Draught Diversions: The Tap Takeover’s 4th Beerthday

Draught Diversions is the catchall label for mini-rants, think-pieces, and posts that don’t just focus on one beer here at The Tap Takeover. We hope you don’t grow too weary of the alcohol alliterative names we use…

Well, four years have passed since I decided to write about beer and launched the Tap Takeover. I skipped writing about my “Third Anniversary” because there were far more important things going on in the world of beer, and the world in general. The Pandemic was a colossal shift in life, but it seems the light at the end of the tunnel might be something resembling the normalcy of the Before Times rather than the oncoming train. I figured I could publish a self-reflective post, right?

The brewery landscape in New Jersey has evolved and grown, with more canned beer being made available as a result of the COVID restrictions affecting on-site consumption in brewery taprooms. However, some breweries did actually launch/open over the last couple of years and during the pandemic, bringing the number of breweries to 130 and 21 Brewpubs as of this writing, according to New Jersey Craft Beer, as of this posting in May 2021.  I’ve found myself gravitating even more to NJ beer over the last year during the Pandemic, as some of the breweries are more widely available via distribution as well. I would guess that close to 80% of the beer I purchase is from New Jersey breweries. In addition, I tend to also gravitate to Pennsylvania breweries since a couple of the breweries in the Keystone State are actually closer to me than some breweries here in the Great Garden State.

I published another 76 reviews since the May 2019 2nd anniversary post!

Over the past two years (since I published the self-aggrandizing 2nd anniversary post), I visited 24 breweries (some of these were mentioned in my year end posts for 2019 & 2020):

• Hackensack Brewing Company (Hackensack, NJ)
• The Alementary (Hackensack, NJ)
• Trustworthy Brewing Company (Las Vegas, NV)
• Icarus Brewing (Lakewood, NJ)
• Highrail Brewing (High Bridge, NJ)
• Moss Mill Brewing Company (Huntingdon Valley, PA)
• Naked Brewing Company (Huntingdon Valley, PA)
• Broken Goblet Brewery (Bensalem, PA)
• Mad Princes Brewery (Buckingham, PA) – The worst brewery I ever visited
• Great Barn Taproom (New Hope, PA)
• Bolero Snort Brewery (Carlstadt, NJ)
• Gordon Biersch (New Orleans, LA)
• Sunken Silo Brew Works (Lebanon, NJ)
• Magnify Brewing Company (Fairfield, NJ)
• Cricket Hill Brewing Company (Fairfield, NJ)
• Toms River Brewing Company (Toms River, NJ)
• Untied Brewing Company (New Providence, NJ)
• Four City Brewing Company (Orange, NJ)
• Brix City Brewing Company (Little Ferry, NJ)
• Seven Tribesmen Brewery (Wayne, NJ)
• Gaslight Brewery and Restaurant (South Orange, NJ)
• Ashton Brewing (Middlesex, NJ)
• Bull ‘n Bear Brewing Company (Summit, NJ)
• Source Farmhouse Brewery (Colts Neck, NJ)

As in past years, I would like to thank the readers of the blog and folks who have supported my little hobby by spreading the word over the years via social media and simply chatting up with me (virtually or in meatspace) about beer. I’d especially like to thank Mike K. of NJ Craft Beer who I’ve run into a few times at breweries and who was kind enough to invite me to a livestream chat; in March with other NJCB Members. Mike is always one of the first to spread the word/retweet my beer posts. Additionally, I’d also like to thank some of the other people who’ve spread the word on social media about my beer ramblings: the folks behind Breweries in PA ; John Couchoud and the the Crew of South Jersey Beer Scene; Al Gatullo of Al Gatullo’s Craft Beer Cast, my old college pal Chuck of NJ Beer and Wine; the great beer writer John Holl; Rob Callaghan and everybody in the great Brewery Strong organization; Matt Ross/MattyBlayze and the crew over at reddit/njbeer; the folks at the Beer Advocate Northeast subforum, among many others.

I’m still over at Instagram as @robhbed where I’ve gotten into the habit of posting one beer photo (very amateurishly taken) per week.

Cheers to another great year!