POINT PLEASANT, NEW JERSEY
Inside the renovated small mall space previously occupied by defunct Frye Brewing, Point Pleasant’s community friendly LOKAL BREWING CO. came to fruition October 2024. A small-batch, family-run, five-barrel brewery, Lokal is just a few miles from the ocean.
Its rustic cement-floored, steel columned barroom features a wood top serving station with steampipe draught board, metal-wood tables, couched tables and exposed ceiling pipes. There are two TV’s surrounding the chalked beer menu.
Former Last Wave head brewer, Nick Kolb, works the kitchen-bound back brew tanks. His traditional fare will please easygoing thirsts as well as more critical tongues.
My wife and I closed the place up on a Sunday evening July ’26, downing all nine nifty suds as the night fell.
Clover honeyed toasted wheat anchored Queen Bee Honey Blonde, utilizing lager yeast and crystal malts.
Dry Scotch-licked orange oiled American lager, Seven Degrees, picked up dewy truffle earthiness.
Fruited sour ale, Open Horizon, knocked off blueberry lemonade with its bittersweet blueberry frontage given mild blackberry, boysenberry and cranberry tartness, light citric acidity and salty lemon liming.
Spritzy lemon fizz prickled subtle banana-clove sweetness of Solara Hefeweizen, leaving mild sourdough breading.
Hazy pale ale, Flag Island, splattered moderate lemony grapefruit bittering onto light herbal spicing atop delicate oats creaming.
Easygoing Citra-Mosaic-hopped IPA, New Drift, sank lemon-oiled grapefruit, navel orange and pineapple musk into light pine resin.
Traditional West Coast IPA, Coastal Rise, spread dry cannabis resin all over mild grapefruit and orange rind bittering, musky lemon oiling and perfume-spiced herbs.
Tropical fruited New England IPA, Harbor Lights, matched sunshiny lemony grapefruit bittering to salted guava-yuzu zesting and orange-tangerine tanginess over soft oated wheat creaming.
Semi-rich dark ale, Bridge Avenue Chocolate Porter, retained dry dark chocolate and espresso bittering, Blackstrap molasses treacle and mossy peat in dark roast hop setting.