Treacly medium roast coffee entry gains sweet brown chocolate thrust and fudgy brownie insistence countered by sneaky wood-seared hop char. Confectionary almond toffee, café latte and crème brulee illusions deepen fermented wildflower honey adjunct against bitter coffee stead.
Effervescent purply pink-hued Berliner Weiss hybrid loads kettle-soured lactose and tart pineapple, mango and blackberry adjuncts to stylish salty coriander base. Sour candied fruiting gains mild champagne wining as well as oaken cherry pucker at tart pastry finish.
Vibrant super-hazed yellow amber pale ale hybrid brings lactose and coconut adjuncts to the fore alongside vanilla-sweetened peach, pineapple, strawberry and mango goodness. Toasted coconut sugaring and tropical fruiting contrast mildly lactic yogurt souring to its soft oats-flaked wheat base.
LAKEWOOD, NEW JERSEY
Inside a grey warehouse just past Lakewood’s Post Office, ICARUS BREWING came to fruition November 2015. Head brewer Jason Goldstein, an Ohio State University food science major, trained under the staffs of stalwart breweries Heineken and Newcastle, setting up Rinn Duin (now Toms River Brewing) thereafter.
Icarus has crafted a myriad of wide ranging one-off elixirs and a few recurring offerings since its inception, taking great care in providing interesting flavor profiles for a legion of fans crowding this venue as soon as it opened this sunny Thursday afternoon in August ’19.
At the lacquered wood serving station are 24 tap handles, a red and black beer list and small refrigerator with to-go brews. Five barreled tables with block seats fill out the epoxy-floored interior and a Led Zeppelin poster across an Icarus insignia.
The bartender plays vinyl records as I devour ten samplers of superfine Jersey suds. For more info, check Beer Index for 20-plus more Icarus reviews.
Reliable flagship pale ale, Go Flight, expedited juicy lupulin-powdered grapefruit, orange and pineapple tanginess plus limey gooseberry tartness for ‘heavily wheated’ dry malting.
Aussie summertime hoppy pilsner, Extinguish, brought lightly soured apple, pear and grape tannins as well as sweet cantaloupe and honeydew illusions to lightly pungent grain musk.
Oak-barreled Belgian farmhouse yeast left tart pineapple salting, mellow grapefruit tanginess and dry barnyard funk on dry saison, Wax Wings.
Conditioning Icarus’ Yacht Juice base on lime, toasted coconut and habanero peppering, dry North East IPA, It’s Getting Yacht In Here, left a bit of peppery heat upon its lightly vanilla creamed tropical fruit spicing.
Waxy lupulin-powdered Mosaic hop fruiting and heavily wheated oats consumed New England Imperial IPA, Drinking Crayons, leaving lemony tangerine, mango and apricot illusions in its wake.
Lactic triple IPA, Touching The Sun, combined sweetly sour citrus fruiting with mild oats-flaked wheat malts, spreading orange-juiced pineapple, green grape and gooseberry tartness across its lupulin-powdered surface.
Lovely fruitful dry-hopped Abomination collaboration, The Long Fall, a powdered pastry-like Milkshake Triple IPA, tossed creamy Madagascar vanilla beaning at orange-peeled grapefruit tanginess, sour gooseberry-guava licks and lactic milk-sugared barley flouring.
Perfumed coconut water and mild lime bittering serenaded laidback NEIPA, You Put The Yacht In The Coconut, bringing waxy floral citrus tones to the mix.
Clover-honeyed toasted coconut and macadamia usurped AK47, an easygoing Russian Imperial Stout conditioned on Guatemalan coffee and nearly as great as a nightcap as fabulous dessert stout, Smooshing Sweet Parts.
Brewed with marshmallow, hazelnut and chocolate, Smooshing’s rich sweet-toothed template also included spiced cherry, blackberry and raspberry fruiting to fortify its astounding nutty mocha resilience.
On tap at Morris Tap & Grill, expansive dry-hopped pilsner brings summery Australian hops forward, leaving grape-soured pear, honeydew and cantaloupe fruiting upon its dark floral fennel herbage and mildly acrid hay-seeded barnyard leathering.
On tap at Morris Tap & Grill, wayward French Toast-inspired raspberry stout with maple syrup and cinnamon adjuncts completely lacquered by rich dark chocolate bittering. But pastry-like French Toast expectancy and deadened cinnamon spicing fade below tart raspberry chocolate caking.
On tap at Taphouse 15, resiliently creamy milk chocolate sweetness gains vanilla, marshmallow, burnt caramel and toasted almond influence to counter less prominent dry hop char. Sugared mocha continuance ultimately reinforced by bittersweet cacao nibs persuasion for engagingly candied dessert treat.
On tap at Taphouse 15, lactose-aided India Pale Ale utilizes tropical fruited Citra hops, white-wined Nelson Sauvin hops, lupulin powdered Mosaic hops, herbal Columbus hops and woody Simcoe hops to develop zesty lemon-dropped orange peel tang and bitter grapefruit rind subtlety. Tertiary green grape, gooseberry, papaya and passionfruit illusions flutter below.
On tap at Morris Tap & Grill, wily collaboration with Bronx’s Gun Hill Brewery loads brown-sugared blackstrap molasses upon embittered coffee-milked cocoa, lightly charred nuttiness and spiced rye malts.
On tap at Taphouse 15, heavily wheated, lupulin powdered, hazily amber yellowed New England-styled IPA brings lemony grapefruit-orange-pineapple tang, cucumber-watered melon rind and dank pine resin to dry wheat-husked pale malt bottom.
On tap at Taphouse 15, richly creamed lactose-soured India Pale Ale with mighty 10.5% ABV and turbid beige golden body. Resinous hop-oiled melon rind bittering contrasts tangy orange, pineapple, mango and passionfruit juicing above mild wheated oats base. Musky citrus perfuming extends to stylishly robust finish.
On tap at Beef Trust, sweet toasted coconut adjunct gains syrupy chocolate affluence that outlasts ancillary almond-hazelnut-cola illusions and mild lactic souring of fine dessert fodder.
