FLORIDA, NEW YORK
Inside a gray aluminum warehouse with green awning, veteran-owned SHEPHERD’S EYE BREWING COMPANY opened for biz October 2, 2021. Specializing in German beer but unafraid to dabble into American IPA’s and dark ales, the farmland-situated pub has loads of room for expansion into its adjoining buildings.
A plastic-furnished wood planked porch deck leads to the epoxied cement-floored brewroom where a large capital-lettered Shepherd’s Eye signpost spreads across the top of the 7-seat bronze-sided serving station (with ten copper-piped draught taps and five turbine ventilator lights). Several wood seats fill out the interior and an electronic beer menu shows today’s offerings. Overhead doors to the right of the bar lead to the concrete-floored beer garden corridor. A canning line has recently been installed.
My dog Roscoe and I grab seats in the beergarden to sample today’s generally easygoing fare.
Muskily raw-grained, aluminum straw-hued German pilsner, Prost, let herbal Noble-hopped barnyard astringency and polite lemon licks merge in an easygoing straightforward manner.
Dry grassy-hopped lemon musk and mild herbage welcomed Day Brake, a light-bodied kolsch.
Daintily lemon-candied banana and clove tartly sweetened the front end while wispy white peppered herbage hit the salty wheat bottom of Shep’s Hef.
Dewy Deutscher Hund Dunkelweizen segued mild dried fruiting to lightly floured chocolate breading.
Getting away from the German styles…
Roughhewn toasted grains saddled the dewy mossing and red-orange fruiting of rugged English-styled amber ale, George, leaving caramelized barley sweetness in its wake.
Utilizing a rotating hop bill, April ’22-brewed NEIPA, Mystery Machine hurled floral-perfumed grapefruit peel, orange rind and pineapple bittering plus lemon-limed gooseberry sourness at its pine lacquered grassy knoll.
Flagship Imperial IPA, Shepherd’s Bite, gathered subtle grapefruit, orange, tangerine and peach tanginess as well as sweet floral spicing to contrast dry piney hop bittering.
Nitrogenated chocolate stout, Kariin, plied cocoa nibs creaming to black coffee, espresso and cola nut reminders.