The Appalachian Trail, a 2200-mile hike from Georgia to Maine, is the grand-daddy of all long distance footpaths. I hiked most of the Maryland segment fifty years ago, getting ready for Army basic training, and my feet want to be in boots whenever I pass near the A.T. today. The midpoint of the trail is near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and that proximity inspires the
Appalachian Brewing Co., headquartered in that city, a short walk from the train station.
Brewing started twenty years ago, in a building that had seen many uses over the years (I do commend their website's page Our Rich History for a wealth of detail). On a recent stop, I sipped a
pint of Trail Blaze Maple Brown, a sweet malty brown (6.7%, 30 ibu), one of eight flagship beers here. Others in this lineup--Water Gap Wheat, Mountain Lager, Hoppy Trails IPA--also take note of the nearby trail. Note the imprint in the burger bun, a bear paw, also seen on their bottle caps. ABC bottles its flagship beers and also makes and bottles craft sodas in a nearby plant. My server said the root beer outsells any of their beer beers.
The company has begun opening other locations, typically small-scale breweries with taprooms, such as at Gettysburg, nearby, and Collegeville, just outside Philadelphia.
This Harrisburg plant produces most of the kegs for the other locations and all the bottles. One of the 120-bbl (approximately) fermenters can be seen beyond the elegant old bar. The brew kettles are smaller, three batches are needed to fill one of these fermenters.
ABC was going strong back in 2006 when I took my daughter and her classmates at a nearby college, all just turned 21, to dinner here. It's going stronger today.
(Visited 10/13/17)
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