Ship Bottom Brewery

They are pretty good and definitely worth checking out. The flights are pricey though, $10 for the standard 4 4oz samples. Six packs to go are much more reasonable. The last batch of their IPA The Shack was damn good IMO and the Barnacle Bottom Stout never disappoints.

There is a cool hot sauce store below that makes sandwiches that you can bring into the brewery. Pro tip...,,sample he hot sauces AFTER you finish tasting your beers.

The Spirits Unlimited on Rte 72 on your way in is the best local store and has a growler station and will fill any growler.

There is also a new brewery, Manafirkin, in Manahawkin really close the the LBI bridge on the main land side. Cool vibes and a few decent beers there so worth checking out if you're in the area.

 

I was just to LBI and didn't make it to the brewery, but its right in the Bay Village complex... I did have their session, Stuple Paddle Boat, which was on tap at the Terrace Tavern that was decent..

better bet is probably the Arlington which usually has a great tap list... they also opened a new spot up in Barnegat light called the Daymark which also had some good beers on tap - Sneak Box and Carton of Milk nitro when I was there..

I did go to ManaFirkin in Manahawkin, just off 72 over the causeway.. had a nice space, but the beers were hit and miss - more miss, but worth a stop if you get a rainy day... the stout was a standout, the DIPA was avg, I really liked one called 2nd degree burn, which was their Cobra Kai IPA through a randal of fresh strawberries and jalapeno - worked surprisingly well with pleasant heat. other beers like the Saison and one or two others were oddly sweet and totally missed the mark for the styles. Only open 2 mos though, so hopefully they dial stuff in. nice folks..

 

Never been to the brewery, but a co-worker knows the Owner so brought some of their beer to our Christmas party. I had cans of the Shack, Double Overhead, and CHEGG beers. I scored them 4.06, 3.9 and 3.81 respectively.

There was a recent short Philly.com article on them
http://www.philly.com/philly/column...-or-the-egg-ship-bottom-brewery-20170719.html

 

The beer is decent and the taproom is nice. I was in LBI over the 4th of July and the place was packed all week. They ran out of cans and were filling crowler as fast as they could.

Also check out the Arlington and Triton.

 

Over-priced tourist trap. Every batch is different imo. The Arlington will have the best draft selection but will be the most expensive, the triton has alot of taps(27) but the staff this year are horrible. Buckalews will usually have kane's head high available on draft and maybe one other kane offering. Spirits is definitely the place to stop on the way onto the island. hope this wasnt too blunt...

 

I was just in LBI for a family vacation and can chime in on a few of the spots mentioned.

Ship Bottom was fine for what it is...nothing to write home about but I went in expecting it to be garbage and was pleasantly surprised I guess. The Mexican-style lager was pretty good. The Arlington had a great taplist when I was there and I thought the food was good. My bro-in-law got a chicken sandwich with fried chicken skins that he wouldn't shut up about so if that's your thing, check that out. I was stoked to have Kane Head High on draft (I'm from PA) and Rothaus Pilsner. Totally agree about the staff at the Triton being a mess. We went a lot because it was really close to our place and had a $1 oyster happy hour. Nice Delaware Bay oysters and $2 off drafts wasn't too bad...you just had to wait a while because the staff of mostly high school/college kids has no clue how to shuck oysters. They always had a Carton tap so I stuck with that each time we went.

 

Visited SB last week as well.

I enjoyed Stupid Paddle Boat - if it was an homage to Carton's Boat, I thought it was a pretty good one. The regular lager was just fine but they had a 'tropical lager' that I thought was really excellent. Can't recall the 4th beer in my flight so let that speak for itself. Worth a stop IMO if just for the tropical lager alone (Cerveza del Playa I think). Perfect hot beach beer.

 

Stupid Paddle Boat has nothing to do with Carton's Boat, just coincidence. Shack IPA is decent. I really enjoy the Barnacle Bottom Stout. Agree with comments above about the others though, have seen a lot of variety from batch to batch. Their RIS around New years was good too.

Paging @beertoro!

 

I've been summoned!

No secret by now - anyone who knows me knows that I love this brewery. Sure, it's not putting out Kane level beers, but I have been following Ship Bottom for a few years now and have loved the evolution of it.

Stupid Paddle Boat is their own session - not necessarily a homage, but in the same vein. It's pretty damn good, and if BOAT weren't so close to me, I'd probably have it more.

@kthoag - Their regular lager is the Barnegat Lager and I agree with you. I do like the Lager but the Cerveza de Playa (Mexican Lager) is phenomenal. I wish they had canned that back in May, and I would have taken some home.

The Shack is fantastic. It's juicy, but more so piney than tropical. It's my favorite underrated New Jersey IPA. I've never seen anyone mention it to me, usually I hand out a can to people I know who have never tried it. It's more an East Coast version of an IPA and I wish I had more.

Double Overhead is more of a West Coast style DIPA and although I do enjoy it, I think The Shack is superior in every category.

I have a tumultuous love affair with Barnacle Bottom Stout... because I wish I always had some in the fridge. It's more coffee forward than it used to be back when they were brewing it in PA, but it's still so good. You can age it too, if you want some of the coffee flavor to become a bit more muted. I did this with their Baconator to reduce the smokiness and coffee in it.

Their Hefe is pretty okay and they have a blueberry wheat which is not for me.

The Russian Imperial Stout is pretty good. I liked it, but I kept coming back for Barnacle Bottom Stout.

I had CHEGG when it was brewed in PA and it was too hot for me. I haven't had it since.

I'm dying to try their coconut porter. I wish traffic weren't such a pain or I'd go more often during the summer. But after Labor Day, all bets are off - wife and I absolutely love going there.

 

The Hefe was the other one I had, thanks for jogging my memory. It was not bad in any way but not particularly good either.

 

went there two weeks ago. good spot when your stuck on an "island". can appreciate this coming to lbi most my life, people forget how desolate jersey used to be

1) prime location for summer. must be expensive in bay village.
2) the shack ipa was my fav
3) arlington usually has a special (they had guava cask shack ip i think) of theirs on?

 

Sounds about right. Other than the blueberry wheat, the hefe are the two I could do without. Everything else, I'm in.

 

I visited Ship Bottom a couple days ago. While the beer exceeded expectations (which were low), the staff didn't seem to have a clue about the beer they were selling. Even so it was an enjoyable experience and I'd certainly return for a crowler next time I'm on the island.

 

Did they have a crowler machine? They didn't even seem to have cans on my trip.

 

They've had the (Hans) Gruber since opening, but no actual crowlers. They're testing experimental crowlers that you can actually reseal - like Oskar Blues is doing.

 

PLENTY of crowlers pre-filled in the fridge as well as regular cans. Also experimenting with the re-sealable as well.

Coconut porter is decent, but too sweet for me.

 

I like SB a lot but will add a few points.

Your tasting room experience was great beacuse of the crowd around you which could happen at basically any tasting room. Last time I was at SB the bartender, a guy probably in his earpy 50s, was awesome and made me feel like I was Norm from Cheers and treated me and everyone he served like they were old friends. So yes that tasting room is fun, depending on the workers/crowd there.

The price of $10 a flight is definitely on the high side bu yes not that bad for LBI. If you know what you like a pint is more affordable and the way to go.

I guess I agree with several of your points until we get to The Shack. The Shack makes me scratch my head and is what is killing me about SB right now. SB keeps changing the recipe and tweaking it so much the beer you drank, and the one I drank a month ago, is so different from The Shack when they opened it is no longer the same beer. Magnify and Other Half put out new IPAs/DIPAs that are just slightly tweaked yet they are new beers every week, rightfully so. The "new' Shack is delicious but definitelynot the beer I had on my first few tries. If you keep changing your beer so thst it no longer is even close to the beer it was last year please, please, please rename/rebadge it so we know it's different and should try it again. So yeah "The Shack" is different/awesome right now.