Marshmallow-topped canned yam sweetness pleasantly buried beneath hefty black chocolate blitz and autumnal brown-sugared cinnamon and nutmeg spicing. Caramel-burnt sweet potato slumber profits from dark cocoa richness, freeze-dried coffee tones, Blackstrap molasses bittering and dark toffee snips given nut-charred hop roast.
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, piney citric double dry-hopped IPA bounces Citra/Mosaic hop zesting against piney Simcoe hop herbage and mild floral daubs. Brisk orange-peeled yellow grapefruit rind bittering gains sweet mango, tangy pineapple and distant cantaloupe-melon conflux for trusty tropical medium body.
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, pale yellow hazed IPA plies lightly citrus-spiced Citra/Mosaic/Idaho 7 hop combo to musty pine resin and salty herbal nips. Lightly embittered lemon rind, orange pith and white grapefruit zesting relegates dry pale malt bottom.
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, musky orange-dried grapefruit, tangerine and apricot tartness subtly reaches honeyed oats-flaked wheat bottom, picking up musty hop resin.
Coffee-stained dark chocolate syruping drapes brown-sugared candied yam sweetness hidden behind hop-charred nutty bitterness. Wintry cinnamon-nutmeg coalition and fern-like tannins stay setback alongside burnt marshmallow adjunct of semi-rich holiday porter with scripted Have The Yams Stopped Screaming moniker.
FLEMINGTON, NEW JERSEY
Moving from its mall-bound digs in Raritan to a sterling gray aluminum-sided Flemington warehouse fourteen miles west in January 2020, CONCLAVE BREWING has seen an increasing demand for their crisp elixirs since getting licensed five years hence.
Conclave now joins Lone Eagle as a Flemington brewery fixture. Several community tables dot the midsized Edison light-fixtured pub space. The marbleized amber concrete floor glazes the interior and the compact serving station features at least sixteen tap handles. The large high-ceilinged left room brew tanks climb towards the sky and further expansion in this gargantuan microbrew space seems inevitable.
On my February ’20 stopover, I enjoyed four previously untried goodies.
Perfectly centrist flagship, Gravitational Waves New England IPA, posted a punctual tropical fruit-spiced Galaxy-Citra-Mosaic hop blend that allows mild floral pining to soak into juicy grapefruit, pineapple, mango, orange and peach zesting.
Floral-perfumed citrus zest brightened Taiji IPA, as mildly creamed crystal malting glazed crisply clean yellow grapefruit-embittered orange tanginess.
Heady dark candi-sugared quad, Artaban Belgian Dark Ale, received a spicy dried fruited barrage of golden raisin, plum, prune and dark cherry.
On the dark side, bittersweet cocoa nibs and vanilla beans enhanced Liquid Velvet Imperial Porter, pervading its syrupy dark chocolate malting with decadent delight.