. Black Forest Brew Haus is one of those establishments. Founded in 1998, this German-centric brewpub offers a wide array of food from traditional items like Wiener Schnitzel to hipster and vegetarian friendly Portobello mushroom burgers. Unfortunately, we had some classic L.I. diner food that morning with Kait, so we sadly didn’t partake in any schnitzel. But we of course had room for a flight of bier. A standard Black Forest flight has room for 5, but sadly they only had 4 drafts up so we had to double up on our favorite. They had an amber, hefeweizen, chocolate porter and a pilsner available for consumption this morning. Nothing crazy going on here, just some classic good ol’ fashioned malty beverage. The amber and hefeweizen were our low to average rating. The amber claimed it possessed a medium body and caramel flavor but we found it on the thin side lacking in caramel. The hefeweizen we know and love produces more of a banana flavor, but in this sample we, sadly, found very little banana to be had. Maybe the yeast they’ve cultivated has run its course, or perhaps we just had a bad batch. Or, this is the taste the locals prefer. After all, BFBH has been in business since 1998 and I’m sure it’s because of repeat customers drinking this hefe mashing on a schnitzel. The chocolate porter offered us a sweet 6.3% easy drinking bier. Normally we would seek more smoke from a porter, but we’re not going to complain because there was only a small bitter on the backend in this well polished porter. The prize of the flight was the Pilsner. Love them, or hate them, a well-made pilsner will taste a little earthy and sweet but drink go down like water. The OG of the pilsner style is non-other than Pilsner Urquell. While we didn’t stack these two side by side, I’m confident that Black Forests pilsner can hold its own against the gold standard Urquell.

Black Forest doesn’t have the most impressive array of beer for a snob or adventurer, so if you’re seeking the bold you will probably skip by this brew haus. If you’re looking for traditional German fare on the island and a pint to wash it down I can say you won’t find anything more established than BFBH. They earn 3.25 brats out of 5.

Lithology Brewing Co. (Farmingdale, NY)

Farmingdale seems to be a popular LI town for breweries, which is great for beerventuring. Not only is Black Forest located here, but it’s only a few minutes away from our next two stops; Lithology and Barrage.

Lithology hadn’t even opened up the front door when we showed up. We were standing out front, shivering in the cold albeit sunny day and we had to knock on the window while the bartender was cleaning up to let him know that hey, its 1:01, time to let us in. With the crisis of freezing averted, we skimmed the 9 drafts on the wall and picked 8 that sounded appealing; 2 of which were guest taps.

In order from least to most favorite we had TMP Cream Ale, Designated Hitter pale ale, the Brown ale, Water Mill Imperial Holiday Ale, LB IPA, and Sour Ops farmhouse. The cream, hitter and brown were your average style demonstrations with not much else going on. The Water Mill Imperial Holiday ale is where things got interesting. Although listed as a pumpkin/yam beer on untappd, it’s actually a roasted squash beer with only a bit of pumpkin and a splash of maple syrup. Sitting at 8.3% and only 25 IBU, this malty goodness was sweet, and had minimal bite that was well hidden.

The LB IPA was a standard IPA according to Melissa, but my bias knocked the score up a few notches. Although it only had 6.3% abv it had a whopping 92 IBUs which is usually the float around DIPA status. The bitter was there, but the alcohol flavor was not; which satisfied my hopcentric pallet by not overwhelming us with booze notes. Melissa and I reached an agreement on Sour Ops; best beer here. Since it was a farmhouse, it did have that barn-esq wheat flavor but the sour itself wasn’t pungent and face squinting. The abv, 7%, was noticeable however. If we we’re to make a suggestion, we would say to knock the abv back just a tad. Other than that, it was a great sour by upstate NY standards (we love the farmhouse style).

Lithology has a very quaint tap room. It’s modest size and decor makes it feel small town and upstate; it feels like home. The beer variety of house and guest taps means you will find something you like even if you don’t enjoy the finer things in life like a good craft. If you’re passing though and have the time, Lithology will be great stop, if you’re beerventuring through and crunched for time list this one as a maybe. Lithology earns 4 roasted squashes out of 5.

Plastic ware on the island

Long Island Rant: What the f*ck is up with the plastic cups? We’ve never had so much plastic from one beerventure. I get it, people steal sample glasses or they break and yeah you have to wash them. But plastic samples, plastic pints? A lot of breweries are adopting environmentally friendly policies, so why has this not hit the island yet? Granted my own carbon footprint is probably terrible as well, but I can’t help but to wonder if some places are even trying. Also, it just doesn’t feel proper and plastic ware ruins our Instagram shots 😉

Barrage Brewing Company (Farmingdale, NY)

Also in Farmingdale, NY, Barrage brewing company has setup in the classic industrial park with an easy to miss driveway. This micro-brewery might be an easy place to miss from the road, but if you’re a beerventurer or snob, we guarantee it is on your hit list already. What made this brewery so special? Well it’s not the tiny taproom or beer line out the door that’s for sure.

The beer:

• McLaughlins Folly, Tribal Cow, Devil Whisper and Yada Yada Yada.
• McLaughlins Folly – Oatmeal raisin vanilla Stout
• Tribal Cow – Toasted coconut caramel milk stout
• Devil Whisper – Cappuccino tiramisu milk porter
• Yada Yada Yada – The flagship beer. Chocolate peanut butter caramel brown ale

The least favorite was McLaughlins. We would have liked to see more vanilla and a chewier beer. The other three brews taste exactly as described and Yada Yada Yada could be one of our favorite brown ales of all times. Really the only change we would like to see in these beers is adopting a nitro line for all of them. I’m sure you’re wondering, are there IPAs or other types of beer here? Yes. Yes there are. Crazy Stupid Fine is their NE style juice bomb IPA that was unavailable when we were there but we’ve heard nothing but great things about.

Barrage makes great beer and it should be on your list. While we can’t vouch for the IPAs or other styles, they get strong scores on Untappd and we can believe the hype. Barrage Brewing Company fired all cannons and earned 4.35 sunken ships out of 5.

Barrier Brewing Company (Oceanside, NY)

Finally left Farmingdale and moved onto Oceanside, NY. Equally as hard to find as Barrage, Barrier Brewing Company is down a service road and is wedged in front of a scrap yard and manufacturing plant. The turn into the brewery is also super easy to miss as it’s a shitty intersection next to train tracks. Let your GPS do the work, but keep an eye for Access Road. Good luck finding parking.

This hipster, skater-punk style brewery certainly has character and is a change up from most of the places we visited on the island. It feels down and dirty and we liked it. The chalk art of the late Carrie Fisher was also pretty clutch. But we’re here for the beer.

The chalkboard menu had 8 different beers available, 4 different styles and 2 unique sounding beers. We got the Uncle Boons Brew, Icculus Kolsch, Money IPA, Frau Blucher Rauchbier and Tanto IPA. The Uncle Boons Brew is a unique Thai chili beer made specifically for a “funky, hipster café” named Uncle Boons. It is a Bangkok style eatery on the corner of Spring and Elizabeth street in lower Manhattan. The beer itself was light on the chili and probably would have paired better with food and not just other beer. The Icculus Kolsch was an average kolsch beer; malty and clean.

Money IPA, one of their flagships was supposed to have us partying like a rockstar according to the untappd slogan. At 7.3% and 95 IBU, I don’t think we would be popping bottles and dancing on tables but it was good for sipping. However, we felt this was the lesser of the IPAs when stacked directly against Tanto; another IPA that sits at 7.1%. In our opinion save your money on Money and get the Tanto if that’s an option. Last we had the Frau Blucher; a Rauchbier. I believe we’ve already discussed Rauchbier but if you forgot: A Rauchbiers malt is dried over an open flame (or kiln fired) to produce a smoky characteristic. The body of Frau Blucher tasted like it wanted to be a porter, but was more of thick, caramel/red ale. We didn’t love it, but we certainly appreciated it.

Barrier Brewing Company of Oceanside, NY has character and would be a blast for groups. Parking was a little sketchy, but we can’t hold that against them. The beer was average to slightly above average with nothing we tried giving us the “wow” factor. The Uncle Boon and Tanto were our two favorite so you should definitely try them if you get the chance. Barrier earns a should visit 3.83 out of 5.

Finback Brewery (Ridgewood, NY)

We’ve had a whale of a tale during our L.I. excursion so we had to end it right with a whale of a beer. Queens, NY is home to the very popular, super hipster, whale beer extraordinaire Finback Brewery. All aboard the hype-train kids; its beer time.

12 house drafts available, 5 different styles and all we had time and room for were 5. In no specific order we had the MK Ultra, Red Shift, Green Star, The Sun is Too Bright, and Parallelogram.

• Parallelogram – Our lowest scored beer. It’s a classic Belgian that’s been dry hopped but not to the point of punishing or hop head status. Melissa liked this IPA more than I did, probably because it aligned itself more with its Belgian brethren.
• MK Ultra – It’s a dry hopped (lemondrop and simcoe) DIPA with some melon tones. I believe this is one of their flagships and has an 8.5% abv. Not sure what a lemondrop hop is, but we liked it.
• The Sun is Too Bright – This is where our sour story starts. This is a black gose brewed with lemon peel and aged for 10 months in red wine barrels. The wine flavor is definitely there. We didn’t really taste the lemon peel though because the wine and sour was certainly overpowering. But we didn’t mind at all.
• Green Star – This next gose had an extremely light body but a fair amount of tartness. The beer itself was brewed with lime and sea salt and advertised itself as a margarita flavored beer. This is probably as close as you can get to a beergarita without adding actual margarita.
• Red Shift – The last beer on the flight, Red Shift sour ale brewed with cranberry and yuzu (a weird looking lemon thing). This beer was quite frankly delicious in all aspects. The cranberry was there, and it wasn’t an overly soured pucker of a bite. I imagine the yuzu was there too, but we had no basis of comparison.

This minimalist, large industrial building contains several barrels of aging beers produced from the 20 barrel system in the back. If you’re a huge fan of sours and IPAs, Finback will be a must hit on your brewery list. Although they did produce other styles like stouts (including Between the Dead Imperial Stout; a dedication to the late Harambe), you can clearly tell by glancing around the room that they are not the premier sellers. Either way, grab your harpoon and lower the boats. Finback Brewery earns a white whale status of 4.75 out of 5.

So that’s the end!

We had a blast in L.I. From racing in the freezing cold, to drinking beer in the freezing cold and having a laugh with friends in the freezing cold there is certainly a lot of fun to be had on the island. Maybe we will have to head back out when the weather warms up. But as always, beerventuring isn’t just about the beer (or the weather), but the people and experiences we have along the way.

Our recommendations should speak for themselves but if you have any questions hit us up on Instagram or leave a comment below.
-Andrew & Melissa