Tag Archives: WILLIAMSTOWN NJ

13TH CHILD BREWERY

13th Child Brewery - Distillery Directory & Distillery Map

WILLIAMSTOWN, NEW JERSEY

Inside a red brick Main Street cornerstone of Gloucester County’s unincorporated Williamstown, 13TH CHILD BREWERY occupies a former bank/ music studio. Opened March 2017, just a few months before Cross Keys Brewing Company began operations one mile down the road, 13th Child’s white-walled gleam, large sectional windows, olden wood floor and high overhead are reminiscent of a pristine 19th Century schoolhouse.

Five tables front the wood top serving station while pendant lights hang from the black tongue-and-groove ceiling. Corner counter seating opposes right side stainless steel brew tanks carrying approachable suds my wife and I imbibe this sunnily brisk January ’21 afternoon.

A few brave souls fought off the freezing temps by plowing a few at the beer garden.

13TH CHILD BREWERY — Dauntless Design Collaborative | Williamstown NJ

Lemon-soured cranberry tartness rode above wheat crackered pilsner malts and leathery oaken tannins for Cran You Ugly Pale Ale, picking up withered boysenberry, gooseberry and green grape whims.

Mildly puckered lemon-limed peach bittering soaked up the lactic brettanomyces yeast of Wanna Peach Of Me, a kettle-soured fruit ale.

Diffident saison, Break It Frenchie, sidled zesty lemon tartness with honeyed banana, bruised orange, and green grape notions, leaving herbal nuances upon the straw-dried backend.

Easygoing English-styled IPA, Session 19, permitted pasty raw-honeyed pale malts to obtain waxy apricot-fig desiccation and dewy peat mossing.

Another sorta English IPA, inconspicuously soft-toned Cascade Annie IPA brought dewy tea-leafed earthen mossing to mildly creamed candi-sugared citrus spicing and dried plantain snips.

Flagship Mosaic-Citra-hopped New England IPA, Mean 13, allowed its ample yellow grapefruit thrust to gain ambrosial yogurt-soured mandarin orange tanginess and tart green grape esters above pasty pale malts.

Placidly sweet doppelbock, Irons Bock, let toffee-spiced dried fruiting delicately pleat chocolate crystal malt sugaring.

Mildly fudged chocolate creaming sashayed above the chewy cookie dough bottom fortifying Schoko Bliss, a sweet chocolate stout with espresso, cappuccino and cafe au lait undertones.      

CROSS KEYS BREWING CO.

Key To Hoppiness - Cross Keys Brewing Co. | Photos - Untappd Membership Benefits – Barley Legal Homebrewers

WILLIAMSTOWN, NEW JERSEY

A humble oasis tucked away off the Atlantic City Expressway (one mile north of 13th Child) in the quiet tree-lined suburban village of Williamstown, CROSS KEYS BREWING CO. opened its doors March ’18. Comforting in its charmingly ungarnished warehouse-converted studio splendor, Cross Key’s green-hopped insignias are ever-present throughout the gray cement-floored pub.

An outdoor wood patio at the parking lot leads to the entrance where two overhead doors provide further access. A nifty wood-lacquered bar top with embedded keys, twelve-plus tap handles, twin electronic beer boards and overhead caged Edison lights is situated in the rear. Barreled tables and a few couch furnishings decorate the spare space. A separate high ceilinged right side room with stainless steel brewtanks, large refrigeration unit and ample kegs store the proprietary suds.

The winning array of rounded elixirs proved quite expressive on my Saturday evening jaunt, January ’21. While watching the Packers battle it out on TV, I sank eight sundry suds.

Easygoing light body, Williamstown German-Style Pilsner, confined its pasty corn-sugared malt liquoring and lightly floral-spiced herbage to its salty cracker spine.

Banana-spiced cotton candy sweetness enjoined brisk orange zesting to contrast pungent herbal hop astringency and salty phenols lingering thru the fruitful frontage of The Journey, a peppy Belgian Blonde Ale.

Candi-sugared bruised orange sweetness enhanced rummy banana daquiri cocktail flare for creamy Belgian tripel, The Marathon, a fine pilsner malted elixir.

Tartly vinous Yada Yada Yada Cherry Pie Gose allowed candied apple sweetness to seep inside its cherry rhubarb piquancy and lemon-soured cranberry, strawberry and apple splurge.

Orange-spiced oats sugaring coated Orange Jumpsuit, a tangy citric-glazed double dry-hopped IPA with mild pine oiling. 

Floral-spiced piney fruiting embraced Hopedemic East Coast Double IPA, a pasty pale malt-sugared medium body with tangy peach, grapefruit and orange zesting. 

Robust Peepin’ Porter relied on dark chocolate malts for its cocoa-dried roasted coffee, espresso and macchiato aspect, leaving cola, hazelnut and walnut dabs on the backend.

Decadent Quarantine Reserve Imperial Stout utilized syrupy chocolate-bound Madagascar vanilla beans to boost its boundless aspirations. Lusciously rich bourbon vanilla, chocolate cake, hazelnut coffee and hot cocoa tones as well as bruised black cherry, black grape and blackberry sweetness contrasted dark roast hop-charred bittering over honeyed mocha malt base.