A few days later we resumed our road trip heading South under the most apocolyptic rains. Our goal was the famous Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware, one of the precursors of the modern microbrew scene. On this picture you can see the wooden Tanks made of Paraguayan Palo Santo wood. They contain the Palo Santo Ale which has an awful wood aromatic. A shame since those tanks have cost a small fortune to build. But that’s only my palate striking here and I do like that Dogfish Head isn’t scared to experiment. Clearly a few very interesting beers have come out of this spirit.
Grain tank for the malted barley. You can see it’s not a real micro-brew anymore. But it is a micro-brewery, especially if you compare their production to that of Budweiser and co.
The mash tun. Everything’s a bit bigger than in your bathroom, bathtub brewing folks!
Free Samples after the Tour. They are famous for their IPA’s which are continuously hopped throughout the brewing process. Something for true hopheads.
More Samples in their first brewery house in Rehoboth Beach (which is still a brewery and restaurant). Midas touch is one of my favorite experimental beers: based on the analysis of antique amphoras, Dogfish head tried to reconstruct an ancient beer containing saffron, honey and muscat grapes. Truly a different kind of beer.
The first brewhouse. They started as small as anyone else. Our next waypoint was Cricket Hill in New Jersey, a much much smaller brewery but with a good reputation.
Their brewery tours on friday are more of a joyful gathering of beer lovers.
Cricket Hill makes a fairly good Helles, but I really enjoyed their cask Ale most!
Back in Brooklyn. Of course we also had to visit the holy grale of modern Brooklyn Beer!
At Brooklyn Brewery you can try the beers while ordering pizza from a nearby delivery.
The long history of brewing in Brooklyn is documented by this old collection at the brewery. In fact, before prohibition nearly 40 breweries were active here. We took a tour with Urban Oyster to find out more about it.
In the 19th century many breweries were founded by German immigrants who settled in New York and Brooklyn. There are still many buildings like this one here witnessing this era.
In those tall buildings (here the Hittleman brewery) everything functioned by gravity. This means tha heavy loads of grain and malt had to be carried to the top floor at first.
The whole Bushwick area in Brooklyn was a popular destination for thirsty New Yorkers as many German beer saloons opened their doors.
Brew-water supply would come directly from Long Island by railroad. Ancient maps helped our imagination as the railroad tracks weren’t there anymore
Another former brewery building in Bushwick. With prohibiton allowing only “near beer” brewing, the Breweries had their first big hit to take. On the brink of Second World War, German breweries had a tremendous loss of popularity which didn’t help the Brooklyn Beer Industry either. One of the last German breweries – Rheingold Brewery – closed its doors in 1976. Today, Breweries like Six Point or Brooklyn Brewery are continuing the tradition of brewing in Brooklyn.