Heartland Brewery

So heres a brewpub chain thats pretty much all over Manhattan.  So we just HAD to try it. Seriously they have their own tourist map of manhattan with all of their brewpup locations helpfully labelled and not much else on the map. Luckily they had a tasting tray which as we learnt is called a "flight" around these parts.

So how good is it? well we are talking brewpub chain here and though I was hoping for something as decent, like our own James Squires brewhouses, my expectations were pretty low. They make all the usuals, light lager, pils, "wheat beer", IPA, stout plus a few seasonals. Starting with the light lager kinda set the mood for the rest of the tasting tray. It was light and tasted vaguely like an orange soda. The pils again was quite light on flavour or body. Both smelled more than they actually delivered. Still ok to drink ice cold on a hot day. The wheat beer was pretty much a joke. It smelt sour and slightly musty. The flavour? Well as Scott put it, like dirty dishwater. I could not finnish it. Their "west coast style"  IPA promised big things on the nose, big resiny phenols and fresh pine. The body, like the colour, was rather light. Alot more bitter than their other beers but no-were near a true IPA in terms of bitterness or body or flavour or pretty much anything. As for the west coast claim? Son, you better stick to practising before you try and step up to the big boys. Lastly we tried their stout and brown ale. Much better, not the best ive ever drunk but definately an improvement on the rest of the range. It was all comming together nicely. Good colour, decent aroma, flavour that lingered and an allright body to boot. Not bad at all. I think Heartland has a good thing going here. They are conveniently located in all the big tourist hotspots, make decent food, have a range of ok/hit and miss beers that are slightly left of center but still familiar to the masses. The service was great and friendly. Give it a go if you are in New York, just dont expect your world to move.