CENTREVILLE, MARYLAND
Originally occupying a nearby garage, downtown Centreville’s BULL & GOAT BREWERY spent three years at its initial site before residing at its current home in a newly developed Industrial tan and maroon complex since 2019.
Bull & Goat’s humbly intimate Brit pub-like setting features a four-seat penny-engraved wood-lacquered bar, comfy living room furnishings and beautiful local artwork on the walls. Five wood tables and seating along the copper reddish wall fill up the cozy interior. Two draught stations pour a variety of lagers and ales listed on the green board towards the rear.
Raised on blue collar macrobrews such as Miller, Schmidts and Ballantine, co-owning brewer Jeff Putman went west and discovered many diverse beer styles years back. He became a homebrewer with a five-gallon system making “shitty beers” before hooking up with friend, Jacob Heimbuch. Besides operating Bull & Goat’s seven barrel brewroom, they’ve also begun distilling whiskey and bourbon and buying rye barrels to pitch beer – allowing two great choices (craft beer and spirits) to co-exist under one roof.
My wife and I try all available selections this sunny January ’21 afternoon.
Delicate wet-grained musk hovered thru the raw-honeyed tea leafing of Prom Dress Lager, leading maize-dried herbal hops to its recessive biscuit-like carapils base.
Honeyed amber graining fortified Frank, a floral-wafted English amber ale with spicy orange-red-yellow fruiting dampened by leafy hop foliage.
Sourdough breaded Vienna malting topped dewy mineral graining and floral-spiced wisps for Test Batch Marzen.
Spritzy Orangina-like pale ale, Orangesicle, obtained more lactose souring than vanilla creaming and mandarin orange tanginess.
Simply affable kolsch, Queen Anne’s Revenge, let mild lactic acidity saturate lemon-rotted Saaz hop herbage and dewy wet grains for a slightly sour take on the champagne-snipped German style.
Easygoing kettle-soured Berliner Weiss, Special Occasion, allowed tart raspberry compote to pervade limey blueberry tanginess and mild lemon-salted cherry rhubarb piquancy.
Musky earthen pine resin saturated dry-bodied 67 IPA, leaving zesty grapefruit, pineapple and orange spicing in the dust.
Brisk Double IPA, Baba Yaga, seeped mild cologne-perfumed citric hop bittering into spruce-tipped juniper nips and coniferous fern pining.
Sweet floral-spiced pineapple, orange and grapefruit tanginess and zesty lemon snazz pervaded Tooshie, a briskly fruited New England IPA.
Dry mocha-doused full body, Front Street Porter, coalesced dark chocolate malting with burnt coffee bittering over mildly charred hops.
Tootsie Roll-like Babushka Imperial Stout, the perfect chocolate dessert treat, let sugary toffee spicing increase the sweet mocha intensity.
For an interesting cider turnabout, off-dry Sparkling Pear brought lactose-soured champagne spritz to sugary cotton-candied marshmallow sweetness.