Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Fort Dix, N.J., beer scene: Iron Hill Brewing and J.B. Brewing

Back from another stint on the road and a few more notches on the belt when it comes to new beers. This time I was up near Fort Dix, N.J., and had an opportunity to try two breweries with very different results.

Iron Hill BarFirst stop was Iron Hill Brewing in Maple Shade, N.J. The brewery & restaurant was packed on our Saturday evening visit. It probably didn’t help that the Final Four were playing. We hung out at the bar and were able to find a table after a short wait. The wait staff was great, answering questions and providing samples when we couldn’t make up our minds on a particular beer.

The food was great. The fish and chips and french onion soup I had were very tasty. The menu choices were huge and it took a while to figure out just what we wanted to eat.

The beer was just as good…

Iron Hill beer listWe had:

Chris Isn’t Here - A brown ale that had a nice hoppy tone.


Caprice - A Belgian ale meets American hops. Nice clean tasting. Fruity tones.

The Situation - Very hoppy pale ale.

Luca Brasi - This one was my favorite. A stout brewed with 43-pounds of ground and whole Sumatran coffee…smooth. Great balance of the stout and coffee flavor. I’m going to try and do this one as a small batch homebrew.

Decaf - Luca Brasi without the coffee. This was a cask ale that was still good but not as good as the brew with the coffee.

Rising Sun IPA - My partner in crime’s favorite. An IPA brewed with Japanese hops. I’m not an IPA guy but this one was good. Nice balance and good citrus flavor.

Vienna Red Lager -One of the regular beers at Iron Hill. It was my last beer of the evening and brought things to a nice close. Slightly sweet and malty.
the chalk board
Overall Iron Hill was a great experience and I look forward to my next visit. My travel companion on this trip liked it the Rising Sun so much he bought a growler.

Sunday evening we were staying on Joint Base McGuire-Fort Dix-Lakehurst and met some friends at the sports club on base. The base features a brewery that is run by service members and is available for command functions. Their beers are featured at the pub on base.

I had two of the J.B. Brewing brews. The Top Ale and the Angry Ale. Honestly they were both forgettable. They both had a dirty tap line taste and both tasted roughly the same.

The rest of the trip featured Magic Hat #9 and Tap Room 21 lager. Magic Hat is always a favorite of mine and, though I like sweeter, malty beers, I found the Tap Room 21 lager to be way too malty.

That’s it for this trip…stay tuned and remember: If you don’t like what you’re drinking, brew your own.