Winter Rental: surprisingly welcoming

I got a sample from East Coast Beer Co. back in December, their Winter Rental schwarzbier. I was all "ho-hum, another New Jersey contract brewer," because these outfits haven't had a great track record. (Anyone remember Coffaro Beer? Diving Horse Lager?) It's brewed at Genesee, as you can tell by the "Rochester, NY" on the label, where they've done a great job on the Narragansett seasonals, but...to be honest, I wasn't in a rush to try it.


But then I needed to get some tasting notes together for a column I do in the local weekly paper (nice source of pocket money), so Tuesday afternoon I popped it. Okay, I'd made a mistake waiting this long! The beer smelled rich and malty from almost a foot away, but it was not thick and sweet on the tongue: smoothly refreshing (sounds like a 60s beer ad, I know, but it is), a little hop bite up front that swooshes into lightly chocolatey malt with a slight crunch of roast; saunters off into a clean finish.

I have to apologize to you: shouldn't have waited so long on this one. If you like schwarzbier, get out and give this one a shot. It's 5.6% ABV, and quite tasty.

New Brewery in Erie...kind of

In another example of "nano-contract-brewing" (like Prism Brewing -- brewing at the General Lafayette (and a very cool website) -- and Royersford Brewing -- brewing at Sly Fox), Lavery Brewing just got final approval in Erie. They're brewing on weekends at BrewErie. More details here, here, and here.

There's also another new brewpub coming in central PA. Details shortly...but I'll tell you now, it's got great potential. [cat's out of the bag; check the comments for details!]