Great Beer Weekends in the Mid-Atlantic #8: Chambersburg, Pa. Gear House Brewery, Gear House Liar Liar Rye

Date:  January 23, 2018

The Story— Chambersburg dates from 1764 but a 100 years later it played a critical role in the outcome of the Civil War that rarely makes copy in history books.

When the Confederate Army first surged north to Gettysburg it was careful to target government targets and leave civilians alone as much as possible.  A year later, in an existential, but losing struggle, no holds were barred.   Confederates asked for a massive ransom to spare the town from destruction, and when town couldn’t raise the cash, it became the only northern town to suffer complete destruction in the war.  500 buildings burned, 2000 were left homeless and drunken rebels raided private homes.  One of the few Confederate officers to refuse to participate was arrested.

The burning became something of a cause celeb and some historians claim the brutality gave Sherman and Grant leeway to launch the scorched earth policies that eventually won the war.   Most of the buildings lost were in the northern part of the town, though, and the downtown still earns its designation by the National Register of Historic Places.

You can stroll down avenues with magnificent late 19th century near-mansions to the towns two breweries.

Roy Pitz was the original brewery here in the 2^nd craft wave and entered with a huge splash in this small pond.  In only their second year, they traveled to Washington’s storied RFD Brickskeller tasting and won best in show for their holiday ale.  They since opened a branch in Pilly.  We’ve always had great respect for their dedication and skill.

But the less heralded Gear House blew us away on our last trip.  The brewer learned his craft at Flying Dog, which has graduate more than its share of first class brewers who have moved on to increase the wealth of craft brewing in the states.   It’s a big tasting room/pub and on our visit, it was packed.  For good reason.   Normally on a night when we taste a full range of beers  (we tasted a dozen over the course of the evening), we hope for consistently good beers.  Rarely do we encounter a brewery that can brew an excellent example of several beers, but Gear House does.   Their IPAs and Barley Wines were special, but we chose the strong rye for its distinctiveness.

The Beer— Ellie and I sometimes tussle over a beer and this is one of them.  Not about its quality — we both rated it among the best we had in 2018– but in why we thought it was so good.   I found lots of dankness in the hops, which I love; she just got loads of chewy citrus pine hops and not dank at all.  I’m guessing it’s the play between the hops and the rye that took us in separate pans legs to our conclusions.   Maybe it’s something of a chameleon; perhaps whatever you like most in beer will present itself to you in this exceptional brew.

Value —Very good to Excellent.  At six bucks a (very US) “pint” it’s certainly no giveaway, but a beer this good is almost priceless.

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.

For a couple of weeks, we’re presenting some fun towns to explore and have a beer.   There’s all within a few hours drive if you live in the Mid Atlantic.  Most are near enough a place to stay that you can walk back to your room.  We’ve found these 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 later this year.

Did you miss our Ten Beers for the New Year?  These are full flavored chewy beers for a winter’s night and a good fire — even if it has to be on your cable station.  The links are below.

Jailbreak Coffee Dusk Till Dawn, Tröegs Mad Elf Grand Cru, Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, Boulevard Manhattan Cask Still Ale, Ommegang Game of Thrones Series: Mother of Dragons, Lickinghole Creek Carrot Cake Imperial Amber Ale, Colbitzer Heide-Brauerei Schwarz, Lickinghole Creek One Lion Imperial Stout, Founders Dank Wood,  Stone Woot Stout.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”