Light-roast coffee tones pick up mild nuttiness, dark-roast hop oiling and raw molasses bittering. Freeze-dried coffee finish gains black chocolate sway.
Tag Archives: BLACK POND BREWS
BLACK POND OLD PUT IN A BARREL
Dry Milan & Greene whiskey barrel-aged brown ale coalesces dewy peat soiling with barleycorn sour mash, rye molasses breading and cocoa bean sedation before flattening out to tannic red-wined black grape musk.
BLACK POND MACHU PICCHU JALAPENO SAISON
Green jalapeno chili peppering intensively heats up moderate-bodied, yellow cleared, flat headed sour saison. Lemony acidity and green grape vinegaring add bitter edge above leathery barnyard acridity.
BLACK POND HOLD MY JUICEBOX NEW ENGLAND IPA
Straightforward Mosaic-Amarillo-Simcoe-hopped NEIPA offers mellow yellow grapefruit zing and pineapple-salted guava, passionfruit and guava tartness to lightly embittered dry wood tones.
BLACK POND MOVES NEW ENGLAND IPA
Light ‘n lively dry-bodied NEIPA loads sharply spiced yellow grapefruit, pineapple and peach zesting atop pale malt sugaring. Gentle citric bittering retains mild floral-daubed pine resin.
BLACK POND TEARS OF AMBER ALE
Tosted amber graining occupies (nearly) harsh red-orange-yellow fruiting and astringent leafy hops, picking up sour whims knocking back desolate caramelized sweetness.
BLACK POND HELLA LITE LAGER
Dry ‘American light lager” places pilsner-malted rice adjunct alongside raw-honeyed straw grain astringency to its bready sourdough base. Mild orange oiled green grape tartness and wispy plantain snips waver.
BLACK POND FOAM ECONOMICS PILSNER
Easygoing straw-hazed pils lets Saaz/Loral hop combo provide delicate lemon spiced spritz and grassy wood tones for musky wet grained oated pilsner malt stead. Slight corn liquor snip as it warms.
BLACK POND BREWS
DAYVILLE, CONNECTICUT
Next to farmland in the tiny village of Dayville, BLACK POND BREWS currently occupies a red brick-fronted warehouse with a white brick rear entrance and plastic-benched back porch. Named after a local Woodstock, Connecticut party spot, its original pub was in nearby Killington. The new space offers 500% more capacity for the increased beer volume now produced.
Co-owners Mike Tweed and Coby Smith got together in 2010 and soon won a contest with their Machu Pichu Jalapeno Saison. By 2014, they guided a popular local taproom and got serious about expanding operations, moving the tap house in 2021.
Inside a gray cement-floored storehouse, Black Pond’s wood-topped ten-seat back bar is fronted by plastic benches, creating a splendid casual homey feel. The expansive brew tank area actually takes up the anterior space.
Now equipped with a full kitchen, sandwiches, flatbread pizza, weinerschnitzel and bratwurst join the soft-watered suds and serious spirits menu.
My wife and I tried all six available draughts on our March ’22 Sunday lunchtime stopover. Remarkably, when I perused Black Pond’s website Feb. ’24, all eight draughts were different.
Part of Black Pond’s rotating sour series, lactose-bound Alice Scooper Fruited Smoothie, let its mildly milk-sugared vanilla creaming pick up confectionery cotton-candied strawberry puree to contrast the briny acidulated malt base.
Tart passionfruit-juiced light body, Captain Misbehavior Gose, allowed lemon-oiled pomegranate salting and mild guava-kiwi tropicalia to sit atop its pale straw white wheat base.
Easygoing Baby Tears, a West Coast IPA, brought mildly perfumed lemony grapefruit zesting and tart green grape esters to corn-dried pale malts.
Delicately fruited It’s Fun To Do Bad Things, a hazy New England IPA, placed subtle grapefruit, mandarin and clementine tanginess next to honeyed peach sweetness and mild piney hop bittering above polite vanilla-creamed crystal malting.
Smoky black malts embittered Pond Factory, a coffee-stained dark ale with dry nut-shelled earthiness.
Sweet-toothed dessert ale, Snack River (Red Velvet Cake), plied sweet brown chocolate fudging to mild vanilla-daubed buttercream frosting.