Looks like I may end up at Brewtus, Stone Church, and Crooked Tongue next week. Anyone had a chance to visit any of these yet? Anything to look forward to? If not, I’ll be sure to bring a report back. |
I’m hitting Paladin & Birdfish in E Ohio today. I should have planned for those 3 as well, they’re right across the border. It continues to be a nano brewery explosion around here! I’m having difficulty keeping up!
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I’ve been to Brewtus, the beer was OK, not great. The food was pretty good. It’s too far away to ever go back. |
Crooked Tongue Brewing - Space was nice, on the smaller side, but not cramped. During warmer weather with the patio open I’m sure it will be even better. Eleven beers on tap I think plus a hand pump. The beer was average overall, with a couple samples that had issues, most samples being good and drinkable, and a couple being above average. Pretzels were really good, hummus was ho-hum(!).
Brewtus - Very nice building overall, lots of space, a nice 4 piece kinda Irish themed band upstairs playing which was great. Six beers on tap, but the beer unfortunately needs some work, a couple stouts were just good enough to drink but I couldn’t really recommend this place for the beer as is. Brewer seemed receptive to feedback and I hope he can get issues sorted out quickly. The food on the other hand was excellent. The tortilla chips were bagged which is completely understandable, but the salsa tasted fresh, I’d compare this to the hummus at Crooked Tongue. Totally average but not bad. The pizza however was unique and excellent. Big rectangle kitchen tray sized pizza cut into 8 squares. I tried a sausage/kale one and a banana pepper one, both were great.
Stone Church - Space was about the same as Crooked Tongue, small but not cramped. Same again as Crooked Tongue for the available patio during warmer weather, patio also has a fire pit for those that think its just a bit brisk out. The beer here in my opinion was overall the best top to bottom of the three stops. Range of traditional styles, Irish Dry Stout, Oatmeal Stout, Belgian Ale, Hoppy Belgian, and several others. I think there were 8 beers on tap. The food was good, but not standout for me. They do a spent grain dough for pretzels and pizza dough which I appreciate, although the pretzel dipping sauces were strange, very thin hot mustard, and a beer cheese that tasted more like some sort of cream based dip rather than cheese, it was odd. The pretzels themselves were good and the pizzas and toppings were good, but if I were picking I’d do the Crooked Tongue pretzels and the Brewtus pizza.
Overall, I’d say if you find yourself out that way, they are worth stopping at for one reason or another. I don’t know that any of them have hit full stride yet, but they are all reasonably new businesses too. Hopefully Brewtus can sort out fermentation issues and then I’d recommend doing all three as a quick tour. As a whole, don’t go expecting good hoppy things yet from any of them but I found something in the samplers that I enjoyed at both Crooked Tongue and Stone Church that I would have ordered a pint of if I had time.
Also because of this trip, I found out about Cambridge Cellars Meadery. Crooked Tongue had their mead available and also did flights of it, nice to see that kind of crossover support. I did not try any but was told positive things. |
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Did stone church and brewtus yesterday. Thanks for the heads up guys, will check out CT & Cambridge soon as well. |
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I finally made it out to Crooked Tongue, Stone Church, and the new Timber Creek.
Crooked Tongue is a nice little place. The pretzels were really good, especially with the unique honey mustard dipping sauce. The cheese sauce was your basic whiz type nacho cheese, and was pretty gross. The beer was hit or miss, but the hits were pretty good. I especially enjoyed the HBC 438 India Cream Ale and Super Sweetside India Pale Ale. For 9.2%, Super Sweetside is scary drinkable. The white stout and the thin minty stout were pretty disgusting. Everything else was average.
Stone Church was really busy when I got there about 5:15, and within 20 minutes was nearly empty. The building is pretty nice, it’s an old stone church, who would have guessed? It’s about time that someone put a brewery in a church around here. I had a sandwich that was pretty good, but nothing life changing. The beer was much more consistent than crooked tongue, unfortunately all were just average and I tried no stand out. I had a west coast IPA, a pale ale, a nitro stout, and a Mexican Lager. They were fine, but I really didn’t care to finish any of them. Service was good and I was in and out of there really quickly.
The new Timber creek in Grove City is beautiful. Just like in Meadville the brewing area can be seen under the glass floor. It has that lodge feel, and was PACKED. The beer/food are the same as in Meadville. They had a seasonal that was pretty awesome, Hop Addict Series - White Walker IPA, it kicked as I ordered it but she gave me the half glass for free.
Much like Brewtus, I will likely never make my way back crooked tongue or stone church. I still think North Country is the place to go in that area of the world. |
I need to do a Meadville trip one of these days for Timber Creek, OG Voodoo, and Blue Canoe. |
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Originally posted by lithy
I need to do a Meadville trip one of these days for Timber Creek, OG Voodoo, and Blue Canoe.
Yes, it’s a nice, scenic beer trip for sure! We stayed at the caboose motel in Titusville, quite interesting and unique, to say the least! If you haven’t done Sprague Farm, that’s also an experience. |
Originally posted by lithy
I need to do a Meadville trip one of these days for Timber Creek, OG Voodoo, and Blue Canoe.
Timber Creek and voodoo are cool, but I thought Blue Canoe was really bad. That was a long time ago, and maybe it’s improved? Sprague Farm is interesting. They occasionally do pizzas and they are phenomenal. |
