Tag Archives: MARLBOROUGH MA

LOST SHOE BREWING & ROASTING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

Lost Shoe Brewing and Roasting Finds Firm Footing in Marlborough, MassachusettsDaily Coffee News by Roast Magazine

MARLBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS

Occupying a red brick professional building (with black stucco top) in suburban downtown Marlborough, LOST SHOE BREWING & ROASTING COMPANY came to fruition springtime 2019. Besides slingin’ delectable homemade suds, Lost Shoe is also a well-known local coffee roastery.

Lost Shoe’s wood-emblazoned emblem sits atop the front door where the cement-floored patio with four glass-rocked firepits is situated. Taking the place of a 4,600 square foot nightclub, this olden wood furnished taproom features a railroad tie-fronted aluminum top serving station, 17-plus tap handles and multiple glass-encased brew tanks. The noirish black ceiling contains crowned Edison lights and exposed pipes. And a black-leathered lounge area adds casual upscale splendor.

On my June ’21 pre-dinner visit, my wife and I try grab an outdoor table to enjoy three wonderful hybridized varietals plus one nitro stout, one German and two Belgian ales. In the two years Lost Shoes has been operating, it has crafted at least forty nifty one-offs.

It seemed every Marlborough-Framingham brewpub visited had a kickass li’l kolsch. Lost Shoe’s second anniversary Kolsch retained crisply crystalline clarity as its orange-oiled lemon zesting picked up herbal hop astringency, mineral grained earthiness and cracked wheat neutrality.

Next up, dryer-than-usual witbier, Whit’s Way, let sour lemon rot pervade its orange-peeled coriander expectancy and mild chamomile-lemongrass snips.

Light molasses creaming draped brown-sugared dried fruiting for sassy dubbel, Size 6, leaving plum-prune-raisin scrum and cocoa-pecan-butternut daubs upon the dewy earthy bottom.

Bright orange-peeled grapefruit tanginess and juicy pineapple zest stayed atop the piney herbal resin of Crossroads of New England: Nugget & Motueka.

For a sweet cocktail derivative, orange-glowed cream ale, Lakeside Avenue Orange Creamsicle, combined cara cara orange zesting with milk-sugared Madagascar vanilla bean richness. Its pulpy orange concentrate juiciness outweighs the sugared vanilla aspect, slowly integrating nearly cloy perfume-candied pineapple, peach, tangerine, cherry and watermelon swipes.

Creamily milk-sugared cold-brewed coffee tones settled softly atop nitrogenated New Pair Of Brews: Vamp -Coffee, a Madagascar vanilla-beaned mocha stout with coconut-hazelnut hints that stays airy and light on the tongue.

Milk-sugared coffee creaming picked up toasted coconut and Madagascar vanilla sweetness for New Pair Of Brews: Vamp -Dark Roast, another ethereal nitro-injected coffee stout.

FLYING DREAMS BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

MARLBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS

Originally emanating from Worcester, FLYING DREAMS BREWING COMPANY landed in the quaint downtown neighborhood of Marlborough during 2018. Inside a green-shingled tan-sided professional building, Flying Dream’s wood-glossed interior is reminiscent of an intimate 1920’s speakeasy with its brown embossed tin ceiling tiles, elongated 10-seat pine bar and tulip Edison lighting.

Brewmaster Dave Richardson, a University of Vermont science major and UC-Davis grad who started at Red Hook before heading Gardner Ale House’s operations, went out on his own thereafter. Richardson’s general Flying Dreams fare never strays too far stylistically, promoting well-roundedness, balance and vigor. He’s won several US Beer Tasting awards along the way.

Tonight, on this warm June ’21 journey thru Marlborough, I enjoy nine diversified brews while taking home four more for outside consumption (reviewed in Beer index).

Flagship New England/ West Coast IPA hybrid, Pond Jumper, brought mildly perfumed passionfruit-grapefruit-pineapple-orange tropicalia and peachy mango zesting to honeyed pale malts contrasting dank pine resin.

Mildly creamed wheated oats contrast dank pine resin underlying the orange-bruised peach sweetness and mild grapefruit bittering of The Experimental IPA #2, a dry Imperial moderation.

Worthy India Dark Ale, Nightcrawler, heaved dry cocoa-malted nuttiness at less pervasive citrus-spiced dried fruiting and dark-roast hop char.

Sour lemon-limed Himalayan sea salting and light coriander spicing provided oceanic intrigue to Straight Up Gose, scaling back its acidulated wheat malts.

Herbaceous citrus spicing guarded Dreaming Up Summer Saison, a musky barnyard-grained farmhouse ale with lemony mandarin orange tanginess and buttery Chardonnay illusions darting thru musky barnyard graining contrasting creamy caramel malts.

Even more herbalized, Just In Thyme Saison brought evergreen thyme freshener to lemony woodruff syruping, mild rosemary-basil-paprika shimmy and lead-based pencil shavings.

Honey-glazed brown chocolate dipped into sweet fig-plum-prune conflux and caramelized hazelnut-pecan notions for Dragonator Double Bock.

Easygoing Park Avenue Porter plied dark chocolate malting to sedate hazelnut coffee, walnut ice cream and cola nut illusions plus distant dried fruiting.    

Rich brown chocolate syruping drapes the mild chili burn of robust Aphrodisiac Russian Imperial Stout, letting creamily cocoa-nibbed hazelnut coffee tones as well as gentle burgundy-bourbon sweetness engage its fudgy cookie dough bottom.

 

TACKLE BOX BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

Live At Tackle Box Brewing Company | Tackle Box Brewing Company, LLC, Marlborough | May 29, 2021

MARLBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS

Inside a cavernous Marlboro Square Shopping Mall backspace, TACKLE BOX BREWING COMPANY opened for biz, November 5, 2020. Entrepreneurial brewer Adam Krasinski, a Penn State grad, spent several years honing his craft at Strange Brew – the home brew shop concurrently occupying this Marlborough hotspot.

The high-ceilinged, pale blue-walled pub features a bark-sided serving station (with high-back chairs, four-seat tables, twin TV’s and two billiards tables), backroom red-white-blue vinyl floored game lounge, expansive brew room, separate keg-bottling section and grain mill section under a black ceiling.

Krasinski’s traditional American-styled fare stays on the mark, appealing to casual mainstream thirsts as well as seasoned aficionados.

My wife and I grab one of the six side-decked community picnic tables (with red umbrellas) to imbibe nine tasty suds this sunny Saturday afternoon, June ’21.

Efficient best-selling moderation, Gail River Trophy Amber Ale topped its toasted amber grain minerality with herb-spiced hops, fizzy lemon licks and latent wood tones.

Stylishly dryer than expected, Hefe On The Horizon leavened its tart banana-soured clove spicing with lemon-rotted herbage.

Wild blueberry pureed golden ale, Money Lure Blueberry, retained sweet-tart berry fizziness over Graham Cracker-honeyed malts.

Crisply clean clear-yellowed kolsch, From Streams Come Dreams, engaged orange-dried lemon oiling with bubbly champagne fuzz and wispy herbs.

Lightly lingered jalapeno peppering cut thru the fizzy lemon spritz and soft wood base of Ripped Up Jalapeno IPA, leaving only a mild green pepper burn.

Lemony grapefruit bittering darted across serene juniper-smoked pine tones for Jiggin For Pigs, a semi-sharp IPA.

Flagship IPA, Colorado Fisherman, let perfumed grapefruit, orange and pineapple tanginess splash into resinous Nugget hop oiling over dry pale malts.

Dark chocolate-malted peanut buttering smeared Dock Side Peanut Butter Porter, leaving wavered black grape, walnut and granola illusions upon its mild hop-charred nutty bottom.

Sweet brown chocolate and milk-sugared coffee tones bustled inside Baltic Sea Monster, a dark-roasted Baltic Porter-derived stout with confectionary Milk Dud-candied finish.