Worthy 2nd anniversary Imperial Brown Ale uses subtle peppercorn herbage to spice up creamy caramel-chocolate malting, sweet honeyed nuttiness and soured fig-date niche. Raw molasses bittering contrasts pleasant butternut-pecan-praline conflux near chocolate rye cake finish.
Sessionable spring seasonal offers citric Mosaic hop pleasantry to grassy wheat bed. Sunny grapefruit-orange milding crisply crackles thru carbolic Seltzer fizz. Delicate honeydew, melon and tangerine wisps graze the surface.
Adventurous autumnal ale utilizes fresh-ground coriander to sweeten its lemon-candied pineapple, orange and tangerine tang as well as kiwi-like prickly pear cactus neutrality. For contrast, herbal green tea bittering, sage-like minting and shaving cream-cologned perfuming prove worthy. Tertiary boysenberry-blackberry-blueberry-raspberry illusions gain gin-like juniper berry nip way below the busy mix.
‘Not too sweet’ and ‘not quite boring’ moderation offers washed-out watermelon souring to thin wheat backbone. Watermelon rind pickling lingers, then fades quickly, at reluctant citric-daubed finish.
Tepid pilsner-malted light body brings lemony Seltzer-fizzed pineapple tang to acrid straw-hay-alfalfa graining. Sour orange midst fades at bittersweet citric finish.
Desiccated pilsner-malted light body brings German lager yeast to short-lived lemony apricot spritz, raw-honeyed sourdough breading, acrid maize parch and musty straw-hay musk. Pallid dullness.
HADDAM, CONNECTICUT
Another superfine warehouse-styled brewery popped up in the Nutmeg State during January, 2015. Within six weeks upon my visit, the raging nano STEADY HABIT BREWING (closed January 2025) was really going strong with its diminutive four 2.5 barrel fermenters already kicking out ten different (mostly pale ale styled) elixirs.
Head brewer Jonathan Peterson began as an apprentice home brewer and serves as beer manager for Tony’s Package Store, the awesome generically-named beer and wine haven fronting Steady Habit’s spare cement-floored backspace (where the only current paraphernalia is the cool limited edition beer bottles on three plain wood shelves near the tap station).
“Steady Habit’s an homage to beer history, built on the principals of wise decisions and good values,” Peterson claims. “And our (flagship) India Pale Ale, Our Daily Bread, honors the discovery of beer as a natural beverage – fermented bread.”
Tropical grapefruit-peeled orange rind, pineapple, mango, guava and passionfruit illusions surround the sedately bark-dried pine needling of the majestic Daily Bread. And its crisply well-watered minerality provides a clean bed.
Besides the brisk juicy-fruited IPA, robust In Robust We Trust Porter plied dark-roasted chocolate and caramel malting to bitter tar-like hop char. Prevalent black chocolate, dark cocoa and roasted coffee overtones as well as subsidiary tobacco chaw, Brazil nut and licorice illusions rise above the delicate oats-flaked bottom. Specialty German malts get utilized well.
It’ll be fun to see how quickly this place grows. There’s already a steady stream of locals and travelers sojourning to Steady Habit. Cheers!
Robust full body plies dark-roasted chocolate and caramel malting to bitter tar-like hop char. Prevalent black chocolate, dark cocoa and roasted coffee overtones as well as subsidiary tobacco chaw, Brazil nut and licorice illusions rise above the delicate oats-flaked bottom.
From its murkily chartreuse-hazed hue to its juicy fruited Citra-Galaxy-Topaz hop tandem, this crisply clean well-watered IPA maintains a pervasive grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering, zesty lemon spritz and sedately bark-dried pine needling. By softening an India Pale Ale’s comparatively harsher hop proclivities and upping the candi-sugared tropical sweetness, the final product’s both sessionable and briskly embittered. Tangy yellow grapefruit, navel orange, mango, guava, passionfruit and papaya illusions abound above the delicate mineral graining.
On tap at Track 84, zestily fruited Mosaic hops remain delicate on the tongue as moderate grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering, light resinous pine needling, sharp Citra hop oiling and aspirin-like acridity provide rounded mouthfeel. Tropical pineapple, peach, mango, guava, papaya and passionfruit illusions flutter just above soft caramel malt bed.
On tap at Track 84, ambitious barrel-aged Imperial Stout balances dark chocolate malting with red-wined dried fruiting in light oaken bourbon setting. Sour cherry tartness outshines subsidiary sherry, port and burgundy wining as well as mild fig, prune and raisin nuances by dark-roasted mocha finish.
On tap at Track 84, ‘ghostly’ cocoa nibs and vanilla bean inform dark-roasted chocolate malting. Mild dried fruiting wispily glides by earthen peat, burnt coffee, Baker’s chocolate, soy milk and tobacco chaw illusions beneath oats-flaked mocha prominence of foreign export stout (named after Muhammad Ali’s phantom knockout punch against Sonny Liston).