On tap at The Spot Pizza Grill, well-balanced oak-toasted blonde ale lets brisk clean-watered minerality soak into zesty lemon-orange tang, mild peach tartness and pastry-like pale malts.
(UNIBROUE) EPHEMERE ALES – BLEUET
On tap at Taphouse 15, soft-toned blueberry jam tartness receives lemon-soured curacao orange tang above light white wheat base for slightly deficient amber-pinked moderation. Mild woodruff syruping seems to sweeten blueberry cereal aspect, contrasting its wispy citric-licked pink peppercorn reminder.
UPLAND CHERRY LAMBIC AGED IN OAK BARRELS
On tap at Taphouse 15, salt-licked sour lambic with eye-grabbing pinkish rose hue brings lemon-limed acidity and oaken vanilla tannins to tart Montmorency cherry resolve. Aggressive Belgian kriek!
CAMBRIDGE HENDRIX SOUR ALE AGED IN GIN BARRELS
On tap at Ambulance, mild gin influence barely registers alongside crispy cucumber watering and salty lemon-limed Berliner Weiss respite. Musky botanical snips increase gin-soaked peppercorn herbage, but tepid pale malt spine falters. A true acquired taste that’s wholly original despite limited appeal.
FAIR STATE HEFEWEIZEN
On tap at Ambulance, perfectly stylized banana-clove-bubblegum sweetness gains unexpectedly sharp lemony orange peel zesting as well as easygoing spice-caked vanilla creaming above sugared dough base.
21ST AMENDMENT EL SULLY
Crisply clean pilsner-malted Mexican lager betters most in its light-bodied class. Zesty lemon-spiced hop spritz provides initial pep as raw-honeyed maize dryness comes aboard. Dry straw and wet grass welcome compost-wafted black pepper herbage below the surface. Sunny citric-splashed cracked corn finish never loses resilience.
RIGHT PROPER BEING THERE KELLERBIER
On tap at Ambulance, lightly lactic kellerbier (a.k.a. German zwickel) lets celery-watered lemon zest soak light white-peppered heat and grassy earthiness. Wispy lemongrass-hibiscus snips sneak in.
LAST WAVE BREWING COMPANY
POINT PLEASANT, NEW JERSEY
The first brewpub in Point Pleasant, LAST WAVE BREWING COMPANY, opened for business Memorial Day weekend 2017. Specializing in nicely tweaked New England-styled IPA’s, but also well-versed in standard American fare (light and dark ales), Last Wave’s sunset logo welcomes patrons to this nearly intimate glass-windowed and sage green shingled Bay Avenue one-room venue.
Families gather with avid brewheads at sunset on a muggy Friday evening in August ’18 while my wife and I survey the homemade suds. Colorful surfboards, paper lanterns, squiggly acoustic wave designs and Edison lights provide a kitschy beach setting and the ocean blue left wall features a nighttime surfer mural. Community tables and four-stool tables spew across the epoxy-floored pub while the mosaic-wooded rear wall draught handles dispense liquid goodies from the big silver brewtanks located in a separate backroom.
On tap this weekend were a dozen hand crafted brews. I missed out on Dawn Patrol Guava Gose and A Frame Wheat IPA, but the other ten were top-notch interpretations of standard stylings.
First off, summery light body, Spot Check Golden Ale, let its subtle lemon licks receive grassy hop astringency over doughy pilsner malting.
Nearly as light-bodied, Flatspell Belgian Wit spreads delicate orange-peeled grains of paradise across wispy coriander-spiced lemondrop tartness and mild grassy hop astringency.
Sharp IPA-like fruiting and woody hop embitterment heighten ‘classic’ copper golden medium body, Layback Pale Ale, an aggressive busker plying seltzer-like lemon spritz to tangy citrus tones, serene caramel malts and distant tea leaf notions.
As for the three rangy India Pale Ales, sunny yellow-hazed medium body, Quiver Hazy IPA, brought pine-lacquered orange rind bittering to the fore as tangy grapefruit, pineapple and mango undertones wavered.
Briskly perfume-musked Green Room Imperial IPA let its lemony yellow grapefruit bitterness and pine-sapped juniper bite overwhelm biscuity Vienna malts.
Eccentric champagne yeast-derived hybrid, Toast To The Coast Brut IPA (a collab with nearby Asbury Park’s Dark City) allowed subtle orange rind, grapefruit pith and pineapple bittering to anchor its dry brut champagne adjunct, gaining weedy hop astringency over doughy pale malts.
Tea-like Red Sky Red Ale rendered brown apple and pear fruiting for mild caramel-chocolate malts and calm citric-pined Cascade hops.
Brusque alcohol-whirred medium-full body, Bay To Bridge Imperial Red Ale, gathered a floral-spiced bouquet to enhance tangy apple, apricot, peach, pear and tangerine illusions above leafy hop oiling.
Toasted coconut chip sweetness endeared Right Coast Coconut Porter, a robust dark ale with dark chocolate-toffee sugaring that’s perfect for dessert.
And there was no denying 5/4 Chocolate Coffee Stout, a full-bodied nightcap reigning in dark-roast coffee bitterness for espresso-milked dark chocolate malts.
Revisiting April ’24 on a sunny Saturday, Last Wave delivered a solid lager, topnotch Scotch ale and two sterling stouts.
Firstly, crisp premium lager, Point Beach, let spritzy lemon salting graze grassy hop astringency above dry pale-malted breading.
Next, dewy peated Scotch whiskey nipped traditional Scotch ale, Cracked Rail, leaving misty orange-tangerine spicing and red apple reluctance atop pale chocolate malting.
Confectionery Over The Bridge (Peanut Butter Cup) contrasted chocolatey peanut buttering and slightly sweet vanilla creaming against searing dark-roast hop bittering.
Prominent dark-roast coffee persistence and bittersweet cacao nibs regaled sumptuous 5/4 Chocolate Coffee Stout, picking up hop-charred nuttiness.
www.lastwavebrewing.com
SCREAMIN’ HILL BREWERY
CREAM RIDGE, NEW JERSEY
20 miles west of the northerly Jersey shoreline, SCREAMIN’ HILL BREWERY is nestled inside a large plantation farmhouse way out in the sticks. Entrepreneurial farm brewer, Brett Bullock, opened this rustic aluminum-topped barnyard red brewpub during 2015.
Spread out to include a large outdoor section with benches and barrel seating plus a covered front and side deck, Screamin’ Hill utilizes homegrown barley, wheat, rye and fruits for its rangy beers.
Backroom silver-barreled brew tanks hold the suds served at the American-flagged lacquer wood serving station near the back of the plank-walled interior. A few community tables and a refrigerator with growlers, cans and bottles complete the one-room pub.
On my initial August ’18 sojourn, my wife and I quaff nine homemade offerings and buy a bottle of Screamin’ Hill The Barnyard Project Batch 2 Oatmeal Stout aged in Rye Whiskey (reviewed in Beer Index).
Dewy peat mossing and honeyed tea illusions draped easygoing opener, ESB, a dainty Brit-styled sendup.
Nearly as soft-toned, Golden Gregg & The Ram Chargers, a clear-yellowed golden ale with grassy-hopped lemon rot and herbal remnants contrasting sugar-spiced pale malts.
Nifty American Amber/Irish Red Ale hybrid, Rusty Farmer, let leafy tobacco roast crisping lull into caramel-spiced apple and pear fruiting, picking up mild tea sugaring.
Subtle habanero peppering countered spritzy Calypso-hopped citrus zest for Thrill Hill Blonde Ale, leaving only mild heat on the tongue.
Rosy amber-hued softie, Black Raz Wheat, ransacked its initial candied black raspberry tartness and pallid wheat spine with zestful lemon spritz, debunking its descending berry scheme.
Lemony grapefruit paced Idaho 7-hopped Crop Rotation Single Hop Pale Ale, contrasting its heightened astringency with creamy vanilla malt sweetness.
Murkily golden amber medium body, Desperado IPA, soaked its orange rind bitterness, grapefruit tang and pineapple juicing in honeyed crystal malt sweetness.
Pine-needled yellow grapefruit and orange rind bittering frontloaded bold East Coast-styled Screamin’ Magnolia IPA, allowing zesty Cascade, Citra and Chinook hops to dominate its mild barley-roasted pale malt base.
Pepper-breaded rye spicing gave Rye Bullock IPA a welcome changeup fortified by brisk grapefruit-orange tanginess and leafy hop resin.
Too bad respectable dark ales, cocoa-nibbed Chocolate Porter, and Vanilla Stout, had just finished the day before.
www.screaminhill.com
SCREAMIN’ HILL THE BARNWOOD PROJECT BATCH 2: OATMEAL STOUT AGED IN RYE WHISKEY
Smooth Buffalo Trace rye whiskey tones picks up creamy brown chocolate-spiced caramel malting emanating from brewers’ Oats N’ Hoes Oatmeal Stout for relaxing medium-full body. Mild brown-sugared oatmeal sweetness reinforces whiskeyed mocha splendor.
AVERY NUTTIEST PROFESSOR BARREL-AGED IMPERIAL STOUT
MAGNIFY SINISTER PRIME MINISTER IMPERIAL STOUT WITH MAPLE SYRUP
On tap at Ambulance, “liquid-pancaked maple syrup” enriches ample brown chocolate-spiced toffee sweetness of full-bodied stout. Subtle cappuccino, mocha latte, cocoa brownie and vanilla ice cream illusions increase chewy maple chocolate-fudged dessert treat.
