Melding chili-peppered cocoa and cinnamon adjuncts to cocoa-dried dark chocolate syrup, lactic milk stout collaboration (with Ohio’s Listermann Brewing) picks up black cherry-pureed bourbon licks, relegating its ashen hop-charred bittering. Effectively efficient cinnamon-peppered cocoa quencher.
CARLSTADT, NEW JERSEY
After gypsy brewing at Jersey’s High Point, Czig Meister and Alementary since January 2013, BOLERO SNORT BREWERY entrepreneur Robert Olson finally expanded his empire to include a large, high ceilinged, 16,000 square-foot, aluminum Industrial building within the Meadowlands in Carlstadt.
Since Bolero Snort’s at the doorstep of Giants Stadium and the horse track, getting curious brewpub enthusiasts thru the door won’t be a problem. Olson’s varied, oft-experimental beer designs span the stylish spectrum as offbeat hybrids, barrel-aged endeavors, whimsical one-offs, cocktail knockoffs and sour ales with bovine taglines get interspersed with more traditional fare.
A 24-tap L-shaped serving station at the gray cement-floored, garage-doored, right side ground level featuring three TV’s, barreled tables and Edison lights is situated next to the abundant open space holding the vast brewing equipment.
An upstairs lodge (with ten draught taps and three picnic tables) overlooks the brewing operations that includes a huge grain silo, several sterling silver tanks, kettle sour barrels, a canning line and fermenters atop a silver-and-red floor seemingly dedicated to Olson’s high school, Bergen Catholic.
My wife and I perused Bolero Snort, February 1, 2020, two weeks after its snowy grand opening.
Muskily dry light body, Hooffa, a heady barnyard-leathered German-styled pilsner with herbal cologne-perfumed lemon licks and dark floral remnants.
Lemony pineapple-candied grapefruit zest crowded spicy pale malts and grassy hop astringency for IPA-tinged wheat beer, Grazer, relegating earthen dewy mossing and cellared fungi mustiness atop a delicate cracked wheat spine.
Minty watermelon tartness fortified Watermelon + Mint Grazer, a nifty spinoff with melon rind earthiness, sour lemondrop whim and recessive vodka-ginned alcohol nip.
Mild ‘hoppy ale,’ BullYum, brought lightly heated Thai chili peppering to ginger-minted lime dryness and latent green tea-like bittering.
Salty lemon-limed Margarita knockoff, Coconut BullYum, stayed mild as wispy Thai chili peppering serenaded limey coconut tartness and subtle ginger herbage.
Maple -sugared cherry and vanilla sweeten Cherry + Vanilla Bu’ll Be Bock, a lactic dessert-like confection with mildly pungent citric hop astringency rubbing against dark cherry-pureed caramel malting.
Lemon-spiced grapefruit, orange and pineapple zest fronted Hello…My Bull Pen Is…, a Citra-hopped moderation with celery watered crisping and soft dry wood tones.
Conditioned on peanut butter, amber-hazed NEIPA, Dirty SnowBull Fights, brought milk-sugared vanilla to lactic yogurt-soured pineapple tartness, yellow grapefruit rind bittering, zesty orange peel juicing and piney underbrush, leaving only a meager peanut-oiled influence.
bolerosnort.com
Ambitious Mexican-style horchata-inspired cream ale brings stylishly sweet cinnamon-vanilla warmth to milk-sugared rice flouring above honeyed Graham Cracker base. Confectionary powdered sugaring drapes vanilla-creamed cinnamon frontage as recessive coconut, almond and mandarin orange illusions sway. Sensational sugary dessert treat.
Creamy milk-sugared coffee sway gains cinnamon-toasted gingerbread sweetness and dainty nutmeg-clove-cumin nicety. Latent hop-charred nuttiness provides mildly pungent bittering to escalate spiced-up mocha latte dessert treat.
On tap at Beef Trust, creamy vanilla sweetness imbues tropical coconut-pineapple-kiwi-guava serenity to contrast juniper-laden orange peel bittering. Milk-sugared creamsickle sugaring lies above mild oats-flaked malting of tropical smoothie.
Briskly dry medium-full body offers juicy orange zest to juniper-embittered wood tones above flaked oats base of lupulin-powdered IPA. Silken citrus-forward delight.
On tap at Beef Trust, pulpy peach pureeing immediately embittered by sharp pineapple-juiced yellow grapefruit briskness, gaining yogurt-soured barley flouring and groaty buckwheat waxing. Tart peach-pineapple conflux allows tropical mango, guava, papaya, nectarine and orange fruiting to emerge alongside stiff alcohol burn.
Richly creamed Mexican-styled full body remains boldly well-balanced yet lusciously soft-tongued. Exuberant mocha-spiced sweetness increases brown-sugared cinnamon adjunct to contrast mild ancho-pablano peppering above molasses-glazed flaked oats malting. Minty chocolate luxuriance gains lovely milk-sugared coffee, bourbon vanilla, cocoa nibs, crème brulee, café au lait, coconut and hazelnut undertones. Recommended.
On tap at Growler & Gill, “heavily oated” hazy amber-marbled New England IPA brings floral-daubed grapefruit juicing to lactic milk souring and vanilla-sugared flaked oats with straight-up medium body stability.
On tap at Poor Henry’s, sour orange candy pucker greets pureed tangerine and apricot puree above lactic milk-sugared oats base. Light lemony acidity politely guards dried fruited sourness. Burnt rubber waft seems outta place but to no ill effect.
Enthusiastic tart-candied Sour Patch Kids knockoff offers lightly acidic lemon-limed bittering to raspberry puree adjunct, ancillary blueberry-blackberry rasp, distant pink grapefruit juicing and mildly lacquered plasticity. Fizzy soda pop crackle adds snap to convincing raspberry-pureed, pink-cleared sour ale.
Chewy cinnamon-sticked brown chocolate malting gains gooey cumin-gingered anise spicing and coconut-toasted marshmallow sweetness above brown-sugared molasses oats for inspiringly rounded dessert stout. Burgundy chocolate cake, Black Forest cake and vanilla bean cake illusions abound!
