Appeasing citron-hopped briskness will attract lighter thirsts as well as more refined tastes. Mandarin orange, lemon, lime and peach fruiting integrates floral honeysuckle perfuming. Faintest vodka-tinged boozing grapples tertiary clementine, pineapple, apricot and grapefruit illusions to mild biscuit spine.
Easygoing Belgian-styled witbier proffers brisk citric effervescence. Sunny lemon Seltzer spritz spreads across subtle coriander-spiced orange peel sweetness, laidback banana-clove conflux and herbal lemongrass-peppercorn splurge to sourdough honeyed wheat spine. Musty grain wisp and peppery hop bittering merely underscore delicate intricacies.
Vacillating magenta-bodied pink-blushed Belgian-style strong ale aged in French Chardonnay casks offers sweet-tart cherry pureeing to musty lambic-like sour fruiting as crackled carbolic fizz settles down. Mouth-puckering cherry tannins soak into hard cider, raspberry compote, green grape, cranberry and oaken vanilla illusions. Not far removed from rhubarb pie.
Heady German wheat beer hybrid (a.k.a. Scratch Beer Series #57), reminiscent of chocolate-covered cherry dessert, brings raspberry-pureed whiskeyed cherry frontage and fig-dried sugar plum midst to ample brown chocolate sweetness. On the mocha end, there’s Belgian chocolate spicing, chocolate cake richness and cocoa nibs pleasantries resting atop dewy moss. On the fruit side, cherry cordial, cherry jubilee and cherry pie illusions take hold. Well rounded, sufficiently balanced and quite enjoyable.
HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA
One of America’s largest and most successful microbreweries, TROEGS BREWING COMPANY began in ‘97 at Pennsylvania’s state capitol, Harrisburg. But increased demand for their malt-heavy beers became so overwhelming the brotherly operation run by Chris and John Trogner had to get bigger digs. As of 2012, their well-respected suds could be found in Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio and Virginia.
Now residing in a large freestanding warehouse (fourteen miles east of its initial location) just down the road from Hershey Park since the fall of 2011, Troegs new taupe-hued Derry Township home features a yellow-backed red-lettered Troegs-canopied insignia above brown aluminum siding and railroad-bound grain silo. Servicing the local community and curious out-of-state brew hounds, its ample front porch leads to a colossal indoor depot stationing a big 100-barrel production facility, enormous tasting room, glass-encased bottling plant, microbiology lab and shop.
After buying a Troegs T-shirt, my wife and I settle in the tasting room alongside dozens of cheerful customers this sunny Friday afternoon in late March 2012. A mini-brewhouse backs the prodigious bar where one lengthy community table and several booths lodge the primed weekend crowd. The high ceilings, exposed ducts and elongated steel fan allow for a haunting echo and The Clash’s vindictively apocalyptic “London Calling” plays loudly while I order up a beer and my wife’s $3 local roast coffee.
On tap today are Troegs’ Dreamweaver Wheat, HopBack Amber, Troegenator Double Bock and JavaHead Stout. The draught version of Dreamweaver seems to have a breadier wheat-cracked banana-clove resonance than the bottled versions I’d previously tried.
Also available this crisp spring day is the marvelous Chocolate Weizenbock, a heady elixir reminiscent of a chocolate-covered cherry dessert beer. Its raspberry pureed whiskeyed cherry frontage and fig-dried sugar plum midst saturate Belgian chocolate spicing. Peculiarly, the wafting Hershey’s chocolate kiss aroma makes this medium-to-full-bodied mocha-fruited brew seem stylishly analogous to the world famous chocolate factory down the street.
As we leave to head South towards Vintage 50 in Leesburg, Virginia, an hour away, dozens of new patrons join the throng of people still imbibing pre-dinnertime drinks. The times are certainly changing. And Troegs keeps getting better and more experimental, keeping the recipes consistent despite major expansion.
SOLOMONS ISLAND, MARYLAND
Tucked away on Chesapeake Bay’s marina-bound Back Creek in Solomons Island, Maryland, RUDDY DUCK BREWERY & GRILL opened July ’09. Argentinean co-owner Carlos Yanez and veteran restaurateur Michael Kelley (formerly Tavern On the Green GM) hooked up with brewer Matt Glass to create this bustling family-oriented sportsbar and restaurant. In a freestanding building next to Hilton Garden Inn, the spacious chalet-styled edifice with brown wood trimming and red brick foundation was packed on Saturday evening as the Final Four college basketball tournament played on one of the bar’s three TV’s this last day of March, 2012.
At the wood-furnished 15-seat bar area were several cocktail tables (with engraved golden duck insignias), inlayed Western-styled flat stone partitions, exposed ducts, nautical paraphernalia, beer-listed blackboards and a left side private lounge. Behind the glass-separated white-walled bar, a huge dining area with high ceilings stretched out far and wide. Opposing the bar near the entrance, the copper kettle tanks stored the house beers and an open kitchen served the food.
My wife and I sat in the bar section eating fish tacos and Mediterranean pizza while watching Kentucky down Louisville to advance into the college-basketball finals. The seared sesame crusted tuna and artichoke spinach dip also looked good. A wonderful bottled beer selection included favorites from Dupont, Ommegang, Aventinus and Corsendonk. But I was here to try Ruddy Duck’s offerings.
While astringent lo-cal Rudd Light (with its bland lemon-limed maize parch and popcorn reminder) and gluten-free Biere Nouveau (a light ale placing raw-honeyed sorghum across sourdough wheat acridity and sugar-free gum droplets) were humdrum, the rest of the lineup fared better.
Traditional autumnal choice, Festbier, brought leafy-hopped foliage and spoiled orange tartness to soft-honeyed Vienna malting, finishing with a sourdough splurge. Soft-tongued Helles Blonde Lager had a dry-honeyed citric blotch and wispy banana bubblegum notch.
More distinct were sweet-buttered Imperial Belgian Wit, a pleasing medium-bodied wheat ale affixing clove-coriander spicing to lemon meringue and mandarin orange subtleties. And juniper hop-embittered Imperial IPA, a briskly fruited winner with honey-malted peach, pear, tangerine, pineapple, grapefruit and honeydew sweetness.
Midlevel IPA ranked just below these with its dry resinous hop bittering and lemon-sugared grapefruit, mango, peach and melon tropicalia.
For dessert, I quaffed Ruddy Duck’s brown-chocolate-sweetened Oatmeal Stout, where fig-dried soy souring, coffee-roasted oats toasting and lactic alkaline acidity purged the expectant mocha malting.
Updated version of Alpine Black IPA given year-round permanence in 2011. Darkly roasted mocha malting deepens blackened hop char and usurps dark-fruited aspect. Caramel-burnt maple pining enhances midrange grapefruit-pineapple tease as well as tertiary black grape, raisin and fig nuances.
