A while ago we brought you some photos of the Two Rivers Brewing Company in Easton and the progress made so far. Last night Two Rivers officially served their first brews up at Black & Blue. The place was insanely packed, and the area where you could get Two Rivers samples was so busy you had to squeeze past people. It was a fantastic showing for the brewery and proof that not only are there loyal craft beer followers in the area, but the diehard Easton crowd that frequented Which Brew, and now Porter’s, Pearly Baker’s, and Black & Blue will be filling the bar at Two Rivers. Although it was touted as a firkin night, the beers appeared to be kegged. A $5 donation (that benefited Easton’s Main Street Initiative) was suggested to sample the two beers and if you ponied up $10 you were entered to win a Weyerbacher gift package.
So, how were the beers? The Pine Street Blonde seemed to be a bit of a misnomer. It’s far more close stylistically to a witbier than to any sort of blonde. That said, it was decent, but not anything out of this world. With notes of coriander, it displayed a robust wheat character with strong carbonation backed by earth and spice notes. Hijinx, another up-and-coming brewery in the area, makes an ‘Earth, Wit, and Fire’ that seems to be a step up from this. Two Rivers’ Banker’s Brown, however, was delectable. Not overly hoppy, as many American browns are, it had a great chocolate character with light roasty flavors. With relatively light carbonation, this was smooth and certainly a winner.
Another interesting aspect to the evening was the unveiling of Two Rivers’ Founders Program. The program, the brewery wants to make clear, is not an IPO or stock program. Here’s the basic idea: you give the brewery $1,000 and over the course of the next three years they give you back $105 in beer quarterly, resulting in a total of $1,250 in beer for you. With this you’ll also get a Founders Club shirt, pint class, food & drink specials, and priority access to special events. It’s an interesting concept, but not necessarily a new one. In fact, another brewery in PA, East End, has the same sort of program. Two Rivers is offering 100 of these memberships. We have a feeling they’ll certainly sell a bunch of these.
We’ll keep you updated on the progress at Two Rivers and let you know of their events in the future.
- Pine Street Blonde
- Banker’s Brown
