

POINT PLEASANT, NEW JERSEY
In a small mall on the way to the beach off NJ Parkway, Point Pleasant's FRYE BREWING COMPANY opened June '17. The familial entrepreneurial product of Colleen and Mike Frye, this inconspicuously small microbrewery serves its community well.
At the glass entrance, the Frye logo and a Point Pleasant emblem welcome customers to the epoxy-floored one-room space. Streetlights adorn the right side serving station (spotlighting a poured concrete bar top and rusty corrugated steel siding) and brew tanks stake the rear. Frye's three white picnic tables, six high boy stools and low-ceilinged exposed pipes provide spare detail.
Before heading out after my one-hour April '19 visit, I sampled a half-dozen Frye faves, including four dark ales, one IPA and an Irish Red.
Enigmatic Irish Red Ale, Irish Blood Sweat & Tears, let sea-salted blood orange tartness drift off into dewy Scotch-licked beechwood smoke, picking up roasted tobacco crisping and light éclair creaming in a weirdly compelling way.
Named for Elon Musk's rocket launch, vibrant India Pale Ale, Falcon Heavy, loaded creamy pale malt sugaring upon juicy grapefruit, orange and tangerine tanginess and earthen rhubarb-celery snips.
Black-malted Irish Stout, The Dark, reinforced its dark chocolate and dried cocoa bittering with musty hop-charred nuttiness, sweetening at the dark mocha molasses finish.
A few nifty Dark offshoots also took hold. Coffee bean-engaged full body, Coffee In The Dark, placed its dark-roast mocha muck above oilier hop charred nuttiness than the original version.
Perhaps the best Dark ale, coconut toasting sweetened milk-sugared dessert treat, Coconut In The Dark, leaving brown chocolate and toffee sugaring on the back of the tongue.
Complexities abounded for creamily fudged barrel-aged surefire, Bonfire Imperial Brown Ale. Aged on rum-soaked cherrywood, its dried-fruited black cherry, burgundy and bourbon tones surged towards the oats-sugared fudged mocha surface, picking up latent anise spicing.
During May '24 shore stint, revisited Frye to discover ten new tapped brews.
A few peaty moderations led the charge as dry peaty Scotch malts and toasted amber graining smoothly soothed lightly red-orange-fruited Colleen's Irish Red Ale. Earthen peat mossing guarded Smoked Spring Lager, leaving a mild cigarette roast upon its caramelized biscuit bottom. Mossy peat also centered cocoa-dried pale-malted ESB.
Sessionable Cascade-hopped dry body, Summ'Time Blonde, allowed fizzy lemon spritz to prickle grassy hop astringency and modest crystal malting.
Briny pickle-juiced cucumber earthiness dabbed Fryd Pickle, a mellow dill pickled ale with dry pale malt flouring (not far removed from a Mexican lager).
An unexpected beechwood-like smokiness caressed bittersweet blueberry-pureed moderation, Blueberry Wheat, leaving light hop astringency on its pale wheat bed.
Cinnamon-spiced Granny Smith apple pie altbier knockoff, Amber Apple Pie, let its brown sugar sweetness reach pie-crusted sourdough backing.
Coffee-infused altbier, Breakfast & Dessert, integrated cinnamon apple pie spicing into milk-sugared brown chocolate sweetness, letting leftover coffee ground bittering contrast mild cappuccino creaminess.
Dark-roast black coffee, espresso and dark chocolate bitterness perked up Hold The Sugar Coffee Milk Stout, outlasting its cream sugared cafe latte sweetness.
For dessert, assertive Sundoggie Imperial Brown Ale coalesced black chocolate nuttiness with sour mash whiskey tones, hazelnut praline pasting and rich chocolate caking.
www.fryebrewingcompany.com
CAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY
A cozy café-styled firehouse in the heart of Cape May's Court House district on Main Street, BUCKET BRIGADE BREWERY opened autumn, 2017 (and closed January 2025). Brotherly firemen Karl and Kurt Hughes teamed up with long-time friend and brewmaster, Mark McPherson, to 'extinguish your thirst' with a bucket list of traditional styled beers.
The little engine red joint features a small L-shaped bar made from reclaimed wood with 12-plus fire-handled draught taps and TV's on opposing sides. Metal chairs with flaming red cushions dot the walls and three small tables fill out the diminutive interior.
I grab a seat at one of the overhead garage door's cement counters to sample five of the ten available brews this warm Saturday afternoon, April '19.
As the first beer rushes down my gullet, a cavalcade of Harley bikers pass the Bucket Brigade in style.
Mild lemony grapefruit tang embellished the banana-clove-bubblegum expectancy of Halligan Hefeweizen, sitting softly on the tongue while developing slight vanilla sweetness.
Honey-licked apple and pear spicing contrasted rye-dried black tea pungency for crisply clean moderation, Axe Head Amber Ale.
Rustic English-styled(?) Chiefs IPA brought straw-dried buckwheat, alfalfa and raw wheat minerality to grassy-hopped lemon wedging in a moderate setting.
Dried fruited cocoa powdering and mild chocolate malting provoke Pump Primer Porter.
Peanut-buttered chocolate roast and dry cocoa tones gain oily hop resin at the finish of semi-rich Steam Engine Oatmeal Stout.
www.bucketbrigadebrewery.com
SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK
The centerpiece of downtown Schenectady's refurbished and redesigned Mill Artisan District, FROG ALLEY BREWING COMPANY is a behemoth multifaceted pub and eatery established in 2018 and still under construction during my early Saturday afternoon jaunt, March '19.
Though we quaff suds in a quaint white-walled backspace taproom, by the end of summer Frog Alley will be operating at full capacity. Expected to distribute 14,000 barrels of beer per year, its massive square footage will allow for a 40-draught U-shaped central bar with an overhead door extending its perimeter to a large outside deck when weather's warm. There will be a viewable brew pit below the gargantuan bar-restaurant area where a beautiful warehoused keg room, canning line, pilot batch room and state-of-the-art quality lab exist.
Reclaimed wood furnishings and several large community tables will decorate the urethane-floored main bar. Plus, five plastic kiosks and a back classroom promote brewing and distilling for interested Schenectady Community College students.
Two veteran brewmasters were tapped to head Frog Alley's zymurgy chores. Rich Michaels, a historic figure originally Founders Brewing's first employee, worked at a Disney World brewery and Saranac before hooking up with Drew Schmidt (formerly of NYC's defunct Zip City, Baltimore's Oxford Brewing, and most recently, Van Dyck Lounge's Mad Jack).
After Mr. Michaels takes me on a tour of the soon-completed facility, I get to sample eight prized jewels as the place fills up with local brethren.
For openers, stylishly robust Kikkey German Pilsner let lemondrop hops and oaty pilsner malts pick up mild herbal restraint at its lemon-candied finish.
Another Bavarian brew, tidy pre-Prohibition-styled 1903 Vienna Lager took raw-honeyed fig and apricot desiccation to leafy hop astringency, dewy fungi musk and sweet Vienna malting.
Honeyed caramel spicing and roasted chocolate malts lingered for Mc Carthy's Red Tag Ale, leaving tingly orange-red fruit spicing on the tongue.
Engagingly sweet-tart cherry lusciousness gained grenadine syruping, floral niceties and sour lemon piquancy for cheerily fruitful Cherry Hweat, a sugary springtime sensation.
Straightforward Refresh IPA let lemony grapefruit-orange tanginess glide above piney hop earthiness, fennel herbage and juniper bittering.
Cedar-like Chinook hop dryness crowded FINA West Coast IPA alongside orange-peeled tangerine tang and earthen compost soiling, resulting in a bitter citrus-pined finish.
Juicy grapefruit tang brightened Mohop #5 - Mosaic New England IPA, leaving dry wood tones upon sweet peach-mango-orange subsidy.
Named after the ancient local Frog Alley baseball team captain, Captain Ellis Porter aligned black-malted dark chocolate bittering with Blackstrap molasses and day-old coffee tones.
Upon December '19 noon time revisit, sat at wide L-shaped front bar (with three TV's, beer menu and gas-piped tap system) to consume four new brews.
Sessionable IPA, Calico Frog, a collaboration with local Margareteville's Faith American Brewing, lavished mild grapefruit-peeled lemon musk with dry-wooded hops and black peppered herbs.
Dewy F in A West Coast IPA retained the woody citric appeal and crystal malt sugaring of a Northwest US version to contrast the mild herbal hop musk and dry earthen graining of an English-styled IPA.
Sparkling champagne fizz dotted Brut Frog IPA, a bold dry body with a slight rye twist, hard cider kick and candied lemon licks.
Fudgy dark chocolate faded over light hop charred bittering and sour nuttiness for Charley Brown, a maple molasses-dripped brown ale.
frogalleybrewing.com