WALLINGFORD, CONNECTICUT
Founding brewer, David Durant, opened his friendly neighborhood nano operation October 2017. Since then, his small brewery has successfully dabbled with many well-known styles.
Inside a beautiful marble-stoned cornershop, the small open space features six front-roomed wooden tables and an eight-stooled serving table towards the rear (with ten-plus draughts and free popcorn).
My wife and I visit on a drizzling Friday eve in April ’18, trying all eight brews on tap while losing at trivia.
First up, Mesmerized Witbier layered raw-honeyed sap atop mild orange-bruised banana, clove and bubblegum sugaring as well as sweet Cahllah breading and wispy tobacco crisping.
Next, clover-honeyed(?) Soft Landing gained orange-dried tartness to contrast mild caramel malts.
Soft-toned Enlightenment Fruit Ale brought tangy apricot juicing and mild peach-tangerine tartness to sugar-wafered pale malts and subtle hop astringency.
Tidy moderate-to-medium body, Stonewall Red, offered toasted amber graining to orange-dried apple souring, mild tobacco roast and timidly musky hop astringency.
Springtime comforter, Graceful Shutdown Maibock, upended lemony mandarin orange, clementine and tangerine modesty with soapy pale-malted hop acridity.
Maybe the finest choice on this seasonally cold night, hazily chartreuse-hued Synaptic Misfire Northeast IPA, a creamily malted medium body, gained juicy orange-peeled grapefruit, tangerine and pomelo tanginess.
Sedate Rockslide Brown Ale coalesced caramelized chocolate malting with earthen nuttiness.
For dessert, dry Pinky Out Stout embellished its crisp barley-roasted Bakers chocolate entry and cocoa-powdered tartness with bitter charred hop restraint.
cliffsidebrewing.com
