Luxurious bourbon influence spreads across rich black chocolate syruping and lightly wood-charred ashen hop bittering, picking up vanilla-sweetened burnt caramel, smoky molasses, black coffee and fudge illusions. Tertiary bruised cherry, red plum and sugared fig nuances bring dried fruit contingent to back end of comforting bourbon-aged dark ale.
(SIERRA BLANCA) DE LA VEGA’S PECAN BEER
Abundant pecan pie sweetness gets loaded atop maple-sugared hazelnut, honeyed praline, toasted almond, white chocolate, coconut shavings and butternut illusions, leaving an intense and unique impression. Candied pecan glaze picks up latent cinnamon-spiced pumpkin puree respite, mild cream soda impression and light almondine glitz. Nearly perfect as a slightly unconventional dessert treat (but picked up slightest diacetyl buttering on second tasting).
LA CUMBRE PROJECT DANK INDIA PALE ALE
Lively West Coast-styled IPA shines bright as sunny lemon zest awakens ruby red and yellow grapefruit tang as well as candi-sugared crystal malting above mild pine resin. Sweet orange-peeled pineapple, tangerine, clementine, mango and peach tones contrast dank hemp-oiled hop bittering. Smooth, clean, refreshing.
SANTA FE NUEVO CERVEZA CLARA
Humdrum straw-yellowed pale lager guides sour lemondrop-candied tartness into dewy earthen dankness, leafy-hopped citric dryness and fragile white-breaded spine. Recessive lemongrass herbage spotted.
RIO GRANDE PANCHO-VERDE CHILI CERVEZA
Mild roasted green chili peppering and light jalapeno wisp waft thru cloy palate-shifting corn syruping. Sweet ginger-leafed lemon candy remant stays recessive.
ZYWIEC JASNE PELNE
Most likely a mildly updated 2015 version of Poland’s ever-popular light-bodied pale lager (a.k.a. Jasne Pelne) made with pure mountain spring water. Polite hop-fizzed astringency fizzles into rice-buttered cereal graining. Considering the robust United States craft beer industry’s colossal takeover, this ‘premium beer’ struggles to compete against ‘bigger’ stateside lagers, but will please good-hearted Blue Collar thirsts.
EINSTOK ICELANDIC TOASTED PORTER
Soothingly affixed dark-roasted Icelandic coffee theme picks up polite molasses-smoked brown chocolate influx, black cocoa dalliance, nutty caramel-burnt sugaring and toasted coconut sedation. Light espresso, macchiato and soy milking deepens fudgy mocha penetration while cola, walnut and hazelnut illusions gain mild hop-charred peat soiling. Minor metallic oxidation found in deep recess of Arctic moderation.
EINSTOK ICELANDIC WHITE ALE
Acquiring the sweet orange-peeled coriander spicing of a light-bodied Belgian witbier, refreshing straw-hazed sedation also utilizes pure Icelandic water to heighten briskly clean minerality. White-peppered lemon lime tartness and herbal-nipped floral daubs underscore sunny orange-grapefruit tang. Easy to drink.
EINSTOK ICELANDIC PALE ALE
Soft-toned cereal grain toasting and roasted caramel sugaring peak above mildly citric Cascade hop spicing. Wispy earthen floral tones daub doughy back end.
RINN DUIN BREWING
TOMS RIVER, NEW JERSEY
Open since January 2014, Toms River-based RINN DUIN BREWING (named after a famous Irish castle and since 2019 operating as Toms River Brewing) crafted sessionable English-styled ales as well as approachable barrel-aged elixirs, a few hybridized treats and anything that struck their fancy. For their first anniversary, entrepreneurial father-daughter combo, Chip and Jacqui Town, created an approachable candi-sugared Belgian Dubbel using Irish barley, English hops and Irish yeast called Black Thorn.
Local disabled marine, Charlie Ryan, recently took over head brewing chores from veteran homebrewer, Ryan Michaels (formerly of Sly Fox). And as of my July 2015 visit, the brewery now bottles two of its year-round mainstays and a few specialties.
Inside a tan-hued, maroon-trimmed edifice behind Bacchus Winery, Rinn Duin’s just three-and-a-half miles west of the New Jersey Parkway on Route 37. Its Irish shillelagh-topped tap handles serve the wood-floored Tasting Room, a cozy area with a beautiful hand-made silver tin ceiling, wood-shelved beer bottle collection, several Irish themed photographs and one TV. A 25-barrel brewing setup presently takes up some of the 6,500 square-foot space.
Rinn Duin’s United Kingdom-inspired bottled selections (reviewed fully in Beer Index) included yellow-fruited Lawnmower English Blonde, mocha-dried Sandpaper English Brown, caramel-toasted St. John’s Irish Red and coffee-roasted Pota Caife Dry Irish Coffee Stout.
Alongside each of the aforementioned bottled selections tried on draught, three more worthy elixirs were quaffed as 4-ounce samplers and then by pint glass.
Peat whiskey-malted Trinity Scottish 70 brought serene kiln-smoked campfire residue to crisp tobacco-roasted reedy hops and poppy-seeded Scotch licks. Light-roasted coffee beans influenced Hiberian Dry Irish Stout, a sweeter selection than Pota Caife that gathered black patent malts, dark chocolate, powdered cocoa and charred oats.
Before departing, easygoing Bourbon Pota (aged in Elijah Craig barrels) blended dark-roasted coffee beans with oats-dried brown chocolate and a subtle hint of bourbon.
Making some of the most consistently rewarding and authentic mild ales, Rinn Duin will easily satisfy anyone with a hankering for crisp Brit-styled nectar.
RINN DUIN POTA CAIFE COFFEE STOUT
Leisurely dry-bodied moderation lets lightly creamed dark-roasted Tanzanian coffee spread across cocoa-seeded black chocolate malting and mild toasted hop char. Modest oats-flaked burnt caramel sweetness lingers recessively beneath calm coffee setting.
RINN DUIN ST. JOHN’S IRISH RED
Tidy caramel-roasted hop spicing picks up mildly smoked chocolate nuttiness and dewy earthen graining over biscuit-y barley malts, leaving wispy red-orange fruiting and toffee-breaded trifle on the back end. Robust flagship beer is brewers’ best seller.