Jersey Shore Breweries: Dark City Brewing Review

Dark City Brewing was Asbury Park’s first brewery and while it’s been open for a couple of year, I can’t explain why I haven’t been there yet! It was really a nice surprise. The location is great, just what you’d expect in Asbury: funky atmosphere, fancy interiors, and it’s really big. Oh and I loved their mural!

It’s not in the busy restaurant areas of Cookman or the Boardwalk, so it doesn’t get the foot traffic, but believe me, it’s worth the detour! Dark City is on Main St just 2 blocks North of Asbury Ave (so still in the “Asbury safe zone”) and has a very welcoming room, with about a dozen beers available for tasting. There’s quite a varied selection, including pilsner, IPA’s, pale ales, porter, stout and more, and several of them are available in cans as well.

Here is what I tried and what I liked about them:

• Double Yellow – This was my favorite, an IPA with tropical flavors. At 7.1% it’s almost a double, but the soft fruity taste makes it feel slightly lighter.
• Gateway – It’s a straight double-dry hopped 6.5% IPA, very refreshing on a hot summer day.
• Placemaker – A light 5.3% wheat ale, double dry hopped with citra hops for a refreshing flavor.
• Bond St Brownie – Nice brown ale, very smooth, almost a session beer at 4.8%.
• Hell On Earth – No idea why I even tried this pink-ish beet blonde ale, since I can’t stand beets. If you like beets, then try it, otherwise it tastes like dirt (i.e. beets).

We’ll definitely come back to Dark City Brewing, to enjoy the Asbury beer scene and of course, to try more of their offerings!

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