Leisurely wet-hopped India Pale Ale stays stylistically light, bettering most blandly unsweetened organic competitors. Freshly tilled earthen graining complements zesty grapefruit rind bittering, sharp herbal hop spicing, and resinous piney bottom. Silken crystal sugaring underlies mild stone fruiting. As it warms, honeyed peach, apricot tea, red cherry, lemon zest, passion fruit and a hint of mint find tertiary space.
SAMUEL ADAMS THE VIXEN CHOCOLATE CHILI BOCK
Expressively easygoing single-batch bock maintains mellow disposition despite wide-ranging mocha-bound flavor profile. Advertised ‘spicy heat’ from the chili peppering stays subtle beneath milk chocolate creaming and nutty dried fruiting. Intricately woven sherry-bourbon warmth underscores black-breaded molasses stead, coffee-roasted tranquility and cinnamon-spiced cola nuttiness. Belgian chocolate spicing heaped upon ancillary bruised cherry, purple grape and sugared fig nuances. 2012 re-tasting: Improved obsidian-browned dessert beer gained richer chocolate-covered cherry theme above bourbon-doused raisin puree, stewed prune, fig and cherry fruiting dovetailing soft chili backdrop. Chocolate-caked toffee-butterscotch sweetness, maple-sapped Blackstrap molasses sinew and wavered espresso-cappuccino hints crowd back-throated black anise tongue coating.
MIKKELLER NUGGET SINGLE HOP I.P.A.
Wonderful ‘American-styled’ barleywine-like India Pale Ale goes beyond any stylistic comparison, maintaining an easygoing ‘nugget hop’ appeal that won’t preclude softer palates. Stimulatingly sumptuous syrupy Scotch sweetness embraces bruised orange-cherry juicing and wafting orange blossom nicety. Tangy cantaloupe, peach, tangerine, melon and orange marmalade illusions sweeten cotton-candied marshmallow undertones. Way more expressive than coarser Scotch-licked orange fruited elixirs.
FULL SAIL ELEVATION IMPERIAL I.P.A.
Beautifully well balanced and stylistically efficient medium-to-full-bodied Oregonian deserves ‘elevated’ status. Floral honeysuckle aromatics seep into crisp-watered, piney-hopped, grapefruit-peeled sure shot. Sweet spruce overtones and creamy caramelized crystal malting caress expectant apple-peach-orange-melon-pineapple medley, contrasting heightened juniper-like bittering.
BLUE HILLS THREE PEAK HOLIDAY STOUT
Indelible coffee roast sidled by milky brown chocolate sweetness all the way through for uniformly lactic winter-spiced medium body. Cocoa, toffee and vanilla saturate subtle burgundy-rum boozing and muted cinnamon-toasted nutmeg spicing to affably nutty coffee bean finish.
BALASHI CHILL
Crisply light-bodied with minimal grain-toasted hop roast, stable French bread-crusted affinity and salty lemon lime brining. Fizzy phenol astringency kept down. Goes well with cheap snacks on a sweltering sunny afternoon.
BRUGSE HENDRIK QUADRUPEL
Exquisitely detailed multi-layered strong ale (11%) brings immediate warmth as engrossingly rich dessert tranquilizer. Floral-soaked cognac, bourbon and spiced wine illusions float to the surface above dank-cellared fungi yeast, informing dried-fruited black cherry, raisin, prune, and date nuances. Chewy brown-sugared caramel malting and sweet vanilla daub contrast underlying black-peppered hop bittering and vinous grape snip.
ATWATER GRAND CIRCUS INDIA PALE ALE
Trivial canned IPA with evaporative pine fruiting lacks specificity and character. Metallic sheen overrides distant pineapple-grapefruit snip and bland white-breaded graining. Perhaps closer to a British IPA with its dryer grain mash and saltier earthen bottom.
AVERY JOE’S PREMIUM AMERICAN PILSNER
Terrific light-bodied straw-hazed pils contrasts mild bitterness with tingly citric sweetness to perfection. Wafting skunked pungency never negates easygoing grassy-hopped crystal malting. Challah-breaded biscuit, sourdough and flour undertones whisk by arid straw-grained pine-barked astringency and sudsy carbolic Seltzer fizzing. Docile lemon custard, key lime pie and marmalade illusions fill floral backdrop. A simple soft-toned pilsner with some legs.
SAMUEL ADAMS THIRTEENTH HOUR DARK BELGIAN STOUT
Vigorous ‘Kosmic Mother Funk’ aged in oak barrels overlays sour Belgian yeast funk with dark-fruited rum, bourbon, burgundy, and Courvoisier toxicity as aromatic black pepper fills the air. Chocolate-spiced raisin, plum, fig and dried cherry illusions form at the vanilla-daubed molasses midst while back-tongued cardamom-nutmeg-ginger seasoning reaches a light-roast brown coffee simmer. Advertised ‘oaken’ aspect gets downplayed.
WACHUSETT MILK STOUT
Efficiently expressive milk chocolate creaminess picks up oats-sugared vanilla, crème de cocoa, hazelnut coffee, cappuccino and toffee illusions over dewy peat. Rich lactic layout slightly embittered by hop-charred roast. Serve to Milk Dud lovers.
BARCADE – BROOKLYN
BROOKLYN’S BARCADE BRINGS GAMING TO SPECIALTY BREWS
The original BARCADE in Brooklyn’s hipster Williamsburg section brought arcade gaming to endlessly rotating American craft draughts in 2004. A caliginous North Side bar with a grimy dive feel and rustic furnishings, Barcade’s a genuine one-of-a-kind novel idea promoted mostly by Jersey-bred co-owner Paul Kermizian. Just around the corner from international beer haven, Spuyten Duyvil, this dank brick-walled industrial space has an enclosed front patio walkway that offers patrons the chance to take a break from the 24 taps and 35 games to sit and chat.
Serious craft beer enthusiasts with a hankering for vintage electronic games from Asteroids and beyond will go spastic over this place – especially the cheap quarter-priced video gaming fee. Loud rock music blasts from the speakers, echoing to the high warehouse ceiling.
Tonight’s Winter Beer Night at Barcade and the crowded bar is plush with young beer folk. Several locals bring their dogs here while imbibing some of the best suds found under one roof. One’s seated next to Climax Brewing owner Dave Hoffmann, whose father and I drove in with him this cold Thursday evening in early December ’11. Hosting boss Paul Kermizian chats with Hoffmann and I at the left side bar, chewing the fat over a wide variety of brews.
I usually sojourn to Barcade on the way to Williamsburg rock shows a few streets down, but tonight I’ll be drinking for four whole hours since I don’t have to drive home or attend a concert. There’ll be so much socializing going on I’ll forget to drop a few quarters in the ’70s/ ’80s-related video games. The beers discovered run the gamut from a cabernet-wined strong ale to two barleywines, two Baltic Porters, a honeyed pils and a rummy gourd-spiced elixir (full reviews given in the Beer Index).
As we settle in around 8 PM, I dig into Kelso Cabernet Quad Bock, an oaken Cabernet Sauvignon-soothed quadrupel with sharp-hopped raisin-plum dried fruiting, musky Muscatel wining and tart cranberry-raspberry recession. Probably more suited to a noir-ish nightcap, its eloquent warmth loosened me up right away.
Traditional Czech-styled moderate body, Fisherman’s Honey Pilsner, brought a raw-honeyed lemon pucker to grassy-hopped herbage and sourdough malting. Brewed by Cape Ann’s Jeremy Goldberg, one of the stars in the informal ’02 documentary American Beer (alongside Kermezian), put together a wholly successful Fisherman’s line of brews and each one’s specially priced when featured at this venerable Brooklyn hideaway.
Next came Harpoon Leviathon Baltic Porter, a chocolate-y full body aged two years for a deeper wood-smoked molasses sapping. Similarly styled Sixpoint S.M.P. Baltic Porter contrasted its dark chocolate, cocoa nibs, and coffee bean roasting with beechwood smoked nuttiness.
We stepped outside to get some air before I reached for a few high alcohol treats that’d put me to sleep on the way back to Hoffmann’s brewery.
First up, excellent rum barrel aged Avery Rumpkin had a rum-spiced pumpkin pie sweetness sidled by red chery, bruised orange and candied apple illusions. As I sip this brandy-wined cognac-like strong ale, several new customers walk in and grab a few Middle Ages Dragon Slayer’s alongside Dogfish Head Faithfull. In town for the extended weekend, these twenty-something professionals admit revisiting Barcade time and again. And a few walk over to play Donkey Kong.
As my buzz thickens, I reach for some water before delving into two English-styled barleywines. A Challah-breaded almond toasting invited the dryer Pretty Things Our Finest Regards. But California’s sweeter Bear Republic Barrel Aged Olde Scoutter outdid its worthy winter-warming Massachusetts opponent. Its lilting bourbon lick recieved a brown-sugared fig-date conflux and oak-aged vanilla simmer.
Though Brooklyn’s Barcade may seem inconspicuous and inconsequential from the street, customers will be surprised by its tempting American craft beers as well as the large video game selection. Daily 5 to 8 PM happy hour offers $1 off well drinks. So double your pleasure and start gaming while fully imbibing with friends.