Great Beer Weekends in the Mid-Atlantic #6: St. Boniface Imperial Red Ale. Ephrata, Pennsylvania
Date: January 21, 2018
Reasons to Visit: Ephrata Cloister, two breweries in town and several others not far away.
The Story: The Ephrata Cloister was a religious community dating back to 1732. Its members were celibate, however, which is a poor long-term strategy for a community. The last celibate member died in 1813, but the property continued to operate as a church until 1934. The German style stone and half-timbered buildings have been beautifully preserved, restored and maintained and the grounds are really attractive on a pleasant day.
Black Forest is a charming small inn/B&B with its own brewery. Saint Boniface started in the downtown area (such as it is), but moved to a bigger building – and a much bigger brewery a few years ago. You can walk it from the town’s two B&Bs, but it’s just under two miles and most people choose to make the four minute drive instead.
Saint Boniface has an attractive and expansive tap room and virtually unlimited parking in its new more rural location. They serve a huge range of beers and they can or bottle many of them. it’s one of a number of Pennsylvania breweries that’s ideal for a do-it-yourself beer tasting; we have yet to have a beer from them we weren’t glad to try.
We’re not convinced that Imperial Red Ale should really be a style, but the name serves as in introduction to what you’ll be drinking. Red ales can range from British session strength of 4% or even lower to double digit world view changers. Our problem with red ales is that brewers often use Crystal malts that can result in a burned sugar-leathery taste that some people love. We’re not some of those people, though, and we’re grateful to find red ales like this one with clean malt profiles.
The Beer— St. Boniface Imperial Red Ale is a big tasty 8.5% palate full. It claims to have 100 IBUs, but some of them seemed to be taking the week off. There are plenty enough hops, though, to create a well balanced blend of sweet roasted malt and quite traditional spicy leafy hop. The basic flavors here are even and moreish enough to make a nice session beer, but if you tried this for a session you had better be trying to walk back to town. As it is, it’s a tasty sipper.
Value — Good to Very Good: At 8.5% you’re drinking two beers every time you order one of them.
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.”
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