SOUTH HADLEY, MASSACHUSETTS

Inside a yellow brick building at South Hadley’s Industrial section, DRUNKEN RABBIT BREWING opened its doors during December 2018. Its casual plastic-furnished picnic area and white awning welcome patrons to the L-shaped serving station (with corrugated aluminum frontage). Sprawling community tables sidle the pub.

An overhead garage door leads to the right side silver brew tanks. One large TV and a few dartboards fill out the back stage next to loungey couches at the peach-hued back wall.

During my one-hour stopover, March 2019, sank nine draught beers with wife. While some stayed within stylish boundaries, others experimented a bit with fine results.

Dry-bodied Happy Daze Kolsch brought sour lemon rot to musky compost earthiness and sparkling champagne notions, staying stylistically in line unlike its pear-juiced counterpart.

Off-the-beaten-track Pear-Fect Storm Kolsch allowed vinous Hallertau-hopped green grape tannins to influence its dry cider spell, mild pear-juiced sweetness and dainty rose pedal adjunct.

Mild straw-hazed Love Me Two Times Pale Ale saddled its yellow grapefruit zestiness, mandarin orange tang, tart lemon piquancy and resinous pine hops with dewy pale malts.

Placing sweet orange peel zest alongside Belgian candi-sugared cinnamon spicing, stylish amber ale departure Chill The Fuck Out soon drifted off into orange-candied tartness.

Mildly soured pale ale, Peach Cobbler, let lactic-sugared peach and cranberry pulp pick up mild lime salting as subtle sparkling champagne serenity and modest lemony grapefruit bittering ascended.

Citrus-honeyed Chasing Chickenz New England IPA stayed zestfully clean as moderately embittered yellow grapefruit resilience and tangy orange juicing edged up against relegated piney hops.

Murkily beige-yellowed Greenwood New England IPA lets its citric Mosaic hop brightness sink into sticky pine resin, dry wood tones and clay hops, leaving up-front tangerine tanginess to outsize latent lemon-peeled orange rind bittering.

Venturing outside the box just a smidge, tartly Citra-hopped The Pink One IPA utilized pink guava pulp to add a sour edge to honey-malted grapefruit-orange piquancy.

Like a Black Forest cake, Happy Ending Stout loaded lactic milk-sugared dark chocolate malting on raspy dried-fruited dark cherry and blackberry puree.

www.rabbit.beer