DENVILLE, NEW JERSEY
Named after an unused Revolutionary War hideaway, FORT NONSENSE BREWING COMPANY opened in Denville, January 2018. Initially Inside an inconspicuous red brick shelter along Route 10, this cozy nanobrewery offered intriguingly indeterminate flagships and stylishly varied one-off brews.
Ensconced in their new digs since October ’21, Fort Nonsense now occupies a sizable warehouse space in nearby Randolph. Its spacious, high ceilinged open area features a central formica-topped 10-stooled bar serving sixteen draughts emulating from the stage left stainless steel brewtanks. At the far right corner is a cozy couched lounge area and in between are several windowed chaired tables. Exposed metal pipes hang from above.
During my April ’24 sojourn with friend Dan Smith, settled into several previously untried suds, including and a sweet potato and chocolate cake stout, plus one Crescent City-styled coffee porter, a Mountain Dew sour, a lager and two hazy IPA’s.
Easygoing clear yellowed light lager, Lightning Strike, let sour lemon fizz prickle its lightly spiced hop perfuming and maize-dried straw wheat bottom.
Tart soda knockoff, Fort Loco Sour with Mountain Dew, gave its beery soft drink a lemony 7Up spritz and salted lime cologne wiff.
Juicy hazy beige yellowed IPA, Misty Morning, utilized floral pined Zythos hops, zestful Idaho 7 hops and limey Moteuka hops to evoke salty guava-mango tropicalia and lemon-candied yellow grapefruit tartness over mildly oated wheat creaming.
Dry yellow orange hazed NEIPA, Cosmic Cloud, allowed semi-sharp orange, pineapple and grapefruit bittering and grassy hop astringency to contrast its richly creamed oated wheat spine.
Serenading its milk-sugared chicory coffee entry with roasted dark chocolate, New Orleans-styled Cafe Du Nonde Cold Brewed Porter retained a doughy fried beignet pastry caking.
Sugared yam adjunct received lactose vanilla creaming, bittersweet black chocolate spunk and mild cinnamon sweetness for 12% ABV pastry stout, So Many Friggin’ Sweet Potatoes, leaving wispy black cherry, hazelnut paste and toffee illusions on the backend.
For dessert, chocolate cake stout, Did You Say Chocolate?, heaped dark chocolate syrup upon creamy cake battered vanilla richness and mild cola nut, toffee and espresso snips.
The following are my notes at previous Fort Nonsense Denville spot.
Run by three beer lovin’ brothers, including head brewer Andrew Aslanian, the ambitious pint-sized pub (with small back patio beer garden) crafts mostly easygoing fare meant to melt on the tongue.
I take a seat at the oaken wood-barred tap room to sample seven satisfyingly soft-toned suds listed on the blackboard menu.
It’s mid-September ’20, so I tried placid Octoberfest, Unsinn Machen (defined as ‘fooling around’) first. Its cheerfully refreshing red-orange-yellow fruiting stayed subtle engaging autumnal leafy hop foliage and mild roasted tobacco crisping over dainty Vienna malt sugaring.
Soft-watered Farmhouse Funk with Strawberry (an offshoot of tropical Golden Berry Farmhouse Funk) plied lemondrop-candied strawberry tartness to white wined whims and grassy hop herbage.
Then came the entourage of stylishly differentiated India Pale Ales.
Delicate Cascade-hopped Harvest IPA brought honey-spiced lemony orange zest to mild wet-hopped pining.
Tart green grape esters, orange-peeled grapefruit rind bittering and pine-lacquered restraint sat atop creamy crystal-pale malts for dry-hopped West Coast-styled Great Falls IPA.
Juicy NEIPA, Regolith: Tranquility Base, retained a candied grapefruit, peach and tangerine tartness and light wood-toned hop bittering above mildly creamed pale-sugared malts.
Best bet: Fully concentrated fruit juicing intensified Lacto By Nonsense. Conditioned on mango and tangerine, its lactic fructose-loaded front end amps up the lemon-juiced salted mango and pureed tangerine density, pineapple-like lulu tanginess, sour-candied Sweet-Tart pucker and vinous white wining. Though its sweaty sox aromatics seems off-putting, the highly acidic tropical fruiting makes a powerful statement.
For a late afternoon sendoff, traditional porter, Arnold’s Tavern, allowed light roast coffee pleasantries to ride above dark chocolate, walnut and hazelnut illusions.
Revisited Fort Nonsense March ’21 to try one trusty salted sour and a yellow-bellied java stout.
Sea-salted La Vie En Gose allowed tartly sour-candied strawberry/ raspberry adjuncts to gain bubbly Seltzer-like fizz (picking up mild passionfruit, cranberry and gooseberry wisps).
Mellow cocoa-nibbed Peruvian/ Costa Rican coffee tones subtly joined brown-sugared maple syruping and light vanilla creaming for You Think You Know Me Golden Stout, an understated pastry treat with cinnamon-spiced Horchata, toasted marshmallow and spiced rum licks contrasting phenol hop astringency.
