#cbnj

Last weekend we stayed at a friends house in Beach Haven West, NJ to go to a brewery we’ve been to before ~ (Shipbottom Brewery, Beach Haven) 

and a few we haven’t ~ (ManFirkin Brewing Co., Manahawkin & Oyster Creek Brewing Co., Waretown). 

We started by going to Oyster Creek Brewing Co. on the drive down. 

First of all, I loved the environment of this place. Even from the outside, this place is inviting and nice to look at. And we all love a theme, theirs is a somewhat “memorial” to the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant that once called their area home. 

When you get inside you’re happy to see there’s plenty of space to sit and it was pretty crowded by the time we got there, (8:30pm on a Saturday). They have booth seating*~, (which we especially liked), as well as other tables and plenty of room to hang around the bar. 

Taplist:

YELLOWCake - Cream Ale

COLDfusion - Coffee Milk Stout

MELTdown - Habanero DIPA

PLUTOIUM94 - Black IPA

RADIUM 88 - Rye PA

HALFlife - Hefeweizen

2Minutes2Midnite (DDH version of MELTdown)

May the 4th - Simcoe IPA

NUCLEARwinter - Spiced Ale

Natilus - NEIPA

DARKmatter - Vanilla Porter

HEAVYwater - Irish Ale

I always go for the dark and sweet so my lineup was the Cream Ale, Stout, Porter and Hefeweizen. My favorites for the night were definitely the YELLOWcake Cream Ale & the DARKmatter Vanilla Porter, *shocking*. The  YELLOWcake smelled so good and tasted great!

The first taste had us agreeing that the hefeweizen had too much blueberry (how could this possibly be!) but after the first sip I thought it was perfect, although not everyone felt the same. 

The following day, a Sunday, we headed to ManaFirkin Brewing Co. in Manahawkin, about 5 minutes from where we were staying. 

This is a place we’ll definitely be visiting again and again. I loved how open and spacious the inside is, definitely coming back in the summer to see what they make of it and how many people can really have a great time there, (they have food trucks so I’m totally there). 

Tap List:

Our favorites are easy to remember because we were able to bring them home in crowlers.

I loved the GoodKARMAmile.

And unfortunately for me, I was feeling very sinus sensitive and could not taste anything after that. 

Although I was able to help myself to the FREE POPCORN! 

But I was told repeatedly by friends who could taste something that Done in a Jiffy and Nice Cream were their favorites. ☺

Last for the weekend we went to a favorite of mine, Shipbottom Brewery. 

I’ve been to Shipbottom about four times now and I always leave there happy. However, this time it was not by a dark beer but a mango sour :) 

First off, I love that you can have different sized flights - 4 our 8. Great for couples or friends who share flights, or someone who wants to try some of everything. 

And as for environment, there’s plenty of places to sit, beautiful windows you can see the water from, the location is perfect for a day at the shore and there’s always games to play (this time they had an older version of MADDEN set up on the projector for customers to use). 

I remember my first time coming here and having their Shorty’s Coconut Porter, I gush about it still, (obviously). It tasted like a Samoa Girl Scout cookie. It was amazing. 

But now I’ll gush about current favorites like Jingles Holiday Ale, Notorious F.I.G. Stout, Mexican Stout and of course the Mucho Mucho Mango Sour IPA. 

Although I seem to ignore IPAs, I do very much enjoy a good IPA. But the problem is, they often taste similar or are overshadowed by something else. The Mucho Mucho Mango Sour IPA however, was amazing and again ~ we took it home in a crowler. The Mango and sour taste really made it stand out and anyone who loves Mango will love this beer. 

Another thing I seem to ignore are spicy beers, (as in peppers not cinnamon, etc.). I recently had a bad experience tasting a habanero beer in a place who shall not be named.... yet. But it left me not wanting to taste another one of its kind, (silly, I know). But the Mexican Stout at Shipbottom might have saved me! It is the perfect amount of spicy and sweet and very smooth. 

And if we are gonna talk about beers with a lot of spice vs. spicy beers. The Jingles Holiday Ale is wonderful. It definitely brought my mind back to the holiday season we just had and was a nice change since most breweries have moved on from their holiday brews. 

TIME FOR THE RATINGS!

These ratings were discussed amongst four people with different tastes! 

Oyster Creek: 6.5 ManaFirkin: 8.5 ShipBottom: 8.5

(This rating is based on taste, atmosphere and overall experience. Ratings are subject to change.)

Follow our journey on Instagram: @throwbackbeersday