A bike ride to a new brewery just off the Lawrence Hopewell Trail

We braved the mud and the wind — oh that wind! — to reach the Druery Brewery using the D&R Canal towpath and the Lawrence Hopewell Trail.

This place opened Dec. 9 in a tiny storefont in a Lawrence strip mall, and we were impressed at how packed the place was at 2:30 p.m. on Good Friday, with people eyeing our table. Did I say this place is tiny? Two nice live-edge wood tables that seat six. Or you stand around some barrels/tables.

Nine beers and one hard seltzer. Nothing that seemed truly “weird” … or maybe those hazy IIPAs with 7.5%+ alcohol content are unusual? The Triple Hefe with 10.2% ABV? (Remember, “weird” to some of my friends is anything beyond Michelob Ultra.)

I got what the bartender called their most unusual offering: Dazzle Razzle, described as a tart ale with raspberries and which to me was a Framboise. Easy to drink. The Brit opted for an unusual-for-him choice of a vanilla cream ale with the intriguing name of Lil Bai Long. How many vanilla pods went into that one??

You can choose from a full pour, a half pour or a taste.

It’s New Jersey, so no food. But a plus for this location is that a strip mall (Manors Corner Shopping Center in this case) means food choices. Someone brought in some pizza from a classic Lawrence pizza joint in the shopping center. There’s a Chinese restaurant next door and a Jamaican place two doors down. The hours of the bagel place all the way around the shopping center only overlap with this place on weekends.

So how did we get here?

I like using the D&R Canal towpath and Lawrence Hopewell Trail as car-free ways to get around. The towpath was muddier than I would have liked but not surprising given all the rain we’ve had over the past week — maybe 3 inches? I was pleased to see the narrow dirt path marked LHT that is a temporary route from Brearley House to Princeton Pike while the Ryan Homes project is under construction. I bet it will get overgrown, but for now I’ll take it over a rocky access road. And it was great to see what looks like the start of tree-clearing for a new section of the LHT that will complete the section through Maidenhead Meadows.

The Lawrenceville School section of the LHT is being rerouted, but you can still bike through campus. Otherwise stay on quiet Lewisville Road to the end, then right on busier Franklin Corner Road. At the light you have a couple of options. One is to go right onto Main Street/U.S. 206 (use the sidewalk if you like) for about three blocks to the left on Titus Avenue (another three blocks is Gordon Avenue and the Gingered Peach bakery + the seasonal Melba Ice Creamery, always worth stops) . The other is to go straight, follow Lawrenceville-Pennington Road as it curves to the right and then turn left on the Johnson Trolley Line Trail. Either way, you’re back on the LHT where Titus Avenue and the Johnson Trolley Line Trail meet. Oh, you also could leave Main Street a bit earlier, at Green Avenue, and follow it around to Titus.

UPDATE: The section through the school has reopened and ends at Titus Avenue and U.S. 206.

Whatever you choose, you’re now taking Titus to Bergen Street. Off to the far right is Village Park. You can follow the LHT signs and enter the park; just be sure to stay left when the LHT goes right. Or you can go straight across onto calm Yeger Drive. Turn left at Manor Boulevard (or exit the park at Manor) and bike through that neighborhood to the shopping center.

You think you need a few more miles to earn that beer? Keep going through Village Park, following the LHT. Cross Keefe Road and stay on the path. You’ll come to a T. Go right toward the Pole Farm and keep exploring the LHT. Or go left, eventually make another left and end up in a parking lot. There’s a paved path at the end of the parking lot, alongside Keefe Road, that will take you to a traffic light (off to your right). The shopping center is on the other side of Keefe Road.

I know, lots of lefts and rights. That what Google Maps is for. Or Ride With GPS.

More of my “weird beer” rides

A ‘festive glass’ of ‘weird beer’ in Morrisville, Pennsylvania

A new way to bike to the new Flounder Brewing site

‘Weird beer,’ part 4: This one tastes like BBQ