Brewerie at Union Station, Erie PA

I was here three years ago, I think, and was very impressed. Perhaps I’m older and wiser now, but I was not nearly as impressed today.

The building itself is still lovely as they’ve retained a lot of the old Union Station trappings and decorations (far more than can be seen here).

The Brewerie offers flights of eight – actually just two flights of four, ordered all at once – and how could I turn that down? Here they are:

The beers are what I found disappointing on this visit. Color aside, there wasn’t a huge differentiation between them. Still, two really stood out, and they were both seasonal brews:

Karendipity (second from the left on the first photo) – this is a White Stout and had far more flavor than I expected of that style. It was very tasty, and I was glad to have it.

Red Sweater (second from the right on the second photo) – this was billed as a “Smash Ale” and it also had a surprising, yet subtle, taste that really stood out from the others.

Second Meal™️ itself was their Railway Reuben, a perfectly fine if not exceptional example:

When I arrived, the poor bartender was stuck doing everything and this involved taking care of perhaps a dozen tables of customers, not all in the same room. Consequently, service was very slow, but it was obviously not her fault – she was going as fast as she good. Once things slowed down and I was ready for the check, I asked her if it had been unusually busy today or if this was normal, as it seemed to be too much for one person to handle. She said that this was normal, and that you “get used to it after a while.” Frankly, it doesn’t say much for the management that they wouldn’t have a second person on hand for the lunch hours if that’s the normal customer volume!

On the whole, I guess I’m not sorry I stopped here, but I won’t feel bad about giving it a miss on future trips.