On tap at Growler & Gill, easygoing hazy golden moderation pushes yellow grapefruit tang softly forward as misty orange peel sweetness, limey lemon zesting and peachy pineapple-mango tropicalia stay subtle alongside resinous pine bittering. Lacking oated wheat creaming of most NEIPA’s.
2023 Coco Baked variant utilizes yogurt-like coconut milking to envelop tarry walnut-charred earthen scorch embittered further by molasses-dried dark chocolate syruping. Mild charcoal-stained pinot noir wining and wispy dry burgundy riffs waver. Way different than sweeter Toasted Coconut & Oatmeal version.
Lemony orange rind bittering, white-wined guava and gooseberry souring and dry wood tones of Nelson/Motueka hopped NEIPA picks up citric vodka swerve.
On tap at Pompton Craft House, variant NEIPA utilizes sweet orange zesting, ginger spicing, lemony ginseng and herbal botanicals to re-create licorice-laced Jagermeister liqueur. But its reserved nature never pushes the Jager adjuncts far enough, leaving a semi-flat dullish finish.
On tap at Ambulance, sparkling lemon spritz gains lightly spiced pilsner malting and musty barnyard graining as mild fungi musk slips thru.
On tap at Ambulance, worthy marzen benefits from honeyed kilned malting that promotes mild brown-breaded sugared biscuit sweetness to contrast dry peppery herbage and leafy hop astringency.
Updated 2022 version of pillowy IPA (with no hops used in the boil) retains subdued tropical fruited nature but its dry orange-oiled vegetal whim clips its tangy grapefruit, mango, tangerine and peach presence. Dank wood tones stay mild.
EAST FISHKILL, NEW YORK
Founded in 2011 by local college pals, Adam Watson and Justin Taylor, SLOOP BREWING COMPANY soon became one of the fastest growing regional breweries, tendering a deal with New Hampshire-based Smuttynose in 2021 to expand distribution even further.
Operating out of a garage before moving to a hilly 19th Century Elizaville barnhouse, Sloop began occupying a 25,000 square foot Industrial warehouse at the cavernous East Fishkill IBM facility by 2018. Encompassing a tan-bricked modern Industrial manufacturing building bordering the mountainous Appalachian Trail, Sloop’s aquamarine sailing compass logo (with golden outlay) imbues the two grain silos welcoming beer hounds to its hallway-bound interior.
Known as “The Factory at Sloop,” this spacious, high-ceilinged, pipe-exposed, sportsbar-like pub features lacquered cement floors, sundry four-seat wood tables and a few community tables. Resembling an ice cream parlor, perhaps, a large marquee sign (with black lettering listing available proprietary beer and local wines) and overhead bulb lights shine brightly at the 10-seat bar.
The wood-lacquered bar top regales embossed circuit boards, microchips and other IBM ephemera in a corky display and strategically placed TV’s show sports while kids play arcade games.
I stopped in for a few pints on a breezy afternoon, March 2022.
Traditional gold cleared light body, Classic Pils, placed corn flaked cereal graining next to musky Noble-hopped herbage and sour yellow-orange fruit spicing.
Soft-toned hazy IPA, Grounded Roots, let subtle mandarin orange, yellow grapefruit and peach tanginess and distant passionfruit-gooseberry snips crawl above its mild grassy-hopped oated wheat base.
Tropical-fruited New England-styled IPA, Gentle Whispers, retained a fuzzy vanilla creamed head for the clean Cryo Citra-hopped orange pith, grapefruit, guava, passionfruit and papaya onrush picking up slight pine resin to its grassy hop stead.
Dry West Coast-styled IPA, Low Turbidity, saddled its orange-oiled lemon lollipop tartness and peachy plum whim with dewy clover-honeyed herbal fungi, resembling a muskier English IPA perhaps.
On tap at Ambulance, mild milk sugaring receives yogurt-soured red raspberry tartness and oaken cherry tannins as vinous lemon-juiced green grapes esters confirm its sour edge. Distant cranberry, pomegranate and green apple illusions flutter.
Dry golden-hazed, cumulous-headed NEIPA stays soft as zestful lemony pineapple tropicalia shines upon ancillary mandarin orange, passionfruit and mango illusions, picking up pine-lacquered hop herbage above oats-sugared flaked wheat.
Glazed tropical fruit juicing consumes floral-daubed pine resin of alcohol-heightened flagship IPA offshoot. Vodka-nipped orange, grapefruit, pineapple and peach tang plus salted mango-passionfruit-guava tartness stay way atop pasty malt sugaring.
On tap at Draught Industries, ‘unseasonal’ taupe-hazed New England-styled IPA strays a bit as a bright tropical fruited summertime moderation, letting waxy grapefruit-pineapple-orange juicing pick up unanticipated chive-like onion smear over dry pale malting.
