Amtrak Beer Train

[Volanova]

Tired hands is different from what you expect in a brew pub (20 oz pours, common beer styles, burgers & fries) so it might take a little while for some to "get" it.

It's not just the lack of common beer styles, huge glasses, and burgers and fries that bugs me about TH. I love weird beers, but their beers are just okay, they're not that experimental (see above: my last trip there it seemed like everything I had was just a variation on an overhopped saison), and they seem so smug about what they're doing.

[NickleDimer]

Not sure what type of experimental beers you're looking for, but they are constantly posting on facebook about the different incredients being used. Mostly from local farms - squash, blueberries, etc. I think the brewer's passion and expertise is with saissons so they produce many of that style, trying to emphasize different flavors. If you don't like that style it might not be for you.

Not really sure where you get the smugness from. Maybe you're judging them on appearance. Generally if you just talk kindly to people, they'll respond.

[billy ross]

Now I'm mad that I didn't join eldondre there on Saturday night and see it for myself - I was worn out from too much wine on Friday night, and I should have just sucked it up and gone out. Of course I would have had to deal with the LM cops, though.

I had a saison malfunction at my wedding reception of all places, with noone there liking the keg of Yard's Saison that I had been talked into by the Yard's salesman (thinking in my ignorance it was a witbier - hey, it was in the last century and we were all more ignorant then). Note to all grooms - sample the drinks before you order them for your wedding. Anyway, to this day I'm still bitter about saison. Noone liked it (including me) and I had to keep ordering case after case of non-Saison beer to keep the people happy on an insanely hot July night on the river in Philadelphia.

[Volanova]

Not sure what type of experimental beers you're looking for, but they are constantly posting on facebook about the different incredients being used. Mostly from local farms - squash, blueberries, etc. I think the brewer's passion and expertise is with saissons so they produce many of that style, trying to emphasize different flavors. If you don't like that style it might not be for you.

Not really sure where you get the smugness from. Maybe you're judging them on appearance. Generally if you just talk kindly to people, they'll respond.

It seemed to me that stuff that wasn't supposed to taste like a saison still tasted like a saison, like a sour that tasted like a saison, and an IPA that tasted like a saison. I don't know if the waiter was just mixing up drinks or if they had taps on incorrectly or what, but I wasn't tasting what I was reading. And I actually am a huge saison fan, even. I dunno, maybe it's the prices, the decor, or what, I just got this really weird vibe from the place and the staff that they were doing me a favor by being there. Maybe I've just been on off nights. I'll have to give it another go, not get food, and just try beers at the bar after work instead of going in the evening and see what happens. But then again, you said that you had to "get" it to understand what the place was about. No one who has been to as many beer bars, microbreweries and brewpubs as myself should be faced with the quandry of having to "get" it to like the place.

And I'm Southern, I talk kindly to everyone.

[thoth]

Jeez you guys are pretty critical of incidental stuff like names and non-specific smugness. Don't know what you were looking for going in, but it sounds like some people had some preexisting chips on their shoulders. It's a nice place with a good variety of pretty tasty beers, and I liked the flexibility with sizes. Their kitchen is limited, but it's a tiny ass place. Guy built it from the ground up in a state with teeth gnashing booze laws. What's not to like?

Generally when people start talking about things like how they didn't feel "cool" enough to be somewhere, I find it's less a problem with the place and more with that particular person. I've been the hipster douchebag that was "judging" you from the other side of the counter, and I can tell you from experience that 99.9% of the time you are interacting with an employee that's more concerned with taking care of you and getting through the day than whether or not if your clothes are stylish enough, if you're too old or whatever other insecurities people project onto wait staff.

[lucidinnature]

Did you go in the catacombs? Amazing.

I knew the guy who took care of the building for years, and he had the who right side(that was the old brewery) as an apartment for years. Up in the top right of your first picture is a blue velvet room where lincoln once stayed. I did some lsd on new years and accidentally ended up sleeping in that room with two girls... apparently it was a big no no to touch that room. Oopsy daisy!

Ohhhh, and there coolest nights are when they fill the entire place up with sand and have a big beach party!

popped into bube's. i didn't eat, but the old buildings really lend this place a nice atmosphere




Lancaster Brewpub is typical of a brewpub, IMO. nice, semi-industrial. decent food, the place was packed on a cold wed. night. I would recomend going here for the food, of course, but if you're coming for the beer, it's a nice enough place and not too far from the station (there were cabs waiting at the station too)

[NickleDimer]

No one who has been to as many beer bars, microbreweries and brewpubs as myself should be faced with the quandry of having to "get" it to like the place.

So you've been to many different places and it doesn't match any of those experiences. And their beers are hard to place in a category. Sounds like something new that should be appreciated rather that vaguely disliked.