Off-center, non-traditional, Cascade-hopped cider lets pressed apple souring embellish vinous white wine esters, fizzy lemon-limed strawberry tartness, glittery champagne sparkle and pickled watermelon rind earthiness. Leaders of a dry-hopped cider craze?
On tap at Draught Industries, lactose-aided wild ale promotes tart passionfruit-guava adjuncts and mild vanilla bean creaming for veritable “dessert sour.” Limey guava-passionfruit souring gains ancillary coconut-milked grapefruit, orange and mango tang to jazz up snazzy tropical fruiting.
Delicately vinous grape-skinned rosé resolve sways stainless-aged mixed culture farmhouse ale as ancillary pinot noir grape mustiness and pickled lime salting settle above musky compost soiling. At the puckered finish, green grape esters allow hard-candied cherry, strawberry and raspberry sourness as well as a wispy floral aspect to burgeon.
Abundant lactobacillus bacteria deepens sour edge of amber-bronzed bourbon-aged farmhouse ale. Subtle dry bourbon influence seeps into vinous white wine tannins, musty oaken cherry leathering and bitter lemon peel zesting, picking up salted lime licks and tart strawberry-kiwi snips at the finish. As it warms, slight berry-peach sweetness sneaks by.
On tap at Draught Industries, Flemish red ale (a style originating in Flanders, Belgium) aged in oak wine foeders leaves vinous green grape tannins, puckered green apple bittering and oaken cherry tartness upon raspy lactobacillus acidity above musty barnyard leathering. A bustling wild ale for heady sour heads.
Eccentric green glob-hazed sour ale lets salty lactobaccilus acidity infiltrate puckered blue raspberry rasp and tangy orange-tangerine juicing. Limey sorbet tartness seeps into Sweet-Tart candied berry compote finish. Uniquely designed lactose-driven gooey green gunk.
Blueberry Smoothie knockoff works milk-sugared vanilla extract and salty lemon-limed bitterness into tart blueberry pucker for creamily salted yogurt-like setting. Soda-like blueberry sweetness contrasts highly acidic nature as sour navel orange juicing and wispy cranberry snips ripen ‘berry’ goodness.
Tangerine Smoothie knockoff becomes increasingly tart as high lactose milk acidity and salted lemon pucker gain grapefruit-embittered frozen concentrated orange juicing. Sweet ‘n sour ambrosial tangerine continuance gains slight vanilla-creamed sweetness at the citric-steadied finish.
KENILWORTH, NEW JERSEY
Occupying an unfinished white brick-walled warehouse in the Central Jersey Borough of Kenilworth, TWO TON BREWING originally came aboard as gypsy brewers in 2014 (utilizing Climax and High Point), opening its current taproom facility during 2018.
Two Ton’s raw one-room space features a 12-plus draught board at the bark-sided mahogany serving station, a few wood tables, several silver brew tanks, an overhead back door (leading to the makeshift beer garden) and exposed ceiling ducts.
Owned and operated by brothers Matt and Jim and their Cubs-rooting father, Mario “Doc” Barbiere, Two Ton’s family trio crafts enjoyable one-offs and some recurring brews, leaning heavily on crisply clean IPA’s.
At the patio-furnished beer garden, I quaffed all available tapped fare, picking up a bottle of the fabulous lactic-aided Field Artillery Russian Imperial Stout (reviewed separately in the Beer Index) during Sunday afternoon pre-Halloween ’20.
Nifty autumnal seasonals included dewy cereal grain-spiced Octbroberfest, a sedately appealing marzen with maple oats sweetness contrasting its leafy hop herbage. Also, dry Booing Pumpkin gathered gourdy ginger-spiced pleasantries, meshing mild brown-sugared nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice seasoning with sweet potato, acorn squash and buttercup pumpkin illusions.
Elegantly smooth Wrought Gold Blond utilized fruity English ale yeast to secure its polite lemony blood orange tartness and dry hop spicing above sweet doughy pilsner malts.
Liberated Lispering Gardens Saison spread floral cologne-perfumed bruised lemon tartness across pine-lacquered lavender oiling atop earthen barnyard leathering.
Soft-tongued Citra/Loral-hopped Robot Insurance New England IPA retained a juicily dry tropical fruiting above delicate crystal malts, mildly astringent grassy hop herbage, mikld pine tones and wafting floral nuances, bursting forth with tangy lemon-peeled grapefruit, navel orange, pineapple, mango, honeydew, peach and tangerine regalia.
Zestfully sharp Diamond Star Halo NEIPA let lemony grapefruit and orange rind bittering deepen its dry frontage, picking up peachy tangerine illusions above its pale malt spicing.
Another New England-styled IPA, The Fiffer, allowed limey coconut-milked grapefruit and orange rind bittering to accrue pine lacquered juniper musk.
Rummy coconut toasting sweetened confectionary nitro smoothie, Identity Crisis Coconut Brown Ale, a delicious dessert treat.
Creamily rich Extra Special Chocolate Vanilla Stout crammed Madagascar vanilla bean sugaring into Dutch cocoa splendor, bulking up its dry dark chocolate rummage with cedar-burnt cumin spicing and cayenne peppered coconut snips in fine dessert fashion.
Ancient Blues music was playing on the loud speakers when my wife and I revisited Two Ton, February ’21 to try a few more worthy suds.
Maize-dried herbal perfumed hops and mild lemon spicing dotted mild grain-husked muskiness for Crispy Boi, a moderate German-styled pale lager.
Salty dog knockoff, Cap’n Vic’s Salty Dog Gose, possessed crisply clean limey sea salting and lemon-twisted vodka briskness.
Buttery jasmine rice adjunct and tamped down hop restraint mellowed out juicy-fruited Super Saiyan Wild Rice IPA, as grapefruit-peeled mandarin orange and tangerine zesting enjoined candied pineapple tartness.
Lupulin-powdered herbal citrus zesting fronted NEIPA, Brothers From Another Mother, bringing bright grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering to grassy hop astringency.
Rounded amber-cleared Imperial IPA, Hammer & Ale, combined orange vodka punch with candied Gummy Bear tartness and rummy molasses sweetness above pastry-like malt sugaring.
Creamy caramelized wheat malting fortified Laird’s Wee Heavy, a heavenly Scottish ale with spiced toffee, roasted tobacco, dewy peat moss and almondine wine serenity.
Luxuriously rich stout exudes creamy dark chocolate richness and dried cocoa sustenance above maple-sapped oats. Black coffee, vanilla and anise illusions touch down alongside bruised black cherry tartness and prune-stewed fig stead, deepening its bittersweet mocha foundation.
Tangy, tart and spicy blood orange adjunct goes all the way for resilient hazy amber blond ale. Prominent blood orange blast receives lusty tangerine juicing, citron-perfumed English ale yeast misting, candied baby aspirin tartness and floral orange blossom wisps over delicate French-breaded crystal malting. Spritzy summertime fun.
MANCHESTER, CONNECTICUT
“Restaurateurs at heart and beer drinkers by liver,” ELICIT BREWING COMPANY began proving that motto November 2019. Inside a spacious red brick warehouse right along the Adams Mill Trail in Manchester, Connecticut’s rural wooded area just outside its small urban center, Elicit pairs brewer Brian Ayers’ wonderful rotating liquid fare and fab one-off concoctions with respectable pub food.
A large front deck and even roomier rear Beergarden (with spiffy Marilyn Monore wall painting, two firepits, patio furnishings and stringed Edison lights) surround the epoxy-floored, high ceilinged millhouse. Combining a beer hall, cocktail bar, lounge and arcade, Elicit offers fifty draught lines (with a bakers dozen home brews plus several local elixirs) at its white marble-topped bar.
A comfy foyer welcomes patrons to the sportsbar-like brew house. Right side community tables and high-back seating are available and to the left are windowed brew tanks and a separate kitchen. The brick walls are decorated by dramatic curved PVC beams. Several games sidle the main space.
My wife and I grab pizza and tacos for dinner while consuming thirteen rangy suds at the Beergarden September ’20. The following day, we took the dog for a walk along the river-bound Adams Mill Trail.
A second Elicit Brewing opened in nearby Fairfield during 2024.
Corn-sugared lemon snips and floral perfumed spicing seeped into musky wet grains and herbal Tettnanger hops for German-styled Das Crisp Boi, a fine pilsner-Vienna malted pale lager.
Lemon-spiced crystal malt sweetness and grassy hop astringency plied Resilience Pale Ale, leaving a trail of guava, gooseberry and green grape tartness.
Spiced red-orange fruiting gained toasted caramel sweetness and a nutty remnant for Speling Bee Champion, a durable misspelled red ale with pithy lemon and tangerine peel illusions.
Stylishly dryer due to Hallertau Blanc-hopped green grape esters, Hefe Lifting brought mild white-peppered herbage to standard hefeweizen banana-clove spicing.
Juicy pineapple puree tartness embittered the lemony banana-clove expectancy of Yodeling Cherubs Pineapple Hefeweizen, a sharply tropical fruited offshoot of Hefe Lifting.
Lemony grapefruit zest brightened its bittersweet peach adjunct for crisply clean Doin’ Just Peachy, a spritzy fruited wheat ale with mild wood lacquering seeping into the honeyed wheat spine.
Lemon-soured green grape esters fronted Little Bo Blanc, an herbal Hallertau Blanc-hopped saison with leathery barnyard acridity countering the sweet wheat base.
Pink Himalayan sea-salted gose, Dueling Libations Margarita, sprayed freshly-squeezed blood orange-pureed key lime tartness atop Tequila-twisted agave for a perfect cocktail re-creation.
Lactic Dueling Libations Pina Colada unleashed creamy vanilla sweetness upon lemony orange zest, pineapple puree and coconut rum nearly as convincingly as its Margarita competition.
Sunny tropical fruiting gained honey-spiced pale malting for Drink This Outdoors, a sessionable IPA with yellow grapefruit, orange, pineapple and peach luster.
Extraordinary Marriage Counseling Double IPA stayed briskly clean as rummy pineapple-coconut tropicalia sweetened its lemony orange zesting and tangy peach reminder above sugary pale malts.
Black-malted dark chocolate dryness embellished Eligible Bachelor, a mildly nutty brown ale with light coffee roast.
Freeze-dried coffee tones led Nostrovia!, a slightly bitterer Imperial Stout with ashen walnut contrasting glazed hazelnut sugaring beneath the java surface.