HAMDEN, CONNECTICUT
Exhibiting their motto of “exploring innovative methods,” bucolic hillside pub, COUNTER WEIGHT BREWING COMPANY (located two miles south of Quinnipiac University) allowed former New England Brewing Company owner, Matt Westfall, and head brewer, Sean Piel, to refine many popular ale styles, embrace German pilsners and delve into ‘passion projects.’
Opening its doors at a former retrofitted gym in 2017, the rustic white aluminum-topped beige-bricked Industrial taproom features a wood-floored, right side, twelve draught bar with beautiful mosaic wood side wall and tidy coffer wood ceiling.
Four community tables and barrel seating are available indoors. Upstairs, an extra tap room has more community seating. Outside, a butterscotch-hued fenced patio with blue umbrellas is where my wife and dog join me to try seven sturdy brews on a sunny Saturday afternoon, August ’21.
I’d already enjoyed conventional flagship IPA, Headway, a few years hence (reviewed in Beer Index).
On draught, traditional pilsner Workhorse is Counter Weight’s ‘core beer.’ Its cool lagered keller-styled crisping allowed dry raw-honeyed husked grain leathering, grassy Noble-hopped lemon musk and herbed alfalfa acridity to politely unite.
Herbaceous Coolship Kellerbier retained spritzy lemon-candied tartness and grassy hop astringency atop bready whole grain malts. Simply excellent!
Toasty oak-conditioned Czech pils, Drevo, let spritzy lemon zest, musky raw graining, mild Saaz hop bittering and dry spicing coalesce.
Sweet-breaded Vienna malting engaged Fest Bier, a Marzen-styled lager with lemony orange desiccation contrasting floral-daubed honey spicing beneath the soft grain surface.
Buttery banana-breaded CW Hefeweizen gained bubblegum sugaring and subtle clove spicing above its herbal Tettnang-hopped pilsner malt base.
Lemony orange rind bittering anchored double dry-hopped IPA, Superfluous, picking up mango-peach-pineapple subtleties to contrast herb-tinged pine resin.
Zestful glowing yellow-hazed IPA, Creature Preacher, utilized fruitful Citra/Galaxy hops for its bright lemony grapefruit-tangerine effervescence and spicy mango-papaya-pineapple splash hovering above hearty caramelized pale malts.