SMYRNA, DELAWARE
Joining Blue Earl as Smyrna’s second brewery, BRICK WORKS BREWING opened in 2016 under the tutelage of nearby Milford’s Mispillion River Brewing. At Dupont Boulevard’s Commodore Commons Shopping Center in a freestanding red brick building, Brick Works’ brewmaster Ryan Maloney has created several newly designed elixirs to go alongside fine locally sourced pub fare.
Featuring a wooden fifteen-stooled slate top bar with a few four-seat tables towards the front and several scattered TV’s for sportsfans, its left side red cement-floored dining area contains the stainless-steeled open kitchen. Windowed brew tanks store the golden suds.
My wife and I grab a table in the closed-in patio (with sundry furnishings, a central slate-topped community table and rounded fire pit. I got to try eight fine homemade brews during my mid-afternoon July ’19 journey (though I missed out on the dortmunder lager and English mild ale).
Crisply dry moderation, Tiny Brick American Lager, brought perfumed orange oiling to mild horse-blanketed barnyard acridity, mineralized cereal graining and slight asparagus snip.
Orange-peeled lemondrop tartness secured Kaleidoscopic Sun Munich Helles Lager, receiving musky wheatgrass pungency and light tobacco crisping at the dry finish.
Cologne-perfumed yellow fruiting inundated Citrus Mistress American Wheat, letting its grassy hay-like hop astringency desiccate lemony grapefruit-mango briskness and zesty lime pucker.
Easygoing Drop Towel IPA soothed the tongue with lightly embittered grapefruit rind, tartly sour lemon and dry pine tones.
Juicy grapefruit, orange, peach and mango anchored brisk medium-bodied Boujee Boy Fruit IPA, leaving mildly creamed crystal malting on the back end.
Light citrus spicing upended dry herbal musk for Nouveau Riche Belgian Pale Ale, contrasting creamy sugared malts against astringent grape-leafed hop esters.
Lactic Joose Goose Double IPA brought limey grapefruit salting to waxy white grape, pineapple, gooseberry and mango fruiting, floral-bound herbal resin and subtle pale malt dryness.
Milk chocolate-centered Dark Entries Oatmeal Stout serenaded its bittersweet mocha continuance with Blackstrap molasses, toffee and black cherry illusions.
brickworksde.com