EASTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS
In the same dusky warehouse facility as Abandoned Building Brewery and INSA marijuana dispensary, NEW CITY BREWERY began brewing Jamaican-style hard ginger beers in 2013 and opened this mill-based locale during 2015 before expanding its recipes to include non-ginger offerings. An inconspicuous black awning with white New City lettering fronts the red brick edifice housing this large microbrewery.
New City’s Cathedral ceiling, expansive dining space, aluminum-stooled L-shaped bar, oaken wood splendor and exposed pipes provide chilling rusticity. The community-tabled patio with red-stamped concrete floor offers plentiful outdoor seating. And the pavilion walkway and park behind the lot offers casual charm. I perused New City during August ’20.
Cane-sugared ginger sweetness received salted lemon-limed juicing for New City Hard Ginger Beer, attaching its initial bay-leafed gingered citrus rush to pineapple-splashed white pepper heat and recessive maple sapping for a nifty Jamaican ginger beer.
Ginger-spiced Moscow mule knockoff, New City Mule, retained a clean vodka nip in fairly authentic manner. Light white pepper heat lined the salty cocktail confection best served over ice.
Dry light-bodied wheat ale, Summer, let lemony mandarin orange subtlety coalesce with piney citrus-splashed effervescence, leafy hop foliage and tart apple-skinned quince blintz.
A fruitier version, Blood Orange Summer, embellished its adjunctive tart blood orange splash with perfumed tangerine musk, mild grassy hop astringency and dry pale malting.
Easygoing Berliner Weiss, Bramble Weiss, the ‘brewers fruitiest sour ale,’ leveled off spritzy raspberry and black cherry tartness for lemon-limed brambleberry sourness atop lightly salted white wheat malting. A positively laidback summertime soft drink.
Tart green grape esters gain sour lemondrop influence and grapefruit-pineapple-tangerine notions for Local Harvest Farmhouse Ale. But rustic herbal spicing and whiskey-soured cider slipstream falter at the wet-grained barnyard basin.
Sessionable Fenway Froth Session IPA gave its spicy grapefruit-peeled orange rind presence a bright floral bouquet, leaving piney Ekuanot hop resin to contrast the delicate crystal malt creaminess.
Equally approachable Citra-Mosaic-Simcoe-hopped Valley Flyer Hazy IPA brought tangy orange-peeled grapefruit zesting and advertised ‘clementine, apricot and papaya’ smidge to dry wood density and herbal respite in mildly bitter manner.
Tarry black-malted dark chocolate bittering paced Pioneer Valley Porter, leaving hop-charred blackstrap molasses, cinnamon bark and burnt walnut illusions to contrast less profound almond-hazelnut pasting.