On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, sweet Hershey’s chocolate candy bar intensity retains fulsome froth for superb Morning Bell variant utilizing Ugandan and Haitian cocoa nibs. Creamy brown chocolate syruping fortified by equally rich vanilla sugaring for perfect sweet-tooth confection.
Smoothly creamed medium roast French press coffee (from Vermont’s Abracadabra Coffee Co.) soothingly engages dry porter. Oily hop charred java entry receives bitter espresso-milked black chocolate, vanilla and molasses subtleties plus black pepper remnant.
On tap at Taphouse 15, luxurious Baltic porter brings cherrywood-smoked chocolate malting to the fore as molasses coffee, glazed hazelnut, espresso and cappuccino niceties glide by. At the finish, burnt wood tones amplify hop-charred bittering countered by dark chocolate spicing.
Abrupt medium-roast coffee bittering contrasted by milk-sugared caramel creaming and mild charred nuttiness above dewily peated Scottish malting. Black coffee finish picks up slightest vanilla, cacao nibs and molasses snips to serenade its rich mocha resolve. Recommended.
On tap at Pompton Craft House, oatmeal raisin cookie knockoff places brown-sugared raisin sweetness across maple molasses oats and cinnamon vanilla buttering contrasting dark hop roast above semi-rich dark chocolate base.
Inspired by confectionery wreath-shaped King Cake, lactose spiced ale with sugar-frosted glaze plies wintry cinnamon-nutmeg seasoning to zesty orange-peeled lemon spritz for Mardis Gras celebration. Wispy light-roasted chestnut, butternut squash and pecan pie reminders bump up against Churro-like fried dough sweetness at pastry-like finish.
On tap at Ambulance, bold dry-hopped quad retains IPA-like orange powdering, mango tanginess, grapefruit bittering, pineapple zesting and peachy marmalade tartness undercut by fusel alcohol burn (12.5% ABV) impeding buttery caramel malt richness.
In the can, flagship beige-yellowed NEIPA’s ‘rainbow sherbet’ appeal emanates from its tart lemon-limed orange, pineapple and raspberry resilience. Yet its peachy mango tang packs as much punch. Salty citrus continuance resonates with brisk Citra-Mosaic hop zesting backed by delicate grassy earthiness over lightly creamed oated wheat.
On tap at Ambulance, sweet orange peel adjunct adds tangy juiciness to bitter grapefruit zesting above super-syrupy oated wheat creaming. Mild pine resin seeps into viscously malted citrus continuance.
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, easygoing dry-hopped Citra zesting allows lemony yellow grapefruit and mandarin orange tang to sit gently above mildly creamed vanilla froth, leaving delicate herbal spicing on its prickly citrus surface.
On tap at Ambulance, irresolute NEIPA tries blending coconut-watered tangerine tartness with salty gooseberry souring, perfumed grapefruit zesting and slight lemon custard creaming. Oddly integrated, stylistically outré fruit fodder.
Upscaled heavily hazed chartreuse yellowed pale ale enters NEIPA territory with its salted gooseberry-guava souring contrasting sweet orange-peeled mango and pineapple upsurge over creamy oated wheat spume. Distant white-peppered herbage and mild piney bittering stay subtle. Excellent.
