NIANTIC, CONNECTICUT

Residing at a cement-floored Industrial mall inside an inconspicuous light blue-walled, black-ceilinged, 15-seat taproom (with track lighting and wooden US flag), NOBLE JAY BREWING COMPANY serves its quaint Mystic-area village of Niantic with a small variety of well-crafted homemade nano brews.

Owned and operated by proud military veteran, Mike Lincoln, Noble Jay dedicated three tap lines to lagers, a surprisingly large amount for such a small pub, during my mid-January ’19 afternoon perusal. Its diminutive interior features a small living room space with couch, rug and overhead TV plus multiple service academy flags along the walls. Led Zeppelin plays in the background as I down the three lagers, one rangy saison and a porter.

Musky German-styled pre-Prohibitonist flagship, Mo Pilsner, retained wet-grained pilsner malt breading and herbal Noble hop lemon rot.

Brisk orange-candied Lager Jammin Double IPL gained grassy-hopped astringency to contrast its sugared pale malt spine.

Perhaps the finest lager, stylistically dryer Chappy’s Red Valor regaled spicy red fruiting and dewy caramel malting to counter sour orange tartness in a briskly clean manner.

Inarguably, the most dynamic offering, complexly balanced First Ladies Saison coalesced its lightly sour fruit-spiced farmhouse dryness with the vanilla-sugared banana daquiri sweetness (and lemon meringue twist) of a heady tripel.

On the dark side, Fatty Boom Boom Baltic Porter contrasted soy-milked peanut oiling with sweet hazelnut-glazed caramel malts, leaving dark cocoa traces on the back end.

Open for business since August ’18, Noble Jay joins Niantic Public House as one of Niantic’s initial craft breweries.

noblejaybrew.com