ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY
Within walking distance of Atlantic City’s famous Boardwalk, THE SEED: A LIVING BEER PROJECT opened inside a tan-bricked, high-ceilinged, overhead-doored warehouse on October 29, 2020.
Lovingly fitted with varied living room furnishings, the red brick-walled, painted cement-floored pub features antique chandeliers, a grandfather clock, Japanese shoji blinds and comfy couches. The L-shaped 12-seat oak bar (with twelve white tile-backed, tree-limbed draught handles) services a few small four-seat round tables and some wood community tables. Stainless steel brew tanks in the rear provide the liquid fare.
Doing a fine job showcasing 100% New Jersey-grown ingredients, The Seed has impressed many seasoned beer enthusiasts. Entrepreneurial head brewer, Amanda Cardinalli, was down in Miami for a beer fest when I visited early February ’23.
Dewy English-styled Here, Now Best Bitter traipsed honeyed tea herbage thru mildly mildewed mustiness and sedate lemony orange oiling.
Brisk pilsner-malted Time Given Kolsch let lemony green grape tannins and green apple tartness pick up muted grassy herbage as well as cucumber-tinged ‘rosewater’ and ‘Bartless pear’ notions.
Ultra-dry Garden To Walk In Saison (Spring ’22) let lemon-limed red clover herbage settle beside wildflower-honeyed orange blossom florality and wispily vinous white wining above hay-like barnyard acridity.
Rauchbier-inspired smoked helles lager, How The World Will Be, worked beechwood-smoked peat moss and Band-aid astringency into mesquite/hickory-seared cured meatiness – besting most American made German rauchs.
“Cocoa-dusted coffee beans” pervaded Until The Sunlight Baltic Porter, allowing dewy truffle buttering to absorb molasses rye breading.
Silken dark-roast chocolate and coffee buttressed nitro Oatmeal Stout, For Warmth, gaining mild tarry hop bitterness and raw molasses treacle as well as tertiary black licorice, black cherry, walnut and Brazil nut illusions for a busier than usual nitro profile.
NEW JERSEY – SOUTH