Affluent cocoa-seeded dark chocolate roast and reedy hop char ascend above ashen pine-tarred tobacco chaw bittering. Oncoming espresso coffee contingent deepens creamy smoked mocha finish. Butter pecan, burnt caramel and toffee sweetness inundate the back-end. Casual dried fruiting (red plum/black cherry), delicate bourbon whir and wispy anise snip find tertiary space.
‘Brash’ cold-brewed coffee sugaring surges forth over bitter espresso followup, chewy yeast sinew and gooey black licorice. Maple-sapped honeyed oats secure affable mocha java theme. Tertiary marshmallow, cappuccino and vanilla illusions found below radar.
Gregarious bittersweet coffee entry picks up subtle dark fruiting over barley-flaked hop oils. Exceptionally smooth java theme really overwhelms distant pink grapefruit, lemon rind, blueberry, raspberry and tangerine twang. Lovely coffee roast convincingly soaks into resinous wood-toned Tomahawk hop splotch.
Pour slowly hybridized Imperial Stout (with dried fruited Flanders Red-styled souring) or risk carbolic overload. Musky Belgian chocolate spicing receives ascending cocoa chalked astringency, slick caramel malting and murky pecan-chestnut smear, drenching the mustily tart cherry-berry-fig acridity. Dirty earthen peat bottom negatively coarsens the roasted hop bittering until the mildly creamed mocha tendencies all but disappear.
Musty apricot-juiced entry picks up soda-fizzed cherry, grape and orange tartness above musky straw wheat spine. Herbal ginger-leafed sugaring, sweet cider spell and lemon tea nuance fill the gaps. Soft malt creaming adds gentle froth to washed-out apricot finish.
Generically inoffensive green-bottled yellow-cleared flat-headed pale lager brings delicate caramel malt creaming and corn-sugared cereal graining to grassy hop oiling. Soft-toned Russian suds will please less discrimating tastes only.
Unusual mocha-creamed saison drapes Belgian chocolate spicing atop cookie-sugared dried fruiting. Dessicated fig-dried apricot, fried banana, black grape and pecan pie illusions battle for space above tea-leafed peat mossing and murky hop astringency.
Mediocre yellow-cleared light body brings delicate sourdough yeast to sharp lemony hop bite and salted cracker spine. Gluey paper, cardboard and resin notions come and go.
Distinctive cola-hued sour milk stout hybridized by incipient bone-dry brettanomyces-like wild yeast lactose. Lemon rind-embittered espresso frontage and musty ground coffee veneer reach tart black cherry-soured midst, picking up acrid charcoal reminder. Vinous red and purple grape esters cover earthen bottom to tempting mocha-soured dried fruited finish.
On tap at Andy’s Corner Bar, mouth-puckering chartreuse-hazed cherry lime sour ale recalls bitterer Berliner weiss styling. Oaken cherry tartness seeps into salty limestone acridity and white wheat base. Vinous lemon-juiced green and white grape tartness adds further souring to well-defined bone dry 2013 one-off.
CHESTER, NEW YORK
Making quite a splash since opening in autumn 2012, Hudson Valley’s second microbrewery (following eastbound Newburgh Brewery), RUSHING DUCK, is presently housed at an old tile factory just off Chester’s historic Main Street in the rustic rolling hills just off Route 17 West. Led by Dan Hitchcock (a proud Weyerbacher alumni) and companion Nikki Cavanaugh (part-time Copper Mine bartender), this inspiring independent business will undoubtedly grow way beyond its current parameters.
Upon my first visit with family dog, Roscoe, I got to taste five 5-ounce tapped samples at the small hardwood-floored tasting room during a sunny Saturday afternoon, August ’13. Already familiar with the award-winning stout, flagship pale ale and hop-headed double IPA (bought in growlers from Bardonia’s fabulous Cable Beverage), I also got to try a hybridized Brit-styled ale and brettanomyces-soured pale ale. Though all beers are draught-only at this time, bottling cannot be far off. And barrel aged beers are coming soon.
For starters, brisk year-round offering, Naysayer Pale Ale (a stylistically robust West Coast-styled beauty), brought grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering and gin-soaked juniper hops to floral-nipped tropical fruit sweetness.
Pungent War Elephant Imperial IPA rampaged forward with deeper grapefruit peel bittering, brighter orange-pineapple juicing and resinous pine needling to contrast ‘subdued malt’ sugaring and tangy peach, melon, cantaloupe and tangerine wisps.
Then came two whimsical delights that will hopefully become permanent fixtures. An English strong ale with light brown ale nuttiness, Nimptopsical Ale relied on caramel-burnt toffee and brown chocolate sweetness, dried fig-date overtones, earthy caraway-fennel-carrot notions and banana-breaded chestnut-acorn nuances, finishing with a rye whiskey touch (derived from the five barley strands used).
Not to be outdone, soft-watered Panic On Funkatron used wild brettanomyces yeast to fortify the soured grapefruit, mango, guava and passion fruit illusions while pumping up the herbaceous lemon zesting.
As a treasured dessert, Beanhead Coffee Porter (Best of Show at Hudson Valley’s 2012 Brewfest) loaded bittersweet Guatemalan coffee beans atop bitter cocoa and dark-roasted chocolate, finishing with a totally satisfying espresso-fortified coffee nuttiness.
During springtime 2021 revisit, Rushing Duck had expanded its parameters to include a cement-floored barnhouse with covered outside deck, large serving station and decorative Edison lights. My wife and I enjoyed a few more deserving homemade brews at one of the picnic tables.
Amiable light lager, Courtyard Crusher, let pasty acidulated malts dot zesty lemon tartness and candied orange wisps over mineral grained caramelization.
Lemon-bruised cara cara orange rot scurried thru sweet banana-clove-coriander expectancy, mild grains of paradise peppering and herbal lemongrass tartness for mellow Witbier, a slightly sourer alternative.
Glowing red ‘fruited sour’ ale, Stab In The Dark, brought mild cherry tartness, cara cara navel orange tang and pink grapefruit sweetness to salty acidulated malting in distinct fashion.
Honeyed dried fruit spicing gained fungi earthiness to counter brown-sugared caramelization of Belgian Quad, leaving banana-chipped plum, fig, prune and raisin serenity.
Mild NEIPA, Casual Chaos, allowed spritzy lemony grapefruit zest and mild orange rind bittering to hover above dryly pined herbal hop astringency efficiently.
Dry dark-roast coffee nuttiness galvanized Imperial Beanhead Porter, a more complex and ultimately richer version of its original, adding cola, walnut and Brazil nut influence to maple oats-sugared java richness.
Bustling flesh-headed mahogany-bodied nightcap, Oatmeal Stout, plied maple-sugared oats, bourbon vanilla and cappuccino creaming to dark-roast mocha goodness.
During noon time stopover, April ’22, hail fell down as I consumed one previously untried lager and an updated milk stout.
Easygoing light lager, Duck Dry, let peppery-hopped lemon spritz settle into red-riced sourdough malting.
Lovely Chained To The Dead (2022) stayed robust as lactic milk-sugared medium coffee roast embraced dark chocolate-fudged cocoa powder, espresso, hazelnut paste, cola and pistachio illusions.
www.rushingduckbrewing.blogspot.com
PEORIA, ILLINOIS
Though I’ve yet to experience Peoria’s GRANITE CITY FOOD & BREWERY, my friend Dennis has perused this trusty midwest chain brewery on several occasions during 2008-2013 stints at Caterpillar. In an exquisite brown and beige freestanding building along the Illinois River on the revitalized light industrial East Peoria section next to Logan’s Roadhouse, this spacious riverfront joint’s large back patio overlooks the westside’s cosmopolitan downtown area. Cultured stone and earthen wood tones give the homey interior a lodge-like ambiance.
A variegated food menu features steaks, burgers, pasta, sandwiches and salads while the beer menu offers familiar chain brews alongside a few seasonal or one-off libations. Brunch buffets are affordable and recommended to out-of-towners visiting this mid-sized midwest hub.
During August ’13, Dennis brought back to Jersey a growler of Granite City’s worthy Batch 1,000 Double IPA, an easygoing soft-watered turnabout less interested in monstrous stylistic bittering than affable fruited subtlety. Its creamy caramel malting contrasted grassy floral hops as mellow grapefruit, orange, red apple, Bartlett pear and white peach illusions began protruding above the earthen vegetal bottom.
After Labor Day ’13, Dennis came by Jersey pad with four more Granite pleasantries for Thursday eve Patriots-Jets football game.
Polite White Ale snuck sweet navel orange peel tartness into quaint coriander-clove-allspice seasoning and delicate white-breaded spine of easygoing summertime session beer. Lemon zest, orange pith and tangerine undertones wisp by.
Mild German-styled dark lager, The Bennie’s Bock, pushed soft coffee-roasted mochaccino alacrity across black-breaded pecan, walnut and hazelnut illusions, finishing with an unassumingly dry Baker’s chocolate whim.
Dewy tea-like Oktoberfest retained reedy-hopped autumnal foliage above pumpernickel-honeyed Russian rye breading and mild orange-grapefruit-fig dessication, picking up distant cocoa bean influence at the earthen finish of highly sessionable seasonal.
Soft-toned Duke Of Wellington IPA brought English-styled resin-hopped dewy earthiness and musty cellared fungi waft to roasted hop char, leaving a tinge of grapefruit upon the centrist dry-bodied moderation.