Cape May County, NJ, brewery Tour filled with great options
In what has become an annual excursion, the Cape May County Brewery tour is filled with great options, plenty of things to do and is a way to meet some great people.
We did the "tour" on the opening Saturday of the college football season to sample and check out what the different breweries had to offer.
We started at the new Ludlam Island, which now has food, for lunch and the food was excellent. They have one of my favorite beers in the area, Water Guns and Rainbows, which they only had in a can on this day, but I still enjoyed it very much. I went with the brisket cheesesteak and it was very good. The meat was extremely tender and a nice fresh roll was a perfect way to start a long day. They have a new outside area, which we didn't really check out because we were watching the Penn State vs West Virginia football game inside, but it looked like a really neat area for later in the night.
The new Ludlam Island Brewery is at the old Mouse Trap bowling alley in Woodbine.
From there we went all the way to the end of the state to Gusto Brewing, at 3860 Bayshore Rd in North Cape May. Gusto is generally one of my favorite spots, and on this day I tried a beer called Of Course its Cashmere and enjoyed it. I generally like the beer had Gusto, I think they do a great job mixing it up. While its in a smaller spot, they have games inside and usually have some sort of entertainment or food trucks.
From there we went over to Behr Brewing, which everyone in the group enjoyed. I tried the Side Pocket and Laser Beams, which are their IPAs, while they aren't my favorite on this trip, we really like Behr and will be back again. The people with me like the beers and we all like the atmosphere. They have a great outside area with corn hole boards, an outside bar, and plenty of seating to enjoy the nice weather. Inside there is fireplace and nice area to relax.
We jumped on a Jitney ride that was provided by Behr, over to Anglsea Aleworks in Wildwood. It was the first time I have visited this place and I will be back, we all really liked the vibe of this spot! I tried this IPA, Haze Mat, which was okay. However, the Hard Birch Beer is one that everyone should give a shot, especially if you are a Pennsylvania Dutch fan. On this day they had live music and a good crowd which added to the atmosphere.
After this stop, we made our way over to Slacktide Brewing Company and tried the Slammer, which is a solid New England IPA. Slacktide had a great atmosphere for the Phillies game, both inside and out. It's a great spot and they did a great job with the new place, which is at 1879 US-9 in Cape May Court House. They have a pretty big outside seating area, which was filled on this bight, with food trucks and plenty of other games.
Our final stop was a new spot in Cape May County, Myers Lighthouse Brewery at 2576 US-9 in Ocean View. I really like this spot, it has a great outside area and a mini-golf course. They had live music and a solid beer selection, and if you are an IPA fan like me, this is a great spot. While its small inside, there is enough area to bring a group of friends and enjoy the game.
We didn't make it to MudHen, Cape May, Cold Spring, Bucket Brigade, or Whale Tale, but we have been to all five and enjoy some of their selections as well and will be back to visit these spots in the future.
We will be setting up an Atlantic County tour soon, which will include the three Hammonton breweries; 3 Three's, Vinyl, and Chimney Rustic Ales. Then we will head down to Harden State and The Seed, then back offshore to Hidden Sands, ending at SoPo in Somers Point.
We also will be setting up an Ocean County tour, and will be checking out many of the breweries in Cumberland, Camden, Gloucester and Burlington counties.
We'll follow up with another review of how they go!
