OLD SAYBROOK, CONNECTICUT
Hidden inside a brick terra cotta warehouse-garage along the railroad tracks of Long Island Sound-bound Old Saybrook, 30 MILE BREWING CO. opened its doors in 2016. A quaint cement-floored dig with green and grey walls, indoor patio setup and 3 TV’s, its charm lies in its lean simplicity and good beers.
As of my initial mid-January ’19 fling, there were bottles and cans available for outside consumption. I got to sample eight well-defined homebrews on my early afternoon stopover with wife and dog, Roscoe, before escaping the oncoming snowstorm.
Signature India Pale Ale, Baby Fight Club, stayed tarter than tangy as its spangling citrus gleam allowed spicy grapefruit, orange and tangerine juicing to rise above mild lupulin-oiled pine tones and dry pale malts.
Dryer citric conciseness saddled Baby Fight Club (Double Dry-Hopped), a zestful IPA securing tingly lemon, grapefruit, orange and tangelo licks with herbal-licked grassy hop astringency.
Easygoing Mosaic-Citra-Cascade-hopped smoothie, Sum Pulp New England IPA, retained its stylish grapefruit, pineapple and orange zestfulness above gentle coniferous pining and modest crystal pale malting.
For audaciously wondrous one-off, Going Sour: Pomegranate, mild acidic salinity underlined pleasantly tart pomegranate sourness contrasted to perfection by sweet vanilla sugaring (and picking up latent gooseberry-cranberry snips).
Nearly as fine, Going Sour: Black Currant utilized subtle blackcurrant-spiced tartness to appease its moderately acidic salinity, leaving white grape, green plum, green apple and gooseberry illusions in its wake.
Stylishly soft-toned Rymley’s Winter Warmer, a dryer-than-sweet barleywine, placed muted red grape, red cherry and plum tones above aridly earthen caramel grain malts.
Happily abstruse Raison Saison plied golden raisins to its banana daquiri-sweetened Graham Cracker spine while wispily white-peppered lime tartness secured the rustic grained underbelly.
Coming across like a delightful creamed coffee, Astute Stout brought vanilla-beaned espresso adjuncts to the fore while sweet caramel latte, cinnamon and dark fruiting shaded the jaunty java juggernaut.
30milebrewingco.com