Crisply dry German-styled lawnmower fare betters most light pils with its upfront sourdough sweetness joined by floral-spiced lemon zesting, light herbal peppering and barley-cracked whiskey tones. Well-balanced simplicity.
EAST ROCK PILSNER
Tag Archives: EAST ROCK BREWING
EAST ROCK BLACK CURRANT & TANGERINE GOSE
On tap at Jealous Monk, candied tangerine and goose-berried blackcurrant tartness tread lightly to stylish sea-salted coriander spicing of crisply well-balanced gose variant.
EAST ROCK ROCAVEZA MEXICAN LAGER
On tap at Hop & Vine Taproom, mild Mex lager retains corn-chipped tortilla crisping for sour lemon musk and peppery vegetal snip. OK light-bodied summertime fare.
EAST ROCK WEISSE
On tap at Ambulance, effervescent lemony banana-clove entry rides atop delicate honeyed wheat base in standard manner. In the bottle, green grape esters nearly overwhelm banana-clove sweetness as spritzy lemon fizz hides slight honeyed mead and cider nuances.
EAST ROCK BREWING COMPANY
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
On the northern outskirts of town five miles from Yale Bowl or the inner city, New Haven’s EAST ROCK BREWING COMPANY opened in July 2018 and quickly became a splendid cafeteria-like family friendly neighborhood beer hall specializing in traditional German-inspired beers. Inside a cavernous terra cotta-bricked light Industrial warehouse, East Rock’s ample community-tabled 12-draught tap room features a rounded 20-seat bar on an epoxy cement floor with a right-walled “Rediscover Lager” wood emblem celebrating their time-honored Bavarian craft brews.
Co-founding head brewer, Tim Wilson (former quality controller for Jack’s Abby), operates the enormous windowed brewing space at the rear. Serving all of Connecticut since before my initial August ’21 visit, East Rock’s upcoming Octoberfest’s already sold out.
A wood-paneled front deck expands on both sides of the glass-enclosed front entrance. My wife and I grab a few seats outdoors to down four straightforward prospects. I’d already consumed Hopfen Lager and Black Lager two years back (see Beer Index).
Dry Helles-styled lightweight, Lager, a cumulous-headed yellow body, let herb-tinged lemon musk, celery-watered fennel seeding and doughy raw-honeyed malts coalesce.
Crisp dewy mossing sideswipes pasty Vienna malt pasting and musky fungi retreat for Vienna Lager, leaving orange-rotted tangerine tang upon its damp-grained truffle earthiness.
Sweet tea-leafed cereal grain crisping, toasted caramel malting and mild orange oiling paced Oktoberfest, an amiable amber lager.
Bright ‘n lively India Pale Lager, Goat Herder, let sharply spiced lemon-peeled grapefruit bittering, zesty orange peel tang and distant passionfruit-pear-watermelon snips gain peaty compost-tinged resinous pining for pungently hop-dried, citrus-dominated medium body.
EAST ROCK BLACK LAGER
Lightly smoked dark chocolate bittering enjoins freeze-dried coffee sourness and distant earthen mossing for silken black-malted schwarzbier. Stylishly OK.
EAST ROCK HOPFEN LAGER
Bavarian-styled hop-forward pale lager offers orange-oiled melon rind dryness and zesty lemon spritz to grassy Noble-hopped astringency above biscuity lager yeast.
