A new way to bike to the new Flounder Brewing site

What would it be like to use the D&R Canal towpath and then Amwell Road to reach Flounder?

Flounder Brewery moved into a renovated old farmhouse last year (still in Hillsborough) and now has lots of indoor and outdoor seating. We biked once from Duke Farm and then via roads to the D&R Canal towpath at the Griggstown Causeway.

But what would it be like to bike almost all the way using the canal towpath? Time to find out with this route.

Continue reading “A new way to bike to the new Flounder Brewing site”

How to bike to Duke Farms (with a detour to the new Flounder Brewing)

Would the D&R Canal towpath be the best way to reach Duke Farms? Or would a road option be better?

Biking to Duke Farms has been on the list for a while.

But if we wanted to benefit from the calmness of the D&R Canal towpath for much of the ride, the trade-off would be some stretches of busy road. Would it be worth it?

Continue reading “How to bike to Duke Farms (with a detour to the new Flounder Brewing)”

Going stir-crazy over coronavirus — so let’s bike to support a small brewery

WFH = I’m eating too much. I need a bike ride. Where to?

It’s not even been a week of working from home and staying indoors a lot. This is going to be hard. I’m eating too much, even if I (futilely) try to barricade the door to the kitchen. I can always go outside to fight the war against the evil hairy bittercress weed that would take over the yard in a heartbeat, of course. But sometimes you just need a bike ride.

Saturday afternoon was sunny and fairly warm (missed the true hot day on Friday because, you know, work). Where to go?

I’d been getting emails most of the week from Flounder Brewing, that nano brewery we checked out last fall as part of my “weird beer” rides. I couldn’t tell if they were still open and selling crowlers (32-ounce cans), but we figured it was as good a destination as any. 17 miles each way, a mix of trail and road.

Continue reading “Going stir-crazy over coronavirus — so let’s bike to support a small brewery”

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

The latest search for weird beer took us to one of the fastest-growing craft breweries in the U.S.

Two beers were in contention for the weirdest beer at Flounder Brewing, a fast-growing nanobrewery in Hillsborough, NJ. There was the “off-menu” pumpkin spice latte ale, with a milk chocolate cream to confound the flavor profile even more, as well as a beer called the “Pitmaster” described as an “amber ale brewed with smoked malts and maple syrup.”

Being a non-coffee drinker, the choice was easy: the Pitmaster. Just three bucks for 7 ounces.

The smokiness hit me first, as if I had barbecue in my mouth. That faded as I sipped more, putting the maple syrup more forward, horrifying my beer aficianado friends. I’d rather have the smokiness. (Actually, I’d rather have some real BBQ, but this bikes and BBQ ride isn’t for a few more weeks.)

Continue reading “‘Weird beer,’ part 4: This one tastes like barbecue”