NEWARK, DELAWARE
In the new Industrial outskirts of Newark, Delaware, MIDNIGHT OIL BREWING COMPANY came to fruition at Pencader Business Park during February 2018. Its prominent black insignia hangs from the tan brick edifice that encompasses this huge 15,000 square-foot high-ceilinged cement-floored brewing warehouse.
A 14-seat serving station features nine draught handles and a cool purplish blue chalked Midnight Oil painting at the bar’s frontage. Ten surrounding tables and some window seating are also available plus the elegant left side lounge area has two couches and a TV. A wood paneled beer list centers the bar.
I took a seat at the side of the bar to try four interestingly disparate brews during a half-hour July ’19 afternoon stopover.
Basic, mild and approachable flagship brew, Neutrino Blonde Ale, brought spicy mandarin orange subtleties and a lemony spritz to dewy earthen moisture above its gentle white bread spine.
Juicier Serenity Mandarin (an orange offshoot which also includes peach, strawberry, mango and pineapple versions) let dainty mandarin orange tanginess pick up lemony grapefruit, tangerine and clementine snips above a sugared pale malt base with easygoing splendor.
Lactic raspberry pureeing soaked into vanilla-beaned blonde ale, Your Mom, leaving sour melon rind, tart watermelon and juicy pineapple illusions on the tail end of its bittersweet raspberry rhapsody.
Dark-roast coffee and black chocolate bittering consumed Reilly Irish Stout, an oats-charred full body with dewy earthen mossing and slight anise spicing that gains a nutty remnant.
There were five more beers on draught but I had limited time so I returned a year-and-a-half later.
I revisited Midnight Oil to consume eight more brews New Years Eve, 2021.
Dry German light body, Slingshot Pils, let herbal lemon whims reach raw-honeyed spelt and oats in an easygoing manner.
Crisply dry kolsch, Neutrino, retained easygoing crisping as straw-dried barnyard astringency and salted herbage grazed lemon-dropped tartness to its French bread bottom.
Tartly dry Your Mom, a mild blonde ale with raspberry, vanilla beans and lactose, let lemon-soured strawberry tartness sit upon the fluffily creamed tongue as oaken vanilla phenols buttressed celery-watered rhubarb pie piquancy.
Mildly vinous plum-dried gose variant, Plum Pulse, blended Amarillo-hopped piney citrus-daubed Impulse IPA with lemony coriander-salted green grape esters.
Mellow floral-daubed yellow grapefruit zing, zesty orange peel sweetness and tangy pineapple slither combine with dehydrated lemon licks for dry-hopped India Pale Ale, Subspace Anomaly, leaving mild pine needling on the dainty citrus-spiced finish.
Candi-sugared dried fruiting glazed dewy Temptress Quad, leaving sugarplum, red cherry, date and wintry spices in its wake.
Ashen mocha nuttiness and Blackstrap molasses draped Midnight Porter, mingling walnut-charred coffee tones with dark cocoa bittering.
Semi-sweet dark chocolate bittering gained sour coffee-stained edge and ashen nutty hop char for Insomnia, a lactic-soured mocha stout with cacao nibs powdering outpacing cherry-stewed Tahitian vanilla beaning.
midnightbrewing.com