On tap at Pompton Craft House, fine Cracker Jacks-inspired knockoff places caramel popcorn and sugar-coated peanuts upfront as honey-roasted almond and molasses nut bread sweetness reinforce confectionery candied snack.
On tap at Plank Pizza, busily boozy pumpkin ale brings molasses-soaked gingerbread sweetness, subtly brown-sugared nutmeg and clove spicing plus light vanilla bean influence to brown chocolate base, picking up tertiary banana bread, red cherry and red grape snips.
Creamy tan-headed full body offers milk-sugared New Guinean coffee, dark chocolate syruping and passive almond buttering to peaty oatmeal base, leaving mild hop-charred astringency on the sturdy mocha finish.
English-styled porter conditioned on milk-sugared cocoa nibs and toasted coconut picks up creamed coffee and vanilla niceties, sinewy black chocolate syruping, timid cola nuttiness and iced tea reminder. But its phenol acridity knocks back the advertised German chocolate cake expectancy.
Exacting popsicle-inspired sour ale plies lemonade sugaring to candied Sweet-Tart powdering. Spritzy lemon-limed raspberry souring hides wispy floral-perfumed piquancy. Classic frozen beverage flawlessly re-created.
Limey sea-salted spritz, corn-dried pale malting and musky Saaz hop herbage merge atop earthen soiling for summery light-bodied Mexican brew.
From the ‘freshly baked pale ale series,’ brisk banana cream pie knockoff allows lemony kaffir lime intrusion to outdo its pastry-like dessert sweetness and minor lactic acidity. Throughout, insistent lemon juicing relegates powder-sugared banana cream pie luster above mild honeyed wheat base.
Amiss blueberry tartness fades quickly as corn whiskey malting and phenol hop stead create murkily acrid astringency. Raw-honeyed blueberry syruping usurped by cidery advance, depleting desolate cherry and mango snips. Ripe blueberry aromatics far outweigh blueberry flavoring.
Robust dark-roast chocolate malting upends wood-dampened hop char dried out by raw molasses bittering. Oncoming black coffee sway picks up singed walnut tinge. For bold thirsts only.
Curiously amalgamated omnivorously-named full body brewed with bacon and maple syrup lets fudgy chocolate-coffee creaming and molasses-smoked bacon fat integrate alongside ashen nut dryness (atop chewy caramel-burnt oats sugaring). In the midst, charred cedar seeps into the syrupy mocha richness. Cocoa-dried cola, hazelnut and espresso illusions simmer below the busy mix. Light oily hop slickness coarsens darkest regions.
LONG BEACH ISLAND, NEW JERSEY
In the heart of Long Beach Island in Beach Haven’s Bay Village, SHIP BOTTOM BREWERY came into fruition during the summer of 2016. On a second floor loft overlooking the bay, this increasingly popular brewpub features a steady flow of year-round beers (lager/ hefeweizen/ IPA/ stout), seasonals and one-offs readied for crowlers-to-go or on-site imbibing.
A spacious right side brew area with small serving table holds several mid-size tanks while the left side tasting room offers 10-seat bar with several community tables, electronic wall board (with beer listing), rustic white-boarded walls, six draught lines and one cask.
During October Chowderfest ’17, I got to quaff five diverse homemade suds.
Dry German-styled Barnegat Lager brought grain-toasted pale malting to perfumed citric pleasantries, earthen fungi must, sweet toffee reminders and light vegetal tones.
Candied Blood Orange Wheat Ale let its tangy blood orange adjunct pick up tangerine, clementine and grapefruit illusions above mild wheat malting.
Seasonal Imperial Pumpkin Ale on Cask contrasted honey-sweetened pumpkin pie spicing against vegetal earthen gourd dryness.
Sharply clean The Shack IPA decorated its spicy grapefruit, orange, mango and lemon tang with resinous pine tones and musky earthiness, leaving a spritzy citrus finish upon the tongue.
Sweet chocolate countered cocoa-dried coffee sedation for Barnicle Bottom Stout, a medium-bodied dark ale with mild Blackstrap molasses sinew and dark-roasted hops saddling its brown-sugared oatmeal base.
On return visit, June ’18, quaffed sharp-tongued heater, The Chicken Or The Egg IPA, a mighty cayenne-habanero-doused mouth burner plying grapefruit-orange peel bittering to dry pale malts and herbal snips below its distinct red pepper singe.
During October ’18 Chowderfest, got to try four more Ship Bottom brews, three of which took their stylistic dimension to new extremes.
Thinly flat cask-conditioned The Shack IPA with Soarchi Ace, let fennel tea-like sedation and celery-dried lemongrass dismiss its dill-pickled lemon licks and wispy barnyard acridity.
Brut champagne added bubbly sparkling wining to I Am Groot IPA – Brut, a sharply bitter hopped medium body with crisply dry-wooded yellow grapefruit and orange rind bite.
Mildly briny oyster shells contrasted milk-sugared chocolate sweetness for Chowderfest 30th Anniversary Oyster Stout, a creamily seductive dessert treat gathering tertiary cocoa, vanilla, tobacco and hazelnut illusions.
For a tropical changeup, busy OG Series: Double Hazy Imperial IPA brought juicy grapefruit, pineapple, orange, peach and melon tanginess to candy-spiced pale malts in a briskly carbolic manner, leaving gluey oats groats in its wake.
During September 2020, grabbed some stools at the makeshift ballfield patio and consumed two fine brews with wife.
Stylishly mild NEIPA, Hop & Hazy, brought zesty grapefruit sunshine and tropical orange-mango-pineapple tanginess to piney hop resin above creamy crystal malting for truly approachable serenity.
Light-roast coffee permeated The Local Stout, leaving ancillary espresso, dark chocolate and cocoa tones on the mildly nut-seared back end.
After hot Saturday in August ’23 body surfing in Holgate, discovered three more Ship Bottom brews.
Spritzy lemon spicing brightened easygoing Murmaid Blonde Ale, letting gentle herbage to seep into the biscuity wheat base.
Tart cranberry adjunct got sweetened by honeyed wheat for pilsner malted Bucket Of Chum Wheat, leaving watermelon candied red cherry and raspberry illusions on its cranberry tip.
Pumpernickel rye breading anchored Beach Haven Bootlegger Pub Ale, an English-styled moderation with fungi-cellared earthen peat mossing.
shipbottombrewery.com
On tap at Shepherd & Knucklehead – Hoboken, crisply clean IPA lets grassy Citra hop bittering take the reins as its lemony grapefruit rind bite lingers alongside dry hop-charred pine dankness. Brisk carbolic prickle adds Seltzer-like spritz.
