Just a tad slick and lacking overall seared beechwood residue, Americanized Bavarian smoked lager lets meat-cured pastrami and salami onslaught recede alongside peat-smoked brown tea mustiness, rye-spiced pumpernickel toasting and stylish Band-aid waft as misty lemon fizzing settles in.
Soft-toned dry-hopped NEIPA eases lightly embittered orange pith, white grapefruit and salty pineapple tang plus delicate mango-peach-tangerine conflux above mild wheated oats. Too subtle and less creamy than most of its northeast style, but highly sessionable.
Plodding cocoa-powdered Bakers chocolate dryness gains modest nut charred coffee tones and mildewy brown-leafed hop astringency.
Nearly nebulous straw clear moderation with not enough floral yellow grapefruit and mandarin orange zesting to overcome astringent hop peppering and bland seltzer spritz. At least its lightly toasted white bread Pilsner-Vienna malt base sits pretty.
On tap at Ambulance, ‘traditional easy drinking’ dark lager retains mild toffee sugaring for dewy fungi soiling and toasted grain crisping.
On tap at Growler & Gill, wildflower honey-spiced lemon licks pick up dried ginger herbage and perfumed cologne musk – defying usual Belgian Pale Ale styling. Towards the finish, misty perfume-oiled citrus spritz gains chai tea-spiked oregano and sage nuances.
On tap at Ambulance Brew House, fully expressive dark-roasted mocha malt creaminess nearly overwhelms dark-fruited constituency. Coffee-sugared black chocolate frontage, black patent malt subsidy and dark cocoa reminder get soaked in sappy molasses as blackened charcoal-singed hop bittering deepens the contagious mocha prominence. Burgundy-wined black grape and black cherry tones settle beneath the surface. In the can, thickly frothed mahogany-bodied Cascadian Dark Ale seeps black malted dark chocolate bittering into mild coffee sugaring and ashen hop-roasted nuttiness as well as IPA-suited orange peeled yellow grapefruit twist.
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA
Off the beaten track in the Industrial section of Alexandria, PORT CITY BREWING COMPANY resides at a tan-bricked professional building. Opened January 2011 and visited in March 2012, this increasingly popular microbrewery’s tasting room was absolutely packed at 3 PM this Saturday. Hourly brew tours kept patrons busy when they weren’t sampling the four year-round ales (and one specialty beer).
Owner Bill Butcher and head brewer Jonathan Reeves craft amazingly consistent fare. Though tapped versions were sampled and reviewed herein, check the Beer Index for larger reviews of each bottled brew.
Fine Belgian-styled Port City Optimal Wit had a laid-back banana-clove serenity spread across subtle orange-peeled mildness and lemony Seltzer spritz to its honeyed wheat spine.
Essential Pale Ale layered citra-hopped briskness atop vodka-tinged mandarin orange, lemon, lime and peach illusions.
Despite its mighty moniker, Monumental IPA was stylistically easygoing and approachable. Its floral-hopped pine resin cloaked apple-skinned apricot, nectar, pear and grapefruit dalliances.
Coffee-roasted Porter settled into a fine medium-bodied dark ale, seeping brown chocolate-y vanilla sweetness into dark-fruited dried fig, stewed prune and date nut breading.
Also available at the tasting station was the cyclical Tartan 80 Shilling Scottish Ale, a dewy midrange libation gathering brown chocolate, vanilla and caramel sweetness atop spice-hopped fig sugaring.
Each beer was more than up to snuff and deserved recommendation.