On tap at Doherty’s, intriguing limited edition ’14 curio blends stylishly bittersweet mocha malting into oaken rye whiskey. Heightened dark-roasted hop char triggers heavy black and brown chocolate assault. Dry bourbon whir recedes into dark rye breading, brown-sugared maple molasses sapping and black cherry-pureed dried fruiting.
Classic Irish-styled dry stout (brewed in Massachusetts for Connecticut brewpub) spreads cacao nibs across dark-roasted black patent malting. Ancillary ice coffee, dried cocoa and tarry molasses illusions fade to ashen charcoal coarseness. Peat-smoked mocha snip done in by plastique acridity.
Rangy English-styled India Pale Ale drapes stylish mossy peat dewiness over rye-dried Scotch malting, raw-honeyed cereal graining and nutty respite for lightly creamed middleweight. Salty carbolic fizz camouflages peppery herbal hop dankness and soggy vegetal dirtiness to its barley biscuit bottom.
Holiday-seasoned mocha stout brings chocolate-chipped molasses malting to caramel-burnt toffee-cocoa-coconut restraint, creme brulee sweetness and compost-wafted winter spicing. Dark chocolate, coffee and licorice notions crowd the back.
Unspecific, yet easygoing, limited edition smoked ale lacks true Belgian yeast character and could use amplified smokiness. Nevertheless, its toasted caramel sweetness and orange-spiced fruiting pleasantry override paltry peat-smoked malting. Weirdly, this had little correlation to brewers’ muskier and drier Belgian Ale.
Surprisingly similar pungent yeast profile as brewers’ Irish Style Ale confusingly compromises tropical guava, kiwi and passion fruit whim as well as herbal earthen musk with gnarly solvent-like astringency and dank yeast fungi. In the distance, musty grape stems and soured apple cider inform peppery hop coarsening.
Phenol cider-like astringency messes up dry peat-grained malting and mild cocoa-molasses conflux. Pungent yeast profile too close to brewers’ tepid Belgian Ale.
Unconventional cider-honeyed pale ale brings compost-wafted earthiness to lemon-rotted green apple tartness and champagne-fizzled yellow grape esters. Burnt rubber off-taste brings unwanted astringency.
CHESTNUT RIDGE, NEW YORK
Just a few minutes away from my Jersey home (across the border in Rockland County) lies friendly neighborhood joint, BLUE RIBBON TAVERN. An unfancy barn-like beer pub with good food that’s proud home to one-ounce bourbon flights, this casual wood-furnished dive with a quaint sportsbar atmosphere is located at an unassuming mini-mall in Chestnut Ridge (five miles north of Pearl River’s Defiant Brewing). Dispersing craft brews since July ’13, its ever-changing dozen-plus taps are spread across the long bar top.
Since it’s the Friday before St. Patty’s Day, tonight’s dinner special is Swiss-cheesed rye-toasted cornbeef with mustard, a good choice to pair with probably the nuttiest Black IPA I ever quaffed.
My wife, daughter and I sit at one of the five tables along the blue-marbled white-based wall across from the 12-stooled wooden bar (with four TV’s, busy liquor shelves and dozen-plus tap handles serving craft beer). A chalkboard lists today’s featured taps and a few dartboards fill the right wall along with shelved tap handles and other ephemera.
John Lennon’s plaintive “Imagine” and Creedence’s rampaging “Travelin’ Band” blare in the background as I consume cornbeef and drift into a bite or two of my wife’s juicy Steak Sandwich and daughter’s crisp Santa Fe Chicken.
After downing Defiant Polar Vortex Black IPA, a richly black chocolate-malted, hop-charred, walnut-roasted bitter with distant grapefruit-dried pineapple fondue undertones, ice water gets consumed to soften my palate for a winningly peculiar witbier.
Bringing an unexpected plastique grouting and floral dusting to the typical Belgian-styled lemony orange spicing, Empire White Aphro elegantly works advertised lavender-perfumed ginger and white-peppered coriander adjuncts into its fruitful vanilla-daubed honeyed wheat base (picking up peachy banana-clove-bubblegum wisps).
For dessert, I thoroughly enjoyed enduringly mellifluous Cricket Hill Brewmasters Reserve #2 Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter, a richly textured mocha-sugared oats-charred full body seeped in Four Roses bourbon oak and graced by mocha latte, caramel latte, vanilla and toffee tones.
A few weeks later, my wife and I share cheddar-cheesed bacon-crisped ABC Grilled Cheese and Swiss-cheesed onion-sauteed Peppercorn Bison Burger. These hearty items went well with superb Ellicottville Chocolate Cherry Bomb, a richly creamed Imperial Stout with black cherry-pureed blackberry and blueberry tartness enhanced by ascending vanilla sweetness and contrasted against embittered hop-charred nuttiness.
Phone: 845 356 4477
On tap at Blue Ribbon Tavern, enduringly mellifluous dessert beer (ltd. ed. 2014) provides rounded mocha mouthfeel as richly textured oats-sugared hop-charred full body lets Four Roses bourbon oak seep into equally dispersed gamut of black chocolate, mocha latte, caramel latte, creme brulee, vanilla, toffee and coconut tones. Dark-fruited black cherry, fig and blackberry nuances rally from behind. Superb bourbon chocolate elixir.
On tap at Blue Ribbon Tavern, daringly sophisticated Cascadian Dark Ale enriches stylish hop-charred black chocolate malting and distant grapefruit-dried pineapple fondue undertones with surprisingly insistent walnut-roasted bitterness (and less prominently contrasted hazelnut sweetness). Light charcoal burn increases resolute bitterness while relegating sugary toffee dalliance.
On tap at Blue Ribbon Tavern, polite Belgian-styled moderation brings unexpected plastique grouting and floral dusting to typical witbier’s soft-toned lemony orange tartness. Elegantly detailed, its advertised lavender-perfumed ginger herbage and white-peppered coriander spicing reside above the fruitful vanilla-daubed honeyed wheat base (picking up peachy banana-clove-bubblegum wisps along the way). Mild soapstone minerality scratches the surface alongside subtlest rosewater, dandelion and eucalyptus snips.