Chewy, gooey and dewy, sharply spiced dried fruiting engages candi-sugared bread pudding sweetness and moist earthen mossing of rich dubbel. Ample prune-stewed fig, raisin, plum and dark cherry tartness gains musty purple grape esters and dry bourbon lilt by the creamily rich fruit-caked finish.
Fickly offbeat witbier ‘brewed with spices’ combines sharp orange-peeled lemon meringue tartness, cider-bound champagne souring, rummy banana daiquiri wisp and wayward peach sway for obtusely fruitful deviation. Peppery herbal-licked coriander, cardamom and clove spicing and musky cellar funk crowd the honeyed wheat back end.
Amiss blueberry tartness fades quickly as corn whiskey malting and phenol hop stead create murkily acrid astringency. Raw-honeyed blueberry syruping usurped by cidery advance, depleting desolate cherry and mango snips. Ripe blueberry aromatics far outweigh blueberry flavoring.
Psychedelia-bent sour ale brings ‘acid blend’ of lemon-dropped strawberry puree tartness and mild salted rhubarb chutney piquancy to contrasted creamy vanilla sweetness, leaving cranberry, oaken cherry and gooseberry illusions at the leathery back end. Fluffy whip-creamed strawberry sweetness counters moderate citric acidity at demure sour-fruited finish.
On tap at Poor Henry’s, lightly vinous malt-lagered ale yeast gains slightly sulfuric lemon-soured musk and salty herbage for grainy dry-bodied moderation.
On tap at Ambulance, crisply dry kolsch conditioned in oak foeders lets perky lemon spritz gain floral-dried grassy hop astringency above raw wheat base. Oaken vanilla influence offers sour respite to clean vodka-teased citrus finish.
On tap at Poor Henry’s (2019), sourly tropical Mexican lager’s an acquired taste. Splashy agave-cologned lime peel zesting given mild sea salting over musky hop stead. In the can (2022), aluminum-cleared light body gained slight resolve. Mild sea-salted lime peeled lemon spritz and wispy agave herbage retain frothily creamed malt liquor head. Decent baked bread remnant. Betters Corona.
On tap at Ambulance, perfumed pilsner malting provides light base for lemon meringue tartness, peppery fennel spicing and musky straw wheat acridity of fine Czech-styled lightweight.
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
Inside a tan brick building at the light Industrial business mall, Branmar Plaza, BELLEFONTE BREWING COMPANY took the name of its north Wilmington section and celebrated its three year anniversary, May ’19. Its clean open pub space houses a backroom 4-barrel brewing system crafting a cornucopia of stylishly accomplished elixirs.
A cozy setup with six-seat mahogany bar sporting fourteen tap handles and a large brew-stickered refrigerator, the lacquer cement-floored Bellefonte’s cartoon-infested walls add a youthful touch. A semi-permanent right side red-couched TV area brings comfy elegance and two parking lot-bound bench tables under the green canvas awning provide extra seating.
My wife and I grab one of the mid-room barreled tables to enjoy fourteen fine offerings during hot July ’19 trip.
Musky rye-oats graining and pleasant fungi earthiness stabilized 4G LTE Four Grain Lager, a pre-Prohibition-styled lightweight that may’ve bested the fresh-cut grassiness and herbal lemon respite of equally light-bodied Particle Pilsner.
Honeyed banana and clove suited pastry-malted Hefenly Brew, an approachable hefeweizen with floral-wafted herbal nuances. Meanwhile, tarter banana-clove sweetened the orange-peeled coriander niceties of Monkey’s Gotta Go, a choice witbier.
Dry spritzy champagne-like Kiamensi Kolsch brought lemon-wedged orange rot souring to Noble-hopped wood mildewing and mineral grained pilsner malting.
Lightly sour Tart Passion Saison let salty passionfruit tartness snag zesty lemon briskness to counter its sweaty cheesecloth musk. Another similarly styled offshoot, Acai Berry Tart Saison shifted the focus to sour-candied blueberry-acai tartness, leaving oaken cherry wisps at the backend.
Pasty-like cream ale, Orange Street Ale, stayed soft-toned as lightly frothed honeysuckle wheat malting picked up a mild orange spritz above mild grassy-hopped astringency.
Meanwhile, honeyed yellow fruiting fronted bold (7.3% ABV) Belgian pale ale, Bellevue Blonde, stays crisply easygoing ’til the alcohol esters consume the candi-sugared Abbey yeast profile.
Straightforward lo-cal moderation, Small Wonder IPA, packed a juicy tropical punch complemented by delicate pine resin and dry pale malts.
Easygoing soft-tongued NEIPA, Oat-face Killah let grassy-hopped grapefruit, peach, mango and orange tropicalia soak into its light white oats malting.
On the dark side, Lord Smokey’s Brown Ale draped bitter nuttiness upon dark chocolate malting and Band-aid-like smoked beechwood(?) astringency.
Peanut-buttered dark chocolate coated Diamond State Stout, a semi-rich dry body with black malt bittering receiving a slight earthen wood scorch.
Richest, creamiest and tastiest choice, Bean Laughing Black Coffee IPA, a black-malted Cascadian Dark Ale, maintained its treacly fudged cocoa-powdered coffee roast way above the ashen piney-hopped black grape and dried cherry pureeing. Its tertiary cola nut, molasses cookie, burgundy, raisin and grapefruit illusions filled out the robust digestif.
bellefontebrewingco.com
SMYRNA, DELAWARE
Joining Blue Earl as Smyrna’s second brewery, BRICK WORKS BREWING opened in 2016 under the tutelage of nearby Milford’s Mispillion River Brewing. At Dupont Boulevard’s Commodore Commons Shopping Center in a freestanding red brick building, Brick Works’ brewmaster Ryan Maloney has created several newly designed elixirs to go alongside fine locally sourced pub fare.
Featuring a wooden fifteen-stooled slate top bar with a few four-seat tables towards the front and several scattered TV’s for sportsfans, its left side red cement-floored dining area contains the stainless-steeled open kitchen. Windowed brew tanks store the golden suds.
My wife and I grab a table in the closed-in patio (with sundry furnishings, a central slate-topped community table and rounded fire pit. I got to try eight fine homemade brews during my mid-afternoon July ’19 journey (though I missed out on the dortmunder lager and English mild ale).
Crisply dry moderation, Tiny Brick American Lager, brought perfumed orange oiling to mild horse-blanketed barnyard acridity, mineralized cereal graining and slight asparagus snip.
Orange-peeled lemondrop tartness secured Kaleidoscopic Sun Munich Helles Lager, receiving musky wheatgrass pungency and light tobacco crisping at the dry finish.
Cologne-perfumed yellow fruiting inundated Citrus Mistress American Wheat, letting its grassy hay-like hop astringency desiccate lemony grapefruit-mango briskness and zesty lime pucker.
Easygoing Drop Towel IPA soothed the tongue with lightly embittered grapefruit rind, tartly sour lemon and dry pine tones.
Juicy grapefruit, orange, peach and mango anchored brisk medium-bodied Boujee Boy Fruit IPA, leaving mildly creamed crystal malting on the back end.
Light citrus spicing upended dry herbal musk for Nouveau Riche Belgian Pale Ale, contrasting creamy sugared malts against astringent grape-leafed hop esters.
Lactic Joose Goose Double IPA brought limey grapefruit salting to waxy white grape, pineapple, gooseberry and mango fruiting, floral-bound herbal resin and subtle pale malt dryness.
Milk chocolate-centered Dark Entries Oatmeal Stout serenaded its bittersweet mocha continuance with Blackstrap molasses, toffee and black cherry illusions.
brickworksde.com
NEWARK, DELAWARE
In the new Industrial outskirts of Newark, Delaware, MIDNIGHT OIL BREWING COMPANY came to fruition at Pencader Business Park during February 2018. Its prominent black insignia hangs from the tan brick edifice that encompasses this huge 15,000 square-foot high-ceilinged cement-floored brewing warehouse.
A 14-seat serving station features nine draught handles and a cool purplish blue chalked Midnight Oil painting at the bar’s frontage. Ten surrounding tables and some window seating are also available plus the elegant left side lounge area has two couches and a TV. A wood paneled beer list centers the bar.
I took a seat at the side of the bar to try four interestingly disparate brews during a half-hour July ’19 afternoon stopover.
Basic, mild and approachable flagship brew, Neutrino Blonde Ale, brought spicy mandarin orange subtleties and a lemony spritz to dewy earthen moisture above its gentle white bread spine.
Juicier Serenity Mandarin (an orange offshoot which also includes peach, strawberry, mango and pineapple versions) let dainty mandarin orange tanginess pick up lemony grapefruit, tangerine and clementine snips above a sugared pale malt base with easygoing splendor.
Lactic raspberry pureeing soaked into vanilla-beaned blonde ale, Your Mom, leaving sour melon rind, tart watermelon and juicy pineapple illusions on the tail end of its bittersweet raspberry rhapsody.
Dark-roast coffee and black chocolate bittering consumed Reilly Irish Stout, an oats-charred full body with dewy earthen mossing and slight anise spicing that gains a nutty remnant.
There were five more beers on draught but I had limited time so I returned a year-and-a-half later.
I revisited Midnight Oil to consume eight more brews New Years Eve, 2021.
Dry German light body, Slingshot Pils, let herbal lemon whims reach raw-honeyed spelt and oats in an easygoing manner.
Crisply dry kolsch, Neutrino, retained easygoing crisping as straw-dried barnyard astringency and salted herbage grazed lemon-dropped tartness to its French bread bottom.
Tartly dry Your Mom, a mild blonde ale with raspberry, vanilla beans and lactose, let lemon-soured strawberry tartness sit upon the fluffily creamed tongue as oaken vanilla phenols buttressed celery-watered rhubarb pie piquancy.
Mildly vinous plum-dried gose variant, Plum Pulse, blended Amarillo-hopped piney citrus-daubed Impulse IPA with lemony coriander-salted green grape esters.
Mellow floral-daubed yellow grapefruit zing, zesty orange peel sweetness and tangy pineapple slither combine with dehydrated lemon licks for dry-hopped India Pale Ale, Subspace Anomaly, leaving mild pine needling on the dainty citrus-spiced finish.
Candi-sugared dried fruiting glazed dewy Temptress Quad, leaving sugarplum, red cherry, date and wintry spices in its wake.
Ashen mocha nuttiness and Blackstrap molasses draped Midnight Porter, mingling walnut-charred coffee tones with dark cocoa bittering.
Semi-sweet dark chocolate bittering gained sour coffee-stained edge and ashen nutty hop char for Insomnia, a lactic-soured mocha stout with cacao nibs powdering outpacing cherry-stewed Tahitian vanilla beaning.
midnightbrewing.com
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
Near the Little Italy section of Wilmington, TROLLEY TAP HOUSE opened up in 2014. Its greyish Trolley sign hangs from the tiki shacked burnt cedar planked roof top and two overhead doors lead to the epoxy-floored interior where stooled tables, left side booths, multiple Edison lights and pipe-exposed black ceiling provide a casual pub feel.
An L-shaped bar with twelve seats features a black-walled beer menu, thirty draught handles and TV’s all around. The caged-in, red paver-floored, side-walked front porch features six black metal tables where my wife and I (with dog Roscoe) settle in July ’19 as I quaff 2SP Baby Bob Stout (reviewed in Beer Index) while consuming hummus and a burger.
A fine neighborhood beer pub worth exploring.