Beer Me!

There’s nothing I like more than a cold pint of handcrafted beer (well, maybe a few things but not many). It’s probably the first thing I’ll order at a bar or restaurant when visiting a new place. “Whatever’s local,” I’ll say. But after five months in Bermuda I still hadn’t found one, that is until my wife and I stumbled upon North Rock Brewing Company on South Road in Smith’s Parish. Dark and cozy, like a traditional English pub that got transplanted to the tropics, North Rock has five—count ‘em five!—local beers on tap. Order the sampler (like we did; see above) and you’ll get a five-ounce glass of each, including a citric German wheat beer, a straw-colored Pilsner, an English-style amber ale, a hoppy IPA, and a chocolately dark porter. But don’t let the name fool you: North Rock stopped brewing it’s own beer years ago when it handed over the job to Dockyard Brewing Company on the island’s west end. Armed with this last bit of information I descended upon the source, located at the Frog and Onion Pub at the Royal Naval Dockyard. Eureka! To my delight I found the same five beers on tap, in an equally inviting English pub, significantly closer to my Southampton home. Best of all, the beer is brewed on-site so the suds don’t have to travel very far to get to your glass. Pair that with killer burgers and satisfying pub grub and it’s quickly become my new favorite place. Tour the brewery on Monday evenings from 6pm-8pm and be sure to stop in on Monday, Thursday, and Friday nights, when local guitarist Tony Brannon plays rousing cover tunes from 7pm-10:30pm. And if you’re looking for me, well, I’ll be at the bar.