Breaker Brewing Company, Wilkes-Barre PA

1 November 2023

Breaker Brewing is in an old neighborhood of Wilkes-Barre and it would be really interesting to visit in the winter due to the hill it’s on — it’s a steep drive to get there! You can get an idea of that from this view of Wilkes-Barre taken from the parking lot:

The inside is small but friendly:

For beer, I went with a flight of 10 (!) which basically was everything on the tap list that I thought I might vaguely like. All of them were good beers and I found that I would have gladly had more of several of them. Here’s the beautiful array of colors in the flight and I’ll describe them left to right:

Spaced IPA – NEIPA, 6% – There were 6 different hops used in this brew so there was a lot going on. Still, I rather liked it even though it wasn’t my favorite of the bunch. It was definitely in the top 2 or 3.

Caramel Coffee Brown Ale = Brown Ale, 5.9% – Again, this had a lot of flavors in it but they worked well together. Even though I don’t generally like browns, I have to admit that this is one I’d consider having again.

Sneaky Strawberry Blonde Ale – Blonde Ale, 8.3% – I’m still not sure whether this was my least favorite of the lot, but it was certainly a contender for that slot. The strawberry flavor, as you might guess from the color, was quite pronounced and that just isn’t a flavor I prefer to associate with beer.

Galactic Hopsternaut – Imperial IPA, 8.4% – Even though the alcohol flavor was more pronounced than it needed to be, this was a tasty one. It’s not one I’d have more of unless I’d had a few other beers first, and even then, I’d probably avoid it just because it’s not as well balanced as I prefer for this style.

CHS “91” Pilsner – Pilsner, 4.9% – I don’t know what the CHS and 91 mean here, but it was a pretty decent Pilsner even if it didn’t have any particularly outstanding qualities. This is just a good game day beer.

Caramel Apple Brown Ale – Brown Ale, 5.3% – Another brown ale, and another that I would actually consider having more of. The caramel apple flavor is not overpowering and complements the brown ale nicely.

Patchtown Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter – Porter, 5.8% – That’s a lot of flavor in one glass! It’s one of the best of this particular variety of porter that I’ve had, but too over-the-top to want more than this small glass.

Lunch Pail Ale – American Pale Ale, 5.5% – Of all the beers I tried here, this is the one I’d probably go back to over and over. The others would be “special occasion” beers, but the Lunch Pail is the workhorse of their lineup in my opinion. Tasty.

I also had a pizza here and normally I’d include a photo of it, but it was perhaps the worst pizza I’ve had in recent years — possibly even exceeding one from my trip the summer of 2022 — and I had absolutely no desire to retain any photographic memories of it. Ugh — tough crust, toppings ground to small bits, and possibly three times one’s daily salt intake in one round pizza-like object. I didn’t finish it.

On the whole, and in spite of some of the beers that I liked, Breaker Brewing didn’t do anything to restore my opinion of Wilkes-Barre. I’ll stick to my usual NY State stopping spots — Binghamton/Syracuse areas — from now on.