PECONIC, NEW YORK
Right in the heart of wine country at Long Island Sound’s North Fork hamlet, GREENPORT HARBOR’S second location (the first’s in nearby Greenport at a dilapidated firehouse opened July ’09) is situated on prime farmland and came to fruition in 2015. Taking up a yellow wood-shingled, brown-trimmed warehouse and overhead doored brewing facility, the expansive brewery includes a large old wood-tabled picnic area and aluminum-tabled side deck.
Inside the epoxy concrete-floored pub, an aluminum-walled back bar with twelve draught handles (and prominent American flag) services the wood top serving station, three plastic-chaired community tables and red bricked hearth seating. A right side wood-furnished blackened cement-floored dining space is also available for fine pub grub.
After dipping our feet in Orient Point, my wife and I head west to grab a picnic table to down five previously untried suds alongside a caprice sandwich on our initial GH trip during a sunny Friday afternoon, September ’23.
Muskily mineral grained Haus Pils, a moderate German pilsner, took floral-herbed Noble-hop mustiness, fresh-cut grassiness and mild lemon rot to rustic millet-spelt flouring.
Mild coriander-spiced mandarin orange sweetness picked up casual butternut-chestnut illusions, delicate herbal cilantro minting and rummy banana wisps for Sounding #5 Witbier.
Tart “dessert-styled” Pina Colada knockoff, Tiki Paradise Berliner Weiss, regaled tangy pineapple zesting, toasted coconut sweetness, dainty lemondrop souring and peachy orange-tangerine daubs above its milk-sugared oated wheat base.
Meanwhile, saltier lemon acidity anchored Bramble Paradise Berliner Weiss, leaving tart blackberry and raspberry souring to contain mild green grape vinegaring, spritzy pink champagne sudsiness and cranberry rhubarb snips over acidulated wheat malts.
Dryly full-bodied dark ale, Black Duck Porter, placed dark chocolate bittering next to burnt coffee oiling and tarry molasses gunk over peaty hop-charred black patent malts.
