Easygoing gold-cleared Czech pils provides pale malt dryness for toasted white bread neutrality and strawed maize acridity. Fizzy hop spicing and drab yellow-orange fruiting don’t help matters.
ST. LAWRENCE MAPLE PORTER
Tinny purple-canned dark ale stays too aridly acrid for advertised maple sugaring to register properly. Off-putting grapefruit-orange souring never matches with hop-charred day-old coffee midst. Phenol finish picks up coarse walnut char.
ST. LAWRENCE BARNSTORMER BOHEMIAN PILSNER
Bothersome nickel-hazed Czech pils (in a can) tastes like an infected sour saison or problematic Belgian pale ale. Superficial orange souring and lemon rot spoilage reach bad cider finish, picking up tannic white grape tartness and earthen musk.
GUINNESS BLOND AMERICAN LAGER
Suitably mainstream pale lager offers maize-dried astringency to corn-sugared sweetness, and silken crystal malt creaming, picking up a salty orange fizz at the midst. Pasty cardboard edges hedge in minor phenol astringency. Indifferent Mosaic hop fruiting deadens the mood.
BOULEVARD BOURBON BARREL QUAD (WITH CHERRIES)
Uninhibited limited release (2014 Smokestack Series) aged in bourbon oak barrels with cherries proves to be exceptionally complex. Bruised red cherry sweetness battles back vinous white-green grape souring, tart hard cider pucker, sparkling champagne fizz and buttery Chardonnay perk while smoky charcoal variance (from bourbon barrel char) adds noir-ish mood. Oaken vanilla mist enhances chocolate-covered cherry, Maraschino cherry and white pear undertones. Toasted coconut, marzipan and almond sugaring found at a distance.
CLOWN SHOES UNDEAD PARTY CRASHER AMERICAN IMPERIAL STOUT
Busy Imperial Stout utilizes thick cookie dough yeast, dark-roasted mocha malts and deeply charred hops. Dark chocolate, sugared coffee, cocoa bean, cappuccino, fudge and spiced anise illusions crowd the frontage. Tarry tobacco chaw bittering seeps into the mix. A hint of bourbon found at chewy mocha finish.
CHARTER OAK LIGHTS OUT STOUT
Viable Imperial Stout coaxes smoked black chocolate, black coffee, cocoa bean, burnt caramel and toffee overtones from dark-roasted mocha malting. Chocolate-spiced finish picks up distant hop-charred Blackstrap molasses, tobacco chaw and pine tar illusions.
WESTBROOK UDDERLY MILK STOUT
On tap at Ambulance, thin lactic milk stout maintains soft water base as dark-roasted mocha malts and flaked oats sugaring take center stage. Black chocolate, chalky cocoa, burnt caramel, fudge, toffee and coffee illusions never prove to be as sweet as advertised since ashen hop astringency brings overstated mid-range bittering. Subtle vanilla, burgundy and burnt nut snips stay below the surface.
BARRIER OIL CITY BLACK IPA
On tap at Ambulance, richly hop-charred Cascadian Dark Ale brings dry pine resin and ashen charcoal tarring to forceful dark-roasted mocha malting. Minor grapefruit influence nearly drowned out by dark cocoa, black chocolate and muddy coffee overtones. Charred nuttiness reinforces massive mocha appeal.
STONE ARBALEST BOURBON BARREL BELGIAN IPA
On tap at Ambulance, uniquely designed crossbow-named hybrid drapes sweet bourbon atop yellow-fruited candy sourness and spice-hopped Belgian yeast. Oaken vanilla influence uplifts bourbon spirit, leaving vodka, vermouth and Chardonnay traces. Tart lemony orange zest ultimately battles back bourbon whir.
GRIMM STILL LIFE TART APPLE GRISETTE
On tap at Ambulance, tart beige-hazed farmhouse ale utilizes Red Jacket apple cider to complement leathery horse-blanketed hay dryness and spelt grained earthiness. Yet its white-peppered green apple tartness steals the show midway, receiving a lightly acidic limestone parch and lemon-fizzed coriander salting. Very interesting and never too demanding for softer palates.
GREEN FLASH SOUL STYLE IPA
On tap at Ambulance, brisk medium-bodied IPA boasts of tangy “pineapple, cantaloupe, cherry blossom and grapefruit” influence, but lemon zest, mandarin orange, melon, tangerine, papaya and mango illusions make similar up-front impact. Dried piney resin seeps into the floral-bound tropical fruiting and crystal malt sugaring. It’s the perfect blend of Citra, Simcoe and Cascade hops!
