On tap at Seven Lakes Station, acidulated take on Arnold Palmer lemonade iced tea utilizes kettle-soured black tea musk to deepen salty seaside brining against mildly pungent lemon thrust and vinous green grape snip.
Tag Archives: NORTH RIVER HOPS & BREWERY
NORTH RIVER IMPERIAL AMBER FRENCH TOAST
On tap at Seven Lakes Station, powdered sugar accents cinnamon-spiced French Toast entry as sharp hop astringency contrasts subtle maple, nutmeg and vanilla adjuncts of 9% ABV medium body. Smoked cinnamon finish gets intense.
NORTH RIVER LEMON & DILL
On tap at Seven Lakes Station, uniquely sessionable dry-bodied pale ale brings dill-pickled lemon zest to the fore, picking up floral cologne-musked cherry blossom, rose and hibiscus fragrance as well as latent caraway tea remnant and distant green tea bittering. Brisk citric bite never wavers.
NORTH RIVER TARWE WIT
On tap at Seven Lakes Station, admirable flagship hefe features louder hop spicing and richer body than typical stylistic fare. Sweet banana-clove entry gains zesty lemon-orange tang and herbal cologne notion above Graham Cracker-like wheat spine.
NORTH RIVER HOPS AND BREWING
WAPPINGERS FALLS, NEW YORK
In the backside of a mini-mall on Route 9, Hudson Valley-based NORTH RIVER HOPS AND BREWING has become a successful ‘mom and pop’ shop since opening, August 2014 (but it unfortunately closed June 2018).
Brewmaster Brandin Stabell (residential electrician by trade), his wife Nicki (ex-roller derby player), and father-in-law, Kevin, conceived this friendly neighborhood pub after Brandin received a brew kit and played around with different recipes. Though expansion may be inevitable, presently the wood-furnished, terra cotta-walled, cement-floored sample room features three bar stools, three window seats and several small brew tanks.
Upon my first visit in June ’15, the affable family biz has already crafted thirty-plus small batch beers. There are ten varied selections available during my enjoyable one-hour sojourn. Running the gamut from light American-styled delights to wood-smoked dark ales and Belgian-inspired derivations, North River recently began distributing their diverse suds to respected Rockland County gastropub, Craft House.
“I like English-styled beers and hop-forward bitters, but complexity and balance should be right for a continuously drinkable beer,” asserts Brandin.
I grab a few sampler trays and begin quaffing three fine red ales made from the same recipe originally created for malt-roasted Hoppy Red Ale, a caramel-spiced medium body with sharp citrus-hopped bite, mild dried fruiting and floral nuances.
Delicate whiskey-staved Aged Hoppy Red brought soft vanilla spicing to polite raisin-plum-date subtleties while Belgian crystal malt sugaring gave Belgian IRA (Imperial Red Ale) its caramelized dried fruiting (plum-date-raisin)and light pecan nuttiness to contrast raw-honeyed bittering.
Sessionable soft-watered XTRA allowed subtle honey malts to heighten its Galaxy-hopped tropical fruiting and navel orange tang (countering the wood-dried Columbus hop sharpness).
Similarly moderate-bodied, BLM Session Amber Ale gathered malt-smoked toasted biscuit breading, dewy earthen rusticity and citric-pined niceties. Another soft-toned winner, white wheat-breaded Tarwe tingled the tongue with hefeweiss-styled lemony banana and clove subtleties.
Sweet citric-spiced sugaring bedecked Paddle Steamer, an easygoing Cascade-Centennial-Magnum-hopped IPA with lemony orange overtones.
Just as relaxing, Maple & Whiskey IPA seeped light wheat whiskey wisps into subtle maple-malted berry and citrus fruiting.
On the dark side, soft-toned Robust Porter brought smoked wood tones to cocoa-sugared brown chocolate sweetness, peat-soiled dried fruiting and dry burgundy whims.
Easily the most unique elixir on this humid afternoon, Wheat Wine uncommonly combined kiln-grained rauchbier smoke with honeyed Graham Cracker sugaring and fruit-candied malt spicing.
In October 2015 at Craft House, downed complex dry-bodied North River Tea IPA, where smoothly sharp citric hop astringency gained black tea-influenced yellow grapefruit briskness, orange rind bittering and plummy passionfruit whims to contrast softer nectarine and peach illusions.
During November 2015 at Craft House, enjoyed North River Oktoberfest, a mild off-dry autumnal moderation contrasting honey-creamed amber graining and light brown-sugar spicing against pine-nutted leafy hop foliage.