On tap at Ambulance, sumptuous toasted oak-chipped mocha stout, ‘akin to a gourmet chocolate bar,’ allows mild bourbon vanilla sweetness to contrast bitter cocoa nibs adjunct, French-roast black coffee influence and ‘toned down’ dry hop char. Black cherry, raspberry puree and black grape provide dried fruited backdrop for heavy brown-black chocolate richness. Valiant hybrid is one of 2015’s best ales.
All posts by John Fortunato
THIRSTY DOG SIBERIAN NIGHT IMPERIAL STOUT WITH HABANERO
On tap at Ambulance, enthusiastic habanero-peppered version of trusty Imperial Stout betters the original. Ascending habanero burn spices up prominent cocoa-beaned black chocolate roast and sugary maple molasses creaming, intensifying resinous hop-toasted mocha finish.
CHRISTIAN MOERLEIN O.T.R. ALE
Brusque English pale ale (a.k.a. Over-The-Rhine) could be mistaken for a strong German-styled lager with its musk-grained pilsner malt pungency, toasted barley crisping and nutty Fuggle hop astringency. Sharp finish picks up light citric appeal.
THOMAS CREEK RIVER FALLS RED ALE
Mediocre moderation lacks true stylish essence and never betters Killian’s Irish Red despite being brewers’ flagship offering. Grain-toasted baked breading, mild caramel nuttiness and grassy hop spicing bring predictable mouthfeel that fails to suffice.
NEBRASKA INFINITE WIT
On tap at Growler & Gill, soft-toned Belgian witbier offers banana taffy tartness to orange-peeled lemon spritz and spicy coriander-clove conflux. Clean mineral watering adds crisply clean briskness to simple, effective concoction.
FINCH’S WET HOT AMERICAN WHEAT ALE
On tap at Ambulance, easygoing dry body maintains grassy-hopped lemon spritz and zesty orange rind bittering above white wheat spine. Lacquered wood tones spread across light citric spritz. Mild vegetal pungency hides beneath the surface.
FLYING DOG NUMERO UNO SUMMER CERVEZA
Uneven Mexican-styled lager leans on sugared blue agave nectar, mild lime peel zest and grassy Saaz hops to provide proper summertime sessionability. But astringent maize-flaked whiskey midst upsets soft tequila mouthfeel. Betters Corona, though.
(ANHEUSER-BUSCH) OCULTO AGED ON TEQUILA BARREL STAVES
Unlikely blue agave-fused light lager in clear bottle lets soft tequila setting drift away as cloy ginger ale sugaring, dry lime pucker and shaving cream-like cologne waft softly sway. Gimmicky cactus-influenced lightweight not worth a second try.
(HORNY GOAT) SAISON SONG STRAWBERRY SAISON
Underwhelming springtime saison tries to utilize blanched strawberry tartness but gets pared down by lemon-soured yellow grape esters and musky horseblanket astringency.
SAINT SOMEWHERE FRAISES D’HIVER SAISON
On tap at Ambulance, subtly fruited collaboration with Switzerland’s Trois Dames pushes aside usual citric-soured saison styling for evaporative strawberry tartness and dry earthen musk. Wispy lemon liming thins out alongside pithy seltzer-crisped strawberry resonance to its honeyed biscuit spine.
STUBBORN BEAUTY BREWING COMPANY
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT
Fifteen miles south of Hartford, yet another very worthy Connecticut brewpub operating out of a rustic red brick warehouse opened. Past the bustling downtown shopping district and not far from liberal arts mecca, Wesleyan University, STUBBORN BEAUTY BREWING COMPANY (closed January 2025) is hidden away in the industrial back roads half a mile off the beaten track.
Visited on a sunny Friday afternoon in April ’15, brewer-owners Shane Lenini and Andrew Daigle tend to the two-and-a-half barrel brewery (with seven fermenting barrels) before the place packs up with happy local denizens and a few out-of-towners thrilled to soak down some of the latest great suds. With expansion imminent, Stubborn Beauty has both the space and captive audience to grow substantially in quick time, possibly canning and bottling within months (and already featured at nearby Celtic Cavern and 36-tap bar, Eli Cannon).
The maroon-walled tap area features a concrete-topped serving table, two stainless steel tables with six benches apiece, brass replica lighting, black hanging fans, and an eye-grabbing silver and red bottle-capped mosaic donning the company’s rose insignia. A humorously named Sour Tiddy’s ale make it past the censors but is now gone as I dig into seven really fine samplers.
Starting with the lightest choice, the briskly yellow grapefruit-juiced Naughty Eskimo Session IPA, each succeeding ale leads into the next in orderly fashion. Setting the stage, the above-mentioned Naughty Eskimo’s grapefruit rind and peel bittering softly flows into its light Vienna malt sweetness, picking up a lemony squint.
With its rye malt base deepening the sweet-soured citric hop oiling, How Rye I Am Saison plied honeyed saison yeast to lemony orange and grapefruit illusions, musty farmhouse rusticity and dark-roasted mocha malts.
Its stylishly darker counterpart, How Atramentous I Am Black Saison, contrasted chocolate-roasted dark cocoa against black grape, green raisin, prune and fig.
Two impressively detailed German styled brews arrive next. Wheat-wined delight, Panzerfaust Weizenbock, with its nominal 15-IBU hop presence, allowed all the Sugar Daddy-candied sweetness and Belgian chocolate spicing to shine above the honeyed grain spine.
Perhaps as worthy, Kommandant Lassard Dunkelweizen combined fig-dried plantain souring and bittersweet chocolate with ESB-like tobacco-roasted peat tea.
Conquerer Imperial Brown Ale relied on hop-roasted chocolate spicing.
Coming full circle, Nummy Nummy IPA, the flagship beer, loaded sharp grapefruit-peeled bittering atop sticky pine resin and pilsner-like Maris Otter malts, gaining tangy orange rind, peach and tangerine illusions at the heavily-hopped citric finish.
TWO ROADS UNORTHODOX RUSSIAN IMPERIAL STOUT
Dismayingly ‘unorthodox’ dark ale collides treacly black patent-derived rye malts with wavering soy-sauced cocoa powdering, splotchy black licorice tones and barren dried fruiting, sacrificing stylistic mocha creaminess for resinous hop-oiled astringency. Subtle rye influence and desolate dark chocolate musk prove underwhelming.