“Luxurious” bourbon barreled Belgian stout drips creamy caramel-burnt dark chocolate syruping onto vanilla-beaned bourbon serenity, leaving warm whiskeyed mocha essence upon robust nightcap. Candi-sugared undercoating contrasts dark-roast hop char while mild cola-hazelnut snips and wispy dried fruiting add depth.
GENEVA, NEW YORK
Inhabiting a refurbished stone-and-slate dairy barn turned into a turret-roofed manor in the rural western Seneca Lake town of Geneva, BREWERY ARDENNES TAPROOM & KITCHEN is a pristine Belgian-inspired brewhouse entrepreneurial owners Derek & Stacey Erdinger created after attending nearby Cornell University. A former sheep farm, Ardennes now recalls a serene Euro-styled high-end winery. Tapping for the public began May ’21.
At the grand side entrance on the left side are the varied windowed brewtanks. On the opposing side, a brown-couched lounge area leads to the exquisite main pub. A U-shaped bar with black granite sandstone top stages two tap stations with six draught handles each plus a separate three tap station. Across the bar, tidy wood tables and chairs gather atop the rust concrete floor.
A small kitchen serves upscale gourmet dishes paired with certain house beers. Upcoming Events include Monday Burger & Pint night and Sunday Brunch at the Barn.
My wife and I grab seats at the bar ’round noon on a Friday early December ’23 to try four elegant Belgian-styled farmhouse ales, taking home a few more reviewed in Beer Index.
Expressive Belgian-styled Blonde Ale backed its white-peppered orange salting, saison-like barnyard musk, mild Chardonnay buttering, sweet clove snip and cellared herbal fungi with crusty baked breading.
Stylish orange-peeled coriander spicing lingered softly for Belgian-styled Wheat, letting lemon-candied banana breading counter its salty peppercorn notion and musty cellared mossing over a wispy white wheat base.
Tidy Belgian-styled Session IPA slid dry yellow grapefruit and orange rind bittering onto white peppered herbage above buttery caramel malting.
Tropical fruited Belgian Hazy IPA may’ve lacked the haze, but this clear yellowed medium body let lightly embittered orange rind, grapefruit pith and pineapple tanginess gain grassy hopped pine resin and peppery herbal restraint atop honeyed pale malts.
Creamy maple molasses-smoked dark roast chocolate entry picks up rum-sugared coffee serenade and sweet candied dried fruiting for ‘bold’ Belgian stout.
Boozy 10% ABV of turbid deep brown quad established by dry burgundy-port insistence and sweet brandy rip as sharp-spiced dried fruiting caresses chewy caramel creaminess reinforcing brown chocolate resin. At the finish, green raisin, purple grape and fig illusions ascend alongside mocha-induced red wining.
Complex tripel crams lemon meringue tartness, orange marmalade tanginess, buttery Chardonnay wining and rummy banana-clove sugaring into salty white peppered herbal musk before landing at the musty cellared bottom.
Tantalizing dried fruit spicing reaches caramelized pale malt base as ‘rustic’ barnyard acridity surfaces to contrast Scotch-tinged roasted barley crisping.
Easygoing Belgian pale ale stays smoothly crisp as spiced fig-date sweetness gains lemon meringue piquancy, white peppered herbage and honeyed tea remnant above candied caramel malting.
Mild floral spicing dots pasty caramelized malt sweetness countering dry herbal hop restraint, raw-grained mustiness and sneaky orange oiling of Belgian yeast-bound dry lager.