KERHONKSON, NEW YORK
On a winding rural road in the hilly Catskills hamlet of Kerhonkson (ten miles west of New Paltz), ROUGH CUT BREWING COMPANY took over Oscar Restaurant and began brewing operations June 11, 2019. Inside a rustic weathered-shingled shack with stone hearth, antique furnishings, creaky wood floors, railroad-tied bar back and cupboard-bound brewtanks, this amiable roadside tavern also offers casual 'comfort food.'
Co-founding brothers, Jesse and Bart Cummings, hired hop-head brewer, Kayne Konecny, to design a host of approachable IPA's alongside a variant of rangy styles going from saison to ESB to oatmeal stout.
My wife and I congregate at a yellow picnic table on the left side grass patio for 90 minutes as I imbibe each tapped offering late afternoon, July '20.
Raw-honeyed buckwheat and musky wet grains consume gently flowing pilsner, Station 33, leaving delicate floral sweetness upon polite lemony grapefruit-pitted bitterness.
Soft-toned rose petals bring floral subtlety to toasted amber grain sweetness, mild beet sugaring, teasing mandarin orange tanginess and wavered baked apple tartness for blanched light body,Roseability, a wispily arid Belgian pale ale.
Dark chocolate syruping draped cedar-smoked maple oats for sweet milk stout, Holstein, relegating its day-old coffee reminder.
The following beers were obtained in oil-canned 32-ounce crowlers for off-site consumption.
Smooth wheat ale, Sunny Day #3, utilized Barbe Rouge hops to nudge its lightly floral-spiced citric hop mosaic ahead of candied peach-pineapple-apricot-tangerine tartness - letting lemony grapefruit bittering gain mild wood tones to contrast sugary cereal malts.
Sessionable 'summertime IPA,' A Rough Summer, brought dry lemony orange perkiness to mild bark-dried astringency and rustic truffle earthiness atop brown-riced grain malting.
Limey guava souring imbibedBeach Weather #2 Pink Guava Saison, leaving floral-tinged barnyard leathering at the salty bottom.
Boldly fulsome IPA, Deserted Island, anchored its brisk citrus thrust with juniper-like hop bittering, musty earthen wood dankness and straw wheat acridity. Pushing forth a rangy flavor profile, perfumy orange-peeled grapefruit, peach and pineapple resilience gained pasty pale-malted mineral graining at the midst.
Zesty grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering regaled 44/55, a bustling Imperial IPA with rustic wet grain musk, bready pale malts and light herbal snips.
GARDINER, NEW YORK
A former bartending restauranter, James Walsh upgraded his brewing skills at UC-Davis and decided to craft Belgian-styled farmhouse ales exclusively when he opened YARD OWL BREWERY in 2015. A serious fan of Saison Dupont, Walsh's roomy pub provides "small scale charm" with its varied saisons (some blended and barrel aged).
Located inside a tan aluminum cement-floored warehouse with high ceilings in the sleepy rural town of Gardiner, Yard Owl's wide open expanse creates an unfinished feel furthered by the antique U-shaped wood bar and simple bench tables.
Front and rear overhead doors provide an open air atmosphere fully captured by the old backyard community tables scattered about the nearby field. Wall-mounted pendants, stringed lighting and Edison bulbs reinforce its casual elegance.
There were four fine farmhouse ales exploring varied flavors available on my late afternoon July '20 trip.
Dry golden-cleared Old World blonde ale, Grisette, brought tartly salt-watered yellow fruiting to the fore, securing its zesty lemon misting with limey white-wined grape esters, delicate banana snips, wispy white peach hints and mild herbal spicing above straw-dried mineral graining.
Aged nine months in rosé barrels then blended with a Cabernet and sessionable saison, winey Belgian Blonde,Cuvee, maintained a salty lemon-pitted bittering for tannic white grape esters and bubbly champagne effervescence atop oats-dried pilsner malting.
Soft-toned Cabernet-aged saison, Tourbillion, merged lemon meringue tartness, yellow grapefruit bittering and distant plantain dryness with delicate floral-spiced citrus zest, gaining oaken vanilla residue.
Bold amber-bronzed540 Hoppy Saisonsunk sharp IPA-like citrus fruiting into earthen wood tones, floral herbage and pinot grigio acidity, promoting mandarin orange, tangerine and blood orange illusions.
GARDINER, NEW YORK
Inside a rustic maroon former dairy barn at Wrights Farmers Market in the hilly Catskill range of Gardiner, family-owned and operated GARDINER BREWING COMPANY came to fruition in 2018. Agrarian sibling owners Mackenzie Dietz, her sister, Samantha Bradshaw, and brewing brother, Colin Boylan, run this multi-acre fifth generation farmstead.
A cement patio with black metal furnishings and a separate wood deck surround the farmhouse pub and a rickety old shed offers live music. Providing a cool retreat in the outlying New Paltz area, Gardiner Brewing serves its local rural denizens and traveling brewhounds well.
Stepping up to the 12-seat lacquered wood bar, I grab all four midrange home brews on my steamy July '20 stopover.
Besides serving its own rustic homebrews, the dozen taps also feature eight local beers-ciders.
Unrefined clear-yellowed farmhouse-styled pale ale Gartucky Light yielded acrid straw-dried rusticity for mild green tea-leafed orange pith bittering and loud basil-sage-rosemary herbage.
Sour lemon-juiced wild sumac grazed grain-husked barnyard acridity forSummer Sumac Farmhouse Ale, a dry saison with tart rhubarb-sniped mandarin orange and white peach illusions as well as light white grape esters.
Off-dry light-bodied pale ale, Vienna Smash, plied sweet Vienna-malted kilned barley to woody Chinook Hops, letting its spiced orange spritz crackle at the surface.
Dewy Irish-styled red ale,Ireland Corners, brought soily peat moss to rye-like amber graining, leafy hop astringency, nut-charred burnt toasting and raw tobacco nuances for a stylishly rich medium body.
VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA
Awesome large-scaled production facility with kingly metal-gated entrance leading to beautiful fire-pitted bocci ball lawn and expansive multi-bar interior with gigantic brew tanks, Virginia Beach's prominent NEW REALM BREWING COMPANY lies a few miles Southwest of the Atlantic Ocean on the outskirts of town.
Doing yeoman's work maintaining the candid slogan 'rethink tradition, bend the rules and reconfigure boundaries,' New Realm's first brewery (20,000 square feet) opened in Atlanta, December 2017. This second location, with its spectacular indoor-outdoor setup, began operations in 2018 as a restaurant/ beer garden.
A red-bricked, black slate-topped open air bar awaits those preferring outdoor dining. Inside, the cement-floored, gray-walled main pub features community tables and seats plus two TV's sidling the 20-plus central taps. Three glass-windowed garage doors lead to the capacious back-spaced, silver-tanked brew room.
During my sunshiny July '20 noontime visit with wife, daughter and dog, Roscoe, grabbed a few seats at the far right lawn under a few trees to try three supreme 'big' beers, a fruitful wit, an Imperial IPA and two stellar stouts.
Juicy tangerine tanginess gained lemon-soured pineapple, passionfruit and peach zest for stylishly ambitious Sunset Passion Wit, leaving floral-spiced herbage upon the gin-nipped tropical fruited finish.
Juniper-nipped citrus zest splashed Mas Mucho Double India Pale Ale, bringing orange-peeled sweetness to lingered lemon-soured grapefruit bittering and tertiary pineapple-peach tang alongside dank pine tones.
Exquisite Rum Barrel Aged Quad (Wooded Reserve) brought caramelized Barbados rum sugaring to embracing vanilla-creamed chocolate sweetness and pureed raisin-prune-date dried fruiting plus toffee-spiced creme brulee alacrity.
Sweet cherry-flambeed bourbon warmth luxuriated Bourbon Barrel Aged Quad (Wooded Reserve), a lusciously complex full body with vanilla-sugared brown chocolate sweetness coating glaze-spiced raisin, plum and prune illusions in a dewy earthen setting.
Caramel-burnt sea salting welcomed charmingly fudged confectioneryChocolate Sea Salt Imperial Ale, anchored by toffee-sugared maple oats.
Piquantly candi-sugared brown chocolate sweetness guided Spiced Stout, a distinct dessert beer with ginger-snapped cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cumin and anise seasoning.
Bourbon vanilla spicing topped Doomsday Hound Imperial Stout - Bourbon Barrel, a rich chocolate-sweet nightcap with ancillary dark-roast coffee, toasted coconut and marshmallow illusions receiving a mild oak-charred bittering.
Just a block away from the oceanfront, ambitious Virginia Beach haven, Bunker Brewpub & Cadence Hall stationed YOUNG VETERANS BREWING COMPANY, whose rangy brew fare gets served in a seafood-friendly concert venue.
A cozy fenced-in porch leads to the front door of this red brick pub. Opposing the curved right side gray marble-topped bar (with four separate tap stations and electronic beer list) are several metal-wood tables and decorative wood barrels.
In the rear, Cadence Hall offers a secondary twelve-tap bar, rear band stage, comfy couch section and black art deco ambiance.
General Manager Chris Holyfield was friendly enough to be my guide this steamy Friday afternoon, July '20.
The lightest offering, Life Finds A Way Helles Lager, combined raw-honeyed sourdough wheat breading with mildly herbal-vegetal Saaz hops in traditionalist manner.
Flagship staple, Commander In Peach Hazy IPA, allowed pureed peach tartness to penetrate sharp orange-peeled grapefruit, pineapple and tangerine tanginess as well as yogurt-milked lactose souring and resinous pine tones.
Tart juice bomb, Bottom Rock Raspberry IPA, blasted piquant raspberry luster past mild citrus bittering and sour cranberry-crabapple tingle.
Clear golden wheat ale, Pineapple Grenade, let its tangy pineapple spritz stay subtle over wheat-cracked pale malts.
Bitterly brisk and refreshingly zestful NEIPA, Hazies In A Half Shell, furnished juniper-hopped grapefruit and orange rind bittering with tart gooseberry-blackberry-blueberry notions.
Blue raspberry Gummy Bear knockoff, Gummy Neutron, a sour IPA, brought raspy blueberry tartness to lemon-candied piquancy over honeyed wheat sugaring.
Bringing subtle pomegranate souring to the fore, The Revolting Blob Hazy IPAgained tart green grape, gooseberry and guava notions above grassy-hopped barnyard leathering.
Updated Citra-hopped IPA staple, Jet Noise, regaled orange-peeled grapefruit bittering with spicy peach-mango sweetness and mild guava souring in a crystalline vodka-like 9% ABV fuselage.
Just a few blocks off the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia Beach's cultural arts enclave - known as the 'Vibe Creative District' to locals - VIBRANT SHORE BREWING COMPANY opened its doors November '19. The passionate full-time hobby of ex-homebrewer Rhett Rebold (a former CIA agent), this beachy Industrial-styled bohemian pub specializes in well-balanced Euro-styled brews to go alongside fine Americanized fare.
Featuring a sidelong bright blue Neptune mural, reclaimed wood interior with granite top bar and rooftop beergarden (with 6-seat serving station, four umbrella-covered tables and strung Edison lights), Vibrant Shore offers 16 draught handles. Left side tables fill out the bar area and an overhead garage door connects the pub to the front patio while brew tanks take up the back space. Vivid painted panels cover the walls of the cement-floored pub area and a partial mezzanine area provides more seating.
Dewy earthen fungi skewered raw-honeyed dried fig for Better Than The Devil Vienna Lager, letting casual caramelized malts cushion moist tobacco, cola nut and date palm nuances.
Briskly clean Artistic Austerity Kolsch combined dry Noble-hopped grassing, celery-watered herbage and delicate mineral graining for its sedate orange-candied lemon rind souring.
Candied raspberry tartness swept over oceanic lemon salting for kettle-soured Jack the Dripper Gose, a summery libation with a cushy pilsner-malted white wheat bottom.
Smooth English pale ale, The Royal Fuggler, accessed British Goldings-Fuggle-hopped herbage to relegate its sour lemondrop respite, dry barnyard leathering and -floral cologned whim.
Floral-perfumed hop fruiting doused The Future Juicy IPA, a refreshing pilsner-malted moderation leaving gin-soaked citrus tanginess and mild gooseberry-guava tartness upon its soft wood base.
Dark chocolate fudging and muddy coffee licks received lactic milk souring to intensifySpecial Signature Milk Stout, a dry mocha sendoff this sweltering early evening, July '20.
CAMBRIDGE, MARYLAND
Just a few blocks from Cambridge Creek in Chesepeake Bay's quaint Eastern Shore barrier, RAR BREWING (a.k.a. Reale Ale Revival) began its journey as a 'big time small town' pub in summer 2013. Alongside several local independent downtown shops, RAR's casual sportsbar atmosphere, light pub fare and well-balanced brews will please mainstream commoners and advanced thirsts.
Dual black RAR awnings greet customers to this former Cambridge pool hall. A convenient overhead-doored serving station benefits outdoor summertime seating. The left side bar features 12 taps of continuously rotating original fare as well as a TV, blackboard beer menu and beer infuser (for mixed one-off concoctions). Inits first seven years, RAR has crafted nearly 100 different beers.
The separate right side dining area provides varnished red oak tables and booths, white and black tiled floor plus cool mod pop artwork.
My wife and I got seats in the makeshift roadside patio (due to Wuhan Virus) on one-hour stopover, July '20.
Revealing evenly flavored tropical fruiting, Citra-hopped West Coast IPA, Nanticoke Nectar, retained an engagingly juicy grapefruit-orange bittering and sweet mango-nectarine tang above mild pine resin. Meanwhile, similarly styled Grapefruit Nectarbrought mildly embittered yellow grapefruit splendor to tangerine-spiced tanginess over dry pale malts.
Lemondrop-candied banana and clove tartness surfaced for Groove City Hefe, exposing light floral-nipped herbal snips at the understated yellow-fruited finish.
Tropical Sabro hops allow easygoing grapefruit, orange, tangerine, mango, pineapple and coconut enticement to spread across floral-spiced cedar planking for Amatuer Sketch, a Double IPA.
Coffee-dried nuttiness and bittersweet dark chocolate consumed dark ale flagship, Bucktown Brown, gaining brown-sugared glazed walnut illusions at the caramelized mocha finish.
During awesome two-hour splurge on Friday afternoon, January '24, sat at one of the wood-tabled metal seats near the front overhead door to down eight more sundry suds.
Though tepid pilsner-malted Litestayed phenolic as musky grained hop astringency and dried maize husk merged, it'll suit simpler blue collar thirsts.
Way more reliable was spritzy lemon-fizzed Country Ride Pale Ale, a lighter IPA-like moderation with light herbal musk and mild pine resin seeping into laidback grapefruit-orange misting.
Dry bronze-cleared Citra/Cascade-hopped Imperial Nectar IPA, an unconventional West Coast-inspired medium body (boasting bold 9% ABV), punctuated its expectant grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering with divergent green peppered herbage, muskily perfumed spicing and raw-honeyed pale malting.
At a heightened 10.3% ABV, off-dry Pumped Up Kicks Triple IPA coalesced Mosaic, Vic Secret and Ekuanot hops for lemony grapefruit bittering and desiccated orange musk seeping resinous pine above light oated wheat creaming.
Another boozy IPA (New England-styled at 10.6 ABV), Uni Blustayed smooth as lemony grapefruit and orange tanginess surfaced above sugary pale malts, picking up icy vodka nip.
Smooth beige-hazed IPA variant, Smooth Peaches let its candied yellow peach adjunct receive lemony grapefruit bittering as well as tertiary red apple, pear and apricot illusions.
Aged in Bulleit bourbon barrels with vanilla cream, Old Decoyslung sweet bourbon warmth at caramel whiskey, dry burgundy, black cherry and dark cocoa.
Decadent lactose pastry stout, 10 Layers With Coconut, regaled toasted coconut sweetness for its macadamia-nutted dark chocolate caking and vanilla coffee respite.
FREDERICK, MARYLAND
Located in an old red-bricked warehouse factory along Carroll Creek in Frederick, IDIOM BREWING CO. began operations, April '19. Entrepreneurial brewer, Michael Clements, inspired by a Portland, Oregon journey, soon certified the logo "Expressions in Beer."
A railroad-tied service station with twelve walled aluminum taps provides eight stools and two centralized TV's for the cement-floored locale while the right side brewing space has a seperate bar area with pendant lighting and a space for bands to play.
A rear deck overlooking Carroll Creek features umbrella-clad tables where I'll enjoy two delectable stouts this muggy afternoon in June '20.
Milk-sugared coffee nuttiness and roasted dark chocolate consumed Pillow Talk Oatmeal Stout, a silken full body with maple-sugared oats base.
Breakfast-bound Tiramisu knockoff, Coffee & Cake White Stout, let cake-battered cocoa powdering, caramel chocolate sweetness and cream-cheesed marscapone sugaring ride above barley-flaked mocha malting. Fantastic!
Also on tap but untried were Level Up Hefeweizen, Trade Secret Pale Ale, Cosmic Debris IPA and Raise Your Eyebrow Rye IPA.
FREDERICK, MARYLAND
'Round the corner from Attaboy Beer in a commodious red brick-cornered professional space in Frederick, SMOKETOWN CREEKSIDE opened November '19 (closing May '23). Entrepreneurial guiding light, David Blackmon, and homebrewing retired fireman, Greg Nichols, have crafted 30-plus rangy one-offs, seasonals and barrel-aged dark ales, as well as respected flagship, Potomac IPA. His original seven-barrel Smoketown Brewing has been operating since '17 along the Potomac River (18 miles Southwest) in Brunswick, bringing national bands to its capacious firehouse venue.
Creekside's 10-barrel brewhouse features a bowling alley-wooded bar top, local artisans' walled sculptures, round wood brewery insignia, two rear TV's and a connected brewhouse near the back music studio. At present, they distribute beer all over Maryland.
A spacious fenced-in front deck gets packed as I peruse the premises this hot 'n sticky late Sunday afternoon early July '20.
I was thoroughly knocked out by the strong ales available during this stopover - taking home 26-ounce bottles of each.
A splendidly inspirational 11.5% ABV knockout, Walter's Spirit Bourbon Barrel Aged Porterlet its dry Virginia Gentleman bourbon whiskey frontage receive ashen tobacco-chawed hop bittering, cocoa-dried raw molasses sapping and black coffee beaning, upstaging any trace of toffee sweetness.
Smoky maple molasses sugaring brought a burnt caramel glaze to clover-honeyed Golden Promise malts and dewy rye-spiced chocolate creaming for heady (10% ABV) Scottish Wee Heavy, Ten Pound Hammer, a rich malt-forward charmer with latent peated whiskey notions.
Cellared yeast funk embedded cocoa-powdered dark roast coffee, sweet molasses oats and beet-sugared fig, prune and date for Wick'd Threesome Tripel, leaving charcoal hop-embittered ethanol esters to raid the pungent 9.7% alcohol throttler.
Dark chocolate steadied full-bodied oatmeal stout,Gandy, contrasting milk-sugared hazelnut coffee against walnut-charred hops.
A muddy medium-roast coffee theme engagedThe Main Cup, a robust coffee stout stockpiling tertiary milked espresso, charred walnut, and peppercorn subtleties.
On the negative side, unconvincing flattish-headed mahogany body, Lockhouse 28 Imperial Stout, tried to navigate wood-charred black malt soy saucing into desiccated dried fruiting, day-old coffee and burnt tobacco.
smoketownbrewing.com
In a grayish blue brick warehouse, married couple Brian Ogden and Carly Ogden, opened ATTABOY BEER in early 2017. The ample bar space includes a marble-topped serving station with a few metal-wood tables and exposed ceiling ducts as well as an imposingly bright orange and blue-walled, capital-lettered BEER logo. Located at the same warehouse as Smoketown's Creekside brewery, Attaboy generally specializes in crafting soft-toned pale suds while its neighboring competitor goes for more barrel aged dark ales.
Currently, Attaboy's large warehouse-renovated glass-encased 10-barrelhouse operation (with several wood barrels for aging) lies on the other side of Carroll Creek just a few blocks away. That location concentrates on blended barrel-aged sour ales and one-off experimental brews.
I enjoyed two fine saisons at the benched parking lot patio during my June '20 one-hour excursion.
Tart hibiscus-flowered lemon meringue creaming gathers white grape, papaya, passionfruit and orange blossom illusions to lather dry white-peppered herbage above hay-like barnyard leathering for Golden Fields Saison.
Even more tart, spritzy barrel aged saison,Farmboy (Raspberry), retained dry rosé, champale, shiraz and pinot tones as well as sour gooseberry, green grape and cranberry nuances that underscored its herb-salted raspberry piquancy.
In the midst of a mini-mall stationed just next door to Midnight Run Brewing on the outskirts of Frederick, Maryland, ROCKWELL BREWERY owner Paul Tinney (a guitar designer) and brewmaster Scott Kernon succeed at creating an "intimate and fun atmosphere" for lovers of straightforwardly stylistic suds.
Recalling a black-walled art deco studio, this mid-sized brewery's exquisite post-modernist neo-Industrial setting features glimmering bulb-lit ROCKWELL lettering along the wall, an abstract tap station, mosaic wood bar, stark ceiling-bound exposed pipes and sturdy community tables.
The brewhouse and storage deck the rear and a cement benched deck with partial covering allows for extra seating during my friendly June '20 excursion.
First up, mild helles lager, Mausketeer, plied maize-dried astringency to herbal Hallertau hops, musky pilsner malts and acrid barnyard mustiness for a briskly light-bodied thirst quencher.
Best sellin' Rapture, a crisply dry blonde ale, lets spritzy lemon zest snuggle alongside grassy-hopped cracked wheat rusticity for perfect lawnmower fodder.
Dewy peat moisture soaks into sweet tobacco-roasted mocha malts for That "B" CB English Pale Ale, allowing British Golding hops to provide slight floral herbage.
Honeyed caramel spicing sweetened Sump N Good, a fine Vienna lager with subtle peach, apple, pear and cherry illusions.
Toasted amber grains and caramelized chocolate malts led Dropkick Irish Red, a dewy moderation scattering leafy-hopped red and orange fruiting.
Easygoing Spacegrass East Frederick IPA gathered floral-daubed peach, pineapple, grapefruit and orange tanginess for its dry piney hop lacquering.
Dry piney citrus bittering engaged floral-perfumed hops for Smooth Operator, an "easy IPA" garnering tangy orange-grapefruit, peach and pineapple juiciness.
A hazy yellowed glow brightened lactic Tidal Wave, a trusty New England IPA posting tangy grapefruit zest, tart passionfruit sedation and guava-candied pineapple souring.
Tart raspberry puree spread across candied lemon, green grape, guava and gooseberry souring for salt-licked Raspberry Beret, a lightly vinous sour ale.
Smooth coffee overtones fronted nitogenated Speed Of Darkness, a dry Irish Stout dangling mild dark cocoa creaming above waxy black patent malts.
Heavenly mocha moderation, Bitchin' Camaro Milk Stout, brought soothing chocolate-coffee creaminess to fudged brownie, toffee and cookie dough sweetness.
Sublime Ace Of Spades Barleywinebolstered rummy cherry, burgundy, raisin and fig tones with toffee-spiced molasses chocolate malting.
Former garage-bound alchemists now specializing in 'non-conformist ales,' MIDNIGHT RUN BREWING is the creation of two collaborative friends, Rich & Brent. Since opening September '17, the crafty science and art duo have continued to make unique small batch brews for local brethren and traveling connoisseurs alike.
Inside a freestanding red brick edifice dressed up in black art deco, its stained concrete floor, exposed pipes and milled wood left wall retain a semi-rustic feel. A three-barrel brew room is in the rear and an Edison light-chained back patio has three community tables.
Startling the senses with some of the most original, exciting and varied brews in Western Maryland, Midnight Run began serving suds Saturday at noon for my June '20 visitation.
Limey blueberry bittering gained honeyed oats sweetness for sessionable Eternity Pale Ale, a tidy light-bodied opener.
Flagship India Pale Ale,Tempo, maintained sessionable accessibility as vibrant grapefruit, peach, tangerine, mango and papaya tropicalia seeped into piney wood tones as well as salty-spiced white peppering.
Sweet vanilla-creamed orange tang serenaded 'hazy IPA,' All Together, picking up herbal piney hop resin and brisk grapefruit-peeled lemon licks.
Zesty orange peel briskness dominated S.I.P.A., a crystal malt sweetened India Pale Ale with subtle herbage.
Crisply clean Imperial IPA, Atat, brought peachy orange-candied grapefruit tanginess to wood-dried peppery herbs and sturdy pale malting.
Dewy Belgian yeast added fungi cellared mildewing to bittersweet grapefruit-peeled orange zest for Continuum, a funky tropical (Citra-El Dorado-Cashmere-hopped) IPA.
Mild powder-candied raspberry tartness and vinous white grape must enveloped easygoing sour ale,Electric Monster: Sweet-Tart.
Mellow Belgian Blonde, Golden Child, tranquilized the tongue with its spicy lemon-candied repose, dainty banana bubblegum stint and herbal lemongrass nip.
Debonair 'golden quad,'White Devil, revealed candi-sugared spiced rum, banana daiquiri, sugared fig, candied apple, lemon meringue, creamy vanilla and Chardonnay illusions dotting white-peppered clove, allspice and ginger snips in a dank cellared fungi yeast setting.
White chocolate-spiced Imperial Blonde Ale, White Sexual Chocolate, allowed vanilla-creamed cocoa nibs to caress light whiskey tones over dry honeyed pale malts.
Caramel espresso latte knockoff, American Darkness Oat Stout, let molasses maple oats sweeten its ancillary cocoa nibs, toffee and vanilla daubs against tarry black patent-malted bittering as distant bruised black cherry notions and mild anise spicing surfaced.
Confectionery chocolate-candied Imperial Milk Stout, Milky Way, proved exceptionally luscious as caramel, vanilla, toasted coconut, marshmallow and molasses cookie undertones kept the sweetness going strong. The fudgy Milky Way knockoff also revealed latent cocoa-dried espresso serenity, bruised cherry tartness and hazelnut pasting.
Raw-honeyed buckwheat and musky wet grains consume gently flowing pilsner, Station 33, leaving delicate floral sweetness upon polite lemony grapefruit-pitted bitterness.
Soft-toned rose petals bring floral subtlety to toasted amber grain sweetness, mild beet sugaring, teasing mandarin orange tanginess and wavered baked apple tartness for blanched light body, Roseability, a wispily arid Belgian pale ale.
Dark chocolate syruping draped cedar-smoked maple oats for sweet milk stout, Holstein, relegating its day-old coffee reminder.
The following beers were obtained in oil-canned 32-ounce crowlers for off-site consumption.
Smooth wheat ale, Sunny Day #3, utilized Barbe Rouge hops to nudge its lightly floral-spiced citric hop mosaic ahead of candied peach-pineapple-apricot-tangerine tartness - letting lemony grapefruit bittering gain mild wood tones to contrast sugary cereal malts.
Sessionable 'summertime IPA,' A Rough Summer, brought dry lemony orange perkiness to mild bark-dried astringency and rustic truffle earthiness atop brown-riced grain malting.
Limey guava souring imbibed Beach Weather #2 Pink Guava Saison, leaving floral-tinged barnyard leathering at the salty bottom.
Boldly fulsome IPA, Deserted Island, anchored its brisk citrus thrust with juniper-like hop bittering, musty earthen wood dankness and straw wheat acridity. Pushing forth a rangy flavor profile, perfumy orange-peeled grapefruit, peach and pineapple resilience gained pasty pale-malted mineral graining at the midst.
Zesty grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering regaled 44/55, a bustling Imperial IPA with rustic wet grain musk, bready pale malts and light herbal snips. 
GARDINER, NEW YORK
A former bartending restauranter, James Walsh upgraded his brewing skills at UC-Davis and decided to craft Belgian-styled farmhouse ales exclusively when he opened YARD OWL BREWERY in 2015. A serious fan of Saison Dupont, Walsh's roomy pub provides "small scale charm" with its varied saisons (some blended and barrel aged).
Located inside a tan aluminum cement-floored warehouse with high ceilings in the sleepy rural town of Gardiner, Yard Owl's wide open expanse creates an unfinished feel furthered by the antique U-shaped wood bar and simple bench tables.
Front and rear overhead doors provide an open air atmosphere fully captured by the old backyard community tables scattered about the nearby field. Wall-mounted pendants, stringed lighting and Edison bulbs reinforce its casual elegance.
There were four fine farmhouse ales exploring varied flavors available on my late afternoon July '20 trip.
Dry golden-cleared Old World blonde ale, Grisette, brought tartly salt-watered yellow fruiting to the fore, securing its zesty lemon misting with limey white-wined grape esters, delicate banana snips, wispy white peach hints and mild herbal spicing above straw-dried mineral graining.
Aged nine months in rosé barrels then blended with a Cabernet and sessionable saison, winey Belgian Blonde, Cuvee, maintained a salty lemon-pitted bittering for tannic white grape esters and bubbly champagne effervescence atop oats-dried pilsner malting.
Soft-toned Cabernet-aged saison, Tourbillion, merged lemon meringue tartness, yellow grapefruit bittering and distant plantain dryness with delicate floral-spiced citrus zest, gaining oaken vanilla residue.
Bold amber-bronzed 540 Hoppy Saison sunk sharp IPA-like citrus fruiting into earthen wood tones, floral herbage and pinot grigio acidity, promoting mandarin orange, tangerine and blood orange illusions. 
GARDINER, NEW YORK
Inside a rustic maroon former dairy barn at Wrights Farmers Market in the hilly Catskill range of Gardiner, family-owned and operated GARDINER BREWING COMPANY came to fruition in 2018. Agrarian sibling owners Mackenzie Dietz, her sister, Samantha Bradshaw, and brewing brother, Colin Boylan, run this multi-acre fifth generation farmstead.
A cement patio with black metal furnishings and a separate wood deck surround the farmhouse pub and a rickety old shed offers live music. Providing a cool retreat in the outlying New Paltz area, Gardiner Brewing serves its local rural denizens and traveling brewhounds well.
Stepping up to the 12-seat lacquered wood bar, I grab all four midrange home brews on my steamy July '20 stopover.
Besides serving its own rustic homebrews, the dozen taps also feature eight local beers-ciders.
Unrefined clear-yellowed farmhouse-styled pale ale Gartucky Light yielded acrid straw-dried rusticity for mild green tea-leafed orange pith bittering and loud basil-sage-rosemary herbage.
Sour lemon-juiced wild sumac grazed grain-husked barnyard acridity for Summer Sumac Farmhouse Ale, a dry saison with tart rhubarb-sniped mandarin orange and white peach illusions as well as light white grape esters.
Off-dry light-bodied pale ale, Vienna Smash, plied sweet Vienna-malted kilned barley to woody Chinook Hops, letting its spiced orange spritz crackle at the surface.
Dewy Irish-styled red ale, Ireland Corners, brought soily peat moss to rye-like amber graining, leafy hop astringency, nut-charred burnt toasting and raw tobacco nuances for a stylishly rich medium body. 
VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA
Awesome large-scaled production facility with kingly metal-gated entrance leading to beautiful fire-pitted bocci ball lawn and expansive multi-bar interior with gigantic brew tanks, Virginia Beach's prominent NEW REALM BREWING COMPANY lies a few miles Southwest of the Atlantic Ocean on the outskirts of town.
Doing yeoman's work maintaining the candid slogan 'rethink tradition, bend the rules and reconfigure boundaries,' New Realm's first brewery (20,000 square feet) opened in Atlanta, December 2017. This second location, with its spectacular indoor-outdoor setup, began operations in 2018 as a restaurant/ beer garden.
A red-bricked, black slate-topped open air bar awaits those preferring outdoor dining. Inside, the cement-floored, gray-walled main pub features community tables and seats plus two TV's sidling the 20-plus central taps. Three glass-windowed garage doors lead to the capacious back-spaced, silver-tanked brew room.
During my sunshiny July '20 noontime visit with wife, daughter and dog, Roscoe, grabbed a few seats at the far right lawn under a few trees to try three supreme 'big' beers, a fruitful wit, an Imperial IPA and two stellar stouts.
Juicy tangerine tanginess gained lemon-soured pineapple, passionfruit and peach zest for stylishly ambitious Sunset Passion Wit, leaving floral-spiced herbage upon the gin-nipped tropical fruited finish.
Juniper-nipped citrus zest splashed Mas Mucho Double India Pale Ale, bringing orange-peeled sweetness to lingered lemon-soured grapefruit bittering and tertiary pineapple-peach tang alongside dank pine tones.
Exquisite Rum Barrel Aged Quad (Wooded Reserve) brought caramelized Barbados rum sugaring to embracing vanilla-creamed chocolate sweetness and pureed raisin-prune-date dried fruiting plus toffee-spiced creme brulee alacrity.
Sweet cherry-flambeed bourbon warmth luxuriated Bourbon Barrel Aged Quad (Wooded Reserve), a lusciously complex full body with vanilla-sugared brown chocolate sweetness coating glaze-spiced raisin, plum and prune illusions in a dewy earthen setting.
Caramel-burnt sea salting welcomed charmingly fudged confectionery Chocolate Sea Salt Imperial Ale, anchored by toffee-sugared maple oats.
Piquantly candi-sugared brown chocolate sweetness guided Spiced Stout, a distinct dessert beer with ginger-snapped cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cumin and anise seasoning.
Bourbon vanilla spicing topped Doomsday Hound Imperial Stout - Bourbon Barrel, a rich chocolate-sweet nightcap with ancillary dark-roast coffee, toasted coconut and marshmallow illusions receiving a mild oak-charred bittering. 
CAMBRIDGE, MARYLAND
Just a few blocks from Cambridge Creek in Chesepeake Bay's quaint Eastern Shore barrier, RAR BREWING (a.k.a. Reale Ale Revival) began its journey as a 'big time small town' pub in summer 2013. Alongside several local independent downtown shops, RAR's casual sportsbar atmosphere, light pub fare and well-balanced brews will please mainstream commoners and advanced thirsts.
Dual black RAR awnings greet customers to this former Cambridge pool hall. A convenient overhead-doored serving station benefits outdoor summertime seating. The left side bar features 12 taps of continuously rotating original fare as well as a TV, blackboard beer menu and beer infuser (for mixed one-off concoctions). Inits first seven years, RAR has crafted nearly 100 different beers.
The separate right side dining area provides varnished red oak tables and booths, white and black tiled floor plus cool mod pop artwork.
My wife and I got seats in the makeshift roadside patio (due to Wuhan Virus) on one-hour stopover, July '20.
Revealing evenly flavored tropical fruiting, Citra-hopped West Coast IPA, Nanticoke Nectar, retained an engagingly juicy grapefruit-orange bittering and sweet mango-nectarine tang above mild pine resin. Meanwhile, similarly styled Grapefruit Nectar brought mildly embittered yellow grapefruit splendor to tangerine-spiced tanginess over dry pale malts.
Lemondrop-candied banana and clove tartness surfaced for Groove City Hefe, exposing light floral-nipped herbal snips at the understated yellow-fruited finish.
Tropical Sabro hops allow easygoing grapefruit, orange, tangerine, mango, pineapple and coconut enticement to spread across floral-spiced cedar planking for Amatuer Sketch, a Double IPA.
Coffee-dried nuttiness and bittersweet dark chocolate consumed dark ale flagship, Bucktown Brown, gaining brown-sugared glazed walnut illusions at the caramelized mocha finish.
During awesome two-hour splurge on Friday afternoon, January '24, sat at one of the wood-tabled metal seats near the front overhead door to down eight more sundry suds.
Though tepid pilsner-malted Lite stayed phenolic as musky grained hop astringency and dried maize husk merged, it'll suit simpler blue collar thirsts.
Way more reliable was spritzy lemon-fizzed Country Ride Pale Ale, a lighter IPA-like moderation with light herbal musk and mild pine resin seeping into laidback grapefruit-orange misting.
Dry bronze-cleared Citra/Cascade-hopped Imperial Nectar IPA, an unconventional West Coast-inspired medium body (boasting bold 9% ABV), punctuated its expectant grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering with divergent green peppered herbage, muskily perfumed spicing and raw-honeyed pale malting.
At a heightened 10.3% ABV, off-dry Pumped Up Kicks Triple IPA coalesced Mosaic, Vic Secret and Ekuanot hops for lemony grapefruit bittering and desiccated orange musk seeping resinous pine above light oated wheat creaming.
Another boozy IPA (New England-styled at 10.6 ABV), Uni Blu stayed smooth as lemony grapefruit and orange tanginess surfaced above sugary pale malts, picking up icy vodka nip.
Smooth beige-hazed IPA variant, Smooth Peaches let its candied yellow peach adjunct receive lemony grapefruit bittering as well as tertiary red apple, pear and apricot illusions.
Aged in Bulleit bourbon barrels with vanilla cream, Old Decoy slung sweet bourbon warmth at caramel whiskey, dry burgundy, black cherry and dark cocoa.
Decadent lactose pastry stout, 10 Layers With Coconut, regaled toasted coconut sweetness for its macadamia-nutted dark chocolate caking and vanilla coffee respite. 
FREDERICK, MARYLAND
Located in an old red-bricked warehouse factory along Carroll Creek in Frederick, IDIOM BREWING CO. began operations, April '19. Entrepreneurial brewer, Michael Clements, inspired by a Portland, Oregon journey, soon certified the logo "Expressions in Beer."
A railroad-tied service station with twelve walled aluminum taps provides eight stools and two centralized TV's for the cement-floored locale while the right side brewing space has a seperate bar area with pendant lighting and a space for bands to play.
A rear deck overlooking Carroll Creek features umbrella-clad tables where I'll enjoy two delectable stouts this muggy afternoon in June '20.
Milk-sugared coffee nuttiness and roasted dark chocolate consumed Pillow Talk Oatmeal Stout, a silken full body with maple-sugared oats base.
Breakfast-bound Tiramisu knockoff, Coffee & Cake White Stout, let cake-battered cocoa powdering, caramel chocolate sweetness and cream-cheesed marscapone sugaring ride above barley-flaked mocha malting. Fantastic!
Also on tap but untried were Level Up Hefeweizen, Trade Secret Pale Ale, Cosmic Debris IPA and Raise Your Eyebrow Rye IPA. 
FREDERICK, MARYLAND
'Round the corner from Attaboy Beer in a commodious red brick-cornered professional space in Frederick, SMOKETOWN CREEKSIDE opened November '19 (closing May '23). Entrepreneurial guiding light, David Blackmon, and homebrewing retired fireman, Greg Nichols, have crafted 30-plus rangy one-offs, seasonals and barrel-aged dark ales, as well as respected flagship, Potomac IPA. His original seven-barrel Smoketown Brewing has been operating since '17 along the Potomac River (18 miles Southwest) in Brunswick, bringing national bands to its capacious firehouse venue.
Creekside's 10-barrel brewhouse features a bowling alley-wooded bar top, local artisans' walled sculptures, round wood brewery insignia, two rear TV's and a connected brewhouse near the back music studio. At present, they distribute beer all over Maryland.
A spacious fenced-in front deck gets packed as I peruse the premises this hot 'n sticky late Sunday afternoon early July '20.
I was thoroughly knocked out by the strong ales available during this stopover - taking home 26-ounce bottles of each.
A splendidly inspirational 11.5% ABV knockout, Walter's Spirit Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter let its dry Virginia Gentleman bourbon whiskey frontage receive ashen tobacco-chawed hop bittering, cocoa-dried raw molasses sapping and black coffee beaning, upstaging any trace of toffee sweetness.
Smoky maple molasses sugaring brought a burnt caramel glaze to clover-honeyed Golden Promise malts and dewy rye-spiced chocolate creaming for heady (10% ABV) Scottish Wee Heavy, Ten Pound Hammer, a rich malt-forward charmer with latent peated whiskey notions.
Cellared yeast funk embedded cocoa-powdered dark roast coffee, sweet molasses oats and beet-sugared fig, prune and date for Wick'd Threesome Tripel, leaving charcoal hop-embittered ethanol esters to raid the pungent 9.7% alcohol throttler.
Dark chocolate steadied full-bodied oatmeal stout, Gandy, contrasting milk-sugared hazelnut coffee against walnut-charred hops.
A muddy medium-roast coffee theme engaged The Main Cup, a robust coffee stout stockpiling tertiary milked espresso, charred walnut, and peppercorn subtleties.
On the negative side, unconvincing flattish-headed mahogany body, Lockhouse 28 Imperial Stout, tried to navigate wood-charred black malt soy saucing into desiccated dried fruiting, day-old coffee and burnt tobacco.
smoketownbrewing.com 
