On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, unfiltered Bavarian lager (a.k.a. kellerbier) brings dry barnyard graining to light lemondrop spiced herbage. Musky maize husk and mild grits salting reach sourdough base.
Category Archives: Beers A-Z
THE SEED: A LIVING BEER PROJECT FIORE
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, slightly richer than typical Italian pilsner draws raw-honeyed Vienna malting and Magnum-Saaz-hopped earthen musk to lightly sweetened floral-spiced lemon spritz.
THE SEED: A LIVING BEER PROJECT LITTLE RIVERS NEW ZEALAND PILSNER
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, sharp lemony grapefruit bittering gains limey New Zealand-hopped green grape, guava and passionfruit tartness for brisk Kiwi-styled light pilsner with toasted bread base.
THE SEED: A LIVING BEER PROJECT SIMPLY LIGHT
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, unassuming Seltzer-like light lager lets evaporative maize acridity, musky perfumed hop spot and delicate pilsner malting coalesce. Betters Coors-Miller-Bud Light, if that’s progress.
HOUSATONIC RIVER SACRED GROUNDS COFFEE PORTER
Upfront coffee roast receives creamy milk chocolatey caramel fudging and recessive citric acidity plus distant berry snips for satisfyingly mellow Sacred Grounds Coffee Roasters collab.
HOUSATONIC RIVER AMARILLO SKY DOUBLE IPA
Richly creamed full body combines Ipswich IPA’s thick cookie dough yeast and bruised orange swerve with Rogue Dead Guy’s honeyed chestnut/ almond splurge and rum-soaked whiskey warmth. Tertiary grilled pineapple, salted mango and pink grapefruit illusions, delicate floral spicing and sappy pine add to luxurious Amarillo/Citra hop blend.
NOD HILL BREWERY
RIDGEFIELD, CONNECTICUT
Inside a tan stucco brick building overlooking the sylvan tree-lined countryside at the foothills of the Berkshire Mountain in Ridgefield, Connecticut, NOD HILL BREWERY came into biz, November 3, 2017. Boasting “separate authentic flavor profiles for its small community vibe,” the popular pub has expanded its taproom, began local can distribution and struggled to keep up with increased demand.
Nod Hill’s spacious wood floored interior features a lacquered wood top bar, two community tables, a few round tables, loungy metal-chaired tree stump tables, several side stands and an overhead door – plus a baby blue-tiled draught board at the back bar listing eight homemade elixirs. Brewtanks are stored in the large backroom and a centralized refrigerator serves to-go brews.
Perhaps the most important part of Nod Hill is its separate picnic-tabled pavilion beergarden. A solar-powered brewhouse, its brewers’ tend to make ‘hop-forward ales, Old World English, German and Belgian styles and spontaneously mixed fermentation oak-aged beers.’
Portishead plays trip-hop in the backdrop as my wife and I sink a few Nod Hill brews on a sunny Friday evening, July ’24.
Bavarian lager yeast, mineralized pilsner graining and Noble hop herbage connected for standard mild German Pils, Beam, a slightly pungent moderation with light lemon licks and recessive doughy breading.
A frisky lemon spritz sparked bustling hefeweizen, Fritz Walrus Edelweiss, retaining stylish banana-clove sweetness but adding date, plum and raisin subtleties to the rich honeyed wheat base.
Lemony white peppering, green grape esters and soft floral spicing engaged Trappist single, Ace of Wands, a delicate pilsner malted patersbier (best described as Belgian Monk’s lawnmower beer).
Mixed fermentation red wine-barreled Belgian dubbel, Queen Of Funk, stayed dry as leathery muscat grape, oaken vanilla and charcoaled black chocolate illusions picked up light lemon acidity.
Buttery dried fruiting draped lovely Belgian quad, King Of Swords, leaving candi-sugared raisin, plum and prune sweetness plus nutty toffee spicing and cotton candy confection upon brown chocolate malting.
Flagship NEIPA, Geobunny, raised grapefruit rind bittering, orange peel sweetness, tangerine tanginess and tart gooseberry-guava souring above vanilla-daubed oated wheat creaming.
Another flagship NEIPA, Super Mantis, maintained a sunnier, brighter disposition as its tropical fruit juicing embroidered a dryer wood backdrop. Peachy pineapple tanginess, lemony grapefruit bittering, navel orange sweetness and salted mango-papaya tropicalia reached mild oats-flaked pilsner malting.
English-styled dark mild, Eynsham, let bland dried fruiting run thru light-roast burnt coffee tones, buttery cocoa powdering and murky nuttiness.
CENTRAL WATERS BREWERS RESERVE VANILLA BEAN STOUT
On tap at Growler & Gill, dry barrel-aged vanilla bean adjunct picks up gentle bourbon warmth and dark cocoa caress of initial Brewers Reserve stout, replacing original’s brown-sugared dried fruiting with thick black treacle-syruped vanilla resonance. Oak charred whiskey tones, black chocolate bittering and milked espresso nuttiness enrich full bodied template.
WELDWERKS STARRY NIGHT MILK STOUT
On tap at Growler & Gill, milk-sugared coconut toasting and hazelnut pasting stick to milk chocolatey Graham Cracker base of frothy tan-headed mahogany-bodied sweet stout, leaving tertiary black cherry, black grape and date illusions.
FRYE MOONDOGGLE BARREL AGED IMPERIAL BROWN ALE
Pleasant soft-toned brown ale aged in Laird’s Apple Brandy coalesces brown chocolate-malted Irish coffee creaming with caramelized dried fruiting and subtle chestnut-almond nips – recalling a lighter barleywine. Sharp apple-spiced raisin, date and prune subtleties receive mild black peppering, contrasting candied dried fruit finish.
ABOMINATION DRIPPY POPSICLE FRUITED SMOOTHIE SOUR – STRAWBERRY
Murkily lacquered pinkish mauve fruited Smoothie lets perfumed Pez-candied strawberry tartness receive vanilla beaned marshmallow sweetness overtaken by sour lemon-puckered white wine esters as mild pomegranate, cider and rhubarb illusions also seep into sea-salted acidulated malting.
VEIL DESSERT ISLAND TASTEE SMOOTHIE STYLE SOUR ALE
Murkily rust clouded Smoothie with yogurt-milked thickness lets wafting orange-concentrated blueberry pomegranate lacquering and tannic pencil shavings disrupt salty mango, oaken cherry and toasted coconut adjuncts in lightly vinous salting. Distant red-wined Giacobazzi and Chianti illusions seeping thru the uneven, ammonia-daubed mix.
