On tap at Bronx Alehouse, mildly dry farmhouse-styled grisette aged on French oak-barreled Sauvignon Blanc lets floral-herbed tart fruiting linger subtly above smooth mineral-grained white wheat malting (reminiscent of a light pilsner). Kaffir limed white wine souring gains delicate ‘Asian pear, gooseberry and lychee’ illusions at the phenol-spiced midst. Serve to saison, gose and Berliner Weiss fanatics.
Initial rauchbier-like peat-kilned smokiness gains brown-sugared pineapple adjunct and honeyed amber graining. Grilled pineapple tartness picks up orange-candied red apple, red grape and tangerine tang that subverts its peaty wood-burnt bog. An offbeat hybridized peculiarity.
The American craft beer market may be thriving, but rarely has any brewer been able to replicate the meat-cured, kiln-smoked rauchbier style the Germans invented. And this quaint “maple caramel bacon beer” is no exception. Its initial beechwood-smoked grain soiling dissipates as the syrupy maple malting gains cloying nature that contrasts an unwelcomed lemon wedge souring. Unbalanced and underdeveloped.
Lemon seltzer fizziness disrupts tart blueberry souring of quaint Sweet-Tarts candy knockoff. Blanched blueberry waver recedes with low lactic acidity calmly affecting mild rosé effervescence and wispy cranberry pucker above light mineral graining.
Blandly laid-back tropical moderation fails to properly integrate tartly embittered pineapple juiciness to citric hop splotch and frail pale malt spine. Phenol lemon-spiced soapiness disrupts powdered pineapple-candied tartness abruptly, leaving its finish in nebulous territory. On tap at 3.14 Pi, juicy pineapple souring gained eye-squinting lemon lime tartness and wispy floral-spiced pilsner malting.
Affable sweet-tart blueberry jam syruping maintains sugary resolve above honeyed Graham Cracker spine for fruit-ripened pinkish headed amber-hued moderation. Blueberry puree continuance gains slight red cherry wisp. A fine blueberry-candied summer shandy for fruit ale fiends as well as soda lovers.
Cloying raspberry shandy never hits the spot like Susquehanna’s Blueberry Thrill does. Saccharine-like raspberry sweetness gains wavered cherry-orange-peach-tangerine conflux, lemony rosé tinge and medicinal cherry whim riddled by gummy glutinous gunk.
On tap at Beef Trust, tartly brined Margarita spinoff stays refreshingly clean, effervescent and light-bodied. Limey salt-rimmed tequila cocktail substitute usurps sour lactose acidity above meager flaked rye malting.
Atlantic sea salt adds briny piquancy to lively lemon spritz of crisply dry gose-like blonde ale. Vinous white grape souring deepens lemon pucker over mineral grain-watered salted cracker base.
Random amber ale pleasantry contrasts mild caramel toasting against citric-soured phenol spicing and musty grain resin. Fading caramel-sugared honey nut sweetness restrained by latent alkaline astringency.
SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK
Just minutes from Rivers Casino & Resort in the light industrial Adirondack-bound city of Schenectady, GREAT FLATS BREWING opened March 2017 (and closed 2024). The work of former homebrewer, Tom Owens, this nifty garage-doored, cement-floored pub serves a wide range of ambitious stylistic pleasantries and varied one-offs.
Six metal tables and one community table lead to the central 12-tap serving station. Brew tanks are stored to the right and the high aluminum ceiling has exposed pipes.
An English and Belgian ale fan, Owens was partially inspired by early ’90s craft brewery’s such as Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head.
During my one-hour sojourn in August ’18, tasted nine fine draught samples.
Demure German pilsner malts gave Pining For Pils its musky herbal graining while grassy hop astringency ascended beside lickety-split lemon snips.
Dry-hopped Summernight American Pale Lager developed a sour lemon wedge for pureed tangerine and tart orange illusions.
Dry wood tones saddled dewy pilsner malts for Extra Pale Crescent Ale, a mossy moderation with unripe fig notions.
Mellow pink-hued Raspberry IPA retained easygoing lactose-soured raspberry tartness that drifted into mild Cascade-hopped pink grapefruit bittering as well as slightly vinous green grapes esters and oaken cherry piquancy.
Fruitful West Coast-styled delight, Bad Manners IPA, merged tangy grapefruit, pineapple, orange, peach and mango juicing with sharp piney hop bittering and sugary pale malts.
Piney orange-peeled yellow grapefruit bittering endured for Old Dorp Double IPA, an herbal-spiced citrus-laced medium body with latent rustic hop astringency.
Peanut-shelled Brown Chicken Brown Ale brought dry walnut and sweet hazelnut together over murky mocha malts.
Electric City Roasters Coffee and brown-sugared molasses oats inundated Super Brunch Stout, an easygoing dark ale with milky espresso tones and, quite uniquely, wispy raw-sugared peach and tangerine adjuncts.
The most askew hybrid, complex Cabernet Sauvignon-barreled Smoked Belgian Amber Ale revealed peat-smoked pale malting for its phenol wine-perfumed red grape, date and fig tartness – losing much of the kiln-smoked Rauchbier likeness by the musty dried fruited finish.
www.greatflatsbrewing.com
