EVERETT, MASSACHUSETTS
With three locations as of my May ’19 trip, NIGHT SHIFT BREWING has become one of Boston’s most successful craft breweries since opening 2012. Just down the street from Bone Up Brewing and close to Everett’s colossal casino, this mighty red-bricked pub really gets crowded by loyal locals at nighttime.
A large overhead door leads to Night Shift’s high-ceilinged warehouse where 24 draught lines, a proprietary owl logo and colorfully designed (and individualized) blackboard beer listing crowd the bright blue-walled mahogany bar. Some simple community tables and a few round tables fill out the well regarded cement-floored pub.
A fenced-in patio near the entrance provides extra outdoor seating. Brew tanks are in the rear and a small stage area gets set up for local musical talent on occasion.
Best of all, most of Night Shift’s rangy brews (available in cans) really hit the spot, though the first few tried and reviewed down below merely offer an alternative to Bud-Coors-Miller fare.
Effervescent aluminum-cleared lo-cal Mexican lager, Lime Lite, pitched agave-cologned tequila whimsicality to lemony lime zesting above its fragile white bread spine. Bud Light Lime alternative and nothing more.
Dry clear-yellowed moderation, Cul-De-Sac Cream Ale, brought grassy-hopped grapefruit and orange subtleties to musky corn-starched pale malt hesitance and wispy herbal snips.
Corn-whiskeyed phenols enveloped Outer City Limits Dry-Hopped Lager, a briskly carbolic light body with herbaceous hops and dry pale malts.
Next came a few fruitily tart hybridized Berliner Weiss-styled sour ales, dryly vinous summertime moderations with low alcohol volume.
Leathery mixed culture fermentation provided a firm sour foundation for Ever Weisse, an extremely popular variant with tart kiwi, strawberry and hibiscus adjuncts gaining mild lactic acidity, vinous lemon juicing, bitter green grape apprehension and oaken cherry dryness above saltine crackered spine. Try in lieu of strawberry rhubarb pie.
Similarly mixed-cultured sour ale, Blossom Weisse, loaded tart oaken cherries atop its lactic kilned wheat bed, leaving lemony green grape tannins in its wake.
Vinegary cidered wild ale, Zou Bisou Bisou Ale with Lemon & Juniper, brought agave-tinged lemon zesting and subtle juniper berry bittering to musky hop-oiled astringency, leaving a slight metallic sheen upon the teasingly whiskey-grained finish.
Briskly sharp dry-bodied moderation, MVP New England Pale Ale (a spunky collaboration with Mondo), brought sunshiny grapefruit-peeled orange tanginess to lightly piney hopped bittering and juniper-licked gooseberry sourness. Tropical pineapple, mango, peach and guava illusions enhance its piney citrus splendor.
Thickly orange marble-hazed New England India Pale Ale imbued juicy grapefruit-peeled orange zest with lightly lingering herbal hop bittering countered by creamy pastry-like crystal malting.
Brisk One Hop This Time: Citra brought sunshiny lemon zest and floral nuances to resinous pine-hopped wet grass astringency, picking up mild pineapple, mango and tangerine whims.
Heady Fluffiest New England Triple IPA (the strongest version of Fluffy IPA at 9.7%) lets lemony grapefruit tanginess, heavily sugared pale malts and floral perfumed musk encounter harshly alcohol-burnt esters at lingeringly phenolic citric hop-embittered finish.
Heavily hop-charred black coffee bittering, wood-burnt ashen nuttiness and treacly Blackstrap molasses attached mild citric spicing for mocha-smoked full body, Exit 11 Black IPA, a musky Blackstrap molasses
Soy-sauced sour nuttiness contrasts toffee-spiced caramel malting and dried fig notions for thinnish bock-like schwarzbier, Nocturno Black Lager.
Sourly coffee-roasted Bakers chocolate entry guided Awake Porter aged with Coffee, leaving earth-scorched oily nuttiness along the ashen cocoa powdered finish.
www.nightshiftbrewing.com