On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, impressive bourbon-aged Mexican-styled porter utilizes spiced-up chili peppering to complement cacao-nibbed brown chocolate sweetness. Cinnamon coffee continuance picks up gingerbread cookie and maple molasses niceties as well as wintry nutmeg-cumin snips. Recessive bourbon influence stays subtle for hot cocoa alternative.
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, sweet Hershey’s chocolate candy bar intensity retains fulsome froth for superb Morning Bell variant utilizing Ugandan and Haitian cocoa nibs. Creamy brown chocolate syruping fortified by equally rich vanilla sugaring for perfect sweet-tooth confection.
On tap at Taphouse 15, decadent porter conditioned on Ugandan and Haitian cocoa nibs and roasted hazelnuts gains brown-sugared vanilla sweetness for aggressive full-bodied blend. Creamy mocha latte continuance picks up mild dark cherry snips.
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, crisply dried whole leaf Citra and Cascade hops add resinous herbal florality to prickly pined grapefruit-peeled orange stead above lightly creamed malted oats base.
On tap at Paragon, decadent Jersey collab places fudgy chocolate brownie batter next to rich Madagascar vanilla creaming and slight coconut palm sugaring for robust 13% ABV nightcap. Marvelous mocha stead picks up milk-sugared coffee tones, dried black cherry tartness, chocolate-covered raisin sweetness, thick hazelnut pasting, creme brulee caramelization and toffee spicing over Graham Cracker honeying.
Spontaneously blended sour ale brings mild brettanomyces yeast funk to tart Montmorency cherry tannins, picking up slightly vinous green grape esters, delicate green apple riffs, sparkling champagne spritz and acidic lemon licks above leathery horse-blanketed mustiness. Residual cherry sweetness gains wispy cinnamon cider snicker contrasting sourly citric-quince stint.
On tap at Kitchen & Beer Bar, off-dry NEIPA brings briny grapefruit-peeled orange pith spritz to sticky pine resin above mild pilsner oats malting.
Constantly revealing sundry flavonoids, creamily rich molasses-smoked chocolate caking, fruit-dried port, sherry and burgundy wining plus bourbon vanilla sweetness surged against Mexican distilled spirits like mezcal and tequila.
Stylishly nebulous winter-spiced bock wavers as dewy fig-sugared cocoa template and sweet bread lagering only receive muted caramelized pilsner-wheat malting.
Mild lemony yellow grapefruit zesting and lightly soured Nelson Sauvin-hopped gooseberry, guava, white grape and guava tropicalia float above oats-flaked pilsner malts with spritzy glee. Dryly sessionable moderation just slightly less bitter (sans pine tones) than a sour IPA.
OCEAN, NEW JERSEY
KANE BREWING COMPANY quickly became one of Jersey’s finest iconic microbreweries during August 2011. Led by married financial marketeers Michael and Erika Kane, their huge freestanding warehouse operation has expanded by leaps and bounds since the beginning.
Inside a rustic high-ceilinged building with cement floors, overhead doors, barrel stands and large silver brew tanks (in the barroom and right side fermenting space), Kane utilizes repurposed wood for its bar frontage and 20-plus draught station backdrop.
A fabulous maltster, Michael Kane homebrewed for fifteen years and traveled to Europe to learn more about beer culture. A Fairfield University grad with a Masters degree from Notre Dame, the lanky red-haired zymurgist soon became interested in spirited barrel aging and spontaneously fermented mixed culture sour ales.
I get a chance to hang at Kane for a few hours on a snowy Super Bowl Sunday in 2022 to down two enlightening barrel-aged stouts, one glorified pastry stout and one barrel-aged porter. I’d been to Kane in the past, but only to buy bottles to go. As of this date, I’ve had 67 different proprietary brews (all reviewed in Beer Index except the following four quaffed on-site).
For starters, I chose the breakfast-styled pastry stout, A Night To End All Dawns Banana Pancake. Maple syrup-draped caramelized banana sweetness indulged dark chocolate fudging as dark-roast hop char lightly embittered the backend to contrast ancillary bourbon vanilla sugaring, butterscotch walnut cookie flouring and toasted cinnamon splendor.
Viscous bourbon-spiced porter, Morning Bean, aged in Willett and Wild Turkey barrels, plied cream-sugared coffee beaning to Madagascar vanilla tannins, dark cherry pureed tartness and black peppered whims anchored by bittersweet dark chocolate luster.
Fudgy brown chocolate affluence guided Bourbon-aged Lunchbox Hero, a luxurious Imperial Stout conditioned on peanut buttered cacao, vanilla beans and hazelnut paste. Its richly creamed maple syruping soaked up bourbon vanilla-sweetened marshmallow chewiness and chocolate cherry cordial banter for an enticing pastry-like dessert.
As a luscious sweet-toothed Imperial Stout nightcap, Saturday Night Lights, let its sublime Vermont maple syruping serenade sweet brown chocolate goodness as milk-sugared coffee, vanilla pastry cream, toasted marshmallow, honeyed Graham Cracker and cookie dough illusions enriched the bourbon-licked chocolate cake decadence.
Efficiently modest, soft-tongued, Galaxy-hopped IPA brings easygoing lemony grapefruit-orange tang and ancillary tangerine-pineapple-mango-peach tropicalia to subtle piney hop resin, leaving a hint of dank bitterness above mild oated wheat base. A tidy easygoer pale ale lovers could enjoy as much as less bitter hop-heads.
