KILL DEVIL HILLS, NORTH CAROLINA
Just off Kill Devil Hills beach a block away from the Wright Brothers Museum lies SWELLS’A BREWING COMPANY, an interestingly setup cedar planked pub with dapper Mod styling. Burnt sienna-hued Spanish mission tiles and a cozy fireplace welcome patrons to the 10-seat bar where snacks and refrigerated cans to-go get sold alongside a dozen or so straightforward homemade draught beers listed on skateboards and emulating from the left side brew tanks.
There are wide stairs leading to the slanted-roofed sunset mezzanine and wood-benched rooftop deck – both with beautiful ocean views. A covered outdoor picnic area with three community tables, central firepit and twin bathroom kiosks are stationed at the right exterior. to the bohemian Outer Banx vibe. Open summertime 2021, Swells’a is a virtual surfer dude’s boss beach shack positively reinforcing the bohemian Outer Banx vibe.
The stylistically apropos and affably approachable suds ranged from light-bodied pilsner and moderate cream ale to lactic stout (and a rum barreled fruited sour – Kahuna Matata – bought in a bottle and listed in Beer Index) on my two sunny August 2022 perusals.
Sweet cereal graining contrasted the hay-dried barnyard parch of crisply clean Pea Island Pilsner, leaving a lemony orange spritz upon its lightly herbal hops.
Easygoing helles lager, Sand Pounder, placed orange-oiled lemondrop tartness atop sourdough breading.
Dry cream ale, Day For It, muddled lightly spiced orange tartness and soapy lager yeast with grassy hop astringency.
Just a tad less bitter than an IPA, Bay Dreams Pale Ale offered delicately perfume-spiced orange and grapefruit rind dryness and herbal snips to sugary pale malts.
Perhaps a bit offbeat for a saison, Sea Donkey let its stylishly dry farmhouse rusticity and candied citrus tartness get swayed by lacquered lavender and chrysanthemum florality and/or sage-like herbage.
Sweet-Tart candied strawberry salting fronted puckering fruited sour, Under The Strawberry Moon, picking up lemony watermelon wisps in a lactose setting.
Dry briny lemon souring and light woodruff syruping swayed reliable Berliner Weisse, Carpet Shark, reaching its lactic white wheated pilsner malt base.
Dry fruited wheat ale, You’re A Melon, pitched earthen melon rind mustiness and lemony orange rind snips to its saltine cracker base.
For a neat cocktail turnabout, Pina Ola Wheat, initially resembled a lightly salted Pina Colada with its rummy pineapple-juiced coconut creaming but succumbed to oaken lemon-limed tequila tenacity.
Milk-sugared coffee creaming contrasted dry cocoa powdering and soy-sauced mossy soiling of Choco Sea Dream Stout – today’s only dark ale available.