COLLINGSWOOD, NEW JERSEY

Situated at a red brick corner spot in the bustling downtown of Camden County’s Collingswood, DEVIL’S CREEK BREWERY opened its glass doors in 2016.

Its rustic interior includes a lacquered wood bar with corrugated siding and twelve aluminum-walled tap handles serviced by the rear right side brew tanks.

A cool black dragon insignia decorates the raw wood back wall and the black ceiling and Edison lights add an art deco sensibility.

My wife and I grab a seat at one of the community tables to try a few samples after dinner during a frigid February ’21 night. 

Brisk moderation, Nobody Puts Pale Ale In The Corner, brought lemony grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering, dark-roast hop char and herbal musk to its smoked barley spine.

Powder-sugared cinnamon apple sweetness glazed Helles Harvest, a spicier pale malted German lager with ancillary herbal hop musk and dry cocoa powdering.

Chocolate-malted dried fruiting led Dunkel Bock, letting honeyed plum, raisin and fig tones shakedown brown-leafed hop foliage.

Brown-sugared caramel apple sweetness doused Caramel Apple Brown Ale, a pastry-like afternoon treat with maple molasses, spiced toffee and buttered hazelnut wisps.

Orange-peeled coriander spicing, tart green grape esters and fried plantain grit sat atop the blunt pale malt dryness of Crushable, a slightly offbeat Belgian pale ale.

Coffee walnut-caked Velvet Porter picked up rich chocolate rye flouring and crisp tobacco snips in splendid fashion.

Caffeinated Papua New Guinea coffee beaning provided dark-roast furor for the ashen nuttiness, black grape tartness and dried prune swoon adorning No Sleep Till Brooklyn, a bitterer coffee stout with raw molasses latency contrasting pipe tobacco sweetness.