CulturAle Press

Yonkers (@ Two Roads) Hop Runner India Pale Ale, Stratford, Ct.

Date:  December 14, 2018

The Story—  Yonkers operates a restaurant and, apparently, a small brewery in, well, Yonkers, New York.   They’ve achieved some wider distribution by brewing at other facilities including Mercury in Ipswich, Mass.  (see Dec 11 post on Braven beer) and Two Roads in Stratford, Ct.

Two Roads is huge for a brewery that is barely over five years and especially huge for a start up — 50 barrel kettles and 100 barrel fermentors.   Like Mercury, they had some bumps in the road in their first years of production, but have produced consistently good beers in the last few years.   They’ve acquired a fine reputation among the bars in Massachusetts as well as distributing widely in the north east US.

We still like IPAs but honestly it’s been hard not to be bored by them lately.   The of “Another Effin IPA” from Mad Fox that graced our porch for a few weeks was great — easy drinking, clean, and fairly nice to our heads in the morning.   But it was, as advertised, “another” IPA.   I’m not convinced there are significantly large unexplored territories within the IPA empire; maybe the best we can hope for is another one that’s better than most of the other ones.   This one is.

The Beer—  Creamy chalk starts but it’s rich and tangy with plenty of fruit – stone fruit with hints of tropical fruit.   Chalky and cream remains to smooth the fruity fullness.  An easy drinking IPA with a good balance of 6.4% alcohol and 58 IBUs.

Value — good.  I wouldn’t mind a keg of this on my porch.

 This week we focus on 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 return to  HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Including some surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities” 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 for a few days before ending our year with “the best 10 beers of the last five years.”

 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.