On tap at Pompton Craft House, dry Irish red ale collab with Hackettstown Fire Dept. drapes red and orange fruited spicing plus sweet floral daubs atop mild caramelized pale malting. Good stuff but not dewy enuff for peaty Irish red stead.
On tap at Taphouse 15, well integrated bourbon barrel aged stout lets abundantly creamed hazelnut coffee entry pick up piquant vanilla sweetness as well as "hazelnut brownie battered Italian espresso" intensity. Decadent milk-sugared hazelnut coffee dominance stays sturdy while tertiary black cherry pureed tartness and mild black licorice snips seep thru exuberant full bodied richness.
On tap at Taphouse 15, decadent 5th anniversary Imperial Stout's cocoa-nibbed cookie dough onrush enhanced by Vanuatu vanilla bean adjunct, picking up dark chocolate-syruped coffee stain, mellow bourbon warmth and bruised black cherry tartness as ancillary marshmallow, coconut and hazelnut illusions surface latently.
Bold coffee-tinged dark chocolate bittering surges past adjunctive orange oiling. Cocoa-dried acridity sets in, overwhelming chocolate pudding-skinned maple molasses sweetness.
On tap at Hoover's Tavern, muted lemony blackberry tartness lingers softly above musty fungi-induced barnyard acridity and spicy saison yeast peppering. Needs more pronounced blackberry influence.
On tap at Beef Trust, broad ranging amber yellow-hazed Milkshake IPA conditioned on apricot and Madagascar vanilla beans gains sour lactic milking above swerved pale malt sugaring. Sweet orange peel dab, dainty peach dollop and a pinch of cinnamon stay recessive as vanilla-creamed apricot thrust retains perkiness.
On tap at Beef Trust, disparate hybridized hefeweizen brings lactic-milked peach and cinnamon adjuncts to sharp lemony orange tang and mildly soured gooseberry, guava, green grape and green banana tropicalia with fine results. Citric-enhanced cinnamon spicing aids peach yogurt template. Not far removed from a sour IPA.