Wicked Warren’s Brewery, Jamestown NY
31 March 2025
Wicked Warren’s opened a small location in Warren PA about six years ago; their Jamestown location is only a few months old and is clearly in an old store building. They have tons of space inside including an upstairs balcony area and the decor is interesting:
Even better, they have life-sized mascots to keep you company if you’re seated in the bar area!
Unlike most places in this region, they’re open every day of the week at 11:30am and while some Mondays are busy, I was one of two customers when I walked in at 1:30pm. But enough of that, on to the beer and food! They do flights of up to 6 and I’ll describe these front-to-back on the right followed by front-to-back on the left:
Graham’s Graf – Graf, 5.2% – A Graf is a beer-cider hybrid and this is a mix of their blonde ale with a hard cider. It was unusual and tasted rather like a summer day; I can definitely envision drinking this in the backyard on a July or August afternoon.
Not a Boblem – German Pilsner, 4.8% – It was clean and crisp with just a mild bitterness, but it seemed to me that this was brewed to bring in people who are used to those pseudo-beers brewed by large American breweries. That’s not to my taste, but if it gets more people to shift to craft brews, more power to them.
Wicked Broth – New England IPA, 6.5% – Smooth, velvety, well-balanced with good citrus flavors and a mild bitterness — when I picked this to take with me in a 4-pack, the bartender mentioned that this is their flagship beer. It’s clear why!
Rake ‘n’ Ride – West Coast IPA, 7% – This beer was created in honor of the local pioneers of mountain biking; before machine-built trails, they were maintained by hand using rakes — hence the term “Rake ‘n’ Ride” as referring to these older mountain-bike trails. This beer was very good with food but a bit bitter on its own, but it was definitely recognizable as a West Coast style.
Secret Stash – New England IPA, 7% – This has a big citrus flavor from the primary and double dry hopping as well as a fair bitterness on the finish. With strongly-flavored food, such as the pizza I had, it worked well but I wouldn’t want to drink it by itself.
Dark Talons – Porter, 6.3% – What can I say about this beer other than “A Perfect Porter?” Anything else would be superfluous. I loved it and would taken a 4-pack of it with me if it had been available.
Speaking of that pizza, there’s a decently varied menu but one of their specialities is wood-fired pizza. The pies are offered in 7″ and 10″ sizes, perfect for one person, and with regular, cauliflower, or gluten-free crusts. This is a 10″ with sausage, mushroom, and spinach and it was a lot of food! The flavors were wonderful and the crust was beautiful.
I will definitely keep this place on my list for future drives through this region!