Illustration by Tyler Parker

Founder-brewmaster Rob DeMaria guides us through some of his favorite beers in the brewery’s spectrum

Rob DeMaria’s of Italian stock. You might’ve guessed that from his name, but he’s likely to mention it anyway, especially if he’s telling you about the first beer he ever brewed. Standing in his kitchen, looking over a witbier recipe, he noticed a list of additional spices that traditionally pair well with the style. As if he was seasoning a pot of marinara, DeMaria took to his spice rack and started smelling the selection. Starting with cardamom, he worked his way through the rack, and ultimately decided his recipe needed a healthy dose of chive. His first batch of beer, a chive-spiced witbier, took third place in a regional homebrew competition. He opened Prism Brewing in 2010, and adopted the same whimsical approach to producing commercial beer.

“I don’t believe an IPA has to be a West Coast IPA and rip the taste buds out of your mouth,” DeMaria says, “And I don’t know if we’ll ever brew a beer that’s the same as everyone else.”

Although his beers run the gamut of unusual and inventive (from a hopless porter to a wasabi-spiked black wheat ale), DeMaria creates order with a diagram that breaks down the basics of his beers for customers. From red to purple, each color identifies the beer’s strength.

“Originally we were going to use it to illustrate adjuncts in our beer, but six or seven colors just isn’t enough,” says DeMaria. “Now it’s just a really great way to note the ABV of a beer with a visual our customers can recognize.”

Since officially releasing his first batch of beer last October, DeMaria has been developing new, odd styles like a cranberry-spiked IPA, as quickly as he has quirky ideas for his brewery. This summer, Prism opened a new taproom, which not only serves his spectrum of beer, but also a range of gourmet hot dogs designed specifically for each color (think a chili dog with red onion-pineapple relish and a pint of Felony IPA). “We’re not trying to be gimmicky,” says DeMaria. “We just don’t live in a box.”

Shady Blond

“This is our blond ale with blood oranges—250 of them hand-peeled and juiced—which lends a great flavor. It was named after a friend of mine who was supposed to brew the very first batch with me. She’s a redhead, which is why we added blood oranges.”

ParTea Pale Ale

“This is brewed with orange pekoe tea leaves; about one pound of tea leaves for every keg of beer. We actually steep the tea in the brew kettle at the end of the boil. It’s almost like you’re drinking unsweetened tea, but the beer also dries out a bit.”

Bitto Honey IPA

“This is our signature. It’s well-balanced and brewed with fresh Pennsylvania wildflower honey, which adds a really nice backbone and balances out the hops. It’s an IPA hopheads will enjoy, but new guys getting into the style will like it, too.”

Insana Stout

“It’s a bacon-chocolate stout. We actually use vegan-friendly bacon, powdered cocoa and Madagascar cocoa beans. The bacon is smoky against the chocolate; people find it interesting that there’s no smoked malt in the beer.”

ChemoSabi

“This is our India black wheat brewed with wasabi. All of our beers’ flavors are actually pretty subtle, and the same is true here. The wasabi and wheat work really well together; there’s just a little bit of heat.”

Felony IPA

“This has 10 different hop varieties, a 10% ABV, 100 IBUs, and we brew it with cranberries. We try to look at hop varieties that are lesser used: One of the 10 is Brambling Cross.”