CulturAle Press

Pizza Boy Pizza Chaser, Al’s of Hampden, Enola, Pa.

Date:  November 16, 2018

The Story—  Beers at Al’s of Hampden – Pizza Boy Brewing—are just too good to name a beer or two and then move on, so we’ll stay with Al – and his master brewer Terry—for the rest of these US entries.

Professional brewers should be able to brew IPAs and stouts and porters that taste very good.   Mistakes are corralled by hop in one case and big dark malt flavors in the other.   Our Hop Pocket Ale came out perfectly the first time Old Dominion brewed it.   The Keller Pils took seven batches to really get right.

So it’s not really earth shaking news that a good brewery like Terry Hawbaker can roll out a range of IPAs without a misstep, but his raw talent is more on display in some of his less aggressive beers.   His Blanc Slate Lager, for example, was a nice if unconventional gold beer, but at 7% it should have been.   We were more impressed by his ability to produce a straightforward “Pizza Chaser” 5% pale ale that was exactly what the name advertised.

The Beer—A well-balanced soft-spoken nicely balanced pale malt with soft but pleasing hops in the finish.  Caramel and biscuit maltiness with stone and ale fruit in the finish matched but never exceeded the flavors of the good pizza it washed down.   Ellie’s view was that it was well behaved with hops that “won” but politely.

Value —very good.   $5.50 for a 14 ounce or so– an American “pint” –would be a good deal at a bar’s happy hour, but you can be happy any time at Al’s of Hampden.

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–  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.