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.