Reserved draught-only reintroduction to New Jersey market, via 2013, takes soothing approach. Perfume-musked pine oils and grassy hops merge with zippy citric sparkle. Serene grapefruit-peeled lemon juicing careens off black currant bittering.
Monthly Archives: February 2013
(PRISM) PAR TEA PALE ALE
Pour slowly ambiguously sessionable tea-leafed moderation or risk carbolic overflow. Easygoing black tea influence given subtle grapefruit-peeled lemon zest, wispy pineapple tartness and snipped botanical herbage. At backend, mineral-grained rye breading picks up honeyed citric zip.
URTHEL VLAEMSE BOCK
Creamy molasses-sapped brown chocolate coats mild wintry spicing and milk-sugared coffee niche of murkily defined bock-like Belgian dark ale. Imparting no particular Belgian flavoring, its reliant instead on cinnamon-spiced sugar plum, rum raisin, plum and cherry undertones (as well as roasted chestnut, cola and pecan segues) to amplify the carob-powdered mocha din.
HOF TEN DORMAAL WINTER ’12
Dubiously defiant Belgian strong pale ale with nebulous winter ale aspirations brings lengthy sourdough yeast spicing to rose-petaled lemon spicing and tart clementine-tangerine-peach undertones. At midst, bruised banana sweetness picks up steam, heightening the sourdough breading over tannic white and green grape sharpness as well as terse cherry rhubarb nip.
SARANAC BIG MOOSE ALE
Underdeveloped lemony grapefruit-orange rind bittering picks up herbal perfumed hop oiling over tepid caramel-toasted English pale malt profile. Lightly salted pretzel nuance and phenolic floral spicing backend murky piney citic finish. Needs to be fruitier.
DIEU DU CIEL CORNE DU DIABLE I.P.A.
On tap at Taphouse Grille, elusive Anglo-American IPA (a.k.a. Horn of the Devil) brings musky dry-hopped mulled wine pungency to wayward lemon-curried grapefruit-orange rind bittering. Molasses-breaded honey tea sweetness fades in the background. In the bottle, Canadian-bred semi-hybrid combines English IPA-like dewy peat sweetness and earthen truffle shuffle with dried-fruited brown chocolate spicing of a weizenbock and toasted caramel malting of a red ale, leaving any citric-pined IPA flavoring in the dust.
MIKKELLER SANTA’S LITTLE HELPER 2012
On tap at Taphouse Grille, complex Belgian strong ale hybridizes mocha stout sweetness with Christmastime fruit caking. Ashen brown chocolate spicing and dark toffee sugaring drape smooth cask-like dry Scotch subtlety. Lemon-dried plum-fig-date conflux overrides latent red-wined cherry peppering, wintry gingerbread snip and relegated plastique nuance.
FISH TALE WINTERFISH
On tap at Taphouse Grille, gritty winter warmer departs from expectant sweet Christmas spicing for muddled IPA fruited sharpness. Bitterest orange-peeled grapefruit juicing and pine-sapped juniper hop resin contrast less prominent mango-papaya-nectarine-peach-tangerine tang to light honey-malted white breaded spine. Slight ethanol burn disturbs herbal snip. In the bottle, nebulous Chinook-hopped seasonal retains less bitterness as tart grapefruit-orange melange gets sweetened by honeyed biscuit malts and scurried sugared spices.
ANCHOR ZYMASTER #2 MARK’S MILD
On tap at Taphouse Grille, vague English dark mild ale’s initial smoky chocolate nuttiness quashed by musty dried-fruited murk, wood-polished turpentine fuming and wet-papered gypsum sulfate. Prune-stewed sugared fig, purple grape and date dot crystal malt restraint. Quite abstruse.
STONE 16th ANNIVERSARY IPA
On tap at Taphouse Grille, celebratory lemon-aided India Pale Ale brings piney hop-oiled lemon verbena frontage to chamomile lemon tea midst, finishing with a plastique sugar-spiced lemon zest. Light rye malting underscores herbaceous citric theme. Tangy pineapple, grapefruit and clementine illusions fill out the fruity Lemon Pledge mix.
CARIB SORREL
Mundane reddish-hued ginger ale-like soda pop with candied watermelon, strawberry and cherry flavors gets increasingly cloy above sticky corn-sugared malting. Slick hop astringency ruins wine cooler aspirations.
NORTH PEAK DIABOLICAL INDIA PALE ALE
Most approachable and least piney of brewers’ stubby brown-bottled IPA’s. Clean-watered mineral grain toasting subsidizes soft yellow fruiting. Lemony grapefruit and pineapple tang picks up sugar-caned sweetness over easygoing hop-oiled bittering.