Unique soft-toned blonde ale (with spicy herbal Belgian styled yeast aspirations) leaves lemony perfuming upon palm-oiled mandarin orange and yellow grapefruit spritz, dry pinot grigios esters, buttery Chardonnay wisps, bubbly champagne fizz and white-peppered clove snips. Offbeat Italian ale recalls dry farmhouse saison more than sweet Belgian blonde.
Dewy peat moss seeps thru floury pepper breading, charcoaled Scotch licks, caramelized whiskey whims and dry rye snips as slightest navel orange spritz teases dirtily musty earthen finish. Concise English-styled Extra Special Bitter.
Crisp Ukrainian pale lager tosses sourdough yeast into papery pale malt pasting. Spry lemon spritz provides fizzy tingle.
Dry floor-malted grain musk receives phenol hop astringency disrupting black honeyed buckwheat treacle, burnt coffee murk and pine nutty cola dirge.
Brusquely musky German-styled pils with soft Scotch-licked barley roast, musty floral hop herbage and groaty oats graining picks up spritzy lemon rind bittering at mineralized cereal finish.
Dry pilsner malted Oktoberfest lets dirty earthen graining, orange oil musk and slight champagned cologne sparkle supersede sweet Vienna malt breading.
Pleasant “off-center” Italian-styled pils continually hopped like 60 Minute IPA wedges sharp floral-daubed lemon zest into dry grassy-hopped herbage. Biscuity bread-crusted flint corn polenta adjunct sops up mild rice-wined pinot grigio snip.
Honeysuckle blossomed wildflower honey seeps thru floral orange spicing and white grape must reaching wheat-chaffed bottom hiding honeyed biscuit sweetness.
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, dry sea-salted lime curd and dill-pickled bining seep into sweet pilsner-malted rice base of crisp Jap-styled lager with finishing lemony Sorachi Ace hop herbage.
Dry herbal Hallertau hop grassiness and lemony floral-spiced guava tartness bring slightly obtuse dalliance to crisp Italian-styled pils.
CROYDON, PENNSYLVANIA
Anchoring an overhead-doored red warehouse with large grain silos at New Hope Ferry Market, NESHAMINY CREEK BREWING COMPANY is stationed north of Philly in the town of Croydon (with a second satellite taproom in nearby Dublin opened October ’21). Founded in 2010, this well-established microbrewery has received massive distribution throughout New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland since 2016.
At the New Hope Ferry Market, Neshaminy Creek’s main pub features a wood-seated pine top bar with stainless steel draught handles serving several community tables spread between the snazzy post-modernist wall design. A small right side lounge area and a billiard table fill out the room and celebratory beer-related murals don the white sidewalls. The aluminum ceiling contains exposed pipes and hanging Edison lights. Near the back room brew tanks is a nifty party center.
My wife and I visited early February ’25 mid-afternoon, downing the four tapped beers I never had on tap or at home.
Mocha-dried toffee spicing permeated German-styled Bock Buster, a Noble-hopped moderation with slightest ashen walnut skin.
Zesty lemony grapefruit bittering stayed subtle soaking up cologne-perfumed dry spicing and resinous pining of Imperial IPA, Date Jeans, picking up strawberry, banana, white grape and tangelo snips.
Dry red rye IPA, JAWN of the Dead, placated its grapefruit-seeded orange rind bittering with black grape and dried plum tartness as compost earthiness and resinous pine reached the burnt toast base.
Bitterly black-malted dark chocolate and powdered cocoa spread wide for dark roast hop-charred Baltic Porter, Eye On The Tide, a ‘raucous’ mocha full body with peated Irish coffee remnant.
EASTON, PENNSYLVANIA
Inside a former bank, VAULT BREWING COMPANY’S second location at downtown Easton opened its doors December ’24 (twelve years after their Yardley flagship brewery started). The spare white-stoned pubs’ chalky cement walls, cement floors, olden archways and dark glass frontage give Vault a provincial speakeasy feel.
A ten-seat, aluminum-topped bar served a rounded selection of head brewer Chris Sayko’s proprietary beers alongside upscale snacks, sandwiches, cocktails and wine. There are cozy wood tables in the barroom and private backspace dining.
My wife and I perused the Vault on a cold Sunday at noon, early February ’25. I’d already quaffed a few Vault brews at Yardley and at home and now bought Munich-style Dunkel Lager, All Boots Rise Double IPA and Bank Holiday Christmas Stout (all reviewed in Beer Index).
Dry Lithuanian farmhouse ale, Liquid Asset V2, let creamy banana esters enter the fray as honey-spiced dried apricot, lemon meringue and pear niceties picked up floral perfuming and herbal nuances atop delicate pilsner malts.
Piney grapefruit, lemon rind and orange pith bittering brightened Mosaic-Strata-hopped, Public Offering, a dry medium-bodied hazy IPA with Sultana-hopped guava, green grape and gooseberry tartness above lightly creamed oated pale malts.
Semi-sweet oatmeal stout, Bear Hug, gained milk-sugared coffee tones, maple oats sweetness and toasted nuttiness contrasting dry-roast hop char.
Rich Imperial Pastry Stout, Bird In Hand, ‘perfect with vanilla-glazed chocolate donut,’ combined Madagascar vanilla, cassia cinnamon, cocoa nibs and cafe latte adjuncts with fudgy bourbon chocolate given slight campfire-smoked ancho chili peppering to contrast dried cherry, plum and prune snips.