On tap at The Office – Ridgewood, lightly vinous lemon-juiced green grape tannins placate wispy blackberry-boysenberry tartness for mellow kettle sour.
GRIMM SUPER YUZU GOSE
On tap at Taphouse 15, refreshingly understated sea-salted yuzu fruiting provides lemony mandarin orange spritz and wispy lime bittering for dainty Margarita cocktail knockoff.
ICARUS DRINKING SHERBERT FOR DINNER BERLINER WEISSE
On tap at The Office – Ridgewood, fruitful heavily wheated Berliner Weisse drapes milk-sugared Madagascar vanilla sweetness upon juicy cara cara orange tang, spritzy Meyer lemon salting and sweet-tart cherry spurts. Rummy citrus undertow contrasts lactic yogurt souring.
SCHILLING RENNSTEIG SCHWARZBIER
On tap at Taphouse 15 and bettering most nebulous German dark lagers (schwarzbiers) currently on US market, well-designed moderation spreads dry coffee-stained Baker’s chocolate sustenance atop fresh baked rye breading, picking up mild candied toffee sweetness to contrast herb-tinged earthen truffle backend.
CARTON WILL IT NOG PASTRY CREAM ALE
On tap at The Office – Ridgewood, lightly vanilla-creamed whipped cream fluff spiced-up by subtle nutmeg-cinnamon sweetness for understated eggnog-inspired pastry cream ale. Try it in powdered sugar-rimmed glass.
SOMA TWO TOWNS AMBER ALE
On tap at The Office – Ridgewood, soft floral-daubed lemony orange spritz crackles atop grassy Fuggle hop earthiness contrasting delicate pilsner malt sugaring.
FLYING BISON IN THE CLOUDS PALE ALE
Sharp orange-peeled grapefruit, pineapple and peach tang, astringent hop herbage and floral-daubed pale malt spicing bring subtle IPA resonance to the fore. Tertiary red apple, pear and melon illusions flutter.
FLYING BISON RUSTY CHAIN VIENNA LAGER
Buffalo’s top selling beer is a cereal grained Vienna lager with nutty dried fruit spicing and sinewy sourdough breading, but its dank cardboard-like murk scours the bottom end.
LAST WAVE TRIMMIN’ DRY-HOPPED PILSNER
Lemony floral herbage of Loral hops redirects light pilsner as delicate IPA-lite orange, grapefruit and pineapple notions plus dry wood tones prove sedate as white breaded base.
SHREWD FOX BREWERY
ELDRED, NEW YORK
Skirting stylistic conventionality by assimilating and acclimating locally sourced ingredients with European-grown grains and hops, Jersey-raised Ukrainian husband-wife team, Bill and Cindy Lenczuk, began their beer journey while sampling local Uke suds overseas. Initially, Bill worked as a nuclear engineer at Chernobyl during a 2000-2002 Eastern Euro stint, gaining insight to brewing along the way until opening his own nanobrewery, SHREWD FOX BREWERY, in 2015.
Balancing quirky flavor profiles to remit a certain earthen rusticity native to the hilly rural Catskill village of Eldred, Shrewd Fox utilizes its unique regional water source. A proud New York State sustenance farm brewer, Lenczuk’s spent grain goes to local farmers, eliminating organic waste.
Sitting alongside the vast countryside, Shrewd Fox resides at a red brick-fronted former post office with baby blue siding. Its agrarian exterior includes a makeshift barrel-staged metal-furnished side patio and grassy wooden-benched backyard space.
Inside, the cozy pub features a small stainless steel seven-barrel system (upped from its commencing one barrel setup) behind a two-stooled plywood-stained service station with ten intricately wood-carved draught handles.
My wife and I tried all seven in-house brews, April 2022. There were also two ciders available.
Dewy wheat-honeyed earthen truffle mossing, casual brown-sugared dried fruiting and teasing walnut breading gathered for Highland Lager, a waywardly skewed traditional German moderation.
Another dewy grained easygoer, Loch Ada Amber Ale, fortified its dry yuzu-limed green grape esters with barley-sugared Irish amber yeast.
Ukranian Zalatos Roussa hops redirected stylistically dryer Yulan Hefeweizen, leaving banana-clove expectancy in the dust for sour Orange Blossom-honeyed lemon oiling and distant plantain, pear and white grape illusions.
Not even experienced beer tasters could clearly define Kutya Buckwheat Farmhouse Ale, a buckwheat-honeyed saison yeast-based specialty grain beer with mild cocoa powdered date-fig rig, tart rhubarb shard and oily nuttiness.
Peat mossy 3 Dog IPA, recalled a dry English style IPA with its dank hop-grained soiling, musky dark floral herbage and mild orange oiling.
On the dark side, stylishly out of bounds Baba Yaga Brown Ale brought pumpkin pureed autumn spicing to mild molasses, chocolate, raisin and hazelnut riffs as well as pine nut, fern and bark nuances.
Coffee-burnt sour nuttiness consumed Kozak Porter, leaving green grape tannins in its wake.
LOG TAVERN BREWING COMPANY
MILFORD, PENNSYLVANIA
Alongside the Sawkill creek waterfall near the Delaware River in a gray aluminum-sided log cabin, LOG TAVERN BREWING COMPANY, began its journey on this Milford, Pennsylvania crossroad during 2018. Taking ‘pride’ crafting a diverse range of traditional styles, former home brewer, Ryan Scott, makes some of the area’s most enjoyable tonics.
Log Tavern’s charmingly rustic warmth and earthy downhome conviviality fits the outdoorsman atmosphere local natives and visiting ‘brewpies’ adore. A slate-top serving station with twelve draught lines (and two blackboard beer menus) sling suds for the Yeti-logoed pub. A floor-to-ceiling earth-stoned hearth, round bark-based wood tables and multiple framed pix fill out the cozy lodge-like interior.
A wood-benched side deck with small fire pit plus a separate covered side deck offer plenty of outside seating.
My wife and I share a personal pizza while downing all ten available brews this briskly cool April ’22 afternoon.
Dry aluminum-cleared light cream ale, Tavern’s Gold, maintained soft grassy-hopped lemon oiling for its corn-husked white bread bottom.
Mild helles lager, Helles Fire, retained a dainty herbal lemon spritz over wispy sourdough breading.
Spritzy lemony orange and tangerine zesting picked up grassy hop astringency for off-dry 570 Pale Ale, pacifying its baked French breading.
Lemony orange-dried herbage awakened Lit Wit, leaving soap-stoned chamomile, sage and ginger all over its perfumed cannabis resin.
Enchanting tropical fruited New England IPA, The Revival, dripped mild lactose upon lemony yellow grapefruit zesting and grassy piney hop bittering as limey guava, mango and melon subtleties enjoin peachy mandarin orange tanginess in the distance.
Another vibrant NEIPA, Milford Mosaic, allowed orange-peeled grapefruit tanginess and ancillary spicy mango-peach sweetness to absorb mild piney hop bittering.
Coniferous hazy IPA, Beyond The Pines, coalesced sunshiny yellow-orange fruiting with lacquered pine tones, sprucy juniper licks, herbal rosemary-thyme minting and floral-daubed cologne wafts.
‘Heavily dank-hopped’ Imperial IPA, Timber Beast, regaled floral-perfumed lemony orange-grapefruit zesting and musky juniper berry bittering for recessive peaty fungi mossing.
Cold-brewed coffee greeted semi-sweet dark chocolate for Pike County Breakfast Stout, leaving black-peppered Brazil nuttiness on its molasses oatmeal spine.
Creamily lactic sweet stout, Peanut Butter Sawkill, spread peanut butter across coffee-stained dark-roast hop bittering with fine results.
SLOOP BREWING COMPANY – THE FACTORY
EAST FISHKILL, NEW YORK
Founded in 2011 by local college pals, Adam Watson and Justin Taylor, SLOOP BREWING COMPANY soon became one of the fastest growing regional breweries, tendering a deal with New Hampshire-based Smuttynose in 2021 to expand distribution even further.
Operating out of a garage before moving to a hilly 19th Century Elizaville barnhouse, Sloop began occupying a 25,000 square foot Industrial warehouse at the cavernous East Fishkill IBM facility by 2018. Encompassing a tan-bricked modern Industrial manufacturing building bordering the mountainous Appalachian Trail, Sloop’s aquamarine sailing compass logo (with golden outlay) imbues the two grain silos welcoming beer hounds to its hallway-bound interior.
Known as “The Factory at Sloop,” this spacious, high-ceilinged, pipe-exposed, sportsbar-like pub features lacquered cement floors, sundry four-seat wood tables and a few community tables. Resembling an ice cream parlor, perhaps, a large marquee sign (with black lettering listing available proprietary beer and local wines) and overhead bulb lights shine brightly at the 10-seat bar.
The wood-lacquered bar top regales embossed circuit boards, microchips and other IBM ephemera in a corky display and strategically placed TV’s show sports while kids play arcade games.
I stopped in for a few pints on a breezy afternoon, March 2022.
Traditional gold cleared light body, Classic Pils, placed corn flaked cereal graining next to musky Noble-hopped herbage and sour yellow-orange fruit spicing.
Soft-toned hazy IPA, Grounded Roots, let subtle mandarin orange, yellow grapefruit and peach tanginess and distant passionfruit-gooseberry snips crawl above its mild grassy-hopped oated wheat base.
Tropical-fruited New England-styled IPA, Gentle Whispers, retained a fuzzy vanilla creamed head for the clean Cryo Citra-hopped orange pith, grapefruit, guava, passionfruit and papaya onrush picking up slight pine resin to its grassy hop stead.
Dry West Coast-styled IPA, Low Turbidity, saddled its orange-oiled lemon lollipop tartness and peachy plum whim with dewy clover-honeyed herbal fungi, resembling a muskier English IPA perhaps.