Drunk Monkey Brew Werks

Small brewery’s are common in Appalachia. Some have even turned into larger operations, over the years. Names like Appalachian Beer Company and Lancaster Brewery come to mind.
These places some excellent beer. But they also are restaurants. So, maybe beer is a draw in or the food at times.
So with that, Drunk Monkey is a pure brewery. They make, sell, distribute, and promote their own product. As far as promoting, I am not sure they need to do much work as the product has really gotten some attention at the street level.
I have seen the main beer showing up at local restaurants the last year. There has also been solid word of mouth. Some of their beers are even winning awards. So it didn’t take much convincing from a coworker to get me there before our Nittany Lions came on.
The brewery, itself, is a tiny place tucked into an old industrial park that use to be home to one of the largest textile mills in the country. Long abandoned, different smaller businesses now call the park home.
One of the more sustained businesses is Fisher’s bee farm. That brings us to the brewery. The owner of the bee farm decided to start a brewery near his business.
Once finding the brewery, you notice that it is a whole in the wall kinda place. But once entering, the place is organized, clean, and the folks are extremely warm and friendly.
Everything is clearly marked. Beer prices are payed out in a sheet on the wall. There is a merchandise rack clearly marked. There are cases clearly marked for type.
You can tell this is a place where the people love and care about their beer. The lady manning the shop was knowledgable and friendly.
She gave us a preview of the beers and described each one as we taste tested the taps. She then offered us a tour of the small brewery which we jumped on. This definitely plussed the experience and ultimately earned that fifth star.
We learned that this particular young lady also hand labels, preps, and fills the bottles. So she does more than just look pretty selling the beer.
Now for the beer. I really can’t remember all the particular names of the beer. But I had a few favorites. In particular, the German wheat beer was fantastic. That is what I got my growler filled with.
Some of the other beers that tasted great, Kraken and one named Mistress or something to that effect. Fittingly, the mistress had a tap handle in the shape of a ship figure head. Speaking of which, all the beers have nautical names based on the folklore of Captain Jack which many local landmarks are named.
I have nothing negative to say about Drunk Monkey. They are in an obscure location. The place is small and doesn’t look like much from the outside. But like most really great businesses, it is about the knowledge of the people behind the business. Drunk Monkey has plenty of that! If you are in the area on a Wednesday or Saturday, stop in for a taste.