Despite “hoppy” tag, peppered lemon licks and mild grapefruit-pineapple tang stay restrained above doughy French-breaded pale malting. Mild Amarillo-Chinook hop astringency and serene floral spicing provide mellow backdrop.
ANDERSON VALLEY SUMMER SOLSTICE CERVEZA CREMA – NITRO
On tap at Taphouse Grille – Wayne, superb nitro version of highly respected summer ale heightens softly creamed éclair mouthfeel and kettle corn-buttered caramelization while lessening tropical fruiting. Mild lemon meringue, mandarin orange, white peach and fig illusions delicately linger behind.
WALLENPAUPACK PAUPACK CREAM ALE
Sedate yellow-cleared dry body with wheat-crackered corn malts, musty spelt graining and grassy hop astringency gains spritzy lemon rot souring. Will please avid cream ale lovers.
FLYING FISH ONSHORE LAGER
Crisply clean moderate-bodied lager maintains lightly creamed pastry-like cereal grain sugaring and biscuity pilsner malting to envelop lemony orange-melon briskness while mild grassy hop astringency stays firm. Sessionable summer excellence.
SIERRA BLANCA OUTLAW LAGER
Beginning with caramel-spiced glass sugaring and unrealized citric splotch, cardboard-like lagered steam beer reaches bland grassy-hopped raw honey finish.
DOUBLE NICKEL VIENNA STYLE LAGER
Dire orange-soured lemon rot and wavered green apple tartness reach soggy doughy malt base of indistinct moderate-bodied Vienna lager.
CARTON SIT DOWN SON PALE LAGER
On tap at Poor Henry’s, stellar pale lager retains crisply clean straw-grained minerality and musky floral-hopped lemon zesting above bready pilsner malting. Refreshingly easygoing light body is classic.
SHMALTZ PASTRAMI PILSNER
Spritzy celery-watered lemon peppering guards nifty horseradish pastrami pastiche above cracked black pepper breading for quirky Czech pils novelty. Kosher-salted rye-like caraway seed adjunct stays back.
KENT FALLS DANNY BOY PILSNER
On tap at Ambulance, mild yellow fruiting, subtle pilsner malting and grassy hop astringency affect simple German-styled pilsner. A pleasurable lawnmower beer.
BARRIER / AMBULANCE SHADOWS NEVER LOOKED THE SAME PILSNER
On tap at Ambulance, “Old World” flavored collaboration with Ambulance Brew House utilizes earthen herbal-spiced Tettnang hops and dank grain musk to modulate salty grapefruit thrift of murkily yellow-hazed moderation.
FOOTHILLS TANGLED VINE BERRY ROSE’ ALE
Barren cranberry, cherry and strawberry souring fails alongside sparkling rosé wining as lactic acidulated malts add minor salinity. Aridly washed-out fruiting needs better penetration.
WEEPING RADISH BREWERY
GRANDY, NORTH CAROLINA
Established in 1986 by Bavarian-born brewer Uli Bennewitz, WEEPING RADISH BREWERY BUTCHERY & PUB originated thirty miles south in Manteo to become North Carolina’s first microbrewery. Now thriving in their new Grandy digs since 2011, the spacious A-framed auqa blue farmhouse includes a wood-furnished pub, dog-friendly front deck, orchard-clad parking lot and gated goat area. Though their beers are staidly conservative and generically formal, the salads and German-styled meat dishes kicked ass.
Crafting mostly German-styled ales at the huge warehouse backspace, Weeping Radish serves the entire East Coast with bottles and cans. Their OBX Beer (a fair Kolsch) has received multiple plaudits (reviewed in Beer Index).
On my mid-July stopover before hitting the Outer Banks beaches, I grabbed worthy one-off, Oyster Bock. Its creamy oyster-shelled salinity added texture and richness to bittersweet black chocolate and cocoa malting as well as dried fig tartness above boggy earthen mossiness.
My wife settled on a pint of Weizen, where lemony mandarin orange outdid stylish banana-clove tartness, herbal chamomile notions and lightly honeyed white wheat sweetness.