On tap at Growler To Go – Kitty Hawk, vanilla caked sugaring coats lemon-candied orange marmalade, tangerine and tangelo tartness before cream soda finish fizzles.
HIGH BRANCH ORANGE DREAM GOLDEN ALE
All posts by John Fortunato
WALLENPAUPACK NO WAKE ZONE LAGER WITH ORANGE PEEL
Summertime helles lager with adjunctive navel orange peel tang covering tingly lemondrop tartness and mild floral herbage over doughy wheat-wafered baked breading.
RED OAK AMBER LAGER
Middling Bavarian-styled lager brings toasted caramel sweetness to apple-skinned orange and tangerine swipes and distant green grape esters in mossy setting.
STONY CREEK LA GARZA MEXICALI STYLE LAGER
Easygoing, stylishly nebulous, Mexican lager with laidback rice-milked flaked corn sweetness, mild lemon liming and wispy floral spicing gains gluey residue soaking toasted cereal graining. Suffices sweeter light pilsner thirsts.
NEW BELGIUM HOUSE GOLD PILSNER
On tap at Onley Taphouse – Maryland, easygoing German-styled pilsner retains dry earthen musk and light herbage contrasting sweet-corned rice sugaring wavering thru toasted wheat breading.
JERSEY CYCLONE WAVES OF TIME LAGER
Dry puffy white-headed golden-bodied moderation retains crisp barley roast, light perfumed spicing and gluey starching. Pleasantly sweet summertime lager.
SHORTWAY BREWING COMPANY
NEWPORT, NORTH CAROLINA
An inconspicuous mini-mall oasis in the tony Carteret County ‘gateway’ town of Newport, SHORTWAY BREWING COMPANY serves up some of North Carolina’s finest – and often driest – American styled ales. Opened during 2017, the veteran family-owned Shortway Brewing’s understated interior gets intensified when patrons exit thru the rear and reach the garden of earthly delights, a flowery stone-ground back deck with Adirondack chairs and wood benches.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon in August ’24, my wife and I stepped up to the wood top serving station to try ten diversified proprietary suds (while taking three wheat ale variants to Topsail Beach – reviewed in Beer Index). There are twelve tap handles plus a few refrigerator draught lines at the central bar area as well as a blackboard tap list and decorative branched hop vine.
The simple concrete-floored wood-paneled pub includes six wood benches and a few metal-seated tables plus mason-jarred lights on antique gold-plated fans at the low ceiling. Windowed tanks to the right sidle the wood block-tabled metal seating upfront.
Dry raw-honeyed lemon musk, salty husked corn and sweet rice consumed light-bodied opener, Lookout Blonde, leaving barnyard hay-parched herbal hop astringency on the mildly mineral grained finish.
Mild lemon limed agave suited Sol Seeker Mexican Lager, a brisk pilsner-malted lightweight.
Spritzy lemon and dainty berry teased easygoing wheat-cracked moderation, Chatham Street Wheat Ale, concealing some floral-herbed hop phenols.
Tart lemon-seeded raspberry scurried thru the dry wheat-cracked spine of Squeeze The Day Raspberry Lemon Wheat Ale,
Briny watermelon rind and cologne-perfumed lemon liming faded for approachable Ordinance #25 Watermelon Lime Gose, letting its stylish coriander-seeded saltiness seep thru slowly.
Dry West Coast IPA, Down East, retained yellow grapefruit and orange rind bittering plus juniper berry licks to contrast its peachy melon swipes over spicy rye.
Lemony grapefruit and orange tanginess picked up floral perfumed pine musk for off-dry Good Vibes IPA, a tropical delight with tertiary mango, guava and pineapple whims.
Cocoa-dried light roast coffee received walnut, Brazil nut and macadamia nut influence for Newporter American Porter, shading its burnt caramel sweetness.
Soft-tongued confectionery dessert, Almond Coconut Stout, plied mild coconut-milked almond nuttiness to Nilla Wafer-like sweetness.
Whiskey-bent Newport Strong Ale, a caramel-spiced Imperial Red Ale, gained mild barleywine, Chardonnay and sherry wisps.
SHORTWAY SANDY WHITE PEACHES WHEAT ALE
Abundant white peach tang and sweet apricot slot receive fizzy lemon licks. In the midst, candied peach ring sugaring, Peach Schnapps syruping and peach brandy illusions rally above honeyed wheat base.
SHORTWAY BLUEBERRY SURF
Tart blueberry adjunct almost washed out by sour lemon fizz and phenol hop astringency, picking up mild spicing for its finishing candied berry swagger.
SHORTWAY LEMON LUSH WHEAT ALE
Brisk lemon lime rush scurries thru crisp lettuce watering as tangy lemon vanilla creaming and mild bubblegum sugaring reach sweet shortbread finish.
SHEP’S DOOBIE DOOBIE BREW!
Easygoing ‘hemp hopped New England IPA stays soft and pillowy despite strong 10% ABV rubbing alcohol waft. Lemon-wedged white grapefruit, mandarin orange and pineapple zesting gains resinous hemp perfuming, dank floral musk and juniper-nipped pine lacquering cushioned by creamy oated wheat bed.
SHEP’S I’LL BE BOCK
Traditional German bock with mildly caramelized dried fruiting caressing dewy fungi musk to its molasses-dripped sweet bread finish. Only some tinny astringency gets in the way of the subdued dried prune, green raisin and plum illusions.