Craft beer Lake Wallenpaupack

The best you're going to find is Mill Market in Hawley. They're big into local stuff so you'll be able to pick up some ShawneeCraft there. If you head down Rt. 6 to Milford there is a store called Ice Cold Beer Here. It's inside a grocery store, but they have the best selection in the area. I'd be down for an IP trade. Do you have a cellar link or looking for anything in particular?

 

My parents live on the lake up there and it is kind of a beer wasteland. That lake is huge and what you can find depends on where on the lake you are. I usually end up just buying a six pack at a local supermarket (Dutch's), otherwise you have to visit the beer distributor which requires you to buy a case. Luckily they are on the west side of the Lake which is 30 minutes from Scranton which has some better choices.

 

Yeah, but why would you want to???

if you're looking for unique or hard-to-come-by PA beers in that area you're SOL. If you're looking for beer to consume while you're @ the lake, well it's pretty slim pickins.

We go to the lake for a week every year (just a couple weeks away now), and we make sure to bring plenty of beer with us as there really isn't a lot up there. We will take the drive out to Berwick or Danville on rainy days. The Settlers Inn in Hawley used to have some good beers on tap, but last time we were there they scaled it back. They usually have a few craft options @ the Ledges too.

As for shops, as mentioned above you can grab six packs at Dutch's (nothing spectacular), and the beer distro at the corner of Rt. 6 and 507 usually has some decent craft cases (cider, too).

Oh, and don't bother with Barley Creek or Pocono Brewing. Horrible, both of them. A good brewpub on or near the lake would be a fantastic addition (especially with dockside service, hahahaha).

 

Pocono Brewing doesn't even brew their own beer. They just rename Stegmaier beers that are brewed in Wilkes-Barre. Settler's Inn should be getting better soon. The girl who was ordering beer for them was only putting LT Verrastro (the local Coors distributor) beers in there and has been recently fired. Ledges and Mill Market) are both owned by Settlers and should be getting better.

 

Better than looking for somewhere around the lake, stop on the way up. Coming from DC, you'll either pass through the Harrisburg/Hershey area, and you can stop at Al's Pizza Boy; or you'll go through the Philly area which includes Tired Hands, Forest & Main and a few others (Triumph, BrewWorks, Iron Hill, to name a few).

Since your need seems to be for the trip itself, growlers are a great idea; but if you are looking for bottles instead, there is no shortage of bottle shops in either of these areas, and you can check seekabrew for what breweries you can find from Philly or wherever else, that you can't get in DC. At a glance I noticed Alesmith and Deschutes, for example.