On tap at Growler & Gill, dry Saaz-hopped bark wood astringency and bruised lemon spritz offer tidily moderate bittering to rustic barley-corn base, recalling a mild citric-pined IPA in spots.
OMMEGANG IDYLL DAYS PILS
On tap at Growler & Gill, dry beige-yellowed Belgian-styled lager relegates cellar-aged floor-malted barley, corn-flaked cereal graining and dry hay leathering for bright floral-perfumed lemon zesting. Rustic Belgian lager yeast and herbal Saaz hops promote mild earthen backdrop of light-bodied pils.
SLOOP PILS
On tap at Growler & Gill, musky German-styled pilsner places mild citrus-rotted tartness across raw-honeyed grain malts and wavered vegetal snag. ‘Classic crisp pilsner’ reminiscent of better antediluvian American macrobrews.
ROUGH CUT BREWING COMPANY
KERHONKSON, NEW YORK
On a winding rural road in the hilly Catskills hamlet of Kerhonkson (ten miles west of New Paltz), ROUGH CUT BREWING COMPANY took over Oscar Restaurant and began brewing operations June 11, 2019. Inside a rustic weathered-shingled shack with stone hearth, antique furnishings, creaky wood floors, railroad-tied bar back and cupboard-bound brewtanks, this amiable roadside tavern also offers casual ‘comfort food.’
Co-founding brothers, Jesse and Bart Cummings, hired hop-head brewer, Kayne Konecny, to design a host of approachable IPA’s alongside a variant of rangy styles going from saison to ESB to oatmeal stout.
My wife and I congregate at a yellow picnic table on the left side grass patio for 90 minutes as I imbibe each tapped offering late afternoon, July ’20.
Raw-honeyed buckwheat and musky wet grains consume gently flowing pilsner, Station 33, leaving delicate floral sweetness upon polite lemony grapefruit-pitted bitterness.
Soft-toned rose petals bring floral subtlety to toasted amber grain sweetness, mild beet sugaring, teasing mandarin orange tanginess and wavered baked apple tartness for blanched light body, Roseability, a wispily arid Belgian pale ale.
Dark chocolate syruping draped cedar-smoked maple oats for sweet milk stout, Holstein, relegating its day-old coffee reminder.
The following beers were obtained in oil-canned 32-ounce crowlers for off-site consumption.
Smooth wheat ale, Sunny Day #3, utilized Barbe Rouge hops to nudge its lightly floral-spiced citric hop mosaic ahead of candied peach-pineapple-apricot-tangerine tartness – letting lemony grapefruit bittering gain mild wood tones to contrast sugary cereal malts.
Sessionable ‘summertime IPA,’ A Rough Summer, brought dry lemony orange perkiness to mild bark-dried astringency and rustic truffle earthiness atop brown-riced grain malting.
Limey guava souring imbibed Beach Weather #2 Pink Guava Saison, leaving floral-tinged barnyard leathering at the salty bottom.
Boldly fulsome IPA, Deserted Island, anchored its brisk citrus thrust with juniper-like hop bittering, musty earthen wood dankness and straw wheat acridity. Pushing forth a rangy flavor profile, perfumy orange-peeled grapefruit, peach and pineapple resilience gained pasty pale-malted mineral graining at the midst.
Zesty grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering regaled 44/55, a bustling Imperial IPA with rustic wet grain musk, bready pale malts and light herbal snips.
YARD OWL BREWERY
GARDINER, NEW YORK
A former bartending restauranter, James Walsh upgraded his brewing skills at UC-Davis and decided to craft Belgian-styled farmhouse ales exclusively when he opened YARD OWL BREWERY in 2015. A serious fan of Saison Dupont, Walsh’s roomy pub provides “small scale charm” with its varied saisons (some blended and barrel aged).
Located inside a tan aluminum cement-floored warehouse with high ceilings in the sleepy rural town of Gardiner, Yard Owl’s wide open expanse creates an unfinished feel furthered by the antique U-shaped wood bar and simple bench tables.
Front and rear overhead doors provide an open air atmosphere fully captured by the old backyard community tables scattered about the nearby field. Wall-mounted pendants, stringed lighting and Edison bulbs reinforce its casual elegance.
There were four fine farmhouse ales exploring varied flavors available on my late afternoon July ’20 trip.
Dry golden-cleared Old World blonde ale, Grisette, brought tartly salt-watered yellow fruiting to the fore, securing its zesty lemon misting with limey white-wined grape esters, delicate banana snips, wispy white peach hints and mild herbal spicing above straw-dried mineral graining.
Aged nine months in rosé barrels then blended with a Cabernet and sessionable saison, winey Belgian Blonde, Cuvee, maintained a salty lemon-pitted bittering for tannic white grape esters and bubbly champagne effervescence atop oats-dried pilsner malting.
Soft-toned Cabernet-aged saison, Tourbillion, merged lemon meringue tartness, yellow grapefruit bittering and distant plantain dryness with delicate floral-spiced citrus zest, gaining oaken vanilla residue.
Bold amber-bronzed 540 Hoppy Saison sunk sharp IPA-like citrus fruiting into earthen wood tones, floral herbage and pinot grigio acidity, promoting mandarin orange, tangerine and blood orange illusions.
GARDINER BREWING COMPANY
GARDINER, NEW YORK
Inside a rustic maroon former dairy barn at Wrights Farmers Market in the hilly Catskill range of Gardiner, family-owned and operated GARDINER BREWING COMPANY came to fruition in 2018. Agrarian sibling owners Mackenzie Dietz, her sister, Samantha Bradshaw, and brewing brother, Colin Boylan, run this multi-acre fifth generation farmstead.
A cement patio with black metal furnishings and a separate wood deck surround the farmhouse pub and a rickety old shed offers live music. Providing a cool retreat in the outlying New Paltz area, Gardiner Brewing serves its local rural denizens and traveling brewhounds well.
Stepping up to the 12-seat lacquered wood bar, I grab all four midrange home brews on my steamy July ’20 stopover.
Besides serving its own rustic homebrews, the dozen taps also feature eight local beers-ciders.
Unrefined clear-yellowed farmhouse-styled pale ale Gartucky Light yielded acrid straw-dried rusticity for mild green tea-leafed orange pith bittering and loud basil-sage-rosemary herbage.
Sour lemon-juiced wild sumac grazed grain-husked barnyard acridity for Summer Sumac Farmhouse Ale, a dry saison with tart rhubarb-sniped mandarin orange and white peach illusions as well as light white grape esters.
Off-dry light-bodied pale ale, Vienna Smash, plied sweet Vienna-malted kilned barley to woody Chinook Hops, letting its spiced orange spritz crackle at the surface.
Dewy Irish-styled red ale, Ireland Corners, brought soily peat moss to rye-like amber graining, leafy hop astringency, nut-charred burnt toasting and raw tobacco nuances for a stylishly rich medium body.
NEW REALM BREWING COMPANY
VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA
Awesome large-scaled production facility with kingly metal-gated entrance leading to beautiful fire-pitted bocci ball lawn and expansive multi-bar interior with gigantic brew tanks, Virginia Beach’s prominent NEW REALM BREWING COMPANY lies a few miles Southwest of the Atlantic Ocean on the outskirts of town.
Doing yeoman’s work maintaining the candid slogan ‘rethink tradition, bend the rules and reconfigure boundaries,’ New Realm’s first brewery (20,000 square feet) opened in Atlanta, December 2017. This second location, with its spectacular indoor-outdoor setup, began operations in 2018 as a restaurant/ beer garden.
A red-bricked, black slate-topped open air bar awaits those preferring outdoor dining. Inside, the cement-floored, gray-walled main pub features community tables and seats plus two TV’s sidling the 20-plus central taps. Three glass-windowed garage doors lead to the capacious back-spaced, silver-tanked brew room.
During my sunshiny July ’20 noontime visit with wife, daughter and dog, Roscoe, grabbed a few seats at the far right lawn under a few trees to try three supreme ‘big’ beers, a fruitful wit, an Imperial IPA and two stellar stouts.
Juicy tangerine tanginess gained lemon-soured pineapple, passionfruit and peach zest for stylishly ambitious Sunset Passion Wit, leaving floral-spiced herbage upon the gin-nipped tropical fruited finish.
Juniper-nipped citrus zest splashed Mas Mucho Double India Pale Ale, bringing orange-peeled sweetness to lingered lemon-soured grapefruit bittering and tertiary pineapple-peach tang alongside dank pine tones.
Exquisite Rum Barrel Aged Quad (Wooded Reserve) brought caramelized Barbados rum sugaring to embracing vanilla-creamed chocolate sweetness and pureed raisin-prune-date dried fruiting plus toffee-spiced creme brulee alacrity.
Sweet cherry-flambeed bourbon warmth luxuriated Bourbon Barrel Aged Quad (Wooded Reserve), a lusciously complex full body with vanilla-sugared brown chocolate sweetness coating glaze-spiced raisin, plum and prune illusions in a dewy earthen setting.
Caramel-burnt sea salting welcomed charmingly fudged confectionery Chocolate Sea Salt Imperial Ale, anchored by toffee-sugared maple oats.
Piquantly candi-sugared brown chocolate sweetness guided Spiced Stout, a distinct dessert beer with ginger-snapped cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cumin and anise seasoning.
Bourbon vanilla spicing topped Doomsday Hound Imperial Stout – Bourbon Barrel, a rich chocolate-sweet nightcap with ancillary dark-roast coffee, toasted coconut and marshmallow illusions receiving a mild oak-charred bittering.
YOUNG VETERANS BREWING COMPANY
VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA
Just a block away from the oceanfront, ambitious Virginia Beach haven, Bunker Brewpub & Cadence Hall stationed YOUNG VETERANS BREWING COMPANY, whose rangy brew fare gets served in a seafood-friendly concert venue.
A cozy fenced-in porch leads to the front door of this red brick pub. Opposing the curved right side gray marble-topped bar (with four separate tap stations and electronic beer list) are several metal-wood tables and decorative wood barrels.
In the rear, Cadence Hall offers a secondary twelve-tap bar, rear band stage, comfy couch section and black art deco ambiance.
General Manager Chris Holyfield was friendly enough to be my guide this steamy Friday afternoon, July ’20.
The lightest offering, Life Finds A Way Helles Lager, combined raw-honeyed sourdough wheat breading with mildly herbal-vegetal Saaz hops in traditionalist manner.
Flagship staple, Commander In Peach Hazy IPA, allowed pureed peach tartness to penetrate sharp orange-peeled grapefruit, pineapple and tangerine tanginess as well as yogurt-milked lactose souring and resinous pine tones.
Tart juice bomb, Bottom Rock Raspberry IPA, blasted piquant raspberry luster past mild citrus bittering and sour cranberry-crabapple tingle.
Clear golden wheat ale, Pineapple Grenade, let its tangy pineapple spritz stay subtle over wheat-cracked pale malts.
Bitterly brisk and refreshingly zestful NEIPA, Hazies In A Half Shell, furnished juniper-hopped grapefruit and orange rind bittering with tart gooseberry-blackberry-blueberry notions.
Blue raspberry Gummy Bear knockoff, Gummy Neutron, a sour IPA, brought raspy blueberry tartness to lemon-candied piquancy over honeyed wheat sugaring.
Bringing subtle pomegranate souring to the fore, The Revolting Blob Hazy IPA gained tart green grape, gooseberry and guava notions above grassy-hopped barnyard leathering.
Updated Citra-hopped IPA staple, Jet Noise, regaled orange-peeled grapefruit bittering with spicy peach-mango sweetness and mild guava souring in a crystalline vodka-like 9% ABV fuselage.
VIBRANT SHORE BREWING COMPANY
VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA
Just a few blocks off the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia Beach’s cultural arts enclave – known as the ‘Vibe Creative District’ to locals – VIBRANT SHORE BREWING COMPANY opened its doors November ’19. The passionate full-time hobby of ex-homebrewer Rhett Rebold (a former CIA agent), this beachy Industrial-styled bohemian pub specializes in well-balanced Euro-styled brews to go alongside fine Americanized fare.
Featuring a sidelong bright blue Neptune mural, reclaimed wood interior with granite top bar and rooftop beergarden (with 6-seat serving station, four umbrella-covered tables and strung Edison lights), Vibrant Shore offers 16 draught handles. Left side tables fill out the bar area and an overhead garage door connects the pub to the front patio while brew tanks take up the back space. Vivid painted panels cover the walls of the cement-floored pub area and a partial mezzanine area provides more seating.
Dewy earthen fungi skewered raw-honeyed dried fig for Better Than The Devil Vienna Lager, letting casual caramelized malts cushion moist tobacco, cola nut and date palm nuances.
Briskly clean Artistic Austerity Kolsch combined dry Noble-hopped grassing, celery-watered herbage and delicate mineral graining for its sedate orange-candied lemon rind souring.
Candied raspberry tartness swept over oceanic lemon salting for kettle-soured Jack the Dripper Gose, a summery libation with a cushy pilsner-malted white wheat bottom.
Smooth English pale ale, The Royal Fuggler, accessed British Goldings-Fuggle-hopped herbage to relegate its sour lemondrop respite, dry barnyard leathering and -floral cologned whim.
Floral-perfumed hop fruiting doused The Future Juicy IPA, a refreshing pilsner-malted moderation leaving gin-soaked citrus tanginess and mild gooseberry-guava tartness upon its soft wood base.
Dark chocolate fudging and muddy coffee licks received lactic milk souring to intensify Special Signature Milk Stout, a dry mocha sendoff this sweltering early evening, July ’20.
RAR BREWING
CAMBRIDGE, MARYLAND
Just a few blocks from Cambridge Creek in Chesepeake Bay’s quaint Eastern Shore barrier, RAR BREWING (a.k.a. Reale Ale Revival) began its journey as a ‘big time small town’ pub in summer 2013. Alongside several local independent downtown shops, RAR’s casual sportsbar atmosphere, light pub fare and well-balanced brews will please mainstream commoners and advanced thirsts.
Dual black RAR awnings greet customers to this former Cambridge pool hall. A convenient overhead-doored serving station benefits outdoor summertime seating. The left side bar features 12 taps of continuously rotating original fare as well as a TV, blackboard beer menu and beer infuser (for mixed one-off concoctions). Inits first seven years, RAR has crafted nearly 100 different beers.
The separate right side dining area provides varnished red oak tables and booths, white and black tiled floor plus cool mod pop artwork.
My wife and I got seats in the makeshift roadside patio (due to Wuhan Virus) on one-hour stopover, July ’20.
Revealing evenly flavored tropical fruiting, Citra-hopped West Coast IPA, Nanticoke Nectar, retained an engagingly juicy grapefruit-orange bittering and sweet mango-nectarine tang above mild pine resin. Meanwhile, similarly styled Grapefruit Nectar brought mildly embittered yellow grapefruit splendor to tangerine-spiced tanginess over dry pale malts.
Lemondrop-candied banana and clove tartness surfaced for Groove City Hefe, exposing light floral-nipped herbal snips at the understated yellow-fruited finish.
Tropical Sabro hops allow easygoing grapefruit, orange, tangerine, mango, pineapple and coconut enticement to spread across floral-spiced cedar planking for Amatuer Sketch, a Double IPA.
Coffee-dried nuttiness and bittersweet dark chocolate consumed dark ale flagship, Bucktown Brown, gaining brown-sugared glazed walnut illusions at the caramelized mocha finish.
During awesome two-hour splurge on Friday afternoon, January ’24, sat at one of the wood-tabled metal seats near the front overhead door to down eight more sundry suds.
Though tepid pilsner-malted Lite stayed phenolic as musky grained hop astringency and dried maize husk merged, it’ll suit simpler blue collar thirsts.
Way more reliable was spritzy lemon-fizzed Country Ride Pale Ale, a lighter IPA-like moderation with light herbal musk and mild pine resin seeping into laidback grapefruit-orange misting.
Dry bronze-cleared Citra/Cascade-hopped Imperial Nectar IPA, an unconventional West Coast-inspired medium body (boasting bold 9% ABV), punctuated its expectant grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering with divergent green peppered herbage, muskily perfumed spicing and raw-honeyed pale malting.
At a heightened 10.3% ABV, off-dry Pumped Up Kicks Triple IPA coalesced Mosaic, Vic Secret and Ekuanot hops for lemony grapefruit bittering and desiccated orange musk seeping resinous pine above light oated wheat creaming.
Another boozy IPA (New England-styled at 10.6 ABV), Uni Blu stayed smooth as lemony grapefruit and orange tanginess surfaced above sugary pale malts, picking up icy vodka nip.
Smooth beige-hazed IPA variant, Smooth Peaches let its candied yellow peach adjunct receive lemony grapefruit bittering as well as tertiary red apple, pear and apricot illusions.
Aged in Bulleit bourbon barrels with vanilla cream, Old Decoy slung sweet bourbon warmth at caramel whiskey, dry burgundy, black cherry and dark cocoa.
Decadent lactose pastry stout, 10 Layers With Coconut, regaled toasted coconut sweetness for its macadamia-nutted dark chocolate caking and vanilla coffee respite.
CLOWN SHOES THE BALLAD OF MINNIE QUAY OLD ALE AGED IN PORT AND WHISKEY
Adventurous brandy-port aged ‘old ale’ reverberates convincingly with lavish liquor luster. Lovely cherry-bruised cognac warmth guides rum-buttered whiskey nip and orange-candied Grand Marnier snip in creamily caramelized vanilla setting. It spiced brandy flourish lightens the acrid fusel esters consuming the port-wined bourbon finish.
TOPPLING GOLIATH MORNIN’ LATTE IMPERIAL STOUT
On tap at Ambulance, lactic milk chocolate-y cocoa nibs and whipped creamed espresso undertones emulate an iced mocha latte, gaining mild candy-caned cumin, cinnamon and anise spicing and laidback mocha whiskey creaming for added splendor.