On tap at Growler & Gill, stylishly bold Noble-hopped pilsner plies proper grassy hay-like astringency to herbal lemon souring, dry mineral-grained malting and serene floral nuances in balanced manner.
2 WAY BREWING COMPANY
BEACON, NEW YORK
Inside a pristine beige stucco industrial building and surrounded by quaint residential housing overlooking the Hudson River at the revitalized city of Beacon, 2 WAY BREWING COMPANY opened its doors in 2014.
A relaxing family-friendly local joint near the train station, 2 Way’s knowledgeable staff kept the bar patrons happy serving seven board-listed tapped selections or samplers to those grabbing growlers-to-go for outside consumption. The easygoing brews matched the relaxing atmosphere.
Convivial head brewer, Michael O’Herron, spent time learning his craft at popular Boulder, Colorado-based brewery, Avery, before moving back to his nearby hometown of Newburgh just in time for New York’s magical craft beer Renaissance. His balanced array of ales lean towards the lighter side on my first trip.
Six patio tables front 2 Way while the comfy single room interior features a 20-seat plywood bar with seven tap handles emanating from a 2 Way road sign plus a large screen TV as well as a few seating tables and sofas. Happily, there’s room for expansion as well.
Recently, the low-key pub started serving limited pub fare and on my April 2017 sojourn I enjoyed the fried chicken with six approachably fine brews.
Soft-toned Whole Hop Pale Ale layered earthen tea-like pale malts with moderate melon rind, grapefruit, passionfruit and apple tones.
Easygoing red, orange and yellow-fruited Revolution Red picked up caramel-toasted Maris Otter sweetness to contrast mildly resinous pine hops.
Sessionable Citra-hopped Forbidden Fruit IPA plied groaty grain malting and tender spicing to mellow yellow grapefruit, clementine, orange marmalade and curacao orange briskness.
Slightly unique saison-styled X-1 IPA soaked black raspberry-bushed yeast with lemony orange tones, soggy groaty oats and lemongrass hints.
Understated Beacon Brown brought cocoa, toffee and caramel sweetness to peat-dried mocha malts as well as frisky praline, walnut and hazelnut whims.
Mocha-dried Nitro Irish Stout saddled dark chocolate, black coffee and cocoa tones with dewy earthiness.
Two weeks later, came back with wife for her fave, Town Of The Lion Hefeweizen, a bittersweet moderation with polite lemon souring contrasted by stylish banana-clove-bubblegum illusions over Graham Cracker-honeyed wheat malts.
Better still, Confusion Farmhouse utilized X-1 IPA’s black raspberry bush yeast for its tangy lemon-dropped pineapple, grapefruit and orange juicing to soak into hay-like mineral grain rusticity and wispy lemongrass herbage.
2waybrewingcompany.com
RACE STREET BREW WORKS
CLEARFIELD, PENNSYLVANIA
A great find in the hilly Western Pennsylvania countryside just off Route 80, homey Industrial mall-bound RACE STREET BREW WORKS opened on Black Friday, November 2014 (and closed December 2019), with four tapped beers for sale. Since that time, the eclectic mom and pop operation had become a popular local dive.
Going thru an inconspicuous hallway of the tan-bricked edifice towards a mid-space cement-floored warehouse, Race Street’s refurbished wood community tables, cheesy decorative paraphernalia, hanging paper pom-poms, antique beer-capped aluminum shack and dank upstairs lounge encase the 10-seat bar and caged brew tanks serviced by innovative brewmaster Bohb Striker. In the summertime, a patio with fire pit gets utilized.
Refrigerated tap handles serve the fourteen well-rounded elixirs I thoroughly enjoy this breezy Friday evening in April ’17.
For openers, musky German-grained Czech yeast affected the herbal floral-perfumed Polish hop brusqueness of stylishly robust Polish Pilsner.
Next, uniquely satisfying Saint Kamille Belgian Wit brought honeyed chamomile tea to lemony grapefruit, orange and banana expectancy as vanilla wafer-sugared grilled mango and tangy peach snips contrasted tart candy powdering.
Incense-like Saison La Roux mildly aged tart cherries and raspberries for a splendid sweet ‘n sour mix back-ended by oats-dried Belgian pale malts.
‘Dank’ medium body, Hop Hash Brownie let resinous hop pining saturate mild nut-roasted toffee malts and brown tea-like bittering.
‘Vainglorious’ oak-aged derivative, Loud Mouth Oaked IPA brought cotton-candied honey malting, pecan buttering and floral perfume wafts to citric Cascade hop bitterness, leaving lemony mango-orange-pineapple tropicalia along the oaken vanilla midst before ethyl alcohol phenols coarsen the finish.
Tea-like Red Walloon, a dewy Belgian red ale, contrasted sour citric tartness against mild caramel-spiced alacrity.
Fine off-dry autumn seasonal, Jack Hammer Pumpkin Ale, brought pumpkin roasted butternut squash earthiness to ginger-spiced nutmeg and clove sweetness.
Well designed Rauch Street German Smoked Beer plied Band-aid-like peat smoked beechwood astringency to brown chocolate sweetness.
Interesting malt-roasted Thai Tea Porter let spicy Thai tea sweetness gain Black Forest cake, chocolate cake, toasted coconut, powdered cocoa and black cherry illusions.
Well executed Chanceux Tarte Tripel draped white-wined lemony cider tartness over soured rye bourbon for an offbeat stylistic turnabout.
Better still, candi-sugared GNOMebriation, a standard tripel, let sweet plum, raisin and date illusions get soaked in dry bourbon and honeyed vanilla.
Soft-toned Comrade Conrad Russian Imperial Stout, aged in rye bourbon barrels, retained brown chocolate-y coconut sweetness, pleasant cocoa nibs bittering, dried fruited fig spicing, mild cola nuttiness and warm bourbon licks.
A few experimental oak-aged elixirs at closing time proved satisfying as well.
Napa Valley Cabernet barrels held Weird One, a lactobacillus-soured red winey moderation with oaken vanilla tartness and light spicing.
Lastly, Flanders Red-styled Weird Two, aged eight months in Woodford Reserve Rye Bourbon barrels then refermented with sour lactobacillus and brettanomyces bacteria, brought lightly vinous grape esters and honeyed mead subtleties to the same oaken vanilla tartness influencing the previously quaffed Weird One.
On June ’17 revisit, discovered four more goodies while chatting it up with wife and entrepreneurial brewmaster Bohb Striker.
Unassuming light-bodied Genesee knockoff, Jenny C. Cream Ale, recalled its macrobrew standard with soft-watered flaked corn malts, dry rice sedation and light lemon-spiced spritz.
Lemon-soured Saison Primitive Farmhouse Ale utilized ginger, peppercorn and orange peel adjuncts to embrace its cologne-perfumed honey spicing and lime-juiced snip.
Distinctly balanced moderation, Chow’duh NE IPA provided zesty grapefruit, bitter orange rind and sweet mango with gentle piney hops and creamy crystal malts to its wheat-oats spine.
For nighttime dessert, Nitro Coconut Milk Mooo-Stache sufficed, as its mildly creamed dark chocolate sweetness picked up casual coconut and caramel illusions.
www.racestreetbrew.com
VOODOO BIG BLACK VOODOO DADDY IMPERIAL STOUT
On tap at Andy’s Corner Bar, rich, creamy, increasingly popular ‘black ale’ heightens chewy black chocolate syruping with light oak-staved bourbon sugaring to contrast mildly hop-charred dark cocoa, vanilla bean and espresso bittering. Dark-roasted mocha malting gains sinewy molasses sweetness and distant wood-burnt singe as wispy raisin, prune and date illusions flutter beneath. Despite hefty 12% ABV, velvety smooth ‘Big Black’ full body goes down easy.
TWO TON EXTRA SPECIAL CHOCOLATE-VANILLA PORTER
On tap at Plank Pizza, creamy brown chocolate sweetness and rich Madagascar vanilla beaning create mighty fine full-bodied porter. Sugary cookie dough center contrasts mild earthen peat bottom as tertiary black cherry, raspberry and strawberry whims increase serenity of chocolate-vanilla dessert treat.
BLUE POINT NEW YORK OYSTER STOUT
Treacly dark-roasted black chocolate syruping, day-old coffee bittering and nutty remnant pick up briny oyster-shelled sinew above sugary oats-flaked bed. Creamy mocha continuance gains peat-smoked charcoal singe to contrast mild black cherry and blackberry illusions.
ALEMENTARY PORTERICO COCONUT PORTER
On tap at Plank Pizza, up-front toasted coconut adjunct gains dense mocha malting over mild walnut-charred hop bittering. Unsweetened coconut shavings inundate sweet cinnamon-toasted oatmeal and chocolate chip cookie illusions after a few sips.
KANE SACRE COEUR
On tap at Andy’s Corner Bar, worthy quad drapes dark crystal-malted rye wheat sweetness atop brown-sugared raisin, prune and plum influence as well as sour black cherry subsidy. Calmly caramelized vanilla, banana and cocoa whims slip thru peaty bottom.
STONE JINDIA DOUBLE IPA
On tap at Plank Pizza, botanical amber-coppered ‘gin-like elixir’ brings fragrant cologne-perfumed sweetness to ginger-rooted juniper berry freshness above honeyed pale malting. Continual mild juniper bittering contrasts delicate peach, pineapple, grapefruit and red apple illusions. In the bottle, singular stylish blend gains piney spruce aspect for ginger-dried juniper bittering, gaining brisk lemon-peeled grapefruit, pineapple and orange tang.
EVIL TWIN FALCO INDIA PALE ALE
On tap at Plank Pizza, “authoritative,” well-balanced, medium-bodied, yellow-hazed IPA retains sharp tropical fruited tang and evergreen-fresh pine needling. Floral-bound pineapple, grapefruit, tangerine, mango and lemon barrage given estery alcohol whir at the finish.
UNIBROUE A TOUT LE MONDE
On tap at Grand Cru, completely unassuming saison soothes soft-toned thirsts while leaving metal fans to contemplate why this ethereal lightweight was named after a Megadeth tune instead of a pristine acoustic number? Mild Seltzer spritz delicately prickles lemon meringue, mango, lychee, passionfruit and curacao orange subtleties as well as recessive sugar spicing and grassy herbal hop snip.
CLIMAX PUMPKIN ALE
On tap at Climax, highly expressive autumn ale leans on the sweet side as brown-sugared pumpkin pie pleasantry picks up discreet yam influence, ginger-spiced nutmeg seasoning and dainty cherry piquancy to contrast polite lemon-drop sourness as well as earthen squash, butternut and zucchini illusions.