BLOOMFIELD, NEW JERSEY
Tucked into Washington Street off Bloomfield’s main drag, VARITAGE BREW WORKS is Jersey’s first definitive soccer brew pub. Starting in 2023, Varitage retains a smalltown watering hole vibe with its Industrial chic feel.
Soccer flags hang from the pipe-filled rafters as the crowd gets settled in to watch the Everton game at 11 AM. A central TV shows the game while eleven rotating draughts at the black-white-tiled backbar serve the eight-seat, L-shaped, laminate bark-topped serving station and a few wood tables.
Varitage’s slogan ‘Born On The Bines Of Tradition’ guards the backwall and brew tanks are to the rear.
Tried ten approachable Varitage brews (though no dark ales) on late August ’26 visit, though I look forward to returning for Banana Split Stout and S’mores Stout.
Bohemian Czech-styled pale lager, Varitage Premium, retained a soft cumulous-headed vanilla creamed froth for salty lemon rooted Saaz hop herbage and wispy orange spicing, finishing bolder, headier and more refined than lesser lagers.
Crisp amber lager, Red Corteo, connected dewy tea-leafed herbage to desiccated fig, rotted orange and mild compost dampness atop mineral grained bread crusting.
“Delicate” kolsch, Torcida 96, spread maize-dried herbage, orange blossom honey, sour orange rot, mild lemon balm and twiggy foliage above cardboardy pilsner malting in a crisp celery watered setting.
Fluffy white-headed, aluminum-yellowed cream ale, United Gold, scattered dry lemon-limed grapefruit and orange riffs across grassy-hopped fennel and soapy limestone.
Year-round West Coast IPA, Locks and Planes, stuck sticky pine resin inside lemon rind and grapefruit pith bittering as well as herb-spiced juniper bittering.
There were three more stylishly diverse India Pale Ales on tap.
Dry moderate-bodied session IPA, Top Bins, let sharp Cascade-Centennial-Chinook-hopped grapefruit, pineapple and orange pith bittering softly float by cologne-perfumed pine needling.
Equally soft on the tongue, Nelson Sauvin-hopped New England IPA, Elastico, placed delicate pine tones next to mild lemony grapefruit bittering, salted guava-gooseberry tartness and tannic white grape must as well as herbal white peppering.
Hazy Imperial IPA, Terrace, retained ultra-dry tropical fruiting as salted lemony yellow grapefruit spunk, sour green grape esters, tart gooseberry-passionfruit-guava sway and white apricot tang merged above white cracker breading.
Saluting co-founder Mark Costa’s Azorean Portuguese Ironbound Newark heritage, Selecao Portuguese Lager retained light-bodied texture as dewy peat mossing, musky fungi herbage and earthen truffle crisping coalesced in a fashion not unlike a classic Extra Special Bitter.
Meanwhile, similar English-styled pub ale, Off The Woodwork, a sessionable bitter, gave its dewy earthiness a lightly spiced orange twist before lying in a caramelized biscuit bed.