WILK Friday BeerBuzz – 12 Oct 2012 East Coast Beer Beach Haus Pilsner w/John Merklin

I’m constantly excited to see new and upcoming breweries in our craft beer market.  With each new brewery, there’s a level of excitement, innovation and yes…new craft beer hitting the market!
Last Friday I was lucky enough to sit down with brewmaster & Co-Founder of East Coast Beer John Merklin and sample some of his beer.  East Coast is relatively new to the craft beer world, but you’d never know it based on their beer and their great packaging.  John shared all three of their current beers and we had a great time sampling and talking about East Coast.  To make it even better, John agreed to come on the WILK Friday BeerBuzz and share his story with all of you.

John co-founded East Coast Beer with high school buddy Brian Ciriaco.  Driven by their discovery of craft beer in other countries, the two decided to make the leap and in 2009 they left their jobs to create East Coast Beer Co.  East Coast released their first beer in the Summer of 2010 and they’ve been expanding ever since.  East Coast Beer distributes to 5 states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York & South Carolina with more “east coast” states to come.

Today we decided to sample Brian & John’s very first beer, Beach Haus Pilsner.  Beach Haus is a classic American Pre-prohibition pilsner with just the right amount of hops and a clean easy drinking finish.  The body is light but it has a really satisfying mouth-feel that I know will appeal to a wide audience.

We also sampled East Coast’s fall seasonal Winter Rental.  This is a dark lager Schwarzbier-style brew that came out in 2011 and it too has a really easy-drinking clean finish and a slightly heavier body, perfect for this time of year.  Winter Rental is a surprisingly drinkable beer for a dark lager and John tells me this is their “people’s choice” winner at every festival they do.

East Coast Beers are distributed through Northeast Eagle in Northeastern PA so they are available at Krugel’s Georgetown Deli.  Be sure to check out these beers as well as East Coast’s new Kick Back Amber Ale….AND John tells me they are working on a possible new IPA to be added to the East Coast line-up so stay tuned. 

Thank you to John Merklin from East Coast Beer, Nancy, John & Joe for yet another

fun Friday. 

The Friday BeerBuzz…bringing good beers and good people together.

As always you can check out the video on-line at the WILK Friday BeerBuzz page by clicking HERE.