Cherished coffee-styled vanilla-creamed porter perfect as slow-sipped nightcap. Prominent roasted coffee bitterness spreads across thick black chocolate, crème brulee, café latte, latte macchiato, molasses, and espresso creaminess. Vanilla frosting cakes tertiary hazelnut-walnut char. Sugary milked coffee finish is delightful. Highly impressive, well-balanced dessert.
All posts by John Fortunato
RODENBACH GRAND CRU
Superior stylistic selection (33% young ale well-integrated with 67% ale matured in oak vats) captivates sour ale fans of many stripes. Dried-fruited yeast funk gives off eye-squinting sourness, picking up leathery oaken cherry pucker, mildly vinous grape-skinned esters and musty cellar slunk. At the midst, sharp white-wined cider rasp saddles raspberry-sweetened Granny Smith apple tartness, light cranberry wisps and dessicated fig snips to black peppered hop bittering. Vinous red, purple and green grape nuances line woody earthen bottom. A busy French wine alternative best served after dinner on a winter’s eve.
SOUTHAMPTON ABBOT 12 ABBEY STYLE DARK ALE
Lofty Abbey-styled quadrupel (with 9.9% alcohol reticence) brings authentic candi-sugared Belgian yeast musk to creamy brown-sugared molasses malting and black-peppered sour fruiting. Rum-spiced raisin, plum, prune, and black cherry saturate orange-bruised red wine bluster before approaching brandy, burgundy, cognac, courvoisier, and sherry illusions come into focus (draping lactic base). Chocolate nibs, cola nut, and praline spotted at deep recess.
HARPOON BELGIAN STYLE PALE ALE
Vacillating amber-golden moderate body doesn’t necessarily promote Belgian-styled peculiarities well, but its strong bite will please less discriminating hop-heads. Expectant candi-sugared yeast musk lacks distinction and metallic alcohol-burnt twinge proves dismissive, but lemon-seeded pineapple, orange, cherry, and banana illusions delicately nudge rosy floral-wafted honeyed herbal dalliance, neatly contrasting sullen black-peppered juniper-like bittering.
PEAK ORGANIC WINTER SESSION ALE
Satisfactory dry-bodied copper-hazed winter ale closer to English-styled pub ale due to organic earthen nature and peat-y rye malting. Toasted whole grains upend constricted piney fruiting. Date nut bread, pumpernickel raisin bread, and brunt toast illusions mask subsidiary pineapple-grapefruit-raspberry whir. Traditional-minded winter spicing (cinnamon-nutmeg-gingerbread) shunned in favor of dry-hopped dark wheat tendencies.
COTTRELL MYSTIC BRIDGE I.P.A.
Easygoing copper-hazed fleshy-headed East Coast moderation perhaps stylistically closer to a mild English-styled IPA, or better yet, a toasted lager. Roasted caramel malting takes the reins, leaving expectant pine-fruited dry-hop prickle to tend softer backend. Cereal-grained marzipan, almond, and buttered pecan graze dewy earthen peat, lemony orange-grapefruit sass, and minor alcohol burn.
CITY STEAM THE NAUGHTY NURSE AMBER ALE
Brewed by Olde Saratoga Brewery for excellent Hartford brewpub, signature crystal-malted grassy-hopped medium body drapes toasted baguette, croissant, pumpernickel, and caramelized rye illusions over floral honey-spiced orange-tangerine sourness and negligible nutty nuance. Advertised licorice nuances nowhere to be found. Better on tap.
(BUTTERNUTS) MOO THUNDER STOUT
Casual all-malt milk stout layers lactic brown and black chocolate plasticity above creamy vanilla-coffee subtlety. Dry wood-smoked malt roasting, soapy soy milking, and dark-fruited tinge a tad too slick. Light nuttiness smothered inside frothy farmhouse fodder.
OMMEGANG TRIPEL PERFECTION
On tap, moderate-bodied golden-hazed Belgian-styled tripel illuminates floral-spiced enticement with fruitful citric glisten. White-peppered orange-dried lemon custard tartness contrasts lightly creamed cane-sugared crystal malting and surging honeyed sweetness. White peach, red plum, green apple, lemon peel, pineapple, tangerine, plantain, and pear lace mildest coriander-clove-lemongrass spicing.
TROEGS OLD SCRATCH #41 CHOCOLATE STOUT
Excellent limited edition small-batch 2011 offering (served at Jersey-based Andy’s Corner Bar) brings luscious brown chocolate sweetness to cedar-burnt pleasantry and nutty coffee retreat. Belgian chocolate spicing recedes as creamy chocolate-caked vanilla, toffee, black cherry, and espresso illusions top hazelnut, walnut, and cola nut subsidy. Perfect as a rich dessert treat.
TROEGS OLD SCRATCH #40 I.P.A.
Sumptuously mellow caramel-malted crystal-sugared delight draping soft peach, grapefruit, and orange tang across mild juniper bittering of limited edition small-batch offering (served at Jersey-based Andy’s Corner Bar). Red, green and purple grape nuances filter through neutral celery wisp.
TROEGS OLD SCRATCH #39 I.P.A. SIMCOE
Woodier hop dryness, deeper citric tartness, and sharper piney recess than related Old Scratch #40 (both limited edition small-batch offerings served at Jersey-based Andy’s Corner Bar). Lemon-soured grapefruit bittering stays above winsome pineapple, peach, mango and melon tropicalia. Advertised Simcoe hops never overwhelm sweeter aspects.