Bright orange rind entry leads to dry-spiced barley-roasted red ale-like center of well-balanced medium-full body. Sharp-hopped insistence embitters tertiary herbal sprucing contrasting delicate candied yeast restraint.
ROCK CREEK BLACK RAVEN PORTER
Rich ink black ruddish-hazed London-styled mocha porter maintains brisk dry-hopped char and dusky cola-macadamia sear to black cherry-pureed raisin-fig conflux corrupting soy-sauced chocolate-roasted finish.
ROCK ART WHITETAIL GOLDEN ALE
Translucent straw-bodied, fluffy white-headed mediocrity mired by solvent-like phenol soapiness. Bread-y yeast souring creates buttered popcorn illusion underlining honeyed cereal sweetness, toasted barley-wheat dryness, cocoa-mocha dirge, and mild grassy-herbal hop surge, becoming gently astringent as dismal lemony acidity heightens. Delinquent powdered chocolate persistence far removed from traditional golden ale.
ROCK ART RIDGE RUNNER BARLEYWINE ALE
Acrid ruby-hued, chestnut-highlighted British barleywine replete with dewy peat dankness, earthen minerality and leafy hops differs substantially from fruitier American versions. Chocolate-nosed cereal graining and resinous pine bittering drop off precipitously to off-dry cherry-grapefruit-orange souring. Inconspicuous light-bodied nature lessens effectiveness. More complete 2012 version retained milder seduction as pliable walnut-pecan husk seeped deeper into subsidiary apple-fig-grape desiccation.
ROCK ART POOR RICHARD’S ALE
Slightly acidic English-styled strong ale brings molasses, maple, and cocoa sweetness to secondary coffee dryness as cigar-leafed tobacco crisping wavers. Coarse nuttiness and vegetal trifle felt underneath cornbread fleece.
ROCK ART MIDNIGHT MADNESS SMOKED PORTER
ROCK ART BROWN BEAR BROWN ALE
Weak dirty earthen tawny body fails to supply proper walnut-hazelnut frontage for pallid malt roasting and dubious unrefined chocolate backdrop. Blah.
ROCK ART BOCK LAGER (2006 LTD.)
2006 version (a.k.a. Mountain Holidays in Vermont) lightly embitters roasted chocolate-caramel malt dehydration with spicy dry-hopped raisin-fig parch and skittish cashew-chestnut-pecan chafe. But seasonal nutmeg seepage lost amongst tertiary tobacco trickle.
ROCK ART BOCK LAGER (2004 LTD.)
Quaffed bottle 1,417 of 2,400 before X-mas ’04 expecting seasonal illusions (nutmeg-cinnamon) to ultimately develop due to label’s wreathe insignia. But indistinct reddish auburn dry bock also lacked advertised ‘rich, creamy’ character. Instead, distant barley roast and sedate gourd, tobacco, chestnut, and almond illusions drop off to deficient maple finish.
ROCK ART AMERICAN RED ALE
Tawny mocha-spiced medium body dampens buttery chocolate malt continuance with astringent caramel-pecan finish. Phenol fizz dissolves cleansing orange rind/ white grape dryness and desolate hop whimper. Lacks true red ale spicing; closer to pleasantly embittered cola nut-influenced copper ale.
RJ ROCKERS BUCKWHEAT
Unconvincing, but inoffensive, dunkelweizen. Bland nutty coffee entry followed up by honeyed buckwheat malting, ancillary banana breading and wavered dried fruiting. Sour lactic persuasion mired by slick finish. On tap, wispy lemon-fizzed carbolic thrust pushes forth wheat-cracked honeycomb sweetness, but little else is discernible.
(RJ BRASSEURS) COUP DE GRISOU
Sassy golden-glowed ‘spicy buckwheat beer’ with tan yeast particles and high viscosity generates early hop-infused coriander bittering for off-dry orange-lemon punch. Lively unripe tangerine-peach souring gains prominence as mint tingle surfaces, adding zesty elegance.