Category Archives: United States Brewpubs

TOX BREWING COMPANY

Tox Brewing Company

NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT

TOX BREWING COMPANY became New London, Connecticut’s first brewpub, April 2019. Run by a few local ‘curiosity-filled’ beer nerds, Tox crafts many vibrantly sharp IPA’s alongside an eclectic array of stylistic offshoots.

Occupying a rustic cabin with community-tabled front patio, the epoxy-floored pub offers a six-chaired L-shaped serving station, several metal-wood Industrial tables and a fabulous Beer Style map on the right wall. The turquoise-daubed copper patina draught stations match the bar frontage while twisted Edison lights provide cool antiquity and a TV at the bar sits atop the mushroom-handled draught taps. The rear brew room has a raw feel.

During my December ’21 venture, got to try nine impressive suds.

Dry pilsner-malted kolsch, Crocus, let orange-rotted champagne fizz prickle vinous grape, tart cherry and spicy saffron as well as Noble hop herbage in a mild manner.

Dewy dried fruited spicing anchored Mandrake, a heady 9.5% ABV Scotch Ale with caramelized chestnut, praline and almond nuttiness and light tobacco roast.

Sharp flagship IPA, Amanita, brought floral-spiced tropicalia to the fore as mango-candied grapefruit, orange and tangerine tang contrasted piney hop bittering.

Dry soft-tongued NEIPA, Devil’s Trumpet, allowed lemon-candied peach, mango and pineapple tanginess to penetrate mild coniferous pine tones and black pepper whims.

Bright ‘n lively IPA, Eft Citra, let zesty lemon and orange-candied mango, papaya and grapefruit spicing pick up waxy crayon grouting and lacquered pine oiling.

Cocktail-inspired sour IPA, Box Jelly Paloma, based on Mexico’s national drink, plied sea-salted agave to mild limey grapefruit pith bittering for a nifty tequila knockoff.

Briskly sharp Christmas-spiced fruited sour, Lily Of The Valley – Spiced Cranberry Sauce, a distinct Berliner Weiss variant, backed its salted lemony cranberry tartness with orange-peeled cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger seasoning and vanilla-daubed maple syruping.

Another wintry treat, Holly, Holiday Fruitcake Winter Warmer, hurled gingerbread-bound cinnamon, vanilla and almond sweetness at dried fruited nuttiness for a strong 8.5% ABV confection.

Guatemalan coffee roast pervaded luxurious milk stout, Deadly Nightshade, bringing brown-sugared cinnamon spicing, candied hazelnut glaze, vanilla and espresso illusions into the rich java scheme.

ZEUS BREWING COMPANY

Thinking About Robots - Zeus Brewing Company | Photos - Untappd

POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK

At the bottom of the hill in Poughkeepsie’s bustling Main Street promenade, ZEUS BREWING COMPANY began operations December ’19. An exquisite Industrial chic pub on the large-windowed first floor of the Queen City loft, its rooftop bar and lounge overlook the Hudson River. Rising to prominence quickly, Zeus joins King’s Court, Mill House and Blue Collar as Poughkeepsie’s first four modern microbreweries.

Brewmaster Amit Ram (formerly of nearby Peekskill and Newburgh breweries) utilizes a left side seven-barrel system to craft his brisk IPA-centric fare as well as nifty one-offs and recurring fare. The upscale pub menu includes brick oven pizza, artisanal entrees, burgers, wings and sandwiches plus specialty cocktails, wine and ciders.

Two colossal neo-Classical wood cabinet murals grace the ten-seat bar. The beautiful black brick-tiled bar back features one bronze draught station with twelve tap handles (and a TV peering out from each corner). Several four-seat wood tables fill out the high-ceilinged black and white-walled pub.

Zeus Brewing: Poughkeepsie's Newest Brewpub Aims for Beer Worthy of Gods |  Restaurants | Hudson Valley | Chronogram Magazine

Classic soul music played as my wife and I enjoyed all ten available brews during our December ’21 trip prior to dinner up the street at Schatzi’s.

Muskily earthen grained German-styled light-body, Queen City Pilsner, left a dainty floral-spiced lemon spec upon its French-breaded spine.

Dewy Aviator Doppelbock let rye-spiced brown breading, peaty mossing and dried fig combine alongside sugary toffee malts.

Rustic P.F.L. Harvest Lager retained leathery hay dryness, earthen truffle musk and honeyed rye buttering for mild butternut squash adjunct.

Crisp moderate dark lager, Crown & Anchor English Mild, filled its dewy peat meadow with sashayed red-orange fruiting and leafy hop astringency above biscuity cereal malts.

A Mosaic-hopped West Coast pilsner (collaboration with Wayward Lane), Everything For Everyone brought sharp floral-perfumed lemon bittering to mild lacquered pine tones contrasting cereal grained pilsner malting.

Similarly West Coast styled, Cruisin’ The One, a bright IPA, let juicily yellow grapefruit-peeled orange tanginess and candied lemon absorb floral-daubed piney hop resin.

Escaping to two East Coast IPA variants, dry Nelson Sauvin-hopped Nelson Road hid sour gooseberry tartness beneath lightly lingered grapefruit and mandarin orange bittering.

Meanwhile, fellow New England IPA, Mall Santa, provided spicier sweetness to its zestful grapefruit, orange, pineapple and peach tang.

Delicate yellow-hazed Imperial IPA, Square Two, retained dry grapefruit-orange zesting, mild pine bittering and floral-herbed snips as subtle apricot-tangerine notions waver.

Easygoing Berliner Weiss, Urban Oasis Italian Plum & Cranberry, allowed sour cranberry and dried plum tartness to gain briny lemon liming without overloading citric acidity.          

JERSEY CYCLONE BREWING COMPANY

Image result for jersey cyclone brewing exterior

SOMERSET, NEW JERSEY

Open May 2019, JERSEY CYCLONE BREWING COMPANY operates a light modern Industrial-furnished 2,500 square foot tasting room in the middle of a professional office mall in Somerset. Local proprietary homebrewers Jan Chwiedosiuk and Brian Teel began working together a few years back and now they specialize in wholly expressive IPA’s and stouts plus worthy pilsner-lagers and fruity kettle-soured Uncharted Waters variants.

Jersey Cyclone’s brick-based, wood lacquer-topped back bar draws 14-plus brews from the stainless steel draught station. Twisted metal-designed cyclone-webbed tap handles occupy the repurposed fire hydrants (previously used as water fountains) and caged Edison lights hang from the ceiling. Community-tabled benches fill out the pristine interior and an outdoor beer garden provides further space.

I hung out with owner Jan Chwiedosiuk at Plank Pizza one Friday night in early December ’21 to down eight proprietary 5-ouncers. Then, a week hence, my wife and I dropped by Jersey Cyclone to down a few more diversified suds.

Jersey Cyclone Brewing is open for business in Franklin

Soft-toned Eye Of The Storm, a sunny tropical flagship India Pale Ale, combined lemony grapefruit zesting, brisk orange peel sweetness and spicy peach-mango-tangerine sugaring above crystal-caramel malts – leaving dank pine tones on its candied citrus finish.

Easygoing tropical-fruited IPA, Microburst, gathered orange-peeled grapefruit zesting, peachy lychee-pineapple-mango tanginess and wax-candied cherry blip to contrast juniper-embittered currant tannins.

Lightly lactic Imperial IPA, Harbor Of Refuge, contrasted tangy citrus spicing and sweet caramel malts against mild red-peppered jalapeno heat as earthen pine resin and celery-watered herbage scurried below.

Pleasantly fruited kettle sour, Uncharted Waters Cranberry Orange, plied salted berry-citrus tartness and pithy orange juicing (plus white peach tartness) to lactic acidulated malts.

Toasted amber graining and dewy peat mossing (reminiscent of a red ale) picked up mild dried fruiting and dainty nuttiness over biscuity malts for Touchdown Lager, an offbeat Dunkelweizen.

Tarry black patent-malted dark chocolate syruping greeted Baltic Porter, Storm Surge, bringing ancillary coffee-stained maple oats and dark toffee spicing to dewy brown-leafed hop astringency.

Luxuriously detailed Imperial Stout, Barrel Aged Flood, steeped in rum, rye and bourbon barrels, let creamy dark chocolate and bourbon vanilla richness propel molasses-sapped nuttiness, dainty raisin-plum-prune subtleties and brandied burgundy wining above recessive charcoal hop sear.

Decadent confectionery dessert, Back For S’More, a bold lactose stout with cocoa nibs, vanilla beans and cinnamon, received chewy marshmallow-honeyed Graham Cracker sugaring and sneaky almond-praline-toffee illusions latently contrasted by a subtle wood-singed hop char. its fudgy brown chocolate overtones and creamy vanilla richness enhanced the fulsome finish.

The above beers were consumed at Plank Pizza, but the suds below got imbibed at Jersey Cyclone early December ’21.

Brisk clear golden Czech pilsner, Clear Skies, combined raw-grained oated wheat with musky floral herbage.

Lively NEIPA, Pole Reversal, brought orange-peeled peach, pineapple and grapefruit tanginess to salty pine needled hop bittering above sugary pale malts in a stylishly straightforward way.

Lactic kettle-soured fruited gose, Uncharted Waters Passionfruit, let mildly acidic lemon-limed Himalayan pink salting embitter its dry passionfruit-pureed gooseberry tartness.

A spicier Baltic Porter, Storm Surge engaged its caramelized dark chocolate base with cinnamon French toast illusions plus spiced coffee, anise and toffee atop molasses-smeared brown breading.

Coffee-stained dark chocolate malting saddled Flood, a dewy Imperial Stout with soily compost-wafted nuttiness.

Bold lactic vanilla beaned Imperial Coffee Porter, Snowtoberfest, graced its roasted coffee frontage with holiday-inspired cinnamon-spiced brown chocolate, gingerbread, Amaretto, glazed hazelnut and dark cocoa regalia.

FLOUNDER BREWING COMPANY

NJ breweries: Flounder Brewing relocates to Hillsborough farm

HILLSBOROUGH, NEW JERSEY

After nearly a decade at crowded Hillsborough Business Park, FLOUNDER BREWING COMPANY moved to a huge wood-paneled barnhouse on a 19-acre Carraige Farm a few miles away (next to Bellemara Distillery), springtime 2021. Initiated by former homebrewer, Jeremy Lees, the winner of Sam Adams 2016 Brewing and Business Experienceship award, Flounder continues to grow exponentially.

Making great use of plank wood and prestigious wood columns, the stainless steel-tanked interior also offers mezzanine seating. The high-ceilinged, polyurethane-floored, repurposed microbrewery features several community tables, four-seat metal chaired wood tables and a fifteen-barrel system crafting a wide range of one-offs, recurring favorites and splendid dark ales.

Two opposing overhead side doors, one leading to back patio seating with strewn Edison lights, get utilized for outdoor quaffing.Flounder Brewing Company, United States, New Jersey, Hillsborough |  BrewCruizer

I’d already experienced a dozen or so Flounder brews at the old business park locale before downing six more previously untried libations spanning the gamut from German-styled kellerbier to amber and pale ale to English bitter, nitro porter and spiced-up Christmas ale.

Crisply rustic Kellerbier, Sich Unterhalter, pitched musty raw-grained earthiness to orange-spiced herbal musk over bready pilsner malts.

Soft-tongued dewy peat mossing led easygoing English bitter, One And Done, placing buttery fig-dried nuttiness alongside earthen herbal licks.

Stylishly bold amber ale, Slow Roller, let the orange-peeled grapefruit zesting and dank pine resin of an IPA blend with sweetly spiced amber graining.

Brisk orange-peeled lemon zest brightened lovely floral-spiced pale ale, Almost Persuaded, a sunshiny moderation with mild piney hop bittering.

Dry nutty dark chocolate and mild black coffee bittering sufficed for nitro porter, Post Digger, leaving burnt caramel sweetness upon its charred hop backend.

Festive Christmas ale, St. Nick, plied brown-sugared dried fruiting to dainty cinnamon-nutmeg-allspice seasoning, gingerbread cookie sweetness and singed cedar-hickory wisps.

FOX FARM BREWERY

Growing CT Beer At Fox Farm Brewery — CT Bites

SALEM, CONNECTICUT

Open 2018 in the remote rural bedroom community of Salem, Connecticut, FOX FARM BREWERY incorporates two distinct refurbished farmhouses with plenty of outside seating along the agrarian homestead.

The expansive grain-siloed maroon and white complex (shown above) houses the pristinely open-aired natural wide plank pine-walled pub. Its majestic gable ceiling and dazzling wood interior are reminiscent of a town church. A wood top serving station features twelve tap handles while a few tables, counters and Edison lights fill out the raw space. The large rear area contains many standard stainless silver brew tanks. A slate side deck adds further seating.

Going around back, the separate white-columned farmhouse with beautiful earth-toned stone frontage stores the sour and spontaneous ale tanks.

My wife and I grab a table at the pub’s mezzanine, November ’21, to down a few pints on a brisk Sunday.

Degrees of Intent — Fox Farm Brewery in Salem, Connecticut — Good Beer  Hunting

Many Fox Farms brews have a rustic, reserved feel and various European styles are respectfully well crafted.

Musky raw-grained Saaz hop herbage, celery-watered lemon oiling and delicate floral spicing refined German-style pilsner, Gather, a stylistically robust Bavarian Kellerbier.

Spritzy sour lemon herbage, orange-dried champagne esters and mild white peppered floral spicing paced dry kolsch, Bower, softly rising above its doughy bread crusting.

Tidy pale ale, Amble, let piney lemongrass-herbed Columbus hop musk seep inside perky grapefruit-orange spicing.

Sedate blonde ale, Little Brook, allowed sunshiny yellow grapefruit, mandarin orange, peach and tangelo tanginess reach its grassy hop stead as mild pine resin and slight herbage stay distant.

Straightforward easygoing India Pale Ale, Burst, maintained a crisply clean citrus spritz as tangy orange, tartly sour lemon and zesty grapefruit laced mildly bitter pine hops.

Mild unfiltered IPA, Tideline, took mellow grapefruit rind bittering and subtle mandarin orange, pineapple and mango tanginess to juniper-licked grassy hops.

Another soothingly soft-toned IPA, Alta, brought floral-spiced yellow grapefruit, orange rind, pineapple, peach and tangerine tanginess plus spritzy lemon zesting to piney hop resin above spelt-like wet graining.

Brisk orange-peeled grapefruit zesting fronted bold Imperial IPA, Burrow, pushing lemon-candied peach, pineapple and tangelo tartness forward alongside mild piney hop bittering topping crystal malt sugaring. Arguably Fox Farm’s best elixir.

Perfectly re-creating a German rauchbier, The Camp Smoked Lager let beechwood-seared peat malts pick up meat-cured salami, pastrami and bacon fat above dried cocoa malts, leaving stylish soap-stoned Band-aid-like astringency upon the smoky finish.

Dry waddle-seeded pumpernickel rye breading soaks up lightly embittered dark cocoa and black chocolate malting above dewy peat earthiness for English-styled Dark Mild, Tiddly, a frothily creamed nitrogenated charmer.

For a true turnabout, exquisitely vinous Foeder-aged Biere De Garde, punctuated its mildly puckered white wine tannins and lemon-lime-squeezed green apple cider souring with leathery barnyard acridity, leaving earthy sawgrass, heart of palm, alfalfa and horseblanket whims on the funky farmhouse ale’s tail end.

BEER’D BREWING COMPANY (THE SILO) – GROTON

Image result for beer'd BREWING GROTON

GROTON, CONNECTICUT

Following the success of its Stonington pub at American Velvet Mill, BEER’D BREWING COMPANY opened “The Silo” in nearby Groton’s Airport Business Park during January, 2020. Inside a gray aluminum cement-floored warehouse with large beige silo and casual front deck, the pristine black-walled Industrial art deco pub features a slate top, 12-seat, slate top bar containing 24 tap handles and black pendant lighting.

There are several tables and chairs fronting the bar and a few cool canvassed mod art designs hanging sparsely along the walls. The distinct Beer’d insignia sits across from the bar.

Producing 6,000 gallons of beer yearly at Groton’s 12,000 square-foot operation will increase production threefold for convivial entrepreneurial partners, Aaren Simoncini and Precious Putnam.

My wife and I stumbled upon four previously untried beers on my initial November ’21 stopover.

Stylishly offbeat, quirkily fruited, Huell Melon/ Mandarina Bavaria-hopped pilsner, Connecticut Casual, plied salty grapefruit-pineapple bittering to lemony sour-candied Gummy Bear tartness above its straw-dried bohemian pilsner malt floor.

Dry Imperial IPA, Riff, let floral grapefruit-peeled orange pith bittering and lacquered pineapple-passionfruit-mango tropicalia pick up musky herbal pining and slight grassy hop astringency above glass-candied crystal malting.

Cold-brewed coffee infiltrated P^2 (with Coffee), a full-bodied java-based cold one with cocoa-smoked roasted chocolate grazing tobacco-chawed bittering.

Nutty roasted espresso beaning led Russian Imperial Stout, Roulette, a rich nightcap with dark cocoa and black coffee riffs settling above tarry hop-charred oats.

BANK & BRIDGE BREWING

Image result for bank and bridge brewing mystic

MYSTIC, CONNECTICUT

Right next door to Mystic Pizza in a beautifully prominent beige marble-columned gothic edifice, BANK & BRIDGE BREWING began operations July ’21. Downtown Mystic’s second brewpub (after Barley Head), this ‘laidback production brewery and taproom’ also offers fine culinary cuisine.

Bank & Bridge’s pristine white-walled interior features several skinny beige-marbled community tables with plastic stools fronting the exquisite 14-seat slate-topped bar. Antique lights add to the vintage feel.

The cement-floored brew tank area is off to the right, a semi-private couched lounge area is situated near the front windows and wall-hung caricatures of Bob Marley and Amy Winehouse are to the left.

The fab pub food menu offers fried chicken, rib eye and cod sandwiches plus burgers and appetizers. Guest taps and red-white wines are available and a game room keeps kids busy.

My wife and I visit on a crowded Saturday afternoon to try all four available home-crafted brews plus Vermont’s Snow Republic Chocolate Twix Highway Milk Stout (reviewed separately in Beer Index).

Crushable light pilsner, The Joker, maintained a musky herbal grained rusticity, lemon-dropped tartness and dry cracked corn malting, staying true to style.

Fluffy cumulous-headed amber yellowed Mystic IPA, a New England-styled medium body, coalesced Citra-hopped grapefruit-orange zesting, Galaxy-hopped piney floral herbage and Nelson Sauvin-hopped pineapple, guava and gooseberry tropicalia above a delicate oated wheat base.

Brisk floral-spiced citrus zesting, hard-candied raspberry tartness and mild coconut watering emerged for Shock-Hop-alypse, a tidy NEIPA with minor pine resin.

Sharp redcurrant-juiced citrus tanginess emboldened Imperial IPA, Celestial Navigation, letting orange-peeled grapefruit, tangerine and clementine receive juniper-licked pine tones.

CROOKED HAMMOCK BREWERY – MIDDLETOWN

MIDDLETOWN, DELAWARE

A funky aluminum-topped farmhouse shack with rounded tin grain roof silo, Middletown’s CROOKED HAMMOCK BREWERY became the franchise’s third location autumn 2019. The rustic 7,000 square-foot pub boasts a hammock-packed backyard and slightly upscale pub menu to go alongside the varied proprietary beer.

A family friendly brew-centric sportsbar, its cement-floored multi-roomed interior features a separate left side dining area and tree bark-enclosed backspace. Large exposed pipes cover the low ceiling and an overhead door leads to the large turf-grounded back deck (with strung Edison lights, covered tiki bar, bocce court, horseshoe pit, cornhole boards and a tiled sequoia firepit lounge).

Plastic chaired tables crowd the outside deck area where my wife and I (plus Roscoe the dog) grab a cranberry pumpkin ricotta dip to go alongside nine delicious brews, November ’21.

Vintage clear purple-bronzed Delaware Punch sour ale knockoff, Wonder Punch, offered sweet-tart grape soda sugaring to just a hint of lemon lime souring.

Salty strawberry toaster pastry, Tardy Pass, an Imperial Sour Ale, hoisted lemon-limed brining and oaken vanilla into tart orange-juiced strawberry rhubarb.

Arguably the best fruited sour, pink magenta-hued FrankenBooBerry let milk-sugared blueberry-strawberry tartness gain aspirin-like cherry buffer, wispy cranberry-guava souring and mild oaken vanilla tannins.

Lactose-heavy Berliner Weiss, Brand New Day: Pomegranate Plum Vanilla, coalesced lime-salted pomegranate with plummy guava souring to contrast sweet vanilla resilience.

Crisp cucumber-salted watermelon rind earthiness contrasted lesser cantaloupe sweetness for fruited kolsch, One In A Melon, leaving cologne-wafted floral spicing on the dry finish.

“Bright” hazy pale ale, Sultana Sun, let mild juniper hop bittering affect juicy pineapple tang and mixed berry tartness over subdued pine resin dankness.

Juicy pink guava picked up grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering and dank wood tones for briskly clean tropical IPA, Bless Up – Pink Guava, combining hard-candied El Dorado, citric-acidic Cashmere and passionfruit-tinged Zappa hops.

Floral-daubed citrus zesting paced Party In The Back, an earthen-bottomed Imperial IPA plying yellow grapefruit bittering and lemon sourness to orange peel sweetness.

Cherrywood-smoked pumpkin salting seeped into the freshly ground black coffee entry of autumnal Jav-O-Lantern, a peppery soy-sauced dry body.

BRICK WORKS BREWING – MILLSBORO

Brick Works Brewing and Eats - OnSite

MILLSBORO, DELAWARE

Opened June 2019, Millsboro’s BRICK WORKS BREWING became the second franchise started after the original Smyrna pub took hold. Fourteen miles from the Delaware beaches in a sleepy suburban community at the Taormina Square mall, the cafe-designed Brick Works operates out of the same stately-styled red brick ranch as its first site.

A large black metal-fenced deck surrounds the entrance leading to the left side barroom featuring a 20-seat L-shaped bar with 14 tap handles, top shelf liquor, two central TV’s, decorative fire company ladders and ceiling-hung Edison lights. Several windowed brewtanks peek out from behind the bar. The sienna-walled right side cafeteria clusters wood-metal furnishings in front of an open kitchen serving worthy pub fare.

I had the crab and corn chowder while consuming five previously untried libations early November ’21 while watching Alabama beat LSU in nightly college football.

Brick Works Brewing and Eats - Long Neck - Millsboro, DE | USA TODAY  Support Local Businesses

Whiskeyed banana-breading insistence gained spicy clove-coriander sugaring and zesty lemon spritz for Heff Off, a heady hefeweizen with mildly vanilla-creamed wheat base.

Peach cobbler pie crusting penetrated the spritzy citrus zesting and subtle honeyed apricot-nectarine fruiting of Princess Peach, a puree-infused pale ale.

Briny strawberry-kiwi tartness received mild lime souring for Strawberry Kiwi Sour, picking up wispy hard cider, gooseberry and cranberry bittering at the rhubarb pie midst.

Creamy S’mores-like confection, Chocolate Covered Pretzel Stout, loaded marshmallow fluffed brown chocolate sweetness inside wheat-honeyed Graham Cracker wrap, overshadowing any salted pretzel influence but gaining a rich chocolate pudding skin texture.

Another S’mores-candied confection, S’mores Part 2 Stout, engaged its cinnamon Graham Cracker-honeyed dark cocoa and mild vanilla-marshmallow sway with creme brulee, spiced toffee and plummy black cherry illusions for heavenly dessert.

FOUR CITY BREWING COMPANY

Four City Brewing Company on Twitter: "We're grateful for your support! Our  taproom is open today 12-10pm with cans still available for sale and 14  beers on tap. See you soon! #fourcitybrewing #

ORANGE, NEW JERSEY

In downtown Orange across from the railroad station, FOUR CITY BREWING COMPANY took hold August 2020. Occupying a large red brick professional building with windowed frontage, the 4,700 square-foot public house features a slate-topped serving station (with blue tile frontage matching the back wall holding the draught handles) as well as an epoxied cement floor, plastic furnishings, strung Edison lights and high-ceilinged exposed pipes.

Reflecting the vibrant local art and music scene with colorful caricature sketches spread across the four walls, Four City crafts stylistically diversified elixirs. Brewer Roger Apollon does a great job utilizing rangy flavor profiles.

A former homebrewer, Apollon helped birth the 300-plus member research and development-oriented Brew Council while visiting over 100 breweries across the nation and abroad.

I imbibed nine fine selections on my late October ’21 visit.

Four City Brewing Company – Orange, NJ

Flagship lager, Keg Stand, brought mild corn-flaked rice sugaring to lemon-herbed fungi musk and hay-dried barnyard acridity for off-dry light-bodied splendor.

Another flagship, Citrus City Pale Ale, coalesced Orangina-fizzed mandarin orange and clementine spritz with lightly embittered grapefruit rind, guava and gooseberry souring above dry wood tones.

Autumnal Eagle Rocktoberfest Marzen contrasted leafy Tettnang hop herbage against dewy caramel-malted Easter breading.

A bit understated, Four City Wit let subtle orange-peeled coriander spicing nip mild banana sweetness and wispy carrot soaping above raw wheat dryness.

Belgian candi-sugar draped laidback prune, plum and fig illusions as well as delicate vanilla-creamed banana sweetness for St. Cloud Belgian Dubbel, dabbing floral perfume spicing across its reserved dried fruited finish.

Onrushing marshmallow sweetness gained briny Sweet-Tart candied lemon liming for bitter blueberry-bustled Bru Berry Berliner Weiss, leaving ancillary orange rind bittering and oaken cherry souring to contrast the vanilla-creamed blueberry finish.

Brisk West Coast-styled Four City West IPA allowed mildly pine lacquered red-orange-yellow fruiting to seep inside perfumed juniper bittering abutting sugary pale malts.

Floral-daubed orange tang and plastique lemon-limed guava souring perused thru Bongo!, a New England IPA with cleanly citric cryo hops.

A resilient Twin Elephant collaboration, Only Built 4 Brewin’ Drinx Imperial Stout pitted Graham Cracker-honeyed peanut buttering and coconut toasting against dark cocoa nibs above molasses oats, gaining dry Bakers chocolate chalking at the bold S’mores finish.

FOREIGN OBJECTS BEER COMPANY

Foreign Objects Beer Company

MONROE, NEW YORK

High on the hill just off the Appalachian Trail at the agrarian village of Monroe in a grey cement-fronted “Nerve Center Tasting Room & Retail Cerabellum,” FOREIGN OBJECTS BEER COMPANY is the product of a highly experienced collaborative brain trust first brewing their delicately complex brews in November ’17 at nearby Clifton Park’s Shmaltz Brewing (now operated by Astoria’s Singlecut).

Foreign Objects’ gypsy brewing collective soon had Jersey’s Bolero Snort produce its intriguing hand-painted abstract art-adorned cans. But with the opening of the Monroe-based brewpub, October 14, 2021, small batch brewing will soon be done in-house.

Focusing on “intensely aromatic hoppy ales” as well as Belgian farmhouse ales, German lagers and robustly creamed stouts, Foreign Objects main thrust has been its sterling India Pale Ales.

There’ve been thirty-plus recipes used for production since inception. Inside, a cozy right side community-tabled cafeteria-styled room opposes the small serving station area where a beautiful pink marbled Japanese-tiled mosaic houses ten centralized tap handles (and black theatre lights provide dusky atmosphere). A grassy outdoor back space will be utilized soon.

I sunk two previously untried IPA’s on my initial October ’21 sojourn and bought excellent Honey Frangipane Imperial Stout for outside consumption (reviewed in Beer Index).

Floral-daubed tangerine sweetness absorbed zesty grapefruit-orange tanginess and mild guava-mango-honeydew conflux of Dreamtime Haruspex, leaving ‘conifer resin’ upon its buttery pale malt bottom.

Lemony orange-peeled zesting guided The Hanging Garden, plying floral-perfumed herbage, grassy hop astringency and dank pine lacquer to its crystalline citric-spiced finish.

During my two-hour journey May ’22, sunk eight more Foreign Objects.

Dewy ‘neo-German amber lager,’ Stadtbier, let lightly carbonated cask conditioning sedate its mild dried fruiting and fungi-dried cellar musk.

Another neo-German moderation, Instinkte Der Angst, a dry pilsner, invited tart Huell Melon hopped guava, gooseberry and white grape esters and mild lemon rind bittering to flourish alongside herbal Tettnang hop astringency.

Sharp orange-peeled yellow grapefruit zesting and hurried peach-mango auxiliary gained herbal hop astringency for Citra-Azacca-hopped Wet Gravity, a fine NEIPA with mildly creamed crystal pale malting.

Fruitful double dry-hopped Imperial IPA, Ritual Colors, merged lemony orange-peeled grapefruit zesting with mild mango-guava-pineapple tropicalia and perfumed blueberry nips as floral herbage and dank wood tones gathered above pale malted sugaring.

Sweeter pale malting sufficed for In The Gold Dust Rush, Foreign Object’s signature IPA, plying salted orange-pineapple zesting and floral peach tanginess to dank piney resin.

Tropical fruiting topped off by lightly creamed vanilla picked up contrasting mild pine resin for Solarys, a Motueka-Simcoe-hopped IPA with tangy grapefruit, pineapple, peach, orange and nectarine sweetness countering lemony lime bittering.

Margarita cocktail tropicality ensued for sour IPA, Coconut & Lime Fruited IPA, as coconut-toasted sugaring contrasted limey grapefruit-peeled mandarin orange tartness.

Sweet milk-sugared coffee, brown chocolate, toasted coconut and cinnamon were in abundance for decadent Transgression Culture Imperial Stout, leaving Oreo cookie, Mounds Bar and fudged cinnamon chocolate illusions on the richly creamed back end.  

Revisited the Nerve Center tasting room once more, January ’23, to down two stouts, a hazy IPA and a German lager, the former three now brewed by the owners’ new Florida brewery, My Favorite Thing.

Brisk lemon spritz splashed the orange-oiled musk and grassy-hopped herbal residue of Die Herz Maschine, a pilsner-malted helles lager.

Juiced-up lemony orange and grapefruit zesting picked up peachy tangerine tanginess and light pine tones for Total Power Exchange (a brew Foreign Objects brought in by sister Florida brewery, My Favorite Thing).

As for the dark ales, thickly creamed black chocolate and durable milk-sugared coffee tones gained a spicy tingle for Enfant Terrible. Richer traditional sweet stout, A-Bomb, let cocoa-dried brown chocolate gain brown-sugared vanilla spicing, cappuccino splendor and recessive black cherry snips to contrast its less profuse cedar-burnt hop char.

INDUSTRIAL ARTS BREWING COMPANY – BEACON

Industrial Arts' Beacon brewery builds on local craft beer options

BEACON, NEW YORK

The ambitiously designed second location for the ever-popular INDUSTRIAL ARTS BREWING COMPANY is a large production facility overlooking the bucolically panoramic tree-lined green acres of Hudson Highlands on the outskirts of Beacon. Opened in 2019 to take pressure off the original Garnerville site, Industrial Arts is one of New York’s biggest breweries.

A nouveau beige aluminum-sided Industrial factory towering above the arty village of Beacon, two headstones of the founders at the top of the hill before the entrance welcomes hordes of ‘brewpies’ to the enormous brewhouse. A massive brew-tanked warehouse services the quaint 14-tap barroom with pristine white floor tiles and low-ceilinged exposed pipes.

Done up in Aztec-Mayan motif, this magnificent public house also has a large enclosed composite-floored front deck featuring plenty of bench seating and strung Edison lights.

I initially visited September  ’21 on a sunny Wednesday to consume four previously untried suds.

Garnerville's Industrial Arts Brewery opens new location in Beacon

Summery lemon-spiced floral herbage gained mild grapefruit, mandarin orange and clementine niceties above the dry celery-watered pale malt base of Smash Lager.

Spicier lemony orange zesting enhanced the other IPA-fruited lager, Summer Landscape, inviting subtle peach, tangerine, grapefruit and pineapple tropicalia plus leafy hop foliage to its sedate biscuit base.

Vibrant Bru-1 Hazy, a sunshiny NEIPA, let zestful lemony orange tanginess brighten its candied citrus path in an easygoing sugar-spiced pale malt setting.

Hazier dry-hopped West Coast IPA, Zappa/Triumph, squeezed grapefruit-juiced orange rind bitterness out of lacquered pine tones as tart lemon meringue, passionfruit and mango snips wavered.