Columbia Kettle Works

I may stop in today possibly.

 

I was there yesterday and tried all four beers. I particularly liked the Blonde ale. I'll be posting my review of it later this afternoon. I did submit a places review yesterday afternoon after I got back.

Columbia Kettle Works - BA Places Review

 

Just posted my review of the Blonde Ale and added a photo and the three other beers for others to review.

Review of Columbia Kettle Works' Blonde Ale

 

Looking forward to visiting this place. My wife is from Wrightsville and her parents still live there, so many visits to CKW are in our future if the beer is good.

 

I'm looking forward to going as well as girlfriends parents live in wrightsville.

 

Nice place, good beer.

 

Stopped by this afternoon. 4 beers on. Liked the Coffee Stout, very drinkable, nice balance between the roasty malts and the coffee. Bald Guy (Rye Amber) had lots of hoppy goodness and subtle rye, malt backbone started to get to me by the end of the pint. 1st Batch IPA was quite good if approached from an English IPA pov, solid malt backbone with nice balance of the Columbus & Cascade hops, really came together as it warmed up. The Blonde was ok, some nice flavors, a good introductory beer for the river rats. Nice to see some dried meats and local cheeses on the menu, although Baron Von Schwein was outside so it was Pulled Pork and Baked Corn with a Spicy Pork Roll for me. I'll definently go back. May be the best initial offerings of any brewery in the York area.

 

I enjoyed the Pulled Pork and Baked Corn today too. I agree they've done well with their first four beers. It'll be interesting to see/taste these in subsequent batches.

 

Made it here this past Saturday. Split tasters of all of the current offerings with my brother-in-law. My thoughts:

The space is really cool. The brewhouse is behind the bar, and the space is large, with high ceilings. Very inviting and comfortable. The staff was very nice and helpful. It was fairly crowded when we first got there, although the crowd had died down by the time we left. The menu looks great, although we didn't eat anything.

As for the beer, the Dunderhead scotch ale was excellent - really nice depth of flavor, and the touch of smoked malt was perfect. This was the star of the show, and something I would go there to drink again. The coffee stout was very nice; I liked that it wasn't too high in alcohol, and really packed a nice coffee flavor. It wasn't super roasty, nor super sweet - the roasted malts were present, but the coffee was the star of the show. I would drink this one again as well.

As for the rest - the other 5 on tap were the blonde, a raspberry version of the blond, an Amarillo rye ale, the Bald Guy, and 1st batch IPA. I didn't care for any of them. The hop flavors were muted, and the beers were too sweet and malty. They tasted like the yeast or water (or both) used to brew them are not really suited for making hoppy ales. The rye ales didn't have much noticeable rye flavor. I think they need to work on these recipes to make them better.

 

After having been here a couple of times and witnessing the beers go seriously downhill, I swore off this place until I read they got a brewer in from Iron Hill. So decided to check it out this past weekend, and it was very, very good. The imperial red was excellent - really top quality beer. Their holiday ale was a bit to syrupy for my taste, but they also had barrel-aged stout and barleywine on. The barleywine was made with peat malt, which I liked, and both were solid barrel-aged beers.

I can definitely say they've turned it around. I would go there again.