WALDWICK, NEW JERSEY
One of the first northern Bergen County brewpubs, GEARBLOCK BREWING COMPANY opened its doors in springtime, 2022. Established by homebrewer, Tony Romano, this green aluminum awninged red brick pub, situated at the quaint Hamilton Square Shopping Center, served a respectable standard array of popular beer styles during my initial April ’22 visit.
A closed-in beergarden with wood and metal tables leads thirsty patrons to the entrance of Gearblock. Its modern Industrial interior includes a black tile ceiling with pendant Edison-bulbed lights, concrete-topped aluminum-sided bar and prohibition era automobile theme. There are twelve taps at the grey and white brick-walled bar serviced by the rear brew tanks. A few stools and four-seat tables fill out the cozy hotspot.
Clear beige Mexican style lager, Mastretta, utilized cologned agave to penetrate lemony white wine esters, lightly vinous Pinot Grigios phenols and buttery Chardonnay daubs above delicate pilsner malts.
Sea-salted lime zest stayed dry for lightly hopped gose, Busted Barnacle, leaving mild lemony grapefruit bittering and snippy coriander seeded peppercorn in its wake.
Sour lemondrop spritz and dry pale malt lagering settled at the grassy hop stead of Race Day Cream Ale.
Lime-salted Huell Melon-hopped gooseberry/ guava tartness, ancillary Tettnang-hopped herbage and recessive grassy astringency reached the white bread spine of The Kolschfather, a crisply clean light-bodied kolsch.
‘Classic’ Noble-hopped Fahren Marzen plied mild toffee spicing and wispy herbage to dry amber-grained pale malting.
Dry-hopped Imperial Red Ale, West Coast Red, placed spicy apple and pear fruiting alongside piney hop resin and mild tobacco roast overriding dainty caramel malts.
Sessionable NEIPA, U-Turn, combined honeyed orange, salted grapefruit and sour guava over buttery pale malts.
Coffee-roasted vanilla richness and raw molasses sinew reinforced the ‘slightly sweet’ chocolate base of Standard Coupe Vanilla Porter, a tarry full body.
Rich dark-roasted chocolate and coffee tones guided Leaded Imperial Stout, picking up a slight hop-charred wood sear to contrast its auxiliary burnt caramel spell.
