POINT PLEASANT, NEW JERSEY
The first brewpub in Point Pleasant,
LAST WAVE BREWING COMPANY, opened for business Memorial Day weekend 2017. Specializing in nicely tweaked New England-styled IPA's, but also well-versed in standard American fare (light and dark ales), Last Wave's sunset logo welcomes patrons to this nearly intimate glass-windowed and sage green shingled Bay Avenue one-room venue.
Families gather with avid brewheads at sunset on a muggy Friday evening in August '18 while my wife and I survey the homemade suds. Colorful surfboards, paper lanterns, squiggly acoustic wave designs and Edison lights provide a kitschy beach setting and the ocean blue left wall features a nighttime surfer mural. Community tables and four-stool tables spew across the epoxy-floored pub while the mosaic-wooded rear wall draught handles dispense liquid goodies from the big silver brewtanks located in a separate backroom.
On tap this weekend were a dozen hand crafted brews. I missed out on Dawn Patrol Guava Gose and A Frame Wheat IPA, but the other ten were top-notch interpretations of standard stylings.
First off, summery light body,
Spot Check Golden Ale, let its subtle lemon licks receive grassy hop astringency over doughy pilsner malting.
Nearly as light-bodied,
Flatspell Belgian Wit spreads delicate orange-peeled grains of paradise across wispy coriander-spiced lemondrop tartness and mild grassy hop astringency.
Sharp IPA-like fruiting and woody hop embitterment heighten 'classic' copper golden medium body,
Layback Pale Ale, an aggressive busker plying seltzer-like lemon spritz to tangy citrus tones, serene caramel malts and distant tea leaf notions.
As for the three rangy India Pale Ales, sunny yellow-hazed medium body,
Quiver Hazy IPA, brought pine-lacquered orange rind bittering to the fore as tangy grapefruit, pineapple and mango undertones wavered.
Briskly perfume-musked
Green Room Imperial IPA let its lemony yellow grapefruit bitterness and pine-sapped juniper bite overwhelm biscuity Vienna malts.
Eccentric champagne yeast-derived hybrid,
Toast To The Coast Brut IPA (a collab with nearby Asbury Park's Dark City) allowed subtle orange rind, grapefruit pith and pineapple bittering to anchor its dry brut champagne adjunct, gaining weedy hop astringency over doughy pale malts.
Tea-like
Red Sky Red Ale rendered brown apple and pear fruiting for mild caramel-chocolate malts and calm citric-pined Cascade hops.
Brusque alcohol-whirred medium-full body,
Bay To Bridge Imperial Red Ale, gathered a floral-spiced bouquet to enhance tangy apple, apricot, peach, pear and tangerine illusions above leafy hop oiling.
Toasted coconut chip sweetness endeared
Right Coast Coconut Porter, a robust dark ale with dark chocolate-toffee sugaring that's perfect for dessert.
And there was no denying
5/4 Chocolate Coffee Stout, a full-bodied nightcap reigning in dark-roast coffee bitterness for espresso-milked dark chocolate malts.
Revisiting April '24 on a sunny Saturday, Last Wave delivered a solid lager, topnotch Scotch ale and two sterling stouts.
Firstly, crisp premium lager,
Point Beach, let spritzy lemon salting graze grassy hop astringency above dry pale-malted breading.
Next, dewy peated Scotch whiskey nipped traditional Scotch ale,
Cracked Rail, leaving misty orange-tangerine spicing and red apple reluctance atop pale chocolate malting.
Confectionery
Over The Bridge (Peanut Butter Cup) contrasted chocolatey peanut buttering and slightly sweet vanilla creaming against searing dark-roast hop bittering.
Prominent dark-roast coffee persistence and bittersweet cacao nibs regaled sumptuous
5/4 Chocolate Coffee Stout, picking up hop-charred nuttiness.
www.lastwavebrewing.com
ALBANY, NEW YORK
In a garage-doored red brick building at Albany's warehouse-loaded waterfront (within walking distance of Druthers Brewing), no-frills beer haven, FORT ORANGE BREWING, opened for biz, October '17. Local homebrewers John Westcott, Jim Eaton and Craig Johnson are the entrepreneurial spirits heading this creative venture, crafting well-balanced conventional fare for State Capitol natives and beyond.
Party string lights hang from the aluminum ceiling and the epoxy-poured marble floor adds surreal elegance to the community-tabled one room spot. The 12-stooled serving table features ten tap handles, an aquamarine-hued backdrop with blackboard beer list, one widescreen TV and several rear brew tanks.
The black-furnished outdoor picnic area fills up on a hot Saturday afternoon, August '18, as my wife and I enter the echoed brick wall venue to sample nine dandy selections.
Juicy-fruited flagship, Fort Orange IPA, carried wood-dried tropical hops to pasty honeyed malts, leaving lemony grapefruit, mango and orange illusions on the tongue.
Smoothly sessionable Pearl Street India Pale Ale let tangy orange, grapefruit and tangerine juiciness pick up mild wood tones above dry pale malts.
Tart blueberry pureeing saturated Blueberry Blonde, utilizing The General Blonde Ale's pilsner-like malt base to soften the berry -soaked grapefruit-orange rind bittering.
Lemony herbal flowering gained musky earthiness over advertised tangerine-papaya-blueberry fruiting and wavered caramel malts for Mo-mentum Pale Ale.
Caramelized rye tones left a sweet mark on dewy Where'd Bob Go? Rye Pale Ale, a toffee-malted moderation lagerheads will enjoy.
Spicier and sharper than its style anticipates, brisk Whistle Stopper Red Ale contrasted piney citrus bittering with dewy fig-dried chocolate malts.
Grapefruit-forward New England-styled Stress Away Double IPA brought orange rind bittering to resinous piney hop oiling in a sticky manner.
"Lively" Nipper IPA had a resoundingly botanical tropical fruited nature as melon rind, guava, kiwi and pineapple illusions leave an understated off-dry impression.
Robust Super Local Imperial Stout saddled coffee-stained black chocolate bittering with cedar-smoked sweetness and ashen cocoa-dried charcoal singe.
www.fortorangebrewing.com 
GRANDY, NORTH CAROLINA
Established in 1986 by Bavarian-born brewer Uli Bennewitz, WEEPING RADISH BREWERY BUTCHERY & PUB originated thirty miles south in Manteo to become North Carolina's first microbrewery. Now thriving in their new Grandy digs since 2011, the spacious A-framed auqa blue farmhouse includes a wood-furnished pub, dog-friendly front deck, orchard-clad parking lot and gated goat area. Though their beers are staidly conservative and generically formal, the salads and German-styled meat dishes kicked ass.
Crafting mostly German-styled ales at the huge warehouse backspace, Weeping Radish serves the entire East Coast with bottles and cans. Their OBX Beer (a fair Kolsch) has received multiple plaudits (reviewed in Beer Index).
On my mid-July stopover before hitting the Outer Banks beaches, I grabbed worthy one-off, Oyster Bock. Its creamy oyster-shelled salinity added texture and richness to bittersweet black chocolate and cocoa malting as well as dried fig tartness above boggy earthen mossiness.
My wife settled on a pint of Weizen, where lemony mandarin orange outdid stylish banana-clove tartness, herbal chamomile notions and lightly honeyed white wheat sweetness. 
VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA
Two entrepreneurial Virginia Tech grads, Aaron and Christine Holley, decided to showcase "German Style Brewing with a Beach Kick" and in 2015 started a water dog-named brewery for all the local denizens. On the outskirts of Virginia Beach, WASSERHUND BREWING COMPANY crafts some outstanding homemade Bavarian draught fare to go alongside damn fine artisan pizza and German meats.
A central bar services several wood-metal tables and four outdoor patios beneath an aluminum overhang. Surfboards decorate the ceiling alongside Edison lights while a huge blackboard displays tapped beer list.
My wife and I shared Puggle Pizza (white-sauced feta cheese with bacon, onions and mushrooms) while hanging out, ironically, with our puggle, Roscoe, mid-July 2018.
Mild PureBred Pilsner, a German-styled light body, coalesced grassy-hopped pilsner malting with corn-sugared sweetness and tingly spicing.
A Helles lager with Czech pilsner tendencies, Schutzhund Lager retained dry-hopped herbal pungency, wet-grained dankness and lemon-soured spritz.
Kettle-soured Salty Dog Gose let ground coriander serenade raw-honeyed lager yeast, whereas sharply tart pink-hued Raspberry Salty Dog Gose brought lemony raspberry souring to salt-licked coriander spicing.
Black tea-like Belgian blonde hybrid, German TEArrier, gained dried plum tones and delicate hop spicing.
Soft-toned German Shepheweizen retained lightly creamed vanilla sweetness and distant banana-bubblegum sugaring, leaving wispy herbal nuances in its wake.
Orange blossom-honeyed Summer Fetch Citrus Honey Wheat picked up herbal lemongrass reminders for lemonade-sugared pale wheat malts.
Nifty hop-forward Doggy Paddled IPA, a medium-bodied West Coast version, allowed mild grapefruit and navel orange tang to pick up light lemon souring for contrast against sweet honeyed pale malts.
Breakfast-styled Haywire Husky Coffee Pale Lager offered milk-creamed coffee pleasantries to pale malt dryness in an understated manner.
Casual nightcap, Bitchin' Bacon Stout, draped mild bacon-smoked fattiness upon chocolate-milked cocoa fudging and peanut-charred whims. 
MANTEO, NORTH CAROLINA
Formerly Full Moon Cafe, protruding red brick complex, LOST COLONY BREWERY, began brewing operations during 2011. One of the premier restaurants on sportsman's haven, Roanoke Island, in the bay town of Manteo, its three separate entities come together as one full-fledged cafe, restaurant and beer haven.
First, there's the shaded wraparound patios surrounding the front entrance and side street. Next, a casual left side Pub with eight-seat bronze-topped serving station, five laminated wood tables, colorful homebrew logo t-shirts, three TV's and nautical paraphernalia appeals to seasoned brewhounds.
A cafe-styled family dining area with six-seat mahogany bar, six small tables and beautiful sea blue ceiling (with choice pub fare emanating from the back kitchen) marks the cozy interior.
Since Lost Colony's former brew room (inside the Pub) became too crowded, a few years back operations moved offsite to southwest fishing village, Stumpy Point. Newcomers should check out Lost Colony's funny Youtube commercials.
On my initial July '18 dinnertime journey, my wife enjoyed hummus and steak quesadillas while I chowed down seared tuna. Staying close to standard stylistic recipes, each of the eight calculated brews available matched or exceeded expectations.
Briskly carbolic Lost Colony Kitty Hawk Blonde's yellow fruit spicing picked up musky herbal hop astringency to contrast its crisp barley roast and caramel-toasted sourdough base.
Simple dry moderation, Stumpy Point Pale Ale, slung tangy yellow grapefruit zest at peppery herbs.
Sweet tea-like Irish red ale, Hatteras Red, retained caramel-malted barley sweetness and crisp tobacco roast. Similarly, tea-sugared Kill Devil Hills Scotch Ale tossed toffee-like caramel malts at distant honeyed fruiting.
Despite its muskier earthen hop bittering and biscuity pale malt base, Brit-styled Nags Head IPA seemed suspiciously Americanized as floral orange-peeled grapefruit tropicalia and whispering pine tones came forward.
Musty earthen nuttiness rallied Raleigh Buxton Brown Ale, a dry English-styled moderation with spicy pale-chocolate malting.
Irish-styled dry body, Charon Stout, tossed molasses-spiced brown chocolate and dark cocoa at latent fig-date illusions.
Soft-toned carafa-chocolate malting marked Holy Hand Grenade Of Antioch Imperial Stout, scattering recessive hazelnut-sugared dried fruiting on the light mocha finish. 
