On tap at Ambulance, fizzy beige-cleared pale lager variant utilizes champagne yeast and white winy Suavignon Blanc must to let its Italian grape esters softly penetrate the rustic dry malts. Just a tad underwhelming and vague.
SCHILLING LANDBIER
On tap at Ambulance, ‘rustic lager’ brings agrarian spelt adjunct as well as mild millet ricing to hay-like horse-blanketed leathering. Cellared Weihenstephan yeast reinforces dry base. Distant floral perfuming lies beyond earthen acridity.
HOBOKEN DAY BEER LIGHT LAGER
On tap at Taphouse Grille – Wayne, light mineral grain musk and lemon curd tartness contrast sweet corn sugaring for clear yellow 99-calorie dry lager.
MAGNIFY DIMPLES VIENNA LAGER
On tap at Taphouse 15, oak barrel aging increases toffee-candied sugaring and underlying caramelized rye sweetness of upscaled Vienna lager as dried fruited plantain, fig and date illusions plus toasted coconut snips register.
COASTAL BREW WORKS AWKWARD TANLINES VIENNA LAGER
Flagship Vienna lager betters most as mild toffee spicing picks up rustic leafy hop astringency, peaty fungi mossing, phenol orange oiling and husked nut tannins for contrast. Pilsner-honeyed Weyermann malting coats brown bread base.
JACK’S ABBY PRE PRO PILSNER
On tap at Ambulance, corn-dried mineral graining seeps into tart lemondrop slot as dark floral daubs and musky hop herbage simmer below alongside doughy salted pretzel base of pre-Prohibition styled pilsner (inspired by German immigrants).
14TH STAR WAYFINDER PILS
On tap at Ambulance, soft-tongued Czech-styled golden pilsner lets sweet corn sugaring penetrate delicate herbal lemon musk in mildly creamed nitro-like setting. A bit tame taste-wise, but crisply clean easygoer’s one of the most sessionable pils around.
BURLINGTON BEER LIGHTHOUSE PILSNER
Easygoing pilsner with mild cereal grain sweetness contrasting herbal perfumed Noble hop musk as fizzy lemon spritz tickles the nose to its buttered biscuit base.
FOAM BREWERS
BURLINGTON, VERMONT
Inside a large red brick warehouse across the street from Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont, FOAM BREWERS set up shop April 2016. Run by a few local professionals dedicated to “resourcefully creating imaginative beers for enlightened palates,” Foam’s waterfront pub provides a serene laidback atmosphere perfectly in line with the progressive Green Mountain State.
Co-founder Bob Grim performs head brewing duties, crafting enticingly rounded fare for local minions and delighted travelin’ ‘brewpies.’
A riveted aluminum-sided slate top bar with 20 tiled draught handles services the windowed round tables and large patio deck. Large steel cross bars, sturdy wood columns and the cement floor give Foam an Industrial rusticity while a small stage area welcomes local entertainers.
Left side brew tanks carry the beer load – a constantly changing variety of one-offs, seasonals, IPA’s and dark ales. Some of Foam’s most popular IPA’s borrow indie rock handles such as Built To Spill, Galaxy 500 and Pavement.
The pub menu includes delicious charcuterie, smoke fish and black bean salsa. Foam also recently opened a vineyard for wine making.
On a warm Saturday at noon in November ’22, my wife and I (plus dog) grab a table in the middle of the metal-furnished front deck to nip six delightful home brews. I also brought home a few reviewed in the Beer Index.
Muskily grain-hopped German-styled Share The Present Pilsner retained floral-daubed herbal lemon souring above its toasted biscuit base.
Hazily golden candy-glazed New England-styled pale ale, Electric Splash, scurried grapefruit-juiced lime zest and white grape esters thru lingered wood-dried bittering over gluey wheated oats.
Sea-salted cantaloupe gose, See You Better Now, let limey guava, watermelon rind and gooseberry souring receive cat-pissed acidity as its bittersweet cantaloupe adjunct descended.
Tropical Imperial IPA, Pavement, brought tangy mango, pineapple and peach zesting plus sour guava-passionfruit gumption to dank herbal hops atop dry pale malting.
Creamy medium roast coffee, dark chocolate syruping and silken cappuccino milkiness picked up mild bourbon influence for luxurious Bourbon Stout, leaving bruised cherry tartness and tingly sherry wining on its oats sugared spine.
Sweet milk chocolatey oak-aged Imperial Stout, Day For Night, conditioned on artisanal coffee, cocoa nibs, Madagascar vanilla beans and toasted coconut in Buffalo Trace whiskey barrels, retained toffee-spiced creme brulee sweetness and maple oats sugaring for its cream-sugared coffee finish, picking up latent black cherry, buttered pecan, almond, rye and cumin illusions. A perfect nightcap!
WEIRD WINDOW BREWING
SOUTH BURLINGTON, VERMONT
Close to Burlington International Airport and four miles west of Lake Champlain, WEIRD WINDOW BREWING began operations March 2020. Inside an evergreen aluminum sided warehouse, its angled ‘witch windows’ gave this overhead-doored brewpub its name.
Weird Window’s pristine white-walled cafe splendor extends to the 12-seat Edison-lit black top bar servicing four pendant-lit tables and one barreled post plus four outdoor community tables.
A diversified round of seven beers crossed my palate during a warm afternoon visit to this IPA-centric pub, November ’22.
Spritzy lemony grapefruit tanginess engaged dry light-bodied blonde ale, Wheat Kings and Pretty Weird Things, bringing lightly embittered herbal-citric hops to its gentle white bread spine.
Soft-tongued jalapeno cream ale, Cersei’s Wildfire, retained a mild peppery burn for its light spiced citrus spritz.
A lively Cascade-hopped NEIPA, Wet Hop Vermont Summer let its streamlined floral-bound citrus tanginess pick up grassy hop astringency, lacquered wood tones and mild herbal whims.
Another smoothly well-rounded NEIPA, Queen Of Chittenden County, brought its crackling honeyed citrus spritz to sugared pale malts, letting white peach, pineapple and melon illusions seep inside its glimmery orange-peeled grapefruit bittering.
Sunny Citra hops freshened up We Named The Dog Citra, yet another worthy NEIPA. Bitter grapefruit zesting, tangy pineapple spicing and sedate mandarin orange sweetness crawl above polite caramel malting.
A danker NEIPA, Pour Decisions, let spiced orange-peeled grapefruit and pineapple tanginess plus sour guava-gooseberry tartness grapple juniper bittering as well as grassy hop pining.
Sweet Vienna malting paced lightly kilned Droppelbock, leaving caramelized brown breading upon subtle raisin-fig sweetness and mild spicy perfuming.
IDLETYME BREWING COMPANY
STOWE, VERMONT
Consuming an entire red clapboarded Colonial-styled Victorian grange, Stowe-based IDLETYME BREWING COMPANY maintains an exquisite downhome appeal from its sylvan wood-furnished pub room to its luxurious Old World dining sections. A large paver deck with metal furnishings sits alongside several ash trees.
Though the historic Shed Restaurant & Brewery closed in 2011, Idletyme began renovations a year after and quickly picked up the slack. A founding brewer of New Hampshire’s Moat Mountain, Will Gilson has been Idletyme’s guiding light ‘concocting brews of all variety since 1995.’
While vacationing in Vermont, November ’22, discovered seven available brews – including two Bavarian pilsners, a Munich-styled lager, two pale ales, an IPA and porter. There were also two sours I missed out on, wild yeast cultured blueberry- Sour Blue and tart Lemondrop-hopped Sourtyme.
‘Mocktails,’ wines, ciders and mixed drinks were also available as were sandwiches, burgers and salads.
Dry Bohemia Pilsner lent wheat-chaffed barnyard acridity and rustic herbal spicing to fleeting powdered fruiting in light-bodied setting.
Musky raw graining and leathery hay dryness tempered the spritzy lemony hop of Munich Pilsner, a straightforward moderation.
Crisp helles lager, Helles Brook, brought sweet honeyed cereal graining to grassy Noble hop herbage, Seltzer-like lemon spritz and wispy sulfuric acidity.
A traditional American-styled pale ale, Pink n’ Pale, let zesty pink grapefruit juicing infiltrate piney hop briskness and a pink peppercorn prickle as ancillary pineapple and guava tropicalia glanced its spicily citric thrust.
Vibrant dry-hopped pale ale, Zog’s, splashed lemony grapefruit zest against pungent cannabis hop dankness and retained a mildly creamed vanilla froth.
Just as creamy on the surface, Imperial IPA, Ideltyme, worked zestful orange-peeled grapefruit bittering and spiced pineapple-peach tanginess into sugary pale malting (leaving vegetal cucumber crisping).
On the dark side, vanilla bean-embittered black chocolate malting, dark-roast hops and charred nuttiness saddled Vanilla Porter, a soft-tongued (nitrogenated?) delight.
REAL MC COY BEER CO. – BALLSTON SPA
BALLSTON SPA, NEW YORK
Established in 2015 at its main brew site in Delmar thirty miles south, the village of Ballston Spa now houses the small secondary satellite taproom of small-batch farmhouse brewery, REAL MC COY BEER CO. Only one mile from Speckled Pig behind a post office in a bright yellow house, this second site came to fruition, November ’20.
Located at the birthplace of Abner Doubleday, a high ranking 19th century military officer best known as the inventor of baseball, Real Mc Coy’s casual coffeehouse-like atmosphere spreads to its cozy eight-seat wood bar, orange plastic furnishings, interesting wall maps, small fireplace and pantry. Two small tables near the front and eight-seat community tables fill out this quaint beer cafe.
My wife and I consumed three fine proprietary beers on site while visiting November ’22 and I sank another three two months hence on New Years Eve at an antique side table in the cozy side lounge.
Crisp German-styled light pilsner, Schuyler, let spritzy lemon liming and mild herbal musk top maize-dried mineral graining.
Herbal lemondrop tartness tempered the banana-clove sweetness of No Name Hefe, leaving a trace of sourdough breading on the spicy plantain finish.
Spicy grapefruit, orange and pineapple tanginess picked up red apple and Bosc pear crisping for Doubleday IPA, an Imperial styled medium body with dry pine tones drifting thru distant fennel, anise and carrot snips.
Dry bronze-hued Her Majesty’s Malt ESB retained a dewy earthiness, waddle-seeded rye spicing and brown rice over caramelized brown breading.
Better still, English Coffee Infused ESB let pre-roasted coffee tones dominate peaty black tea musk and black tea tannins. Try with a lemon twist.
Lovely soft-toned flagship, Delmartian New England IPA, flung lemony grapefruit zesting at sour gooseberry-guava tartness and dry wooded herbage.