I was in Ephrata, PA on business today. I knew there was a brewery in town that I was just becoming aware of. It is St. Boniface. I have had one of their beers, Libation and thought it was a very good DIPA. So I decided to see if I could find the brewery. My co-worker was kind enough to oblige. We saw a sign that directed us to a parking lot in an industrial section. Then another sign on the wall and we knew we were close. Unable to find the brewery, we asked a passer-by on the parking lot. As luck would have it, that passer-by was the brewer and co-owner Jon Northup. He invited us in for a look. They have a nice little set-up there. John asked Dan to pour us some samples and Jon went back to doing what brewers/owners must do to pay the bills. Dan is the kind of guy you just want to hang out with. He knows good beer and he knows the places that serve it even if they are a good distance from Ephrata. He was familiar with all of my hangouts. Dan started us off with a Wheat beer. It was clean and true to the style. Then we moved on to the ESB. Another fine beer. After that was a Tattoo's Ink Black Currant Stout. Very nice. Then it was the Hegemony Imperial Stout. I'm not sure why they have two very nice stouts on at the same time but I'm not complaining. Finally, after those big stouts, we had the Libation DIPA. Some DIPA's would have had a problem following those stouts but not Libation. This is a very nice tasting, well balanced DIPA. I could drink it all day long if not for the alcohol. I was sad to leave but I will look for and drink St. Boniface beers at every chance.
On the way home we stopped for lunch at Union Barrel Works in Reamstown. Some things never change. The food is very good. The beers are well made but there is this aversion to using hops aggressively. Hey, it's your brewery. Anyway, I had a nice Buffalo Chicken Wrap with a clean pilsner. I also sampled the Hefe Weizen which was actually kind of good.
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