Welcoming sign at Pub 27 in Pompeii
Rusty Rail Rail Spike IPA, Mifflinsburg, Pa.
Date: October 26, 2018
The Story— This brewery/hotel alone would justify our efforts to promote “Brews and Snooze” – places you can drink and sleep without moving your car– which we hope to publish in 2019. Germans have an association of brewery/hotels that make drinking and sleeping pretty easy to find. Only a small handful of those places, though, even approach the experience at Rusty Rail.
Rusty Rail is one of the most expensive brewery-hotel complexes we’ve encountered on either side of the Atlantic. It’s worth every single penny. It’s actually not quite a hotel in the usual sense. There is maid service, but no serious breakfast– you best bet is a pair of diners a mile or so down the road. But the rooms are beyond spectacular, redeemed from the upper floor of a former carriage factory morphed into auto bodies manufacturing. Huge suites have great views and an amazing amenities that range from a full size refrigerator- freezer to a washer-dryer (no coins required). A six pack of the beer brewed downstairs greets you when you open the fridge.
>> The kitchen manages a big menu skillfully and bars on two floors recall a Munich beer hall. Happily the beers match the quality of the setting. They’re very strict about the 11 AM departure — and no wonder since any reasonable person would stay all day if he could.
>> Rusty Rail distributes a good deal of its production and has a fine reputation among craft enthusiasts in upstate Pa. We ran into several bottled varieties at the hotel bar in Honesdale (another town where you can sleep at the hotel and walk to two good breweries). The bar staff enthused over them, and we thought they were quite good. They’re even better, of course, on draft at the brewery.
The Beer— The Rail Spike features five hops and most of them show up for roll call. Some metal, some soft fruit, some grass and a touch of spice linger over an even clean malt with light toast. The 7.1% abv could keep this from being a beer you’d pound, but heck, you’re only driving the elevator home.
Value — Very good to excellent. $5.50 for a beer these days is rare, even in upstate Pennsylvania. For a beer this good, it’s even more special
This week we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night. Look for it in 2019.
Next week we’ll present our first Brewery of the Week with seven fine beers from Guinness– most brewed in their spanking new Baltimore location, but a couple of Irish pots of gold as well.
After Guinness we return to HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE– Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.” The best we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.) We’ll shift back to great American beer finds next week.
About these posts: We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year. The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings. Values: “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.
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