Soft-toned dry-hopped NEIPA eases lightly embittered orange pith, white grapefruit and salty pineapple tang plus delicate mango-peach-tangerine conflux above mild wheated oats. Too subtle and less creamy than most of its northeast style, but highly sessionable.
Plodding cocoa-powdered Bakers chocolate dryness gains modest nut charred coffee tones and mildewy brown-leafed hop astringency.
Nearly nebulous straw clear moderation with not enough floral yellow grapefruit and mandarin orange zesting to overcome astringent hop peppering and bland seltzer spritz. At least its lightly toasted white bread Pilsner-Vienna malt base sits pretty.
MAMARONECK, NEW YORK
In the tony Westchester County town of Mamaroneck, DECADENT ALES opened during June 2016. Connected to the second Half Time Beverage (the firsts’ in Poughkeepsie) in a dark gray brick warehouse just off the center of town, this dual beer threat beer haven may be the most ambitious brewpub/beer store combo in the Northeast.
A rustic gray cement floored, 4,000 square-foot tasting room depot with several community tables, some silver metal 4-seat tables and 12-stooled aluminum bar, Decadent features twenty taps, multiple TV’s and multiple stainless steel brew tanks (stationed behind the bar). There’s an outdoor space beyond the overhead door that includes blue aluminum tables, picnic benches and strewn about beer barrels.
Part of Mamaroneck’s industrial zone renovation, Decadent’s enormous catalogue of Big Beers and traditional styles run the gamut from opulently fruited IPA’s and Sour Ale Smoothies to ambitiously designed stouts.
Duke’s Burger Joint served flatbread pizza, sandwiches, burgers and seafood to go alongside the creative homemade draughts.
My wife and I visited this cavernous pub during a cold Friday afternoon, February ’23.
A brusque German-styled pilsner for the proletariat, Regular Beer slipped musky maize-dried raw graining into dankly resinous hop herbage and mild vegetal earthiness, perked up by lemon seltzer fizzing.
“Pacific Punch” variant, Peach Apricot Punch IPA, let mild peach-apricot pureeing pick up lemony grapefruit bittering and yogurt-soured marmalade, passionfruit and gooseberry tartness above light Smoothie-like vanilla creaming.
Snazzy dry-hopped hazy IPA, Vega, parlayed slightly embittered orange-peeled grapefruit, pineapple and mango tanginess plus mild pine lacquer over vanilla-creamed pale malt honeying.
Decadent Imperial Stout, Snowball, put chocolate-fudged Madagascar vanilla beans and toasted coconut sweetness at the reins while caramel latte, marshmallow and cappuccino illusions enriched its honeyed Graham Cracker bottom.
Decadent’s biggest beers made fantastic use of Willett spirits, proving to be intriguingly full-bodied barrel-aged nightcaps.
Chewy chocolate cake dessert, Molten Lava Cake, integrated Willett rye to light chili peppering and toasted cinnamon spicing in a rich maple syrup setting, gaining bourbon-spiced vanilla goodness, black cherry puree tartness and banana sweetness, leaving confectionery chocolate pudding, donut and cookie remnants.
Impressive Imperial Stout (Double Barrel with Vanilla) blended Old Elk and Willett bourbon with Madagascar vanilla in a richly fudged brown chocolate empire, leaving delicately warm burgundy, brandy and port illusions on the mocha vanilla finish.
For equally tranquil Imperial Stout (Willett Bourbon aged with Coffee), milk-sugared Counter Culture coffee settled alongside brown chocolate and vanilla sweetness as mild bruised black cherry, black grape, coconut and hazelnut notions swept thru the decadent libation.
ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY
Within walking distance of Atlantic City’s famous Boardwalk, THE SEED: A LIVING BEER PROJECT opened inside a tan-bricked, high-ceilinged, overhead-doored warehouse on October 29, 2020.
Lovingly fitted with varied living room furnishings, the red brick-walled, painted cement-floored pub features antique chandeliers, a grandfather clock, Japanese shoji blinds and comfy couches. The L-shaped 12-seat oak bar (with twelve white tile-backed, tree-limbed draught handles) services a few small four-seat round tables and some wood community tables. Stainless steel brew tanks in the rear provide the liquid fare.
Doing a fine job showcasing 100% New Jersey-grown ingredients, The Seed has impressed many seasoned beer enthusiasts. Entrepreneurial head brewer, Amanda Cardinalli, was down in Miami for a beer fest when I visited early February ’23.
Dewy English-styled Here, Now Best Bitter traipsed honeyed tea herbage thru mildly mildewed mustiness and sedate lemony orange oiling.
Brisk pilsner-malted Time Given Kolsch let lemony green grape tannins and green apple tartness pick up muted grassy herbage as well as cucumber-tinged ‘rosewater’ and ‘Bartless pear’ notions.
Ultra-dry Garden To Walk In Saison (Spring ’22) let lemon-limed red clover herbage settle beside wildflower-honeyed orange blossom florality and wispily vinous white wining above hay-like barnyard acridity.
Rauchbier-inspired smoked helles lager, How The World Will Be, worked beechwood-smoked peat moss and Band-aid astringency into mesquite/hickory-seared cured meatiness – besting most American made German rauchs.
“Cocoa-dusted coffee beans” pervaded Until The Sunlight Baltic Porter, allowing dewy truffle buttering to absorb molasses rye breading.
Silken dark-roast chocolate and coffee buttressed nitro Oatmeal Stout, For Warmth, gaining mild tarry hop bitterness and raw molasses treacle as well as tertiary black licorice, black cherry, walnut and Brazil nut illusions for a busier than usual nitro profile.   Â
NEW PROVIDENCE, NEW JERSEY
I’d already enjoyed fourteen different beers from UNTIED BREWING COMPANY before finally visiting this rustic red-bricked warehouse pub in Central Jersey during February ’23. Celebrating their fourth anniversary, Untied’s neon orange and blue insignia welcomes visitors to its industrialized gray brick-walled, cement-floored, high-ceilinged interior.
With an impressive stylistically varied lineup, Untied’s tile-walled draught handles serve the silestone formica-topped bar area, two metal-wood stooled community tables, a few white chaired four-seaters and a small couched space.
The third brewmaster since opening in 2019, Andrew Slick (formerly of Triumph and Kane), mans the rear tanks. We discussed all things beer while I ran the gamut of drinking all the previously untried suds available this seasonally warm winter’s day.
Sweet coconut toasting fortified corn-sugared cream ale, Clacking Coconuts, leaving macaroon, roasted chestnut, vanilla cookie, and marshmallow daubs.
Toasted amber grain crisping received musky dry-hopped Huelle Melon tropicalia as bright orange-peeled yellow grapefruit sunshine upended astringent herbal grassiness with a clean vodka nip for Morning Breeze Pilsner, a nearly white winey IPA-fruited alternative.
Mild lemony yellow grapefruit bittering, sweet orange peel zesting and subtle guava-pineapple souring engaged soft-toned 4th Trip Around The Sun NEIPA, leaving latent earthen pine resin to contrast its creamy vanilla froth.
Candi-sugared butterscotch rum warmth guided Thresh Tripel, a superfine Belgian ale with caramelized banana, pineapple cake, butter pecan, orange marmalade and honeyed peach sweetness contrasting white peppered fungi funk.
Rummy dark candi-sugaring draped Neuhaus Quad, another worthy Belgian styler with spicy fig, date and plum sweetness picking up caramelized pecan, bourbon vanilla and honey-glazed hazelnut illusions.
A nearly perfect dark lager, Dada loaded Folgers-like coffee crystals upon dark-roast chocolate and treacly cocoa nuttiness in a dark-roast hop setting.
Bittersweet dark chocolate and hazelnut coffee tones enriched Left In The Dark Imperial Stout, letting leathery cherry tannins supply slight acidity to the creamed mocha mandate.
As for the bourbon barrel-aged Left In The Dark, its sweet bourbon vanilla warmth penetrated coffee-roasted caramelized chocolate goodness and whiskeyed rye swipe.
On tap at Taphouse 15, decadent molasses gingerbread cookie with chocolate pudding skin fudginess and light bourbon vanilla inkling over honeyed Graham Cracker base. Wintry ginger-spiced cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice seasoning and subtle pecan-hazelnut-chestnut triage amidst chewy cookie dough thickness.
On tap at Taphouse 15, “decadent” amped up Gunner’s Daughter gains richer chocolate nougat center, deeper espresso-milked black coffee tones and subtler peanut buttering than original version. Beyond the nutty mocha insistence, caramelized banana, bourbon vanilla, hazelnut paste and Nutella illusions further sweeten impressive milk stout.
On tap at Taphouse 15, milk-sugared hazelnut chocolate sweetness and banana pureed creaming unite for rich confectionery stout. Chocolate-dipped banana dessert treat picks up hazelnut, walnut and buttered pecan snips.
On tap at Ambulance, peppermint bark-dried stout brings subtle menthol minting to bittersweet cocoa nibs chalking as teasing burgundy, black grape and oaken vanilla illusions flutter. A tad too dry and murkily flavored.
On tap at Taphouse 15, dry mocha-bound full body brings black-malted coffee tones to dark-roast chocolate malting and nutty hop char above oats-toasted smoked wheat.
Creamy peanut buttering consumed viscous porter, retaining chocolate truffle, toasted almond and hazelnut chocolate bark illusions to contrast mild walnut-charred hop roast.