On tap at Barcade – Jersey City, warm-fermented and dry-hopped San Francisco-styled pale lager (2016 offshoot of earlier Stoneface Brewing collaboration) links caramelized oats sugaring with light floral spicing while contrasting moderate citric-hopped bittering and nutty pine resin. At the finish, lemony grapefruit tartness ascends, bringing crisp closure.
NORWICH, CONNECTICUT
Just off Main Street in the olden harbor-bound merchant town of Norwich, Connecticut (a.k.a. The Rose of New England), THESE GUYS BREWING COMPANY opened August ’15. Tucked into a red-bricked urban setting with a black-framed window frontage and oval hop-designed signpost, this homey establishment has the interior appearance of a Prohibition Era Speakeasy with its stamp-tinned copper tile bar walls, starburst Edison light bulbs and winding exposed pipes.
A sterling red brick-walled beer garden atrium (shown above) adds a greenhouse affect separating the front pub from the backroom brewing area (formerly used as grain storage for a Revolutionary Wartime hotel) where seven stainless steel tanks store brewer Rebecca Alberts’ well-rounded craft beer offerings.
Working under the tutelage of famed Willimantic brewmaster, David Wollner, Alberts (currently Connecticut’s only female head brewer) claims she brews what she likes to drink, adding that “creative people like creative beer.”
Though I didn’t get to sample the food on my initial May ’16 stopover, the varied menu features splendid dishes such as Braised Short Ribs over stout onion risotto, Lobster-stuffed Mac & Cheese, Tuna Tartar and other well-designed main courses.
My wife and I grab seats directly across the central beer draughts at the bar to consume seven diverse homemade elixirs. There are also a few draughts set aside for outside brews such as Outer Light Ninja Trail Green Tea, Relic Flaven Foal Double Dry-Hopped IPA and Black Hog Citra (reviewed in Beer Index).
First up, tartly fruited moderation, Jeanne’s Dream Apricot Wheat, wedded hop-dried apricot puree subtlety to orange-candied red apple, peach and tangerine scurry – like a liquified Fruit Roll-Ups.
Next, brusquely crisp Hop Sense Pale Ale showed lots of IPA-related depth as its lightly pined orange-peeled grapefruit bittering contrasted lightly creamed pale malt sugaring over the buttered biscuit base.
Tantalizingly centrist caramel-spiced Thames River Red will please lighter thirsts as well as bolder palates with its toasted oats sweetness, glazed red fruiting and earthen dewiness.
Brisk West Coast-styled Hop Spring IPA let yellow grapefruit-juiced orange rind bittering receive wood-dried Centennial-Columbus hop resin to contrast floral mango, peach and pineapple tropicalia over clean celery watering.
Tangy Against The Grain IPA competed favorably with its tangerine, clementine and navel orange fruiting picking up lightly embittered grassy hop insistence and sedate pine underbrush.
On the dark side, wonderfully rich Kaiser Willy Imperial Stout draped creamy black chocolate malting and coffee-roasted bittering over ashen hops, gaining ancillary cocoa nibs, espresso, cappuccino and vanilla tones at the bulky mocha finish.
The intriguingly serene cask conditioned Kaiser Willy maintained soft-toned splendor as the coffee-roasted black chocolate creaming gained black cherry illusions and oats-charred sedation.
www.theseguysbrewing.com
On tap at These Guys, briskly clean Citra-hopped India pale ale lets seltzer-fizzed lemony grapefruit-orange tang rise above grassy-hopped pine resin and sweet floral bouquet.
On tap at These Guys, citric dry-hopped India Pale Ale contrasts grassy-hopped lemon seed bittering and setback grain pungency against candi-sugared pilsner malting. Lighter than most stylish ‘Double IPA’s.’
On tap at These Guys, light springtime pale ale brings wispy green tea misting to citric-tart lemondrop hops and honeyed Vienna malts. Sessionable herbal tea fare.
On tap at River Of Beer, updated 2016 All Malt Lager stays sessionable as sticky honey malt sweetness enhances perfumed citrus hops. Just too obvious and oblivious style-wise, perhaps.
On tap at River Of Beer, easygoing moderation utilizes subtle bacterial brettanomyces souring to affect light pilsner malts, dry-hopped earthen wood tones and wispy barnyard acridity. Lemony white grape illusions sneak in the back end.
On tap at River Of Beer, sturdy Czech pils brings earthen grain malt pungency to light herbal-spiced Saaz hop bittering and subtle lemon restraint. Dank corn-flaked spelt, oats and wheatgrass influence affects baked bread spine.
WEST KINGSTON, RHODE ISLAND
At a West Kingston-based stone quarry inside an unassuming tan aluminum warehouse lies one of Rhode Island’s most promising breweries, PROCLAMATION ALE COMPANY. Opened for business since January, 2014, the rapidly expanding alehouse, headed by brewmaster Dave Witham, gained immediate attention for its ‘Big Beer from a Small State’ and now bottles several of its exquisite elixirs.
An amber Proclamation sign (below the arched entrance) leads lucky patrons thru a long hallway to a tongue-and-groove wooded tasting room with pine-lacquered bar top, community table, barrel staves, sofa and exposed pipes.
Upon my initial 4 PM May ’16 visit, the small space packs up as several locals stop by to pick up screw-topped jug handled growlers of their favorite brews and a few out-of-towners sample all five available draught selections before deciding on which ones to carryout.
Knowledgeable tasting room manager, Tom Pereira, provides goblets of two fascinating pale ale ‘derivatives,’ one collaborative rye-spiced IPA and a sessionable German-styled pilsner. I’d already tried excellent citric-embittered IPA, Proclamation Tendril (reviewed in Beer Index), at now-defunct Track 84 a year hence.
For starters, Flummox, a traditional Bavarian-styled pilsner, brought crisply clean spelt-dried Vienna malting to its soft grassy-hopped floral citrus sheen, leaving subtle lemon traces in the recess.
Then, two of the best full-flavored East Coast pale ales caught my attention. Sunny fruited spritzer, Derivative: Mosaic Pale Ale, retained a subdued yellow grapefruit tang, zesty lemon brightener and ancillary pineapple-peach-mango-orange juicing above mild dry-hopped pungency.
Even better, modestly complex Derivative: Galaxy Pale Ale had a dryer, danker profile, spreading Galaxy-Citra-hopped tropicalia all over grassy pine resin and fresh celery watering. Its tangy tangerine ripeness picked up lemony pineapple, mango and grapefruit zest.
In collaboration with nearby Tilted Barn Brewery, Rype IPA provided peppery rye malting for its apricot-pureed tartness, fig-dried tangerine snips and teasing herbal lilt.
BLOOMINGDALE, NEW JERSEY
Coming into existence during the fall of 2015, Bloomingdale’s RIVER OF BEER proved to be a fabulous family affair on my initial May ’16 sojourn. Owned by Fred Soule (whose wife runs the antique shop next door) and featuring his son Dave’s fine craft beer selection (served on this rainy afternoon by Fred’s niece), this friendly neighborhood joint is only three miles from Route 287 on Hamburg Turnpike’s Main Street corrider.
Inside an antique brown Victorian house, River Of Beer’s reminiscent of an Old World Parlor with its vintage front door, custom-designed warmth and cozy pub-styled L-shape bar (with 14 seats, 4 TV’s, well-stocked bottled-canned beer refrigerator, top-shelf liquor, decorative overhead tap handles and small back kitchen). Its delightful upstairs bar matches the first floor’s homey rusticity with its beautiful recycled wood furnishings, barnstable-pitched ceiling, tongue-in-groove pine arches, front corner recliner and love seat (plus the exquisite four tabled widow’s peak).
My wife and I quaff several previously untried brews at the back deck, which is adorned by an awning-covered patio table, a leather-seated wood barrel table, red brick fire pit, porch furniture and beer-bannered wood fence.
As for today’s elixirs, I grab four reliable Jersey suds, a rye-barreled double bock and one choice Milwaukee offering (reviewed fully in Beer Index). Just up the road, Butler’s Ramstein Pale Ale brought lemony spiced hops to the fore. Meanwhile, Little Ferry’s Brix City Gloria Belgian Blonde trickled citrus spritz onto white-peppered hops and candi-sugared malts; Roselle Park’s Climax 20th Anniversary Barleywine retained a soft-toned fig-sugared cherry tang and fruity hop astringency; Atlantic Highland’s Carton Eden Saison, a simple table beer, provided jasmine-flowered grains of paradise tropicalia and herbal lemon tones. Wisconsin’s Lakefront Hop Jockey Double IPA gathered pine-needled grapefruit and mandarin orange juicing to override the crystal-sugared caramel malting.
But today’s finest brew was a specially-made Ramstein Winter Wheat Doppelbock soaked in Dad’s Hat Rye barrels. A true godsend, its smooth rye-dried frontage picked up a large rum-spiced bourbon contingent to elevate the molasses-sugared brown chocolate sweetness, cherry jubilee liqueuring and red grape tang.
Not to be outdone, River Of Beer’s entrepreneurial home brewer, Dave Soule, showed off his brewing prowess with a richly creamed doppelbock (?) full of sugared fig, stewed prune and ripe raisin overtones placed directly above dewy peat earthiness.
To quote soul legend, Al Green, Take Me To The River (Of Beer, that is)!
On tap at River Of Beer, stylishly moderate Imperial IPA proves highly sessionable as delicate Citra-hopped grapefruit, mandarin orange and pineapple tang picks up caramelized crystal malt sugaring to contrast light pine-needled bittering as well as mild white pepper herbage.
On tap at River Of Beer, stylistically moderate barleywine stays silken as delicate caramel malting picks up light citric hop astringency to contrast red cherry sweetness and sugared fig resilience. Not as rich, creamy and resilient as brewers’ 15th anniversary celebrator, but ultimately fine nonetheless.
