On tap at Taphouse 15, even-keeled Czech dark lager utilizes sweetly breaded Vienna malts and subtle chocolate malts to oppose slight lemony hop spritz ad dried maize flicker.
DISTRICT 96 MAR-A-LAGER
On tap at Taphouse 15, rounded lager pithily brings spicy floral-perfumed lemon musk to light hop astringency and tobacco-leafed toasted breading in brisk manner.
TWO LADDERS BREWING
WEST NYACK, NEW YORK
A dandy l’il red brick neighborhood brewpub in an inconspicuous mini-mall close to Route 59 in West Nyack, TWO LADDERS BREWING began operations in August ’22. Homebrewing partners Pete Garrison and Jeff Turicek turn out stylishly approachable, satisfyingly straightforward and predominantly dry beers from the small rear brew kettles of this sports-friendly right-cornered watering hole.
The quaint interior features a laminated 12-seat wood bar with centered aluminum-treaded draught station, baroque stools, caged Edison lights and 4 large TV’s. Wall-bound stooled seats and wood tables fill out the front and right side. A black metal-railed front deck with red concrete pavers offers further seating.
Sank seven solid suds during Sunday evening one-hour spell in December ’22.
Dry lemony herbage and mild maize flaking embraced straw-hazed moderation, Paddy O Kolsch, to its bready pale malt bottom.
Easygoing farmhouse ale, The House That Saison Built, let lemony mandarin orange salting gain barnyard-dried herbal rusticity.
Dryer and more sedately fruited than most Belgian ales, OMG Abbey plied oaken cherry tannins, dried prune tartness, brown raisin sweetness and crabapple souring to roasted tobacco crisping creeping inside recessive earthen musk.
Sweet tangerine, clementine and peach fruiting outdid mild orange-peeled grapefruit bittering and sedate pine tones for Elder Statesman West Coast IPA, a honey malt-backed moderate-medium body.
Sharp yellow grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering saddled Uncle Pete’s Hyperbole IPA, leaving juniper-licked vodka nips and dainty pineapple tanginess upon its brisk evergreen pining.
Two Ladder’s most popular brew for its initial six-month stretch has been a straightforward India Pale Ale, Little Igloo. Its vibrant lemon-peeled navel orange, pineapple and tangerine zesting prodded the creamy vanilla froth opposing grassy hop astringency in crisply clean water softener.
Cream-sugared coffee and dried dark cocoa rampaged thru enticing Mad Dog Willie Stout, a trusty mocha nightcap.
WALT & WHITMAN BREWING COMPANY
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK
Inside the Old Saratogian building in downtown Saratoga Springs, impressively designed and family-owned WALT & WHITMAN BREWING COMPANY opened in 2020. A multi-tiered, multi-faceted operation with an exquisite lounge leading to a pristine coffeehouse and spacious brewpub section, its catacomb lower level features a glass-encased brewroom, benches, couches, wood tables and walled pop culture pix. A large caged patio offers further seating.
The main 20-seat slate-topped pub area offers 20 draughts (listed on the wood menu) plus two opposing TV’s and a refrigerator with cans to go. Several community tables fill out the room while exposed pipes, old wood columns and Edison lights give the wood-floored bar a rustic old Americana glaze.
Fine pub fare from the right side kitchen includes Detroit-styled pizza, wings and sandwiches.
During my sunny noon time visit in November ’22, I bought several brews for the road (in canned version listed below) and consumed a lovely milk stout at the corner of the bar.
A soothingly creamed confection, Written In The Dark plied coffee-dried dark cocoa to mildly hop-charred cola, walnut and Brazil nut illusions as well as peaty chocolate truffle snips.
In the can and bettering most lo-cal light lagers, dry aluminum yellowed Dick Murphy Lite placed mildly grained German pilsner malts alongside salted lemon fizziness and phenol hop astringency while avoiding some acridity.
Clear beige-yellowed, billowy cumulous-headed “American wheat,” Agrarian Society, let its rustic amber graining and hay-like acridity dig into its sour lemon wedging.
Rangy Oktoberfest lager, Festbier, secured a stylistically upscaled profile as unexpected spruce-tipped perfume musk seeped thru autumnal brown leafy astringency, straw-dried barnyard acridity, raspy lemon oiling and wispy basil herbage.
Crisply tart lime salting stays dry alongside sour lemon twist for easygoing Rough Day Gose, leaving lightly vinous white grape acidity upon mild coriander seeding and cologned agave nectar.
Rangy frail-headed pale golden farmhouse ale, Le Petit Poete, awakened the senses with mildly spiced orange tanginess, bruised banana sweetness and lemon custard tartness penetrating salted white pepper herbage and cellared mushroom fungi in a spritzy flow.
Murkily dense purplish Berliner Weiss, Now, Forager Blueberry rode tart blueberry pureed pomegranate essence thru sweet milk sugaring, picking up vodka-licked purple grape, cranberry and crabapple illusions as well as mild tobacco leaf crisping.
Briskly tropical IPA-like fruiting paced crisply clean moderate-medium-bodied pale ale, I’m So I’m So… Citra, serenading zestful lemony grapefruit-peeled pineapple bittering and navel orange sweetness with polite pale malt spicing contrasted by dry wood tones at its grassy hop stead.
Floral-spiced yellow grapefruit entry of The Infinite Nick IPA picked up mellow mandarin orange, peach and pineapple tanginess against dry herbage and hay-like acridity in clean mineral water setting.
‘Candied orange, mango and grapefruit’ spicing gained floral-bound mango, pineapple, papaya and tangerine fruiting for Big Kids Table NEIPA, leaving grassy hop resin upon the fizzy salted citric finish.
QUEEN CITY BREWERY
BURLINGTON, VERMONT
Beginning its journey in 2014, QUEEN CITY BREWERY enjoys being a “comfy pub” at the historically industrial South End of Burlington. One of its founders, Paul Hale, was a former associate vice president of research at the University of Vermont. Managing partners Phil Kaszuba and Paul Held embrace the traditional beer styles head brewer Ben Gostanian crafts.
A ’40s pickup truck adorns the barroom inside the metal corrugated aluminum-sided warehouse. The cement floored pub features a laminated U-shaped 20-seat mahogany bar with a pipe-exposed high ceiling. Silver left side tanks service the bustling draught board (with over a dozen homemade brews). A meticulous pine-detailed, garage-doored Event Space welcomes large parties.
A rustic makeshift enclosed deck with orange plastic chairs matching the overhead canvas is where I sat with wife and dog to enjoy a host of German-style lagers and beyond during my two-hour November ’22 sojourn.
Ricey corn pilsner malting consumed Bushwick Lager, a ’50s-styled American light body with musky lemon-spiced herbage and wispy floral daubs.
Musky Noble hop herbage grazed the toasted cereal graining of German helles-styled South End Lager, ‘a delicate blonde lager,’ and the spicier toasted malting of Vienna Lager.
Dewy peat mossing, earthen truffle fungi and faded nuttiness saturated the dried fruited musk of Munich Dunkel, a lightly creamed Bavarian lager.
Another German lager, Psycho Keller, an unfiltered cellar beer, placed honey spiced Vienna malts against salted orange-oiled musk, leaving mild leafy foliage and fennel snips.
Spry herbal lemon zesting prodded the vanilla-creamed banana, clove and coriander expectancy of Hefeweizen, a sourdough-bottomed moderation.
Capturing much of the maple-glazed cured meat sweetness and only some of the smoked beechwood pilsner malting its Bamberg-derived style demands, Rauchbier gained a nifty lemon spritz.
Traditional springtime copper lager, Maibock, brought spicy red-orange-yellow fruiting to toasted caramel malting, picking up contrastive raw honeyed fungi must.
Smoothly effervescent Belgian tripel, Monk of Underhill, regaled butterscotch-candied sweetness to caramelized banana, lemon meringue and creamy vanilla affluence.
Moderately bitter Fuggle-hopped English IPA, Argument, left perfumed citrus spicing upon dry fungi herbage.
Soft-toned Yorkshire Porter allowed its black coffee-embittered dark chocolate roast to embrace weedy soy saucing and cola nuttiness.
Peaty mocha malting girded Barge Canal, a musty oatmeal stout with day-old coffee tones, chalky dried fruiting and spiced dark toffee atop charred oats.
ZERO GRAVITY BREWERY
BURLINGTON, VERMONT
Alongside Queen City Brewery and Switchback Brewing, ZERO GRAVITY BREWERY calls the South End of Burlington home. An outgrowth of American Flatbread, this pristine brown aluminum-fronted pub opened its doors during 2015.
Inside the Beer Hall, a granite-topped L-shaped bar features white-tiled draught handles. The laminated floor gleams and a few community tables offer bar side seating. A stone hearth on the right side warms up several loungy booths and couches.
Outside, Edison lights illuminate the awning-topped tables at the wood-planked deck.
Never moving too far from stylistic parameters, most Zero Gravity brews will please mainstream imbibers as well as those with exquisite tastes. During my November ’22 midday excursion, discovered each available pouring – including a re-tasting of Madonna and Cone Head IPA’s.
At 3.2% ABV and 90 calories, Mc Lighty’s Lager retained a slickly arid phenol resonance permeating its dry lemon liming and cloy corn syruping. Strictly for passive light beer drones.
Approachable Cone Head IPA let spiced-up lemony grapefruit zesting and resilient orange rind bittering front its grassy hop astringency and dank cannabis restraint as salted mango, white peach and pineapple illusions flutter softly to the bready bottom.
Zestful lemon bluster beguiles tropical orange-peeled grapefruit and pineapple tang as oily pine resin seeps into Madonna Imperial IPA. Lemon candy, lemon curd and orange marmalade snips add tart edge.
Soothingly delicate lemony strawberry tartness caressed Strawberry Moon, an arid sour ale with mild limey bittering and fizzy pop pep over a pallid white wheat bed. Sharp blue cheese brings out a spicy citric tingle.
Dry rocky tan-headed black Irish-styled Extra Stout placed mildly creamed dark chocolate bittering next to tarry coffee-oiled bittering, hop-charred tobacco chaw and sour nut squelch above its clean watered surface.
THE ALCHEMIST LUSCIOUS BRITISH STYLE IMPERIAL STOUT
Decadently rich and creamy Brit-styled stout contrasts luxurious chocolate bark nuttiness and molasses-sugared dark cocoa fudging with tarry hop char for fantastic frothy headed brown body. Mighty mocha penetration picks up light smoked hickory maple sugaring to seep into ancillary bourbon-burgundy wining.
THE BRUERY MALLOW-DRAMATIC BOURBON AGED IMPERIAL STOUT
On tap at Taphouse 15, spicy bourbon aging segues to luxurious marshmallow-creamed vanilla beaning and toasted coconut sugaring draped by black chocolate syrup. Slick chocolate pudding topping secures decadent dessert excellence.
EPIC BIG BAD BAPTIST TOASTED COCONUT IMPERIAL STOUT AGED IN WHISKEY (2022)
Robust whiskey-aged stout drapes syrupy black chocolate richness over toasted coconut and cacao nibs adjuncts. Mellow whiskey soothe picks up creamy sugared coffee, spiced rye, vanilla bourbon, glazed hazelnut and coconut rum illusions.
MAGNIFY FUDGEMENT DAY III: RETURN OF THE NUTTERSHIP
On tap at Taphouse 15, capacious nutty stout offers lactic cocoa nibs persuasion and vanilla-creamed marshmallow fluff to hazelnut-pasted caramelized rye and mild peanut buttering. As it warms, chocolate fudge, pudding and brownie sweetness develops above honeyed Graham Cracker base.
CENTRAL WATERS VANILLA RYE STOUT
On tap at Taphouse 15, rye barrel aged stout lets lightly creamed vanilla overlay sweet chocolate sugaring. On the spirits side, dry vermouth, Manhattan cocktail and rye whiskey tones settle in across confectionery creme brulee, toasted marshmallow and bourbon chocolate sweetness.
ASHTON VELVET ELVIS
On tap at Taphouse Grille – Wayne, mild dry stout satisfies morning coffee craving. Rich espresso milking gains Blackstrap molasses-embittered dark chocolate edge over earthy grain roast.
