Mediocre Euro-American pale ale connects cardboard-like malting and herbal Noble hops to earthen straw musk. Dank mineral graining gets watery. Unripe navel orange and grapefruit undertones pick up dewy vegetal astringency.
BELHAVEN SCOTTISH STOUT
Inventive Scottish stout brings mildly creamed peat-smoked dark chocolate malting and chewy cocoa-powdered caramel malting to clean well-watered crisping, finishing with a mocha-sweetened cedar burn (not unlike a moderate rauchbier). Light vanilla, molasses, coffee, cola nut and root beer illusions coddle silken mocha theme.
TAPHOUSE GRILLE’S BUSTLING FRIDAY NIGHT HAPPY HOUR
Spent a snowy Friday in February sucking down suds with wife and friends (Tony and Cindy) at luxuriously detailed Wayne, New Jersey pub, TAPHOUSE GRILLE. Tender mussels and crisp nachos went well with tonight’s liquid fare, which included two fine Brooklyn brews, one Texas draught, one Michigan dark ale and one Massachusetts wee heavy.
BROOKLYN QUADRACERATOPS
On tap at Taphouse Grille – Wayne, luscious Belgian quad spreads dark candi-sugar across dark-fruited spicing and delicate pilsner malting (hiding its heady 9.9% ABV). Rum-soaked raisin, sugar plum, date nut cake, black cherry and fig illusions sweetened by caramelized molasses sugaring. Light sherry wining and honeyed nuttiness add to the busy mix.
BROOKLYN GREENMARKET WHEAT
On tap at Taphouse Grille – Wayne, fine hybridized witbier brings stylish orange-peeled coriander sweetness to saison-like lemondrop souring and hefeweizen-like banana-clove sugaring. Honeyed pale wheat malts provide soft bed for cotton-candied fruiting at elegant finish.
FOUNDERS DARK PENANCE IMPERIAL BLACK IPA
On tap at Taphouse Grille, noirish full-body layers dry black-malted dark chocolate resin above wood-smoked charcoal singe and relegated piney citric bittering. Nut-charred black coffee, dark cocoa, raw molasses and fudge tones secure heavy mocha theme. Solidly robust.
RESIGNATION KCCO GOLD LAGER
On tap at Taphouse Grille, crisply soft-tongued German pils-styled moderation allows delicate honeyed biscuit malting and spicy hop tingle to get watery by musky vegetal midst. Resigned cereal grain finish lacks luster.
CLOWN SHOES ROYAL STANDARD WEE HEAVY
On tap at Taphouse Grille – Wayne, smoothly sweet wee heavy brings subtle heather tips florality to soothing Scotch serenity, caramelized brown chocolate malting and dried fruited pleasantries. Soured prune, sugared fig and mild burgundy illusions softly subsidize mild mocha finish. Wispy almond, creme brulee, maple molasses and toffee illusions shuffle across dewy peat bottom.
CLOWN SHOES CRUNKLE SAM AMERICAN BARLEYWINE (2014)
Elaborate barleywine carefully blends gooey cookie dough yeast with toasted caramel malts, dry Citra hops and brown chocolate spicing, leaving orange-bruised floral fruiting in its lightly pungent alcohol wake. Chewy brown chocolate sugaring sweetens honey-glazed walnut, pecan, and almond nuttiness as well as vintage Chardonnay, Bordeaux and sherry wining. Floral-bound orange zest, grapefruit, brown pear, red cherry, nectarine, raspberry and peach tang brightens the busy mix.
(BORG) GARUN ICELANDIC STOUT
Intensely rich dark ale (with well-disguised 11.2% ABV) brings aromatic anise sweetness to chewy dark-roasted chocolate malt smokiness and tarry coffee bittering. Creamy chocolate-caked sugaring allows vanilla, espresso, black cherry and marshmallow illusions to gather steam above light bourbon-burgundy wining. A fascinating Icelandic elixir!
FLYING DOG MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE STOUT
Less challenging than most ‘Brewhouse Rarities,’ yet still quite engaging. Advertised jalapeno peppering and dark cocoa-powdered chocolate creaminess seem undone by carbolic aridity. Wispy cinnamon-toasted vanilla sweetness gets lost in the shuffle as well, leaving raw molasses astringency to saddle its anise-nipped mocha finish.
SHINER HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHOCOLATE STOUT
Sweet-toothed 106th anniversary dessert treat begins fabulously, overloading black chocolate and dark cocoa upon oily hop-charred resin. But as the dark-roasted mocha malt frontage declines, its richness and body fades. So instead of tasting like candy-sugared M & M’s or a Milky Way, the chocolate-caked cocoa bean, chocolate mint, milked coffee; Kahlua and syrupy molasses illusions lose luster, leaving some phenolic astringency in its wake.